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“What have you done, my dear, for him to survive this way?”
“I won't say a word.”
“As you please. But I doubt you'll appreciate the fate Brother Joshua has in store for you. Will she?” he asks, a perverse smile plastered on his mouth.
“I'm ready to intervene,” Joshua confirms. “My tools are always ready.”
The collusion between these two men is heavy with innuendo. It's downright creepy. And the mere anticipation of what he's about to inflict on me sends an unpleasant shiver down my spine, the harbinger of insurmountable pain. Never mind, I'm ready for Ember. For Lewis too. Ready to simply give my life a new meaning. I'm not a creature-killer. I’ll never betray the weakest or the most destitute for the benefit of a materialistic congregation. My only master is freedom!
“Very well, then. Tie her up and take her away. You know where...”
His tone has softened. He no longer needs to impose himself with volume; he lets these few words hang in the air as if they were the death knell of my existence. In the end, it's what they suggest that's most eloquent. I'll end up in pieces, but I'll never give them any information. Ever. So, at least my integrity and honor are preserved, if not my conscience.
“Let's go!”
Everything is swirling.
Everything is so dazzlingly white!
Maybe not so much, in fact... Everything comes in shades of gray now.
I haven't left Earth; I'm still here.
Yet I remember I was on my way to my next mission when my bike went out of control. There was nothing I could do. I ended up in the scenery.
In my misfortune, I was lucky. Doubly so. I didn't die on the spot, and a young woman just happened to be there. It was unlikely, though, on that road lost in the middle of nowhere.
As my body crashed to the pavement, I felt my bones crack. I heard them too. An iron taste permeated my senses. I was paralyzed. My beautiful apparition approached me.
“Hold on, sir, I'll call for help!”
She was so pretty. But I could see the sadness in her eyes, the same sadness that overcame me a few years ago. I was so sorry for what I was about to do to her... Alas, I had no choice.
“My bag...”
Blood filled my mouth. It was slowly beginning to drown me. I coughed weakly to evacuate it, in little spurts.
“Forget your bag, sir, unless you've got a cell phone with you so I can call for help. I'm here! I'm here! Stay with me!”
“There...”
I pointed to my precious equipment with my eyes, I had no other way to do it. She grabbed it.
“You've got a phone!”
She took it with a nervous gesture.
“Take the purse... in my bag... It's for you...”
“We'll see about that later, if you don't mind. Hold on, I'll call for help.”
“No... Take possession of my things, please... Save me from eternal damnation...”
She seemed totally lost, as if I'd said something incomprehensible. I must have, really. How could she understand? She'd just arrived in this world of darkness and couldn't have suspected its unalterable blackness.
Stunned, she finally put my bag on her lap and took the purse in her hands. I was saved! I let go, carried away in a whirlwind of nothingness.
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