#ill get around to fixin it eventually | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

darkling-er · 6 years

Text

Hope’s Savior ( John Seed x OC ) | Part 12

Summary: Trinity-Hope Johnson finds herself in the middle of a holy war, leading the Resistance, while having a complicated relationship with one of the cult’s herald. And she thought her first case would be easy. Oh how wrong she was!

Pairings: John Seed/Fem!Deputy, John Seed/OC, Earl Whitehorse & OC ( uncle&niece ), Joseph Seed/Fem!Deputy ( kind of ), might add more later

Warnings: mild language, violence, eventually smut, masturbation, oral sex, you know guys the usual, use of drugs ( bliss and other, thanks to Sharky ), fluff ( does that even need a warning? ), manipulation, angst, mention of mental illness ( insomnia, depression ), mention of child abuse ( from John’s side ), torture, I think that’s it? I swear it’s not so bad!

Word Counter: 4413

Notes: Okay, so things going to go fast from here. For a bit, not super fast. Also: I love Nick Rye! *-*

It has been a long time since Hope had such a nice sleep as she just had in John Seed's bed. Feeling the expensive comfort all night long, body and mind relaxing. Her senses being dim from the scent surrounding her through her dreams. No nightmares, no burning fields or Jacob's voice demanding her to kill. She wakes up on her own, head burried in the youngest Seed brother's pillow. Her hand stroking the fabric of it, smiling to herself.

Hope opens her eyes and yawns as she slowly sits up in the king sized bed. Her head doesn't hurt as much as it did yesterday. She rubs her eyes from the sleepiness and as she does she notices something on her wrist. She actually didn't realize she was wearing a wrist watch all along.

“What the...” She wonders as she looks down at the watch. She's not an expert, but she knows something expensive when she sees one.

She doesn't remember having it, until... Until she got into John's bunker!

“What the hell? Did he buy me a watch?” She laughs in disbelief as she look at her wrist. She shakes her head, can't believe the man did that. Yes, she mentioned it to him that she lost her watch in the Whitetails, but this? He brought her a gift? And an expensive one at the look of it.

She gets up from the bed, bare feet meeting the fine wooden floor. Even the floor feels nice, of course. She chuckles for herself as she stands up and walks toward the door which she thinks leads to the bathroom. She doesn't know what she was expecting but as she watches the door open, revealing a huge bathroom she stops at her tracks. A shower cabin in one corner of the room and a bath tub at the other. A huge ass mirror above the sink and a toilet, covered in a fluffy blue toilet seat. Luxury and money screaming off of every bit of the room. Just like everywhere else in the house.

As she steps into the bathroom she notices the bathtub, that it has jets in it.

“Oh, you’ve got to be joking.” She says as she looks at it in disbelief but with a huge smile on her face.

She starts the water, then starts looking for bath bombs or anything that she could put into the water. She opens the cabinet above the sink, the one with the mirror and she’s faced with a bunch of medical bottles.

She frowns, looking at the descriptions. Everyone is named for John, but a few of the bottles have a different name. ‘John Duncan’ and on that Hope doesn’t know how to react. Why is John’s name Duncan? Isn’t he a Seed? I thought Faith was Fake Seed…

She looks at the names of the medications: Normison, Prozac, Adderall… All kinds of drugs against insomnia, depression and anxiety? Wow, now I feel even more sorry for him. Fuck.

She looks past the medicines and she spots toothpaste and a couple of toothbrushes. She checks them, grabbing one that looks unused and start brushing her teeth. I could get used to this. She didn’t pay much attention to hygiene since she arrived in the County. And now she wanted to do everything that she didn’t have the chance of.

She feels refreshed as she puts down the toothbrush then she stops the water, that already filled up the bathtub. The young woman puts some stuff into the water, all kinds of nice smells filling the air in the bathroom. She gets out of John’s shirt and her underwear and sets it down at the sink, then she gets into the tub with a sigh.

