Page 102 of What did you do?
“Fuck. Fine, but only because I’m tired of smelling rotting animals.”
The bronze-skinned man bent slowly and put his oddly warm hand on my forearm again.
“Anything you want to do or say to them before they are gone? I don’t know what your kind does for burials,” he said softly.
For the first time ever, I really looked at the two strangers.
The woman stood impatiently with hands on her hips while she looked down at the animals. Her short, white hair—a striking contrast to her dark skin—was buzzed on the bottom, while the rest coiled in tight curls that stopped at her chin on one side. My curious eyes took in her curvy body before landing on her rounded ears.
“You’re human,” I whispered.
She snorted, revealing one of the brightest, most charismatic smiles I had ever seen.
“Once,” the man laughed. Standing back up to his full height and brushing his long, pin-straight, black hair over his shoulder.
“You’re human too,” I murmured, seeing his ears.
“About as human as a blowtorch,” said Edin with a laugh.
The man nodded at the woman, and they began to push the dead animals to the open edge.
“They didn’t deserve this,” I sobbed.
“Here’s a pro tip: the ones that deserve this are the ones that run this shit,” Edin grumbled, struggling to push the giant lion.
“The animals deserve more than just being dumped off the mountain,” I cried, imagining the sounds of their bodies hitting the rocks. “I don’t know what else I can do. It’s not like I can build a pyre in here,” I said with strangled sobs.
The two strangers abruptly stood to look at one another.
“Absolutely not,” Edin stated.
“It will take four minutes, and no one will know,” said the man gently.
“Sid, no. Ugh, can’t you follow orders for once? I knew I should have picked Roach for this,” she growled.
“Come on,” he pleaded.
After reluctantly agreeing to whatever the man was asking for, Edin walked over to the corner beside me.
“Okay, Puddle, why don’t you say a few words for the animals?” he instructed with a nod. The man stood over the largest animal, wearing only his torn and bloodied trousers.
Wait.
“How did you guys get in here?” I asked, suddenly feeling more alert.
“It wasn’t rocket science. We climbed around the bars,” Edin said as she played with one of the many earrings that coiled up her ears.
“Why would you risk—” I began.
“Okay, Puddle, words now, if you have any,” he commanded gently.
Not knowing what I planned to do but too tired to fight my own mind, I walked over to the lion and closed its beautiful eyes, planting a kiss on their head. I said the only prayer I knew. Something my mother had sang whenever one of our pets died or we crossed paths with a dead animal in the road.
As I sang the weird words under my breath for the first time in twenty years, I realized they made no sense, and I didn’t even know what they meant. Something about the words that flowed from my mouth felt right though, so I continued to say it to each slain animal. “Okay.” I nodded, beginning to push the large animal.
“Step back,” Edin said gently as she guided me to the back of the cell.
“I’m Sid by the way.” The stranger smiled kindly as sympathy poured out of his narrow-set brown eyes. He held out his palm and a bright, round flame rolled across it.
