Severing Sanguine: A Companion Book to The Fallocaust Series Book 2 (8 page)

Sami age 7

I walked into what had been my bedroom and put down the hubcap I had been using as a fire pit. Sometimes when I wanted to make jerky I brought the hubcap down to the parking lot and put it into my brick oven but mostly I kept it in the apartment so I could keep myself warm during the cold nights.

Tonight I had caught a radrat! I gutted and skinned it and now it was resting beside the hubcap just waited to be roasted and eaten with salt.

My new friend Cory was watching me in silence, his head leaned up against the window frame and his eyes half-open like he was tired. Cory was nice and he didn’t yell and try to kill me like my other friends. Though those friends got a whole lot nicer once they died.

“Good catch, Sami!”
Barry said to me, his voice cheerful and happy.

“That’s a big radrat, did you catch that all by yourself?”
Taylor asked me.

“Yes, I did!” I exclaimed. I picked up the rat and held it out for Taylor to see, then I turned around and showed Barry. “I shot it. I’m getting to be a better shot. Cory, I only had to shoot him once and I got him right in the stomach. I’ve been practicing.”

Cory opened his eyes a bit more and nodded. “That’s nice, kid, are you going to give Daddy Cory a bit of that?”

For the past couple of days he had been saying he could be my dad and now he called himself Daddy Cory. I didn’t tell him not to, I kind of liked it. I had never had a dad before, I didn’t even know if he was still alive.

“Yeah, you can have some. Will you tell me a real story tonight? One from when you were a kid maybe?” I asked. I started bundling up pieces of yellow grass as dry as straw and putting them beside some old cloth.

“Sure, I have lots of those…” Cory responded. That made me smile! I lit the fire and moved the hubcap towards Cory so it could be near the window. The smoke would blow out that way though it still got kind of smoky in here until the fire got hot enough.

I set the radrat on one of the oven grates I used for making jerky and laid down on the floor with my toys. Cory had been with me for a week now and he knew the routine, as I played with my toys he told me a story about when he was a kid and he found a warehouse full of candy.

“I looked in the first box with my brother and our jaws hit the floor… inside were bags and bags of all the candy you could ever want.” My eyes widened and I looked up at him, he carried on. “Marshmallow strawberries and bananas, Sour Keys and Dino Sours, gummy berries… and even gummy bears.”

“Wow!” I said in awe. “What else!?”

“They had snack cakes there too… Twinkies and Dingdongs.”

I giggled at the name and said it quietly to myself. “Dingdongs.”

“My brother and me ate until we puked and then we ate some more. That was one of the best times in my life,” Cory said before chuckling. I saw a sad look come to his face. “We ate him a few winters later after he came down with dysteria. He was a good brother, I miss him a lot.”

“I wish I had a brother…” I said. I felt a lump in my throat as I thought of how nice that would be or how nice it would be to see Nana again. “Do you think Nan thinks I’m dead? Maybe she thinks I got dysteria.”

Cory shrugged. He stretched his limbs and I heard a few pops as his bones cracked. “Honestly, yes, she probably does think you’re dead but that doesn’t matter. You have me to keep you company and a dad is better than any brother or any Nan.”

He smiled as he said this. I got up and turned the radrat over and looked outside as it started to get dark. I really wanted to untie Cory since he was sore and he complained a lot about having to stick his butt out the window to go to the bathroom but I had trusted Josh and then he tried to fuck me in the ass.

I still think that meant something different… but Cory was an adult so he knew more than me. It was nice that he treated me like any other boy. I liked that he didn’t know I had red eyes or my teeth were pointy. Though it was hard to see in the dark with the shades on, my night bright didn’t work that well with the sunglasses on.

When the rat was all done and Cory had told me two more stories we both sat and ate our pieces of rat together. Since Cory was nicer than the other ones I gave him a big piece and dusted it with an entire salt packet. He was my friend and I liked his stories.