Her muscles relaxing in the hot water she closes her eyes. As she lays there her radio crackles to life in the bedroom. She opens her eyes and listens, waits for a voice to talk to her.

“Deputy... We need to talk.”

What...the...hell... It’s Joseph Seed. Why is Joseph Seed calling her, what should she do? Hope gets out of the bath quickly, wrapping a towel around her body as she leaves wet marks on the floor while walking back into the bedroom. She looks at her radio on the bed in disbelief. He never called her. Hell, he didn’t try to talk to her since the Cleansing.

“I know you can hear me... I know you’re in my brother’s house.” His voice is calm as always, soothing and friendly. The reason why she has goosebumps all over her body. She shakily takes the radio in her hands, but doesn’t push down the button to talk. She never talked to him before, he never heard her voice.

At her silence there’s a dissappointed sigh, but not an annoyed one. He’s nothing like John. Why are you comparing him to John?

“I’ve had a vision of you last night...” The man continues and she just stands there, water dripping down from her body as she looks down at her radio in her hands. “I’ve seen what’s coming next. The Lord showed me a glimpse of the future: you standing above my brother’s corpse.”

There’s silent again and Hope mouth drops. Her heart feels heavy at those words. Just like in the voice mail, but now he said it. No metaphors or hidden clues. She thinks of John, the man that owned this house, who has the smirk of the devil. She thinks of him dead, belove her, his beautiful blue eyes turned into glassy ones. She shakes her head, closing her eyes as she tries to delete this picture out of her head.

Joseph continues on the other end as she does:

“I ask you...” He seems to search for the right words, then he exhales and continues. “I ask you to spare his life... He wasn’t always like this, he was the most loving out of all of us. He was just a boy when all those terrible things happened to him.”

Hope imagines a young boy again, crying on the kitchen floor while his parents beat him. She doesn’t notice how it affects her until a tear drops down from her face to her hand that is holding the radio.

“I know he can change, he can change through love. I’m only asking you to spare his life. You don’t need to kill him, Deputy... Please think about it.”

And with that her radio turns silent again. She stands in the room, water dripping down from her body, towel hanging around her. All kinds of thoughts run through her mind. Mostly about the so called vision of Joseph. She wonders if the Father called John about this vision as well, but she has a feeling that he didn’t.

She tries to forget about it as she puts up her underwear and her jeans, Sharky’s sweater and the denim jacket on her body with her dirty boots. It’s easier to wear the weathered clothes rather than trying to explain why she wears John Seed’s shirt.

She makes her way out to the corridor and as she looks down into the living room she smiles at the sleeping Sharky and Boomer, cuddling up on the couch. It’s a cute picture, really. She walks through a door out to the balcony and then down to another building, which she assumes is the garage.

Well, almost. As Hope enters the garage she whistles, watching the yellow plane being parked there.

“Hello, beautiful.” She smiles, running her hand long the door of the plane. She remembers John’s being a dark one, and there’s a huge text saying: ‘Rye and Sons’.

She smiles as she enters the plane, although she never in her life flew one. I learned to fly a chopper, how hard could this be?

She puts the headphone on her head and starts the engine of the plane, ready to exit the building. I didn’t die yet, that’s good. She amuses as the plane starts to roll out of the hangar, taking a turn to the airfield.

She flies into the air and starts to panic as she does. This definitely doesn’t work as a chopper. But there’s no going back.

A man’s voice comes through her radio and she tries to concentrate not falling to her death and listening to him speaking as well.

“Hey! This is Nick Rye! Who the hell are you and where do you think you’re taking my plane?! Goddamn Peggies... Wait, wait wait. Ain’t no Peggie dumb enough to pull a stunt like that... Shit, you’re that Deputy I been hearin’ about, ain’t ya?”

Hope laughs nervously as her hands shake around the control of the plane.

“Did you just call me dumb?” She laughs. “Yup, that’s me. Thought I would return your plane to you? You need it?”

