The Crooked God Machine by Christian Autumn

Author:Christian, Autumn [Christian, Autumn]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, azw3, epub
Tags: tinku
Published: 2011-12-23T04:30:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

When I got back home from the swamp I found Sissy hiding in the cupboard underneath the sink.

“What are you doing under there?” I asked.

She put a finger to her lips.

“Shh,” she said.

I sent Sissy back into the living room and went upstairs to the bedroom, where Jeanine stood by the window looking out over the trees.

"What happened to you?" she asked me when she saw me bare-footed, red in the face, covered in swamp mud and slime.

"I think Leda might be alive," I said.

"What makes you think that?"

"A monster told me so," I said.

I went into the bathroom, turned on the shower faucet, and sloughed off my clothes. While I stood near the shower naked, covered in grit and mud, Jeanine knocked on the door.

"What is it?" I asked.

"Can I come in?" she asked.

"Hold on," I said.

I got into the shower and closed the curtain.

"Okay," I said.

The door opened and closed. Jeanine closed the toilet lid and sat down.

"What was her name?" Jeanine asked.

"What?”

“You know what I asked.”

"Leda," I said. I swallowed.

"Did you love her?" she asked.

"Why?"

"Can't you just tell me? Did you love her or not?"

"Yes," I said, "I loved her."

I heard the bathroom door open and close a second time. I breathed a sigh and cleaned myself off, then got out of the shower. I changed into clean clothes and went back into the bedroom. Jeanine sat in the chair beside the window with her legs splayed out in front of her. She buried her fingers in her blue and orange hair.

I turned the light on, as I had done every night since Leda's disappearance. Jeanine didn't move.

"Can I ask you something?" I said.

Jeanine said nothing.

"Why did you get a slip implant?" I asked, "I thought you would be the last person to ever do anything like that."

Jeanine shifted in the rocking chair. I sat down on the edge of the bed.

"It's okay if you don't want to tell me."

"I don't," Jeanine said.

"I can make up Theresa's bed for you," I said, "She never sleeps it in anymore."

My limbs burned with fatigue, and I ached to close my eyes.

"I'm sorry if I upset you," I whispered, "you know I never meant it."

I lay down into bed because I could no longer support my body, and almost instantly I fell asleep.

I woke a little while later to find Jeanine hovering over me, her knees pressed into the sheets, the curve of her back shooting off like a bow in the dark.

"Isn't it strange, the sort of things that come back to haunt you?" Jeanine asked, "the memories that we are doomed to repeat over and over again?"

I reached out to touch her exposed thigh. The cold burned my fingers.

"Yeah," I said.

"You were right, what you told me earlier," she said, "that we were destined to be wrong from the beginning."

I thought Jeanine might collapse. She leaned down and the orange colored tips of her hair brushed against my mouth.

"We should go look for her. Your Leda." Jeanine said quietly,” You know my brother? He's a prophet.

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