The rat was nummy. We threw the bones outside and I drank some water and gave him the rest. We had a lot of water now that he told me where to find the water spring though I still drank all of the radrat’s blood. I liked the taste.

I curled up with my blanket and Barry and wound his butt. I put Barry beside me and sung Daisy Daisy out loud. Daddy Cory helped sing it but I had to remind him how the words went, sometimes he changed it but I didn’t mind. Diaz, Taylor, Nina, and Charles sometimes sang and they knew all the words though.

“Good night, Diaz. Good night, Taylor. Good night, Nina and Charles. Good night, Barry, and good night Cory.”

“Good night, Sami,”
Taylor and Diaz said and a moment later so did Nina and Charles.

“Extra good night, Sami!”
Barry said with a laugh. He always had to one up my other friends because he was my best friend.

Cory yawned. “Good night, Sami Sanguine. I hope you burn a lot of bullies in your twisted dreams.”

I fell into a deep sleep with my friends all around me.

In the middle of the night I was roused by Cory. He was saying my name over and over again in a hushed voice.

I lifted up my head and quickly adjusted my sunglasses and made sure my kerchief was covering my teeth. “What?” I murmured. I flicked away a couple bugs that had crawled on me and looked over at Cory.

“There are lights in the distance, flood lights… you need to get us out of here, kid,” Cory hissed.

A shock went through me which made me jump up to my feet, without thinking I ran over to where Cory was and looked out the window.

He was right! Panic replaced the shock and I found myself gripping the window frame, my teeth chewing on the edge of my cheek until I could taste red. Coming in from the entrance to my town I could see bright bright lights, they were about a hundred me’s away maybe a bit more but they were coming closer.

“Stay still and be quiet…” I ducked away from the window and pressed my back against the wall. “They won’t check here… they’ll–”

“You have that giant brick oven outside and lots of toys and bones, it’s obvious someone is here and a small child,” Cory hissed at me. “If that’s the Legion they will try and find you and then they’ll sell you to a slaver or a factory. You need to untie me so we can hide in the sewers, Sami. It’s obvious where we are and they’re coming right down the street.”

What do I do? I grabbed my knife and looked out the window again, my cheek was chewed on even more as I tried to think.

I could… I could trust Daddy Cory. He had been so nice to me this week and told me such good stories.

I decided in that moment I would. I stood over Cory and started untying his feet, then I chopped off the bind that was attached to the window frame.

Cory let out a groan of relief; he slowly stood up and all of his bones were popping as he did. He didn’t complain that I wouldn’t untie his hands and while he was stretching out his legs I grabbed Barry and got a backpack I had for emergencies. It had some water in it and some jerky and books and a lighter. I put Barry in it and Conan and my Redwall books and I waited for him in the doorway.

“You need to stick by the wall… don’t go near the center of the living room or you’ll fall right through,” I said hurriedly. “We’ll go into the sewers near the spring and wait for them to go. Follow me and watch where I step.”

“How the fuck did you even get me up here?” Cory murmured behind me.

“You weren’t out cold just sloppy like Nina was, it was from the drugs I got,” I said putting my backpack over my back. I wish I could have a cigarette so badly but I ran out a month ago. It looked like Cory didn’t smoke, he had nothing on him. “Hurry… they’ll be coming closer soon!”

I ran, feeling my boots crunch against the fallen plaster of the ceiling. I looked behind me and saw Cory slowly approaching, his boots testing each floorboard carefully before he put his weight on it.

It was like my entire body was made up of pop rocks and firecrackers, I felt like running so badly. Every time I thought of the Legion coming closer the pop rocks and firecrackers exploded and everything was needles on my skin. I didn’t like this feeling, I hadn’t been this scared for a long time now.

