On Monday mornings, I send out a story via email: ultra-brief tales of 1,000 words or more, usually in genres including horror, science fiction, and the supernatural. Those stories collectively are called Once Upon A Time. I’ve also published several ebooks and compendium volumes of those stories so far.

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Here's story 168, of 240 so far.

Reset

“We now proceed to sentencing,” the presiding judge said. His tone was matter-of-fact and professional, but the atmosphere in the airy, white-walled courtroom was electric.

The guilty party, once the unquestioned and entrenched ruler of a brutal dictatorship in a country rich in natural beauty and resources, sat motionless, his dark eyes rarely blinking. His military uniform was exquisite, his posture was rigid, and there was cold fury in his expression.

“Have the necessary medical tests been performed?” the judge asked, and a female official sitting off to one side nodded.

“Health is excellent for his age,” she replied. “Minor blockage of an artery, which we’ve already corrected. No other immediate concerns, but of course we’ll be monitoring.”

“Very well then,” the judge said, returning his attention to the seventy-two-year-old deposed dictator in the centre of the room. “Let’s proceed. You, sir, have been tried and convicted of over eighteen thousand combined counts of a wide variety of war crimes, and crimes against humanity, as previously detailed. The span of your atrocities has been measured in decades. The eyes of the world are upon these proceedings, and as our society faces increasing challenges due in large part to people like yourself, we must make an example of you which will stand the test of time.”

The dictator laughed silently, his defiance momentarily replaced with derision. He had stated on any number of occasions that he did not recognise the authority of the international criminal court, and asserted his right to govern and defend his country in any way he saw fit. He was an innocent man, he said, and history would record him as being a great one.

In reality, the evidence was stark. Political assassinations, state-sponsored hate crimes, ethnic genocides, invasions and war, the use of banned weapons, embezzlement and corruption, and much, much more besides. Taking into account the acts committed by military and police personnel under his orders, he already stood as one of the most deplorable villains of modern history.

The trial had stretched on for over a year, and every day the streets outside were thronged with protesters — all of whom were fully in support of the proceedings, and protesting only at the man’s crimes themselves. A sizeable portion of the crowd advocated the death penalty, even though no such remedy had been provided by law for more than a generation, but rumours had persisted that this unprecedented trial was different in yet another way: the punishment was allegedly to be novel too.

The judge was speaking again.

“The nature of your sentence will be summarised by the appointed officer of the court, but due to its complexity and nuance, a document will be issued to your legal representative and also to the media immediately after this session,” he said. “There will be no appeals process. You have been tried and convicted, and you are hereby sentenced as now described.”

He looked again to the female official, and she nodded and stood, holding a tablet device in her hand. She began to speak, referring to notes on the device’s screen as she did so. Every eye in the courtroom was fixed upon her.

“You will be taken from this place and will undergo a minor surgical procedure, to install a bio-neural interface allowing the direct manipulation of certain brain functions,” she said. The dictator’s brow furrowed after a moment, and he looked at his legal representative in confusion, but the official continued to speak.

“A list has been compiled of the most representative — by egregiousness, as well as frequency — of your crimes, and victim-perspective simulations prepared,” she said. “While immobilised and with your vital signs monitored, you will perceive yourself to suffer at least one of these crimes on each day of your sentence. Any resulting physical symptoms — predicted to most commonly include cardiopulmonary distress, amongst others — will be treated appropriately, and you will be returned to health according to the best abilities of science.”

The dictator blinked, his composure now having slipped, and his mouth fell open. The woman still spoke.

“At the conclusion of each simulation, after receiving medical attention, you will be reset,” she continued. “The specific nature of the reset is to allow memories of trauma to form normally, but to prevent any degree of acclimatisation to your punishments, so that given scenarios can be repeated without any loss of impact.”

The dictator had paled, and so had his legal representative. The judge’s face was impassive. Once again, the woman spoke.

“You should note that, since the scenarios will be simulated directly in your own brain, you will perceive them as absolute reality — and indeed, your ability to doubt the truth of these experiences will be expressly deactivated. In order to properly recreate the proximate experiences of your many victims, you should also note that a number of scenarios are likely to include simulated versions of people known to you — whom you will perceive as the actual persons. There is one final matter.”

She cleared her throat, tapping a virtual control on the tablet device to advance to the next page of her notes, then she nodded and addressed the diminished man in front of her one final time.

“Your sentence is to experience the sum total of that which you have inflicted upon others, but given your age and the numerousness of the individual charges, a decision has been taken to modify your perceived lifespan.”

She lifted her gaze, looking directly at the man.

“For each calendar day, you will subjectively experience one hundred perceptual days, with one hundred corresponding punishment cycles per day, for the remainder of your natural life.”

JINX

KESTREL face a new and terrifying enemy: an all-seeing mastermind who already knows exactly who they are, and many of their deepest secrets. Nothing stays hidden forever, and the line between privacy and liberty is razor-thin…

Book 3 in the KESTREL action-thriller series.

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