Nick humms on the other end:

“Yup. You gotta bring that bird back to me. It’s our only way out of this shit storm. Now I need to make sure they didn’t mess with it. Let’s run it through some tests. Hang a sharp left at the crop circle and fly super low along the river.”

She makes the plane turn left and almost gets a heart attack.

“This thing is a lot more sensitive than a chopper!” She says panicked but manages to straighten out the plane.

“Did you ever fly a plane?” Nick asks and she laughs nervously with a ‘nope’. “Man, you’re either brave or stupid.”

Hope laughs at that nodding to herself.

“Probably both.”

The man on the other end sighs:

“Either way, you just saved my life. Hell, you saved my whole family. Peggies attacked my place just as we were fixin’ to take off good. Swiped my plane and left me to fight for my life. I’m damn near outta ammo.”

Hope takes another sharp turn to left and she feels like she’ll fly right out of the plane, bumping her head on the metal ceiling. When she manages to straighten it out and watches the river below she starts to get lower in the air. She pulls it back up when she almosts flies right into the water as Nick’s excited voice follows her, making her a bit less afraid of the flight.

“God damn! Breakin’ into John’s ranch of all places and makin’ it out in one piece. Way to show those fuckers.”

She chuckles at that, while following the river.

“Yeah, they had that coming. So I figured why the hell not.” Her voice is proud of her own actions. Though it was probably just a bold and idiotic idea.

“They must have been mystified.” Nick laughs with her. “Man, what I’d give to have seen the looks on their faces. Stupid Peggies.”

She follows the river, trying her best to not to crash as Rye continues to speak.

“That’s all they do around here. Show up at your door, like they did to me, and take whatever the hell they want. You know, I shoulda figured everythin’ would be alright. That plane’s never let a single one of us Ryes down. Don’t know what we would’ve done if we lost that plane.”

“Mhmmm...” She says as she tries her best at controlling the plane.

“You should be comin’ to a big fork in the river. Hang right.”

“Oooookay.” She says and watches for the direction. Honestly she just wants to land this thing and survive the day. She should’ve taken lessons before going off, flying around the county. And she’s not even wearing a parachute.

“Yeah, takes a certain kind of man to defend his home. Between you ‘n me, I’m not sure I fit the bill. I don’t know if you got little monsters of your own, but--”

“I’m twenty-one” She laughs, defending herself.

“Okay, but! I’m telling you, the thought of leaving mine fatherless puts the fear of God inside me. And mine ain’t even born yet.”

Hope smiles to herself. A family-oriented person, huh? That’s not a bad thing.

“If runnin’ means I can protect my family at the cost of losin’ my home, so be it. That’s the right move ain’t it?”

Hope smiles to herself, touched by how he wants his family to be safe.

“I think so, yeah. I mean I’m not a parent but I would probably do the same.”

There’s a moment of silence before Nick continues to speak:

“Still, makes my goddamn blood boil that I gotta uproot from the place my family worked so hard to put together. They earned every inch of this land with blood and sweat, and now I gotta lose it to some man-bunned little twerp and his posse of inbreeds? Fuck it!” Hope laughs so hard at that that her hand shake, making her stops as the plane moves dangerously. “You don’t mess with a Rye without it leavin’ a scar. Let’s give ‘em a long kiss goodbye, partner!”

Hope smiles at the sudden nickname, finally getting to be called something else than just ‘Deputy’ and ‘Rook’.

“I’m in it. What should I do?” She asks as she flies over a bridge.

“You should be flying over a field. Light up any Peggies you see. And if you see any Bliss tankers, blow ‘em sky high.”

Blowing things up? Now that’s a thing I really love! She flies over the field and angles the plane, starting shooting at the silo. Getting a bit too close, worried it won’t blow up she hoists the plane up a bit in the air, the silo blowing up below her.

“Woooohoooo!” She laughs, happy like a kid at Christmas’ morning.

