Filaria - Brent Hayward [65]
Huddled against the partition of sticks, trying to imagine a way out of this predicament, she abruptly fell into a sort of desperate, exhausted sleep; at this point she had been awake more than a full day.
From the shore of a fetid swamp, which spread out before her, the Orchard Keeper came, slowly transforming into a furred beast with a chitinous breast and sharp, needle teeth. This beast, her father, splashed into the muck and floundered there.
Waist deep in the stagnant water, Deidre watched. Her hair fell out, in clumps, and these floated on the surface of the water all around her like eels.
“Dad?” she said.
The beast went under.
“Hi, D.”
In the reeds stood Sam’s little dead boy, grinning. Next to him, another boy, around the same age as Deidre, gave her a nervous wave. This kid was thin and blotchy and looked sick. His hair, like hers, had fallen out, and when he smiled he had no teeth to show. He said, “I won’t let you go. Don’t worry. We’ll keep our hiding place.”
The gashes on the dead boy’s neck opened and closed, opened and closed, in rhythm with Deidre’s breathing, and Mingh straw’s monotone voice began to infiltrate. Deidre listened, her eyes still closed, wishing the vile girl and all recent events would just go away.
“I’m going to tell you a story . . . I know you’re awake. Make of it what you will. Recently, I had my heart broken. I don’t know if you’ve ever had your heart broken, but you might be able to relate. You seem smart enough. There was a girl, see? There’s always a girl, isn’t there? I worked with her. She was beautiful. Gorgeous and slim. Really hot. Sexy. We were often requested together, as a team. I guess we were picked because she looked as young as me — as young as you — though I don’t think she had any operations or that the gods gave her anything to keep her that way. She looked young naturally. We even fucked a few gods, as a team. Deities don’t really know what they’re doing when it comes to fucking but sometimes they like to give it a shot. Try to pretend they’re down in the dirt with us, you know? Mostly it was funny. Sometimes it was kind of sad. And they wanted to watch us fuck each other, too. Not gods, of course, but men. Men like to watch girls fuck each other. Did you know that?”
Deidre kept her eyes squeezed shut. Some people believed if you’ve done terrible things in life, you would spend eternity in a nightmare, surrounded by all that you find reprehensible and offensive. But what had she done to deserve this?
“You can really tell when a girl is into it or when she’s faking, passing time, thinking about cleaning her room or her nails or if she’ll get a food pak or not for her kids back home. This girl Minnie sue was into it. She wasn’t faking anything. She ate my pussy like — ”
“Stop talking!” When Deidre finally opened her eyes she saw, in the sudden quietude, that Mingh straw was chuckling. Taking a deep breath, Deidre asked, in a barely controlled voice, “What’s the matter with you? Why are you doing this to me?”
Mingh straw shrugged. “Bored, I guess. And I’ve been kidnapped by flying monsters and fed garbage for four days. Plus, I never liked privileged kids who thought they were better than other people.”
“I don’t think I’m better than you. We’re different, that’s all. We should be in this together. If you don’t think so, just leave me alone and I’ll get off of this horrid nest by myself.”
“Maybe you want me to eat your pussy?” Mingh straw leered. “We should put on a show for them? Maybe that’s what they’re waiting for. Plus, it might alleviate the boredom.”
Deidre stood up suddenly but was forced to drop again to her haunches; the wind grabbed wildly for her, whipping her hair back and plucking at her ruined clothes. With burning eyes she crawled away.
Mingh straw hissed, “Where can you go?”
And, when Deidre was a few meters away, still moving, still hiding her tears, Mingh straw shouted in a much louder voice, “I wasn’t telling the truth, you bitch! Minnie sue never broke my heart! She was a lousy lover!