If B had the chance last night, he would have snuck out the window with that woman he swore he’d protect. Lola right? Anyways, there was no running from it now, especially since there was a militiaman standing outside of his window guarding it when B woke up today. There was only one way out of this situation, and it wasn’t just through the front door. It was through the trial and ultimately the banishment ceremony.

B put on the white formal shirt, that he stole from Phil after he transitioned, and some khakis for the trial. He never had any shiny dress shoes. He tried to clean and shine his boots as best as he could before he was asked to leave his room for the trial by another volunteer militiaman at his door.

B was escorted out of the house and to the mayoral/militia building in town. Probably the least crappy building in town. It’s walls made of stones cemented together that somehow weathered the test of time. Inside the building, the windows and cracks in the ceiling cast harsh light against the dark interior and dim light bulbs that tried to light the room. B walked into the building with his escort and into a building filled with the town’s people and a stage on the far end with a semicircle of town leaders.

There were two empty seats, one for him and one where his mother was supposed to be seated for these things. B looked around the audience for her and his family and spotted them sneaking in the back of the audience’s seating. In the front row with the militiamen, there was Lola. She was wearing jeans and a yellow T-shirt along with one of Tiffany’s lab coats for some reason. She wasn’t talking to anyone. She looked concerned or deep in thought as B passed her.

B was escorted to the stairs to the side of the stage and then it was up to him to walk up to the stage and face the music. He took a shaky breath and walked onto the stage. The audience went from a dull murmuring to silence. B could hear the creaking of the floorboards under his feet until he made it to the middle of the stage. He looked to Mr. Groundo, who gestured for him to sit down in the middle, empty chair. His eyes drifted to the other empty chair, then to the audience. He resisted the urge to squirm with all eyes on him.

The mayor started the trial.

“We are here today to discuss the banishment of B Prosmith for traitorous acts, but what this means for the town. Mrs. Prosmith is too close to this case to rule on this case so she will be in the audience today. B Prosmith has been admitted to a militia leader that he has been hacking messaging machines indiscriminately and selling information that he has been gathering-”

“Then why are we here?” a voice from the crowd asked.

“I was going to get to that after Mr. Prosmith got a chance to defend himself, but I guess I can tell all of you now if the leaders don’t mind.” Mayor Canton looked to the town leaders on stage and they all nodded.

“Due to B Prosmith’s actions, our allies in the Proxima Centurion’s Colony Four Oh Two will be wanting answers for the information that B stole from them.“ Mayor Canton said as she shifted her weight from one foot to another. “Banishment will be doing this youngin a mercy compared to whatever the Centurions have in store. Not only that we’re harboring a Centurion that has been wounded by the same man that he has been trading with. We must keep her safe.”

B’s jaw dropped as he looked to Dr.Tiffany. She kept this stern look on her face as she looked out into the audience.

“I had no idea-” B started but was quickly cut off by the mayor.

“After we gain all the information he has stolen, we will reconvene with the Centurion’s Colony to see where to go from there. I will go into what I want you all to do in the meantime after Mr. Prosmith gets his final comments.” With this, the mayor looked back to B.

“Mr. Prosmith, will you please state your intentions for doing what you have done.” Mayor Canton stepped aside to let B take center stage.

B didn’t want to get out of his seat. He didn’t want to speak up louder than a whisper. He felt sweat bead on the back of his neck. Finally, he nodded to Mayor Canton and got out of his seat to speak to the crowd.

B opened his mouth to speak to the glaring crowd. He knew his life was ruined, and the lives of his family would be forever shamed. He knew getting the colony involved would mess up the town’s system of doing things. What hurts him the most is that he wronged Tiffany so much. His outlook on life was getting darker than the dim lights in the audience. But couldn’t voice any of it.

A shining crack of light at the back of the room. The door from the outside was opening.

There was a tall, long-haired, silhouette with sharp angles at the shoulders.