“Joseph has his minions poisoning our water supply. Check out the irrigation reservoir or places like it, and lay waste to ‘em.”

Hope flies over a forest, being a bit more confident with the plane. Nick even compliments her on it.

“Look at you being an ace in that thing. You’re like the next Clutch Nixon! Man... he was so cool.”

The junior deputy giggles at that. She heard about the stunt man, he’s a god damn legend in Hope County, but she doesn’t think she’s anywhere near him if it comes to planes.

When she catches sight of the bliss tankers she lowers the plane a bit, shooting them all up.

“Peggies do most of their fueling just north of my runway. Take ‘em out before they get in the air.”

She looks into the distance and considers it.

“Yo, Nick! Do you have like bombs on this thing?”

She asks and Nick humms:

“Yup! See the big red button people tell you in movies to not push?”

She looks down at the controls, the button ot top of it.

“Yeah, I see it.” She replies, readying her thumb over it.

“When you’re ready, drop the bombs on top of the peggies head with pushing it down. You’ll get the hang of it.”

She waits until she reaches the field, the planes being under her and she drops the bombs. And they blow up good, she doesn’t have to do it twice. She laughs, happy of her win as Nick speaks to her again.

“If you do a nice smooth turn, it should put you on a good approach to my air strip. See ya soon!”

She turns the plane, not being as clumsy as before, but starts panicking.

‘Wait, wait, wait, wait! How the hell do I land this thing?!”

Nick hushes her, voice calm, trying to calm down the young woman.

“Now, people say landing is the hardest part, but I’ll show ya how to do it right. Just get the runway in front of you while steadily lowering your attitude.”

Not understandin professional or any language she shrieks:

“What?!” She lowers the plane a bit as she nears the air strip, trying to not die while landing.

She slows down the plane a bit as it lands on the ground, shaking her in the process.

“Umff..” She says as she rolls on the runway.

“Awesome landing, partner! Bring the plane to me. You’ll see me wavin’.”

She moves the plane toward him, trying not to crash into the man in the process. She stops the engine and gets out of the plane, thanking God that she landed safely.

“I think I’m gonna vomit!” She says, leaning on her thighs as she looks down at the ground, but she doesn’t.

“Oh my god, oh my god, look at her... Son of a bitch, you did it!” The man comes up to Hope hugging her close and she can’t help but giggle at the embrace. “You did it, thank you!”

Nick releases her and looks at the plane. He looks in the way of his house shouting:

“Kim! The plane’s back!”

A woman’s voice replies back to him:

“Yeah, I heard!”

Nick turns back to Hope and motions to the plane.

“Hey, come on, let’s turn it around. Come on, grab on!”

She does so, helping him turn the plane, though she’s not as strong as she wants to be, so Nick does most of the muscle work. The man chuckles at her:

“You know, this is the first time in a long time I feel like shit’s actually going my way. Those damn Peggies...”

When they finish turning the plane around he shouts again:

“Kim, come on!”

Nick looks at the plane:

“Please tell me they didn’t fuck with her... You know...” He turns to Hope while checking the yellow metal bird out. “This plane’s been in my family for three generations, can you believe that?”

Hope smiles at him:

“That’s awesome.”

The man shouts again to Kim:

“Kim, you coming?!”

The reply comes, annoyed:

“Yeah, I’m coming!”

Nick raises his hands and shakes his head as he walks past Hope:

“I swear, that woman sometimes... Anyway, my grandpa first got it when it got back from World War Two.“ He climbs on the yellow bird and opens the door to it. “Was his pride and joy.”

“Nick!” A shout comes from Kim.

“I made a few... modifications over the years...”

“Niiick!” Hope turns to the voice then back to the man.

“Kim would ya just hurry up?”

Hope smiles but frowns as soon as the woman replies:

“Nick! The peggies are on their way!”

