The Counterclockwise Heart by Brian Farrey

Author:Brian Farrey
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Algonquin Books
Published: 2021-11-10T17:27:48+00:00

The still-glowing coals of a campfire smoldered. The creature stopped to investigate.

Yes. Something had been here. Something living. Something it had been hunting for some time now. Something that needed to die.

It immediately regretted this urge. Why did it want to kill? It always felt sad afterward. It always tried to make amends. Often, though, it was too late.

The creature’s tendrils of sand and debris flicked about wildly, extinguishing the remains of the fire. It didn’t like to think about its feelings. Its existence was better when it was neither happy nor sad. Nor anything. It just wanted to be. That was enough.

And yet it was never enough.

Then: The sound. The word. The name.

The creature heard very little. Often, the cacophony of its own thrashing and churning drowned out all other sounds. But it had a gift. There was one thing it could hear above all else. No matter the clamor, no matter how quietly it was whispered, it could always hear its name.

“Leichleben.”

Whenever, wherever its name was uttered, everything seemed to stand still. That one word could pierce through any tumult, over any distance.

The creature didn’t like others using its name. Names, it knew, were power. And no one would have power over the creature. Not again.

It roared. It screamed.

With a surge, it thundered its way through the canyon, searching for whoever dared speak its name.

The speaker would be silenced.

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