By the Nails of the Warpriest by Nik Korpon

Author:Nik Korpon
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: dystopia, noir, dystopian, baltimore, noir fiction, noir crime, dystopian fiction
Publisher: OW Press

It takes ten minutes to weave through the mass of bodies that’ve funneled into The Gallery, yet still at the back table, Cobb lays curled in a ball on the leather bench, his labored breathing like scratching fingernails. A single crony sits beside him, and not the one-eyed pious one I want. And so I pace and wait. And wait.

I pull at a hangnail until it begins to bleed. Though I highly doubt he’d actually kill me for throwing a fit, I’m not in a position to test that theory. ‘How much longer is he going to be?’

The crony gives the same memory-junkie smile he’s been flashing for the better part of two drinks, this time with a little shrug. The back of my knees ache from sleeplessness but I can’t resign myself to sit.

I stared at cracks in my ceiling until the traffic became loud, The City’s version of a cock’s crow. Silas crouched beside my head for ten minutes, then scooted to the foot of the bed, facing away from me. Sometimes I swear that pigeon is damn near human. The vials beneath the bed glowed with an incandescent heat, taunting me, lulling me into submission. When the dull light faded, a flash of the face-stealing whore would tear around my skull, and I’d claw at my temples, tiny pills of skin beneath my fingernails. I’d pry my eyelids open, the lingering echo of everyone knew swirling amid fleshy smacks in the shadowed corners.

A heavy oak door on the far side opens. The Boss tosses something in his hand, walking with a pleased affect in his step, which, for a man of his size, is no mean feat. He wields his smile like a weapon. His linen suit is spotless as ever, sliding quietly through the throng of people, and it’s not until I can smell the lavender on his breath that I realize he’s holding some sort of organ. A vein dangles between his fingers. I force myself to look away, but the smirk he wears leads me to believe he didn’t even notice.

‘Haven’t seen you for a bit.’ He peers over the edge of the table, checking on Cobb. ‘I was starting to worry.’

‘Yeah, it’s been...’ I try to paraphrase the second gaping hole blown in my life this week, but come up blank. ‘I need a minute with you.’

He extends his arms, encompassing the gallery with his reach.

‘A private minute.’

‘Oh, right.’ He tosses the organ in the air and snatches it. With a flick of the head he leaves the table, telling the crony to watch over his little one without bothering to look back. Tiny metal-toothed creatures gnaw on my stomach lining when The Boss points a fat finger towards the door, the one he just exited holding a harvested organ. I focus on the ornate steel hinges just for something to fill my skull.

The door is deceptively light and I don’t realize it’s closed until I check for someone behind me. Stone floors and walls, an Aztec temple stolen from one jungle and relocated to a different one.

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