Just Another Chosen One by Brandon Scott

Author:Brandon Scott [Scott, Brandon]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Dark Fantasy
Publisher: Witching Hour Publishing, Inc.
Published: 2018-09-18T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11

THE SAD TALE OF JIMMY

"THE BELLY"

"Oh god...no..." I muttered, looking at him. My eyes leaked around the edges, and the ache of exhaustion was brutal on my body. "Why now?"

"That's the rules, sorry," Jimmy said. "I never thought, well...I always assumed it would be you first. You're kind of a shithead that way."

He chuckled. Cindy squirmed around me. She sat up and stared with unblinking eyes for the longest time, her dark purple eyeshadow running down with the soft tears.

"But I guess not," Jimmy added. "Sorry. I'm so sorry."

I shook my head slowly. "It's not your fault you--"

"Yeah...well. It is, and it isn't."

Jimmy walked, or rather floated, over to his corpse and peered at it. Just a mess of meat and shattered pieces. The open rip across his body was like a mouth, leaking red and other fainter-colored liquids from its rib cage jaws.

"I suppose the funeral is going to have to be closed casket," Jimmy said, leaning down, and looking at Thirds. She was... not taking it well. Sorrow on a dog's face is even worse than on a human's. She whimpered with her tail unmoving--a weight with nothing to wag happily about.

"Hey there, my girl," he said, leaning down. "I wish I could pet you. I knew it would never be enough."

Thirds tried to push her head into his hand. Jimmy obliged to the charade, matching up his incorporeal limb with her motion as best he could, even if Third's face fazed through his palm occasionally.

My stomach hurt as I sat up--and my eyes leaked.

"Hey, it's okay, girl," Jimmy continued. "I'll tell Carol when I see her that you are still the best dog around. But I think she already knows that, wherever she is."

"Jimmy...?" I said.

He turned and stood up, facing me again. Out of all the emotions I had expected to see on his face, calm and happy were not the ones I'd have bet on being there. Not bittersweet, either. Just...there. Like he'd figured it all out and was happy with that knowledge all by itself.

"Yeah? What's up, Grinner? Got one more thing you need from me?"

"I'm sorry."

He sighed and looked at the ground. "Look, I think we all have things we are sorry for."

"What are we going to do without...?" Cindy said, her voice trailing off to quiet.

"Same thing I did when I lost my old trio," Jimmy said. "You get new ones. But...perhaps, that's not needed anymore. Look, Grinner, if what he said was true, even a little bit of it...."

I nodded. The same thought had come to me a moment before. A shadow thought, lurking. "Yeah, we need to tell someone. Need to go somewhere for help."

Jimmy smiled, and his essence wavered in the breeze for a moment, before fully reforming. "No more ego, huh? Maybe my dying finally sunk that into your head."

I gave out a nervous laugh that turned to a sob. I couldn't do anything to hold it back for a long moment, and Cindy's hand moved along my back.

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