Excruciata
At first, I thought the way around meant more to me than it did. But that;s one of the misconceptions that I lost real quick as I stared into the abyss that was my soul. Or maybe it was the dark behind my eyes as I waited for the doctor to fix my heart. Who knows? I sure don't.
"What happened, do you think?" Jimmy asked, staring down at the burned body.
"What?"
"I mean, what made him do this? He seemed sane enough, according to his girlfriend. He wasn't someone who would just set himself on fire."
"I don't know."
"I can't do it." Terry stared down into the fresh dirt, thrown from the hole. "I thought burying her would be the easy part, But this... what you're asking... I can't."
"Try," Reggie snapped, his grey eyes burning.
The sun beat down, burning and stinging. Sweat ran int rivulets down his face, pooling in his eyes as he lifted them to the horizon. "Going to be a hard day," he observed to his companion, a small black cat who sat beside him. "We'd best get to work, Salem."
"Aye," the cat muttered.
I didn't think we could make it happen, but he actually grew new ears. They grew from the buds we'd planted, from where his old ones had been burned away. We couldn't believe that the technology had worked: what were the odds that you could grow a new set of ears from a couple of corn seeds?
"I can pay you."
"Damn it, Sara, you know I don't want the money."
"Well then, what will it take for you to do this for me?"
Derrick closed his eyes and shook his head. "I can't," he said finally. "I promised I wouldn't get involved again."
"Too late," Sara said. "You've been involved from the start. You can't be uninvolved now."
"Are you sure that's what you want?" Derrick asked her. "You know how this works..."
"I know," Sara said, her eyes downcast at the table. "But I can't live like this any longer. He needs to be gone. He needs..."
"You need him to be gone."
"Yes." The relief in her voice was palpable. "I need him to be gone. Can you do this for me?"
"I don't know," he said.
His gamertag said "FledBox". "What does that mean?" Sara asked. "Is it like a Redbox that runs from you? That must be hell when you have to return the movie. I bet the late fees are astronomical. 'Sorry, I'd have gotten it in on time, but the damned box kept running from me!'" She snorted.
"It's just a random pair of words," he said, giving her an odd look.
Her heart slid down in her chest, making her feel like she was on a sinking ship. Of course Derrick wasn't there. What had she expected? He hadn't been there for her for months; not since the messy breakup they'd had at that Italian restaurant on her birthday. Why would he come through now, just because he was the only one who could help her with this?
"I need better friends," Sara muttered. "Or at least more dependable ones."
The jeans were old and faded, torn at the knees and worn along the seams. Sara held them up to inspect them, then sighed and set them on the bed again. They would make it another day- heck maybe even two and a wash cycle, but she knew she would be replacing them soon, and it made her uneasy. "Why don't you throw those ratty things out?" her mother asked her, a million years ago. But the jeans were still here, and her mother was not.
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