The Beautiful Dead by Banner Daryl

Author:Banner, Daryl [Banner, Daryl]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2013-08-08T00:00:00+00:00

C H A P T E R – T W E L V E

S H A T T E R E D

Blindly tumbling through the colorless sky from the high, gaping mouth of the Black Tower, for a wicked brief moment, I feel completely free.

Then I land.

For another wicked brief moment, I imagine my body splayed out in pieces on some street in the middle of the Necropolis. My arms somewhere, my legs somewhere else, my head staring up into the silver nothing beyond, incapable of anything except longing for my body to come back together by some miraculous force.

Then almost by reflex, I sit up, shocked to find my body completely intact. Though it’d be nice to just sit here and marvel at how durable my body must be, it’s probably a better idea to get the hell up and run.

I quickly rise to my feet … only to discover I did not endure the plunge as well as I’d supposed; there’s clearly something wrong with my left leg, but I can’t tell what. I take one step and my body buckles. I’m going to have to limp. Yes, like some wounded, broken thing.

Of course I don’t get a second to pity myself. Already there’s a frightful-looking half-person hurrying toward me. Fast as I can manage, I hop on my good leg down the street, escaping the pursuing abomination.

Abomination. Listen to me, I sound just like a Human.

Turning the side of a small building, I race as fast as I can with just one operating leg. In my race, I discover there’s something wrong with my left arm too, as it doesn’t quite move the way my mind (or whatever) directs it to. Frustrated, I hop myself around another building’s corner, edging down a narrow alley. I’m lost, I have no idea where I’m headed, if an exit to this vile city is anywhere nearby at all … I wouldn’t know which direction to head. Hopelessness quickly fills me like a heavy liquid, each hop heavier than the last.

Breaking into an area of cages, I realize I’m about to pass my old holding cell. I must’ve unknowingly backtracked from the Black Tower. With a rush of hope, I hurry to the cage of my across-the-aisle neighbor. I want to free him … I want to escape this place together.

But Benjamin’s door is wide-open. The cell, empty.

I sigh, so very doubtful that it’s a good sign, so very certain that he’s been taken away to meet his own end. No use loafing about. I push on, moving back into the dirty streets of the city. I no longer hear a half-thing pursuing me, but realize it still may be wise to hide. Awkwardly, I slip into a building through an opening where a door surely used to be some distant decade ago. Inside, I see astonishingly tall shelves full of what appear to be appendages. For a second, I humor myself and assume this place is a mannequin factory, but I’m sure upon closer inspection I’d change my mind right quick.

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