“I hope I’m not late,” the smooth-voiced man said as he strolled into the trial.

B squinted through the darkness at the man but couldn’t get a good look at him. He caught glimpses of him as beams of light hit parts of him as he approached the stage. Blond straight hair falling to his shoulders. A bright red tie on top of a darker muddier red shirt which was under a black suit jacket. When he walked in a certain patch of light, his shoes almost blinded B. It made B wondered how he got his shoes to shine like that.

“That’s him.” Dr. Tiffany said in a panicked, hushed voice, that only those on stage and maybe the first row could hear. “That’s Jormongrand.”

B felt himself get pushed back to his chair as the mayor and Mr.Groundo took aggressive stances toward the man.

B looked to Dr. Tiffany for a moment, just long enough to see her holding the scraps of wings she had folded over herself. She was shaking and looked like she was about to cry.

“What are you doing here!?” Snarled Mikey Groundo.

“Why, I have business with the Omnipresent Bacterium, himself,” Jormungrand said. His voice was smooth as silk.

“B was it?” He said leaning forward into the light a bit. His red irises gleamed and seemed to reflect B’s dumbstruck face.

“You see,” the well-dressed man went on, “I believe you have prosecuted him a bit too early for this case.” He turned his back to address one side of the audience.

“Is that so?” The mayor asked.

“Yes. We haven’t made our trade yet. He took something from me,” B’s eyes darted toward where Lola was sitting, but she was nowhere to be seen. “So I have a few choices. Either I get it back,” He turns and looks over the audience on the other side. “Or I take something of greater value. Since you didn’t give me what I wanted in the desert, I’m going to need extra for this exchange.”

Jormungrand’s voice was even, and cool. Like a normal business transaction.

It took a minute for B to find his voice again.

“I have the weaknesses in my room at home-” B was cut off abruptly.

“Oh no. I have that already. I was going to leave with that no matter what,” he said that with a chuckle. “No, what I need now is the extra price you need to pay,” With that, Jormungrand leaned forward again, and his eyes locked onto B’s.

B’s eyes widened when it clicked for him. Instinctively B’s eyes darted toward his family in the back and back to Jormungrand. When he looked back at Jormungrand, he was staring right at B’s family.

Jormungrand slowly turned his face back toward B’s. There was a devious, toothy grin on his face.

“Well then,” Jormungrand said as he turned back to his family and walked toward them.

“No!” Objected B.

“A deal’s a deal, Bacterium,” The man said waving a hand dismissively to B as he approached the family.

B pushed past the mayor and Mikey and chased after Jormungrand. Some of the people in the audience got up and tried to block Jormungrand, giving the Prosmiths enough time to leave the building.

Jormungrand clicked his tongue in annoyance at who B considered as heroes before in one swift action, Jormungrand grabbed three men by their jugular. Two throats of theirs Jormungrand grabbed with his hands, the last he used his teeth. He ran into the three toward the doorway into the building, ramming the two in his hands into the door frame. There was a loud crack before the two men dropped to the ground, and blood where their skulls had split on the door frame. B was shocked. He then looked at the man in Jormangran’s teeth. There was gurgling and tearing as Jormungrand ripped the throat of the last man in his way. Then chewing.

B stumbled to a stop as he saw Jormungrand’s bloody face had transformed from human to reptilian. There was a half a thought that crossed B’s mind that he was having a nightmare. None of this could be real. Then he saw the scales recede back into Jormungrad’s face as he stayed hunched over chewing on the man’s neck animalistic-ly as the doors slowly closed, his eyes drifted behind the monster in a suit to his fleeing family.

Either way, dream or not, he had to save them, and he had to think fast.

With the front door blocked with three dead men and the man-eating, what he can only assume is a Fea. He turned and ran for the stage and jumped behind it where there were one of many back entrances for plays and other entertainment purposes. He slammed into the door and stumbled into the light.