Nick’s smile freezes:

“What?” As if on cue a plane flies over above them, dropping a bomb near on the forest to them. Fuck! “Those motherfuckers, they just won’t let up!”

A couple of bullets fly right into the plane, almost hitting Hope and Nick. She picks up her AR-C and looks at the man.

“Jesus Christ. Listen. I’m better in the air but you’re a fuckin’ beast on the ground. I’ll hit ‘em high you hit ‘em low, what do you say, partner?” She gives him a brofist nodding. “Horah!”

He enters the plane and Hope turns around, starting to run toward the house. Keep the pregnant woman safe, that’s a priority!

“Kim’s in the house! I’m trustin’ youy partner, keep her safe!” He says through the radio as Hope shoots the peggies outside of the house.

A worried scream comes from inside:

“Nick, Nick, Nick!”

Hope turns her beast mode on and fights herself inside, taking out every damn peggie in her way. As a cultist tries to break into a room upstairs with a bat she takes him out, while Kim inside shouts:

“Tell John Seed this is our place!” God, I already love this woman! Hope smiles to herself as she moves out of the house, standing on the porch, ready to kill anyone who dares to come near the Rye house.

“Ah, dumb move Nick. Shit, shit! Hangar, they’re at the hangar!”

Hope leaves the house, peggie free and runs to the building near it. She climbs on top of the hangar, she likes being on the high ground. Easier to hit targets.

She shoots down the ATVs and the truck, but a bullet almost flies through her, Hope takes cover on the roof. Snipers!

Nick comes to her aid though:

“Stay back. I’m gonna light up these snipers on the roof.” And he does, Hope thankful she doesn’t end up dead today.

After getting clear all of the peggies Hope goes up to the house, waiting for Nick to land. When that happens and he makes his way inside she waits outside, until the man opens the door again, suitcase in hand:

“Come on, Kim. We’re leaving.”

“No.” The pregnant woman says firmly in the back of the room.

“No?” Nick asks back, placing the suitcase on the porch. “C’mon..” He motions to Hope to help him out.

She follows him inside:

“No, this is our home.”

“Kim, you just don’t understand...”

Hope stays silent, not wanting to get between the conversation of husband and wife. Nick gives her a suitcase to hold and she does that.

“Don’t understand what? That they’re stealing our land and kidnapping our friends and God knows what else?” Kim steal the suitcase from Hope’s hands and the junior deputy stands there awkwardly, listening to them.

“Kim...”

“Nick. Your grandfather built this place. You really want to turn your back on that? And what about all the times you talked about handing off the business to our daughter?”

Hope stands next to the pair, looking from one to the other. A smile breaking her face as she listens to them. Is this how being in love feels? Cute.

“I talked about handing off the business to our son.” Hope wants to laugh at that but stops herself.

“You’ve seen the ultrasound. It’s a girl.”

The man shakes his hand:

“That was on a messy black and white TV screen. You know them things ain’t reliable.” He points at Hope in question and she widens her eyes, putting up her hands, wanting nothing with this conversation.

“Nick...” There’s a moment of silence and the man places his hand on Kim’s pregnant stomach and Hope smiles at that.

“I love you.” He says to Kim, who replies with a ‘me too’.

“Awww...” Hope says smiling at the pair, feeling like a third wheel in the moment, but enjoying their happiness.

“Well, Deputy, looks like the Rye family’s digging in. Hey, listen, if you need air support, you gimme a holler. You and me, we’ll be like Butch and Sundance.”

He seems so happy as he brings back the suitcases into the house, Kim turning to him:

“Nick, they both died at the end.”

He looks up at the woman shaking his head:

“Nah.”

Hope looks at Kim, smiling down at the woman, she takes her hands in hers and whispers:

“Please, take care of him.”

Hope nodds and mouths a silent ‘of course’. Nick stands up and looks at the woman, coming up to them and holding them both in his hug.

“Wow, sudden... but okay.” Hope giggles and starts to suffocate with Kim and they both let go of the man.

