Rule 9 - Tanis
TAKE A WALK TO CLEAR YOUR THOUGHTS.
“You were going to murder me and take my body for your fiancé?” I screamed at Damon. His jaw fell slack as he stared from me to the dolls and back at me.
“Were you going to do the exact same thing?”
“Yes, but I’m not a total scumbag!”
He straightened his back and frowned. “Hey, that’s a little harsh.”
“You don’t recycle,” I reminded him.
He threw his hands up and then tugged on his unshaven face. “Again with this? So it’s a few pizza boxes. Who cares?”
“The world cares, Damon!”
I looked toward the bed, where Delia and Craven sat with their little hands in their little laps, watching us fight. She was holding a washrag covered in red.
I blinked, still confused. “Is that... blood?”
“Yeah, because I’m just as alive as you are,” Delia snapped. “Maybe even more so, considering you can’t even have babies.”
“What?” I shook my head.
Craven sighed. “Little Damon over here promised that once she took the first body he could get, he’d knock her up within the month.”
My heart sank as Delia’s tiny face crumpled. “Oh sweetie, no.”
Losing my ability to reproduce hadn’t bothered me any. Kids? In this economy? In this world? Where people like Damon existed. No thank you. But the look on Delia’s face told me she didn’t have the same ideas as me. I faced Damon and glared.
“Did you not read everything, or did you lie to her?”
“Well, I, uh—” Damon stammered and tugged on his hair. “A little bit of A, little bit of B.”
Delia erupted into wails, and I jumped. For such a small thing, she was loud.
“Are you happy?” Damon demanded. “Now she’s upset. This is all your fault,” he accused.
“My fault? You’re the one who made promises you knew you couldn’t keep. What else did you promise her?”
The room grew quiet, and even Delia stopped sobbing to listen whatever Damon had to say.
“Are we going to buy a house?” Delia asked softly. “In the suburbs, filled with others just like us?”
“What exactly is like you?” Craven asked.
“God fearing folk.” Her glass eyes grew wide with hope as she stared at Damon. Damon sighed deeply and looked at his shoes. Delia kept going. “You said you had money saved up. Lots of it. You were going to buy me a piano so I could teach the neighborhood kids. You have the money for the piano, right, Damon?” The more she spoke, the more shrill her voice became.
“Damon, please for the love of... whatever, just answer her.”
“No!” He burst. “Happy? No, Delia, I have no money, and I don’t give two shits about your god. I never believed in any ofthat. I just like that you do whatever I tell you to do. That’s why I picked you.”
“Picked me?” Delia collapsed. “What do you mean?”
“Your family used to come into the grocery store I worked at. You, your mom, your dad, and all ten of your siblings. Dressed in your handmade clothes and weird haircuts. I heard how your dad talked to your mom and I wanted that. I just wanted you a little more...”
“Dirty!” She leaped again and pointed at him. “You wanted me as your sex slave.”
