Chapter Five
“Are you guys psychotic?” Kinzer asked.
A woman, her wrists and ankles bound in rope, duct tape around her mouth, slept curled between a bed and a nightstand. Her skin was even whiter than Kinzer’s. Her cheeks sunk to a narrow jawbone, in extreme contrast to her swollen, round belly. A ponytail of thin, dirty-blonde hair fell across her chest.
“You kidnapped a pregnant woman?”
“We did what we had to do,” Treycore said.
They stood in a bedroom that wasn’t much bigger than the backroom at Dick Dongs.
After Treycore and Dedrus’s shift, they'd driven Kinzer and Kid back to their place. Treycore now wore a short-sleeve button-up. The sleeves were so tight that, as his muscles flexed, the seams tore ever so slightly.
Dedrus was in a polo and khakis, far more conservative, as if he was trying to hide the good body he had.
Kinzer knelt by the woman, gazing at her belly.
To think, this child could end all the pain…all the hurt…all the torture that the Almighty has used to oppress this world.
“Janka told us about her,” Dedrus said. “I guess, before…”
“He knew where the Antichrist was?” Kinzer asked. “And he never said anything to me?”
“He told me he didn’t want you to have to handle that burden. He would rather you not know than be implicated by the Almighty.”
If only he’d known.
“Why is she tied up?” he asked. “Does she know what’s going on?”
“You think we were gonna tell her,” Treycore said, “that she was having the devil’s kid?”
Kinzer glanced at several dirty bowls, spoons, and bottles of water that were scattered at the woman’s feet.
“Do either of you do dishes?”
“We both work,” Dedrus said defensively.
“At night! You can’t leave her like this.”
Kinzer assumed her horrible treatment stemmed from Treycore and Dedrus’s inability to see mortals as equals.
Kinzer grabbed the edge of the duct tape around her mouth and pulled.
RIPwent the tape as it exfoliated her lips.
“Fuck!” she moaned, stirring to consciousness. “What did I tell you about the tape? Who the fuck are you?”
Eyes that seemed too large for her tiny, frail face locked in a bitter stare. She pursed her lips and cocked an eyebrow.
Her irritation made sense. Kinzer didn’t imagine there were many who wouldn’t have been equally enraged had they found themselves in her situation.
“It’s okay,” Kinzer said. “I’ll explain!”
“If you bunch of faggots want to rape me or get BJs, let’s just do it and get it over with.”
“No, no. It’s not like that.”
“I don’t have time for this shit. I’m gonna have a baby. Or can’t you tell? And you know, it wouldn’t kill me to have a cigarette. Anyone got a beer?”
