Our Own Unique Affliction by Scott J. Moses

Author:Scott J. Moses
Language: eng
Format: epub
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Publisher: DarkLit Press
Published: 2022-09-11T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 4

Relief and Other Lies

I jar from sleep to a maelstrom of metal biting metal, and backing to the rearmost bars of my cage, my wits find me. Raeger’s sliding a machete along the bars, back and forth, baaaack and foooorth. The reverberation echoes throughout the all but empty trailer, some gargantuan locomotive from hell.

He steps back, smirks. “Looks like someone’s been crying. Why so sad?” He examines the blade as if curious, rubbing his thumb over a discolored blemish in the otherwise pristine metal. A tinge of brownish-red, Imani’s blood.

The hooks of my mind quake, tremble for use, but I refuse them. Have to be wise here, though I’m not trying to escape. Not anymore, I’ve been escaping my whole life; time to meet something head on for a change. I find his eyes, that smirk.

“You’re all filth,” he says, pointing the machete my way.

Boots pound aluminum. “That’s enough, Raeger,” Bodachi says, calm, but stern, his ham fists all but clenched at his sides.

He stops before the bars, between Raeger and I. Raeger scoffs and posts up against the trailer wall, shaking his head in disapproval.

The dam behind my eyes threatens to break, but I hold fast. “Why didn’t she tell me, Bodachi? Why keep it from me?”

“Your sister,” he begins, clearing his throat as if holding something back as well, “she was smart. She knew you’d react...the way you did. She knew you best, and so I trusted her lead, so long as she provided what we agreed upon.”

I should’ve left it alone...but how could I?

“What happens now?”

“I think you know, Alice. What do you think?”

Cool wind rolls in through the trailer entrance. The darkness breathing life into this three-fourths room.

“I wager you’ll take my blood, get your supply from the only one still available to you. Someone who won’t resist... I’m done fighting, Bodachi. I’m done with most things now...”

He smiles like a father correcting a child who’s said some absurdity. “You act as if you’re valuable because of what you are. There are others more than willing to give blood for a free roaming existence.” Raeger chuckles from behind him, and Bodachi flings a look over his shoulder. Raeger stills, smiles. “You’re not like Hannah,” Bodachi continues. “Amiable. Respectable. Eager to cooperate. You know, we’d talk when you were out on your escapades, whether giving blood or not. We’d talk on all sorts of things.” He leans in, and if I could meld into the bars behind me I would. “She’d tell me that she never really felt there, present. Like she might evaporate at any moment. How she sometimes longed for it, but knew she had to be there for her baby sister. That that was why she existed. As far as she was concerned, she’d died long ago, was your living angel. Your guardian, no more, no less.”

The dam finally breaks, and I grit my teeth, jerk up at him. “You’re lying.”

He sighs. “What reason do I have to lie, girl? Tell me.”

I don’t have an answer.

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