Page 53 of Echo
Echo put his huge hands up and backed away from the coop, and Devil Cock slowly relaxed. “She’s trying to hatch those eggs.”
“I see. Mama mode activated, huh?” I clicked my tongue. “Well then, don’t let me bother you.”
Her feathers flattened as I walked away from her, confirming that was the best thing for me to do. Maybe. I wasn’t sure.
I left the coop and clasped the door before going up to the house to deposit my findings on the counter.
I sat on the back porch going through internet articles on what to do with a broody hen. Echo appeared behind me, leaning over my shoulder. “What is that?”
“A cell phone.”
“So it calls people?”
“Yeah, but it has a lot of uses. Like researching broody hens.” I clicked my tongue. “Seems to be some disagreement on how to deal with them.”
“If you leave the mama bird be, you should get some new chickens out of it. As long as you make sure she eats and drinks.”
“Then why is it recommended against?” I asked to no one in particular.
“I don’t understand why your people do a lot of the things you do.”
“Considering we managed to royally fuck the economy, ozone, and everything in between, I’ll have to concede to that fact.”
That made him chuckle, but I was certain he didn’t understand the extent of it, considering he hadn’t left the property in hundreds of years. He was still in one of the few places humans hadn’t completely fucked everything up.
“What did the world look like back then?” My eyes scanned the beauty of this property. It was so different from home. It was a different world. And yet, I knew back then it would have been even more majestic.
“Not too much. Not here at least. The women in your family kept things a certain way.” Yet he stared at the treeline, as if he remembered a world I couldn’t fathom. “It’s hotter. The trees are smaller. The house has changed. There are electrical lines. But this trap your ancestors put me in doesn’t change much.”
“Why did they trap you here?”
“They didn’t tell you.” He lifted his eyebrow.
“I read the information pamphlets, but I’m interested in the monster’s perspective.” What I really wanted was for him to say or do something that would make the comforting feeling of having him beside me go away.
“Your ancestor, Levicy Rinah was a brilliant witch born to a breed of men who were ignorant and needlessly violent,” he began. “She bartered for peace with me. Her reasoning was that more people were coming. The world was changing. I could chase her family off the land all I wanted, but more would be in her place sooner rather than later. If I let them live here in peace, she would offer sacrifices to keep us fed, but stressed that we stay out of her soon-to-be husband’s line of sight. I agreed, because she was right. The hills were filling up with people and they were hostile. It was easier to deal with if we had a safe place to hide in. But my little brother was a boy, and he let Carl Falin catch him.”
The small skull in the witchy room.
I grabbed his hand, interlacing my fingers with his. My heart hurt at the thought of how much pain that must have caused him.
“We quit aging when we were turned into these creatures. We’d been this way already a hundred years, but he still had the understanding of a child. He didn’t know better. And Carl Falin killed him.” A growl laced his words and crescendoed as he spoke. “Levicy called her sisters and trapped me on this property, still offering a peaceful place to live. Even after I murdered that worthless husband of hers. But I told her, now she owed me a companion too.”
“You must have been lonely. I’m so sorry.”
I rested my head on his shoulder and wished I could suck the centuries of pain away from him.
His growling stopped abruptly and I had that feeling that his eyes were on me again. Calm and warm. I lifted my head to meet his gaze to find his face blank, but those eyes locked onto me.
“What?”
After a long moment, he stood up and went to stand on the ground. As if he suddenly needed to have space between us. Thatgrin settled on his snout, but it didn’t quite reach his eyes. “Now I get to feast on your fear whenever I want. You’ve given me a lot of power. You’re lucky I like you.”
His words were a giant slap to the mouth. It stung and burned deep down in my throat as if I swallowed acid.
That was the wake up call I needed. I wasn’t some desired goddess he wanted to possess. No, I was a debt for him to collect on. With that splash of truth, it was easy to remember that he viciously murdered people. He was a real monster that came from nightmares.
He was no better than Mark. In fact, he was worse. Because he’d been coddled to believe he owned me. I’d already known that, but I lost my perspective under his attentiveness.
