Atlantic Pyramid by Michelle E Lowe

Author:Michelle E Lowe [Lowe, Michelle E]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2016-01-21T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-two

My shock alone rendered me mute. The skin around Gavin’s right eye was scorched black and the white sclera was dark red from blood. His left eye was completely contused. His clothing was in rags and dripping wet. His ears looked as though something had gnawed on them and the rest of his face was blistered. The explosion had blown off half of his left arm and broken his back, forcing him to hunch forward, leaning a little to the side like a sand-filled doll.

“Did you hear me?” Gavin demanded. Smoke breezed past his blistered lips. “I said you’re an asshole. Look what you’ve done to me!”

It took a few seconds for any words to come up from my throat. I swallowed thickly and stammered, “Why…why are you here?”

He shrugged, which caused his shoulders to pop. “Dunno, dude. All I know is I was in a kind of dream world one minute, like I was sleeping, and the next, I’m here. But something—instinct, I guess—tells me it’s because of you. Wanna explain?”

I was nonplussed. I had dozens of my own questions, but Gavin wanted explanations.

“You told me to do it,” I said. “You told me to dispose of your body in exchange for telling me how to escape.”

“Why the hell would I want you to burn me up?” His smoky words dissipated completely.

“To put you at peace.”

“Does it look like I’m at fuckin’ peace?”

“You told me to do it,” I repeated insistently.

“I didn’t tell you squat!” he fired back. “Like I said, I’ve been in some other place—and a restful one, at that. I felt safe there. That’s what gave me peace, not this!”

I couldn’t wrap my brain around it. If he was telling the truth, what was it that had visited me every morning since I’d gotten here? It made no sense.

I turned away and ran my hands through my hair, on the verge of a mental breakdown. “What’s going on? What’s this place doing to me?”

“From my point of view, it looks like you’ve got it better than me,” he said sarcastically, looking down at his scorched body.

“Are you in pain?”

He shook his head. “Nope, don’t feel any pain, but I’m a little ticked now that the Elephant Man would have a better shot at getting laid than me.”

His words made me think back to when he—or whatever the hell it had been—had first visited me on Lafitte’s ship. That entity had claimed its head hurt like a bitch, yet the Gavin with me now mentioned feeling no pain at all, even though he was more severely wounded. I realized everything the other Gavin had told me was a lie. The pain it claimed to have, the promise of telling me a way out, everything. And I’d been dumb enough to fall for it.

“Gavin, I’m sorry. I swear, you came and asked me to do this.”

“I’m really gonna scare people lookin’ like this,” he said miserably.

“Don’t worry,” I said, my voice heavy with remorse, “no one but me can see you.

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