He smiles down at Hope, questioningly:

“So, partner! What’s your name?”

Hope looks at him surprised and just stands there, looking up at the man. She feels like tear are gathering in her eyes. Such a simple question, but it makes her heart warm and melt. Not only he doesn’t call her Deputy non-stop, but he also asked her name? She doesn’t get that much attention from others. Hell, she doesn’t think anyone knows her name, other than her uncle, colleges and Adam.

“Sorry.” She says, wiping down her tear, laughing. “I feel like an idiot for crying at this, just you know. Not many people treat me like... well like another human being.”

She feels small, she fears she’ll cause them to cringe, but Kim comes up to her, arms wide open and she hugs her.

“Well we do. We’re greatful for what you did to our family,...?” She looks up at Hope, which is funny, considering Hope is quite small as well.

“Hope. My name’s Trinity-Hope Johnson. But I prefer Hope.”

Kim and Nick smile at her and she feels like she’s already at home. She didn’t feel this around others. Not even Sharky, though the man is considered to be her best friend.

“Welcome to the family, Hope.”

After staying for breakfast -which she skipped while flying around the Valley- and talking to the Ryes the junior deputy leaves their house. A smile on her face she steps into the car, which she asked to borrow from Nick. When she drives to the Ranch she is surprised to find it empty. No Sharky, no Adam. She tries calling Jerome, Mary May, even the Ryes but no one answers.

Hope starts to get worried, not knowing why is the sudden silent. Then her radio crackles to life on her belt. She expects it to be Sharky or Adam explaining where they went, but the voice calling her belongs to someone else. She freezes, fear starting to build up in her. How is that every time John calls her on the open station he sounds so monotone? Cold, while speaking on the private channel he always seems to ease up a bit?

“Atonement is the final step before fully accepting The Word of the Father into your heart. Our sins - having been finally exposed - can now be removed... Freeing our souls and opening our hearts. Now, the pain of Atonement is measured by the severity of the sin... and thanks to your Deputy, the sins of this Resistance are indeed...severe. You will all Atone for what the Deputy has done. You will all welcome The Word of the Father into your hearts. You will all say Yes... Your actions have consequences, Deputy. I’ve gathered all your friends here in Fall’s End to atone for your sins.” Hope blinks a few seconds, not knowing what to do.

“You’re welcome to join us. After all, if it weren’t for you they wouldn’t be in this predicament... This is your last chance to say Yes, Deputy... Don’t be late.”

The call ends and Hope stands in the home of the man who kidnapped her friends... She wants to cry out to him from anger, but that wouldn’t help them... She looks at the answering machine on the dining table and thinks about Joseph Seed’s morning call. He saw what’s coming next. And if she has to kill John Seed to save her friends? Then so be it...

A/N: This is the watch she got from John: Vacheron Constantin Overseas Small Model.

Tags: @onl-you , @redaurora17

#hope's savior #trinity-hope johnson #my deputy #far cry 5 fanfiction #far cry fanfiction #fanfiction #fanfic #john seed x oc #john seed x deputy #john seed x female deputy #far cry 5 #my ocs

11 notes · View notes

cathygeha · 7 years

Photo

DUTCH by Madhuri Pavamani

E-Original published by Swerve

Publication Date: April 4, 2017

ISBN: 9781250127198

Price: $3.99

Description

“Full of sex, magic, and turmoil...poetic and utterly beautiful. I can't remember the last time a book made me stop and think, wow.” --Meredith Wild, #1 New York Times bestselling author

DUTCH is Madhuri Pavamani’s first book in a stunning new, suspenseful urban fantasy series that will take you on a wild ride full of danger, love, sex, and magic.

I've spent years holed up in the deepest, darkest parts of the city, fighting to keep Death and her Poochas from crossing the dead back to the living. My skill with a blade is bested only by my menace, my despair, my anguish - the strongest weapons I yield.

