Page 4 of Horns & Heart
Chapter3
The door was just ahead, the faint light from the Exit sign flickering.I had my hand on the handle, and I was so darn close, I could taste freedom on the stale air of the storage area.
But—and there was always a but in the apocalypse—a strong hand landed on my shoulder before I could make it out the door.Rather than jerk me back and slam me into the boxes in fury, Inkiri leaned in close, my back against his front.
“Why are you running away from me?I won’t hurt you, Rory.”
I’d made it through two years of this shit, and I liked to pride myself on being able to think on my feet.Unless I was tangled in a polyester curtain, but that was a one-off.
I wasn’t sure whether he was deluded or an actual dangerous psycho, but playing innocent rather than getting confrontational seemed the safest bet regardless.Also, if freezing and playing tree wasn’t an option, I really only had the damsel-in-distress spiel in my repertoire.
I turned, which dislodged his hand and allowed me to look up at him from under my lashes.
“I…” I actually sniffled a little.My third-grade teacher would have been so proud.“I didn’t want to be a burden to you.You killed that monster, and I’m grateful.I don’t mean to impose.I’m sure you must be busy.”
Eating people.Helpingpeople while being super interested in their uteri or lack thereof.Yeah, his schedule had to be packed.
“That’s considerate of you, but you worry for naught.You are no burden, sweet thing.”
Ugh.That right there was not good.“Sweet thing” very much objectified me, and while I was aware that I knew virtually fudge-all about getting objectified, what with being a white dude and well off by way of my parents, I knew I didn’t like it.
“I really can’t come with you.”I added another sniffle at the end.Artistic license.
The problem with Inkiri was that he wasn’t human, and I couldn’t read his features that well.The light was low, but the Exit sign offered some illumination—enough for me to see it when his eyes narrowed a fraction and his nostrils flared.His nose was on the smaller side and not as prominent as a human’s.Then again, who needed an impressive nose when one had those massive, curving horns, which were very, very close to me at the moment.
“Do you have a mate?”Inkiri asked, and his voice had gone harder, like a schoolmaster in a period drama reaching for the ruler.
“I… No.The damn apocalypse killed lovers to begin with, and all that’s left of humanity is a bunch of incel douchebags, monks, and introverts.And those prepper idiots, but with any luck, the monsters ate them.”
It wasn’t like I’d done a study on who was gone and who wasn’t, but I…had reason to believe that most of them were lovers.And both preppers and dude-bro incels were still pretty active on socials; not that I followed them or anything.The algorithms had gone to all heck even before the apocalypse.
Inkiri nodded.“I’m not sure what all those things are, but it is good you don’t have a mate.”
Uh-oh.I was in trouble.I had definitely read the way he looked at me right.Had I accidentally gotten monster-married to this guy?In the same way I’d accidentally created the apocalypse?Was cutting off a big purple jaguar-monkey’s head a wedding gift, and would Inkiri proceed to ravish me right here in a bed of musty shipping boxes and discarded mannequin appendages?
I did not normally think of…monsterfucking in dangerous situations, but, well, you could still get books online, nights were lonely, and we all needed our coping strategies.My preferred one wasn’t books, it was slash fanfic of action movies I’d seen in the before times, but so what?I read books too.
“Yeah, but, you know, I’m not looking.For a mate.But even if I were, women are totally my type,” I lied, then mimed.“With boobs, you know.Really big boobs, that’s my jam.”Surely, if we were monster-married, him being lacking in the cup-size department would be cause for immediate divorce.Surely.
Inkiri frowned.“You mean women who have uteruses?Are you looking to procreate?Was that what you were trying to do in the women’s fashion shop?”
I got a bad case of cabbage-red face again.How was it that a seemingly normal and innocent conversation with this guy made me come out sounding like some weirdo who’d snuck into a women’s clothing store to…what, have fun with the mannequins?This was especially embarrassing because women really, really didn’t do it for me, whether they had a uterus or not.
“I wasn’t trying to masturbate!”I blurted out.“I was just—they have cute cat socks, okay?I wanted a damn pair of cute socks because everything sucks now, and I know that’s all my fault, but that doesn’t mean I can’t have one single damn nice thing, because—believe it or not—I’m living through this shit just like everyone else, and I’ve seen people get eaten by monsters!”I was trembling all over, and this time, I wasn’t playing the damsel, oh no.This damsel energy was all genuine.“I’m so sorry, but Valentine’s Day just really, really sucks when you’re single, and I didn’t know what I was doing.”
Inkiri had started gently holding me by my other shoulder at some point, and he was making weird clicking noises.They were either meant to comfort me or shut me up, and I didn’t care which.I was crying, darn it.Like a baby.Over effing cat socks.
“Explain how this is all your fault,” Inkiri said.His voice was both comforting and commanding, and that just wasn’t right.He should have been scaring me, not making me want to tell him my deepest, darkest secrets.
I sighed, but at this point, it really didn’t matter much.I’d never told anyone.I’d wanted to, but I’d been scared.Everyone would hate me, hunt me down, but Inkiri already had me cornered.
I took a shaky breath.“We went to visit that stupid Stone of Destiny.It’s where they crowned the old Irish kings.Oh, that’s me and Catherine and Jacob.It was Valentine’s Day, you know?And Cat and Jacob were being so effing in love that it hurt my eyeballs to watch.I was the third wheel, and the worst part is, I honestly believe they didn’t even notice how I felt, because they were happy.We get to that stone, and some old guy at the site tells me something about how the thing makes wishes come true if someone worthy touches it and says the wish out loud.He tells me to try it, make a tourist memory out of it.
“And the stupid thing I did was touch the damn stone and say I wished all lovers would just cease to exist.Next thing I know, Cat and Jacob have up and vanished, turned into dust, into black ash.From what I heard, they think it happened to over eighty percent of everyone.”My throat was tight, and I couldn’t swallow.“All of that is my fault.”
Inkiri tilted his head, and this time, his right horn brushed against the side of my head.
“Interesting.Did you do anything to open the veils?”
