Chuggie and the Desecration of Stagwater by Brent Michael Kelley Read Free Book Online Page B

turned her hands over and over. "It's… It's you !" she said. She began to weep as she turned and ran to him with arms outstretched. She crashed into him, hugging him. The impact sent them both out of the house. He barely stayed on his feet.
    "Chuggie, you're doing this!" She cried tears of joy into his chest.
    All Chuggie could think to do was pat her gently on the back. "I don't understand,"
    "Neither do I, but somehow you're making me young!"
    He looked down into her eyes, one as white as the brightest moon, the other as blue as the sea. She buried her face in his chest again, and he held her there for a good long while.
    Eventually, they sat. Her eyes raced about, and she seemed always on the brink of laughing or crying. Chuggie tried to imagine what went through her mind, but couldn't. Hoping to calm her, he told her a story.
    "Years ago, I knew a man who could talk to birds," Chuggie said. "He enjoyed it at first, being the sort that likes animals and all. He'd walk through the forest listening to them and talking back. 'How was your day?' 'Fine, I ate some seeds and shat on a statue.' 'Oh, that's lovely.'"
    Shola gazed into Chuggie's eyes like his story was the most  interesting thing she had ever heard.
    "One day the fella found an eagle feather and stuck it into his hat, thinking if he wore it the birds would like him even more. The birds never trusted him after that, though he never understood why. I guess they thought he killed the eagle it belonged to."
    Chuggie stroked Shola's head. She was breathing normally again and seemed all calmed down. A story could do that to a person sometimes. "Late one night, as he slept in his bed, a murder of crows crept through his open window. The crows, with their razor sharp claws and beaks, set upon him and severed all his tendons before he could react. Laying there immobile, yet still very much aware and very able to feel, my friend tried to scream. One of the crows pecked out his vocal cords. Others clawed his tongue to useless ribbons."
    Shola's hand squeezed his arm.
    "After they plucked out his eyes, they built nests in the sockets — his mouth and ears too. They packed orifices and fresh wounds with twigs and dirt until his whole body was stuffed. He went at least three days like that, possibly more, with the crows building nests and shitting inside him. After that, he never spoke to birds again, and neither will I."
    Shola smiled a drowsy smile and kissed Chuggie on the cheek.
    A single raincloud drifted out of the east. The setting sun painted it pinkish brown. A gentle rain fell, and Chuggie turned his gaze upward. Ten million golden drops of water, illuminated by the setting sun, filled the sky. As they fell in their seemingly endless show, Chuggie felt like he was rushing up at the heavens. The exact opposite of vertigo, the sensation gave him a long, peaceful thrill. To speak during such a moment would have diminished it.
    Mere minutes later, the golden points of light lost their luster, and the raincloud moved on. When Chuggie shifted his attention back to Shola, he knew she'd seen it just the way he did. A sad smile touched her lips, and a lone tear sat on her upturned cheek.
    Things had turned interesting at the house on the cliff. Chuggie wanted, simultaneously, to stay and to go. With no pressing appointments, he supposed he could spare a day or two. Just to see how things played out.
    Rusty autumn leaves swirled on a wind stream, heading for parts unknown.
     
     

Chapter 4
     
     
    Rorid and Priole, with plodding footsteps like men condemned, followed Kale out of the interrogation room of the Magisterial Building. Fitch walked close behind muttering as if he were offering litanies for their souls.
    "Pay attention, men," Kale lectured as they walked down the stairs, "The Stagwater Corps of Guardsmen is soft. If we can't rely on you, then you serve no purpose."
    Their footsteps echoed down the stairwell as the group descended. Kale led them past sub-basement