Then I meet Juma Landry and it all goes to hell.

She is beauty and love and sex and light, everything I am not. And she makes me want things I haven’t desired in years. But the monsters of my life, the evil lurking in the dark corners of my soul, those places craven and vile, bind me to a past I cannot shake free. As the most skilled Keeper for the Gate, nothing and no one can prevent me from excelling at a job I never wanted. I do it because it is my legacy, a fate I cannot outrun, but when Juma becomes my next assignment, each of her nine lives to be ended by my hand, I must decide: the legacy I never wanted or the love I don’t deserve.

"Ms. Pavamani's DUTCH is the perfect melange of poetry, fantasy and rebellious raunch. Absolutely addictive!" --Helen Hardt, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author

"Dark. Sensual. Unputdownable. I devoured this book and can't wait for the next!"--Kate Baxter, author of The Untamed Vampire

Author Bio

Madhuri Pavamani is the author of the paranormal romance trilogy, THE SANCTUM. A Southern girl with Northern sensibilities, a slight twang, and who still uses the word y’all, but never fixin’, she has an affinity for writing twisted love stories and dark poetry. A graduate of Barnard College, and incapable of leaving the bright lights of New York City, Madhuri works in Manhattan, but rests her head in New Jersey. She loves whiskey, tattoos, Bukowski, and yoga.

Author Links

Website: madhuripavamani.wordpress.com

Twitter: twitter.com/madhuriwrites

Buy Links

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MZI3C0A

B&N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/dutch-madhuri-pavamani/1125684506

iBooks: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/dutch/id1202992419

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/dutch-3

Google Play: https://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN9781250127198

EXCERPT

CHAPTER ONE

DUTCH

I was eight years old the first time I rode an elephant.

I was visiting my grandparents, and the local zoo’s specimen had given birth to a dwarf, so everyone in the household wanted to witness the freak. They rustled up the whole lot of us, waved down some auto-rickshaws, and off we went, zooming toward the unimaginable feat of nature.

I took one look at that dwarf and knew it was scared. I also knew it was a complete bore.

The mom was much more interesting and already back to earning her share, offering rides to any souls brave enough to climb atop her back. My cousins needed no invitation, and before anyone knew what was happening, grandparents included, they scampered up the poor beast’s back and were raring to go.

I stood off to the side and watched, shy and somewhat quiet, still a bit ill at ease in my new environs. It was not every day I was shipped halfway across the world on a bird in the sky, and summarily deposited with two elderly souls I barely knew and certainly did not trust.

The elephant was a good move.

I was warming up to the two brown people smiling while their eyes flashed back and forth in rapid succession from me to the brood atop the grey beast. My grandmother clucked warmly in my direction, offering some words of encouragement as the mahout waved me over.

He was awfully scrawny and rather filthy, and I shot him a foul look. No fucking way was he controlling anything if that grey monster decided to stop taking anyone’s shit. But I was eight, and I was curious, and it was an elephant, for fuck’s sake. So I stopped putzing around on the outskirts of the action and leaned in

contemplative

somewhat curious.

Which was enough for Mr. Mahout. Faster than I would have ever assumed he could move, he grabbed me by the nape of my neck and hoisted me onto the dwarf’s mama.

Not on her back, with my cousins

but right behind her ears, on what seemed to be her neck, my hands resting on her head.

She was just like the old man who swam laps at the YMCA every Monday and always bent over to lotion his legs, providing me the perfect view of his ass—hairy and wrinkled and grey.

The mahout settled in behind me and gave his signal, but the old girl wasn’t going anywhere. She bobbed her head side to side, and he yelled something in Tamil, all of it unintelligible since I didn’t speak a bit of anything from the motherland.

At least not then.

He yelled again and gave her some swats with his whip, but she didn’t give a shit. Instead, she lifted her trunk into the air, pushed it about like a show-off, raised it to her head, and sniffed my hands.

I froze, for a second worried I might piss my pants.

