The City by S.C. Mendes & Blood Bound Books

Author:S.C. Mendes & Blood Bound Books [Mendes, S.C. & Books, Blood Bound]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Blood Bound Books
Published: 2023-01-30T00:00:00+00:00

PART II

I

WHEN HIS SWOLLEN EYES had no more water left to shed into the hairs of his unshaved cheeks, Max fell asleep on the floor.

He woke on a beach, the sands white and hot beneath him. He struggled to his feet, expecting to see Leigh Anne, but found only blue skies and endless dunes. There was no ocean, and Max was alone.

A rumble sounded in the distance and the mounds of sand shifted. Dark clouds swarmed, covering every last patch of blue sky. The ground shook again, and this time Max fell. He tried to stand but couldn’t find purchase. Sand disappeared beneath his feet, swirling down into some kind of abyss. Max scrambled up a dune on his hands and knees as more of the ground was swallowed, but he couldn’t escape the drawing force of the hole forming on the beach. A mechanical mouth emerged, gears and steam belching amidst iron teeth. An industrial line monster devouring sand into its maw. The steel jaws opened and shut rhythmically, waiting for Max to tumble.

The rains came next, pelting Max with cold, hard drops. Heaven’s tears turned out to be his savior though. The water hardened the ground enough for his feet to dig in, and Max was able to claw himself upward, away from the mouth, up and up until he collided with the sky. Dazed, he placed his hand in front of him and felt cool glass, streaked with rain and condensation. He was surrounded by glass.

“It’s okay.” Her voice came from outside the hourglass. Soft and sweet as it had been when she was alive. “There’s still time, Daddy. Save her.”

Max woke with a hollowness in his chest and extremities. The emptiness dulled his body but, thankfully, not his head. Ideas swirled like the storm clouds. Above all else, a desire to act formed. To take a final stand, to run through the streets, killing them all, burning down the West End one rat-infested building at a time until he found Ming.

But that wouldn’t save her.

If he really cared about Ming, about Leigh Anne, then brute force was not the way. If he planned, if he calculated multiple outcomes, then Max had a chance. He contemplated the predicament and a fit of hysterical laughter threatened as he accepted the irony of this new dilemma, how close it mirrored his decision that October night that now seemed so long ago. Another missing girl, another long shot, and lots of pain ahead.

This time Max would make the right decision, and win or lose, it was going to be his last case.

***

Max paced through Arthur’s house. He looked over books and artwork, trying to feel Arthur’s passion in his anatomy sketches. He sat in Ming’s room, envisioning how she felt each day leaving for guide work. He closed his eyes, asked the walls where to start, then roamed over the living room bookcases again. Yet he found no new insights. Lacking the faintest idea of how to begin this new journey pushed him toward the crushing vacuum of hopelessness.

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