The Year's Best Dark Fantasy & Horror, Volume 3 by Sconosciuto

Author:Sconosciuto [Sconosciuto]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror
ISBN: 9781645060352
Publisher: Pyr
Published: 2022-03-15T00:00:00+00:00

BLOOD TIES

JADE WILBURN

Fetid water and putrid green-brown sludge seep into the cracks of Olivia’s worn shoes. She grimaces with every squelching step, but she cannot stop running.

There’s no time to wipe the sweat from her brow nor to wash her brown forearms, streaked with still-wet blood. She cannot take even a moment to comfort her squalling newborn sister, Leila. Fresh from their mama’s womb and hastily tied in a wrap, the babe’s midnight-black skin is still covered in drying white birthing fluid.

If Olivia falters, even once, both of them will die as cannon fodder.

The faint thrum under her feet grows stronger. Leila cries louder. They’re lucky the houses this far from the town’s center are empty. Their families had been smart to take the government’s meager offer and flee as fast as possible.

Olivia curses under her breath as she shoves floating broken furniture out of her way. The main road out of town would’ve been faster but it came with a higher chance of detection. The narrow footpaths through the forest will slow down pursuers but getting there is eating precious time.

“Shush little one, everything will be okay. I promised Mama I’d protect you, remember?”

She ignores the floating corpses, so swollen that they look fit to burst with the slightest disturbance. As the water came, the ground turned so soft that their cemeteries had no choice but to spit up the dead.

There goes Miss Mabel with her one good glass eye and the other authentic one hanging out of the socket. Look at the Tyler children floating in a single file like soldiers—such a shame about the measles outbreak that took their whole family a few years ago.

The distant clamor of surprised shouts and bellows of rage behind her sends Olivia’s heart skittering off like a rabbit. Daddy and the rest of the townspeople must have found Mama’s cooling body, her womb empty of the child meant to be kindling for the curse.

The faint whispers of Ancestors long gone caress Olivia’s ears and urge her to stop running. They beg her to set Leila down in a patch of dry soil and complete the blood tie, tethering her sister to the earth as generations of their family have done.

We aren’t monsters, they coo. Their voices are ever moving, rolling around the edges of her mind like water sloshing up the sides of a cup someone is shifting back and forth. They wouldn’t do this if there was another way. They don’t want to see their hard work snatched away by white folks yet again—surely she must grasp that?

“‘Course I get it! Y’all actin’ like y’all the only ones who are angry!” Olivia hisses between clenched teeth. Did the Ancestors think she wanted things to end up this way? To stay here in this town and wait for the waters to rise, or high-tail it North with her sister to a state—Meatskin? Michgan?—whose name she can’t even pronounce right?

Sucking air into her heaving chest to soothe her aching lungs, Olivia’s focus loosens for a single moment.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.