I did not want to piss my pants, sitting there high in the air, because I did not want to soil her neck, but really I did not want another excuse to be the laughingstock of my unruly gang of cousins. So I let her do whatever she needed to do, praying all the while her trunk wasn’t full of tiny teeth that could suddenly inhale my hands and then my arms and then my head to chew me up and feed me to the dwarf.

I had not flown halfway across the fucking globe to wind up as dwarf fodder.

So I shut up

and homegirl sniffed me up

and eventually she started walking, doing a slow rotation of the park, giving us kids the ride of our lives.

I was eight, and it was magical.

I am now thirty-seven, and let me tell you, this world is anything but magical.

My name is Dutch Mathew

I kill for The Gate

and I am a Keeper.

CHAPTER TWO

JUMA

I was five years old when I died

and ooooooh god

did it hurt.

The pain is what I recall most, even more than the blood and the fear, the panic in my ma’s eyes as she begged my da to drive faster, the strain in my da’s voice as he emphatically insisted his child would

not

receive

transfusion.

Louder than any of that was the pain, the searing shock and burn of my throat as the bullet missed its mark, entered my neck right below my left ear, and exited slightly lower on the right side.

It had been a normal summer day in Atlanta, hot beyond all get-out, but by late afternoon with a storm on the horizon, the heat had relented a bit, providing some respite from the cramped boxes of our apartments in the Shamrock complex

North Druid Hills Road

Decatur, Georgia.

Hardly glamorous but hardly the hood, kind of a socioeconomic in-between land, rather nondescript and average.

The complex was full of families with kids everywhere

in the pool

on the courtyard

down the street.

A jumbled, excited, energetic mix of brown and black and white arms and legs, ponytails and braids, Mohawks and fades. We played outside, unsupervised, because there were so many of us, a mass of pint-size humanity, running wild.

Until the day I died.

The sky was clear and a bird sang,

which was so strange because usually the heat killed any motivation for creating sweet music. But not that day and not that bird. She was singing her heart out that afternoon.

I like to think of her as a “she” because that song was so damn pretty, so clear and melodious.

Until it wasn’t.

The shot rang out in all of that summer perfection, ruining our fun and scarring our childhood. Those kids I ran with when I was so, so small, they forever remembered that shot. I, on the other hand, forever remembered the pain.

Heat

ripped flesh

pain like fire

too much for a tiny human to comprehend and contain.

And metal.

The taste on my tongue, filling my throat until I coughed and sputtered and felt like I could barely breathe.

I screamed

I think

or I tried at least.

It came out gurgly and thick

choked.

Then arms

so strong and certain clutching me

and being airborne

high above the others

running

fast

faster.

And screaming

everyone was screaming

kids

mothers

fathers

and over all of them was the lilt of my ma’s voice.

Through the haze of my pain and blood loss and trauma, she talked to me. Rubbing my head, begging me to keep my eyes open

we’re close

we’re close.

But she could not ease the pain, damp the burn. Her voice could not soothe my misery, act as a salve, a poultice for the gaping holes in my tiny throat. Nothing could stop the fire that threatened to rip me in half.

That pain remains to this day. It hid in the dark places of my body, lingered in some of my light, and made certain I never forgot it. I might have worked for Death, that sexy mistress, but the pain was my lord and master.

I just didn’t share that with Death. Not then, not ever.

My da was chief of something at the hospital in town. He ran in like he owned the place, I came to learn much later, and started going about the business of saving my life. Until he was pushed away and told to “wait right there!” so they could go about the business of saving my life. But it did not matter, they could do nothing. None of them, neither the doctors and nurses nor my da the chief, because that day, July eleventh, was to be my last on this earth as Juma Landry, daughter of Rufus and Mimi Landry.

Because on that day, July eleventh, I died and became Death’s Poocha.

#Madhuri Pavamani #St. Martin's Press #Urban Fantasy

0 notes