kagablog

We had been in the broken city too long. That particular morning was clean and metallic. All the windows looked as though they were about to shatter at any second. I knew that something was wrong the moment I entered the lobby of the hotel in which we’d taken up residence. Only months ago, the establishment had been plush and opulent. But after the bombings it lay stripped and deserted. A chandelier had crashed in the ballroom a week ago and the broken glass still lay about, gathering dust. The bombings in the west part of the city had thrown up a peculiar white dust. This dust caught on everything, lodging in secret corners and rifing through the streets. I had my suspicions that we were the only guests. Most of the staff had vanished over the past weeks. I listened to them them leaving at night with their pockets stuffed with bread and envelopes of gold leaf, scraped from bathroom taps. I pulled out my revolver and checked it in the elevator. When the doors opened, I lightly placed the brown paper packet I was carrying on the burgundy pile. Leaving the joint of pork unattended vexed me somewhat. I had traded a gold ring for it. I abandoned it none the less and stole to the door at the end of the hall. It was easy to move soundlessly on the carpet and I had practiced opening and closing the door of our suite many times. I paused to close my eyes for several seconds, adjusting them to the gloom I knew I would find within. Then I entered. It was necessary of course, for the interior to be as dim as possible. The only light came from partial haloes of daylight surrounding the heavy drapery. I moved as quietly as possible, between the furniture with my gun held out before me. At some point my shoe struck something heavy and sodden. It rolled awkwardly across the carpet. I stopped and peered at it, trying to make out its shape. I realized that it was only the little girl’s head. I noticed that my mistress was squatting naked in the corner.

“Why aren’t you sleeping?” I asked her.

She didn’t move for long seconds. I could hear her breathing, animal-like, through her clotted hair. The locks hung across her features in swollen strings, dripping in the dimness. And the pale form of her motionless body had for a moment, the appearance of an enormous bone, perhaps from the pelvic region of a dinosaur.

“I’m sick of eating children,” she whispered.

I straightened slowly and reholstered my revolver.

“I’m sorry,” I apologized. “The city is almost completely deserted, I tried to find…I will try harder.”

“I’m hungry,” she sobbed agonizingly.

The sound was absorbed instantly by the thick drapery and carpets. I could hear water dripping in the bathroom. This sound also left no trace once it was gone. My heart was beating faster in the wake of her awful cry.

“I need a man,” she hissed from the shadows.

I felt a pang of obscene jealousy as she uncoiled. She rose to the tips of her toes, moving in the dense, dusty air like a fish through brown fluid. I watched her slip into an adjoining room as if she had never existed. The huge wasted mess of her carapace lay festering in the corner. I went back out into the corridor and retrieved the joint of pork. She began to scream furiously while I was still outside. I rushed into the suite and found her in the bathroom. She was beating the bloody ribcage of the girl against the mirrors in the faint, bluish light of morning. I had only seen her like this once before. She turned and caught me staring at her. She shrieked something in a dead language.

I instantly lowered my eyes, breathing raggedly. The prescence of her illuminated nudity was overwhelming. She swung the carcasse at my head and the wet impact forced me back into the bedroom.

“You will know your place,” she spat, dropping what was left of the girl. I could hear the blood squelching along the tiles as she moved.

“Bring me another child and perhaps I will allow you to look upon me.” She murmured hollowly.

I swallowed numbly as cold residue slid across my face. I feigned gratitude, hiding my shaking hands. Once more, I found myself in the corridor. I closed all the doors behind me and walked back into the ruined city.