B was blinded for a moment. He didn’t care. He ran after his family as fast as he could. As he turned the corner of the building, he ran chest first into a woman in a red shirt and patchwork armor. She grabbed him, twisted him, and threw him on the ground.

“Ha! I got ‘em!” She yelled to the rest of Jormongrand’s men.

When B got his bearings back, he was being dragged to the front of the building where his family, and that Lola woman, was being held on their knees. B was thrown on the ground in front of them. As he pushed himself up to a kneeling position, he caught a glimpse of what was behind him. Dead bodies of the heroes being drug out of the building.

He waited with his family and who B considered, traitorous, Lola, all of them kind of staring at the ground in between them. There was the noise of wet meat getting chopped and ripped, like when an ostrich was chosen to be killed and prepared for a feast. B didn’t want to know what was happening behind him.

Eventually, a pair of shiny shoes walked into B’s field of vision and a hand smeared with blood reached down to B. An offer to help him off his knees? B didn’t accept his offer.

“You better take his help,” The woman in red said. “Next time he won’t be so nice.”

“Please, Jess, this time it’s a business transaction,” Jormungrand said casually.

B glared up at the two and pushed himself to his feet. Most of the blood had been wiped off Jormungrand’s human face.

“You're a monster,” B whispered.

“They needed to be taught a lesson,” Jormungrand said as he looked over B’s shoulder. “Not to get in my way.”

“You weren’t going to get in my way, were you?” Jormungrand asked in a leading way.

B looked down and away.

Jormungrand smirked.

“Good answer. Now back to business,” Jormungrand slowly pulled a pistol from his jacket and put it in B’s hand. “Keep in mind if you shoot me, they all die.” He warned.

“Here’s what I want for my deal. I was going to eat that person with the iridescent hair over there, until you- but most likely, Mothman tried to hide her from me. So I need a substitute body-”

B gave him a look.

“Besides the three I already killed. Semantics. Their deaths were just as much your fault as much as mine,” He said with annoyance.

“Anyways,” He said straightening his tie. “Choose someone to kill. You can even kill Lola and give her back to me if you wish.”

B’s hands shook. The gun was heavy in his hand. He glared at the pistol. He put it in a firing position and turned it toward Lola.

“No!” came a deep, booming man’s voice.

B turned his head to see the moth Fea man he has seen earlier, now in shackles being held back by some of Jormungrand’s men. Jormungrand took a step in between B’s line of sight on the Fea.

“Don’t mind him,” Jormungrand said smiling at B then casting a glare over his shoulder.

“Don’t play his games!” The desperate deep-voiced Fea man yelled from his hidden spot.

“Shut him up!” Jormungrand snapped over his shoulder before looking back to B, “I know this is a hard choice,” his tone was almost caring, “But I have to teach you and Mothman a lesson. For you a lesson, it’s to keep your word if you’re ever going to go up in this world. His lesson is not to defy your leader after he’s given him an order not to go into the ruins!” In the last sentence, he yelled over his shoulder in annoyance.

B started shaking even more as he looked at Lola. His gun was still trained on her. She was calm and looking B in the eyes.

B closed his eyes and threw the pistol on the ground between the group.

“I-I’m going to keep my word to Mothman. I’m not going to shoot her. And I’m not going to play your games. I’m not going to shoot anybody.” B said opening his eyes to definitely stare into Jormungrand’s.

Jormugrand looked down at him coldly for a moment.

“Pitty,” Jormongrand said before nodding to Jess.

From behind him, B heard two gunshots, then saw splatters of blood come from his mother and father.

There was a cacophony of screaming coming from the Prosmith children as their parents fell. His mother the only one screaming between the parents.

B pulled back a fist to punch the suited Fea man but Jormungrand caught B’s fist mid-strike and twisted his arm with a smile.

“What an excellent business transaction this was, but I’m afraid I have to go now,” Jormungrand said softly into B’s ear. B struggled against his grip but suddenly he felt a sharp pain hit the back of his head.

Everything went black.