The Devil Eats Here (Multi-Author Short Story Collection) by Alice Gaines, Tara Maya, Rayne Hall, Jonathan Broughton, Siewleng Torossian, John Hoddy, John Blackport, Douglas Kolacki, April Grey Read Free Book Online Page A

saw she was a ruddier version of Katrina, but with the same auburn hair. He was relieved to see nothing else seemed wrong with her.
    “Becky?” Dick’s granddaughter looked up. “The girl with the criss-cross scars on her face. Was she nice to you?”
    Becky shook her head side to side, very fast.
    Dick limped back over the wounded girl on the ground. He hoisted her up with one arm cradling her neck, as if coming to her rescue. The girl opened her eyes. “Good to see you’re awake, lass. I’ll be killing you after all. I promise it’s gonna be quick, but I’ll make it up to you by making it hurt.”
    “B-but I told you where Becky was! I told you the truth!”
    “Appreciate it,” Dick grunted, disemboweling her. He tried to turn his blade in a perfect circle, but had to settle for a shape more like a crude question mark.
    *
    Dick shot the chain off Becky’s ankle with his pistol, reloaded, and guided her out of the tent. “Why’d you ever fall in with this lot, Becky?”
    “I didn’t exactly agree. They cut my leg when I tried to run, so I could only walk a bit.”
    Two of the corpses faded away. Another rose, stretched its arms out, and shambled a step. Dick shot it. It fell.
    “Can we help that poor man hanging from the pole, Grandpa?”
    Dick cocked his head to survey the gibbet. “Nah, he’s gone. Must’ve died and faded already. Too bad for him.”
    “Oh, I wish you’d only killed Vassos. They all abused me, but I had somewhere to live. What shall I do now? Work a corner? Oh, why did I ever talk to that devil!”
    Dick gasped in horror, and wasted precious seconds trying to remember the last time he’d gasped like that. He couldn’t recall. “Y-you... talked to a devil?”
    “I wanted revenge on Vassos. I saw him stick a knife in your eye! I thought he’d killed you and you were Giftless, gone from the world. But you were still alive.”
    “Yeah. The devil fail to mention that to you, did he?”
    “I suppose.”
    Dick’s upper face tightened, almost like a smile, but tighter. His eyes warmed and crinkled up. Shaking it off, he screeched: “How could you be so stupid to sign a contract with a devil, ya numbskull!”
    Becky bit her fingertips, whimpering in a pathetic rhythm. “Some men call their granddaughters Precious. Or Princess. Or Kitten. Mine calls me Numbskull.”
    “Aye, and you’re fortunate! It’s the nicest word I got for girls.” Dick fished around in his purse. “I got money for you.”
    “How much is it?” Becky held her hands out.
    “Not a chance. I lost your mother to a handsome, smooth-talking pukebucket what took advantage of her. That won’t happen to you, not on my watch! We’re goin’ straight to town.”
    “Are we riding the ghost horse?”
    Dick couldn’t suppress a half-hearted giggle. “Ghost horse? Nah, that’s a smokemare. Never mind, it won’t carry you. I know your leg’s messed up, but ya gotta walk. Sorry. And once we’re in town, we go straight to the counting-house. Then to the docks. I’m buying passage for you Becky. On a ship east, to the Empire. Far, far away from all the rotten people ye’ve ever known, starting with me. It’s the best shot I can give you. I’ll put the rest of the money on a letter of credit, payable only in Konigsburg by the Great Falian Merchant Company, payable only directly to you in your presence, with a big payday for whoever escorts you there safely, and a piece set aside to the Church of the Maker to educate you.”
    “Do you truly see me as being a priestess of the Maker?”
    “Hmmm. Not really, no. But if anyone can get you out of a devil’s contract, it’s those self-righteous, scheming pricks in the churches of light. You’re awful young, maybe they can work that angle. And if they don’t, suck it up and die one Gift, two Gifts, whatever it takes to be free of this bastard . . . so . . . so you can have some real choices in your life!”
    “Is that the whole plan? Join the church of the Maker,