With Cory behind me we crept down the stairs. I had a handgun beside my sheathed knife but my stash of guns was on the fourth floor where only I could find them. This gun had a lot of bullets though at least and I would shoot as many legionary as I could. Legion were friendly with Nana but I wasn’t at Sunshine House anymore and the legionaries hated greywasters. They liked harassing them and charging them for stupid things like going down the merchants’ road. Diaz had told me a lot of stories about that; he hated the Legion.

I ran through the small lobby and jumped out of a window frame. I looked out and clenched my hands against my sides hard as I saw the lights coming closer. I found my fingers digging hard into my sides and I kept digging them harder and harder until I realized I had made them bleed.

Behind me Cory’s footsteps could be heard and his breathing. I reached into my backpack and handed him a flashlight because I knew he couldn’t see in the dark.

“Thanks…” Cory said, taking the long metal flashlight from me. “Let’s go to the sewers.”

I nodded as he flicked on the flashlight and turned to start heading towards the cistern I went down to find my water spring.

Suddenly something hit the back of my head, something hard. I yelped and fell onto the ground, right on the shards of glass. I whimpered, temporarily in a state of confusion; I tried to get up but I got hit in the head again.

My mind shot out of me for a second, I writhed around trying to find where my mind was and found that tears were springing to my eyes. Confusion overwhelmed me, it wasn’t until I saw Cory walking away with the flashlight in his hand that I realized he had hit me.

Daddy Cory had hit me in the head.

I looked at him start to walk away and felt tears spring to my eyes. I kneeled on the ground with my head bowed and started to cry. My insides hurt and it made my ears and my head go hot; I felt like how I felt when Nan made me run away. I was losing another friend and what was worse was that he said he would be my dad.

I sniffed and saw that my sunglasses had gotten knocked off but everything was blue-tinged with my night bright so I could see better. I looked down at my bloodied hands and ripped the kerchief off of my face in anger.

The flashlight shined on my back, illuminating my hands and the shards of glass I had landed on. I heard Cory’s body shift behind me and his boots crunch.

“Just be lucky I’m not going to kill you; you would slow me down anyways…” Cory said. His voice was low, cold, and angry like Gill’s and Joshua’s. Adults were always friendly until they had the upper hand again and then they turned mean.

I kept crying; I wiped my eyes. “You promised.”

“What?” Cory said lowly.

Anger overtook my body, making my blood boil inside of my veins and making my fists clench even though I could still feel glass. I clenched my jaw tight and let the anger rip through me.

He said he would be my dad!

He said we could go to Chilko Lake!

I stood up and whirled around and with the flashlight shining on me, I opened my mouth to scream as loud as I could.

“YOU SAID YOU WOULD BE MY DAD!”

“HOLY SHIT!” Cory suddenly yelled; his eyes bulging out of his face. He jumped back and dropped the flashlight in his surprise. My face crumpled when I realized he was reacting to my eyes and teeth.

“What the fuck are you?” Cory hollered. He started taking backwards steps towards the door.

I had no answer for that; I was too angry and too hurt. I screamed again as loud as I could, not caring about the legionary coming down the street, and ran at him.

Cory swore and turned around. He managed to get out onto the sidewalk before I charged at him and grabbed onto his jacket. I pulled and pulled it until he whirled around and hit me in the face. I fell backwards but I bounced up like a spring and charged him again.

Though this time Cory grabbed my neck and my arm. I gasped, my eyes wide as he started squeezing my neck, letting go of my arm to start doing it with both hands.

Pressure started building behind my eyes, my head was pounding and going red hot. I gasped and tried to scream but no sound came out. I started to thrash and claw at him but he was gripping me hard.

“Fucking little demon…” Cory muttered. He was staring right at me; his face blazing with rage. “You’re not even fucking human are you?”

As my head started to fill to the point of bursting, a hammer knocking against my skull and each pound felt like it was breaking it in half. Darkness filled each hole the hammer made and soon my entire head was dripping black into my vision. I felt my hands drop and my legs give one more desperate thrash before dark pressure was the only thing I knew.