by catt dahman
He didn’t look around, so the alcohol or their hiding had kept him from coming back and attacking. Coral said that Gus was a fantastic swimmer and when he was younger, he had even dreamed of the Olympics and had done some type of training for it.
“What’s he doing?” Annie whispered.
“Swimming. He is swimming, Annie, just swimming.”
“Where’s he going?”
“That way. He’s swimming that way,” Coral said.
Gus found a rhythm and swam easily. As far as the eye could see, there was nothing, no land, not a place to go. They watched Gus until he was a tiny dot in the water. They watched until he was gone.
Chapter 11
On the fifteenth day, a bloated sheep swirled by on the current, and they watched it float away. “Bah, bah, black sheep,” Annie whispered, petting Blackie. The kitten purred, and Annie tickled and rubbed her ears.
Pax kissed Annie as she lay there on the bed, drowsing. Coral sat across the room in a chair, his feet up, and Katie, even as big as she was, lying across him, her muzzle on his shoulder.
“Have you any wool?” asked Pax as he smiled.
“Yes, sir, yes, sir, three bags full.”
Pax put the Glock against her head and pulled the trigger.
“I love you Annie,” he whispered. Katie and Blackie had jumped in terror and flew from the room, their nails skittering as they ran away.
Pax figured neither would trust him or want to be around him for a while. They knew he caused the noise.
They knew he took away Annie.
Pax wailed and held his head down, setting the muzzle of the Glock against his jaw line. “Annie….”
He didn’t pull the trigger but wailed harder. “I want to feel it. Even if it’s horrible, I want to feel it. I want my memories, no matter how bad they are.”
“Pull it, Pax,” Coral said, “do it.”
Pax screamed.
Then he leaned back. He looked at Annie’s broken head, forced himself to take it all in and to really see what the bullet had done. “Which is better, Coral?
Tell me the answer. Is it better to have all this pain and fear but also the memories and the part of me that is me? I have the part that loves Annie, and she’s alive in that memory and happy, laughing. I know who you are. I don’t want to kill you. You’re my friend.”
“Yeah.”
“I’ll go away.”
“So will the pain. And the fear,” Coral told him, “let it go.”
Pax stared into the Glock’s barrel again. “Who will keep the memories?”
“Me, I’ll keep them all.”
“All alone? All alone,” Pax said, “it’s better to go smooth, Coral. I wanna be smooth.”
Coral jumped at the noise; the Glock was loud in the room.
In a while, Coral tossed the Glock into the water in the main stairwell and went to another room. Katie and Blackie joined him.
Chapter 12
On the seventeenth day, Coral watched the water. It wasn’t raining as hard, but it was still sprinkling; it always was.
Blackie and Katie chased the red ball.
On the horizon, a boat-shape formed, coming closer.
Coral heard the drone of a motor.
He sat and stared into nothing.
(Fort Worth 2013)
About the Author:
catt dahman has been writing for more than 20 years, lives with her cats, dog, husband, and son in Fort Worth, Texas and is the author of the nine-book series Z is for Zombie and several horror novels. She is available at Amazon. com, by e-reader, and paperback.
