No Dominion The Walker Papers - By CE Murphy Page 0,91
needed to be well. You needed a chance at a future, and you’d tried everything you knew how. You ate well. You exercised, when you were strong enough. You let them take parts of your intestines away, and accepted the chance you would never be able to risk the doctors rebuilding them, and that you would spend your life with a bag taped to your side.”
The kid’s hand went to his side. I winced. I had pals, old guys, who had to deal with crap like that, but a kid shouldn’t have to. I couldn’t even hold on to being angry, not with Annie sounding so calm and the kid looking so lost and unsure. Easy pickings for corruption, and Annie was there talking it all through like some kinda comprehending therapist.
“All of that, it was so much work, so much trying to survive, so much compromise and hope…and it didn’t work. You’re still in pain. You’re still withering, and no one your age should be withering. You still can’t eat without being terribly cautious, and you still weigh far less than a young man your height and age should. And then the offer comes, too good to be true, but you have nothing left to lose, and overnight you’re strong again. Stronger than you’ve been in years. You can work outside, you can eat what you choose to. And perhaps all you have to do is visit me, though I doubt it was even that obvious. You have a green thumb, and it still makes plants respond, and now you’re possessed with the strength to garden again. Possessed,” she said, real quiet. “We never mean it when we say that word. But you are possessed, and it’s easy enough for something evil to take your strengths and turn them to its own ends. A talent for growing things might grow illness inside someone’s lungs, if it’s turned to black magic.”
“There’s no such—!” The kid cut himself off, staring at the magic he was holding in his hands, then threw it away. Not at us, but away, like he was tryin’ ta get rid of it. It crawled back toward him, climbing up his legs, writhing around him, sinking back into his skin like he’d never be able to get rid of it. His eyes snapped up again, all the fire coming back. “So what if I did? Do you know how much trouble he causes? If I could just get rid of him, everything could be different. I could be different—”
“It don’t work that way, kid. You get rid of me and everything’s gonna be different, yeah, but not the way you hope. Maybe you never get born, if you get rid of me. Maybe the world’s overrun by zombies, if you get rid of me. Maybe the Dark Ages never end, if you get rid of me. But it don’t matter, because here’s the thing, kid. You can’t get rid of me. Your master’s been tryin’ a long damned time, and all that’s come of it is us four standin’ here right now, playing out some cruel bastard’s schemes. I promise you, son, killing Annie prob’ly ain’t gonna save your life, and it sure as hell ain’t gonna save your soul.”
“What choice do I have?”
“There’s always a choice, son. There ain’t always a good one, but there’s always a choice.”
“Dying’s no kind of choice.” Power exploded outta the kid’s hands again, a lifetime of hurting giving way to finally being able to do something about it, even something destructive.
Annie an’ I both hit the ground, a tar ball sizzling over us, and Annie turned her head to look at me. “You’re going to have a great deal of explaining to do at some point, Gary.”
“I know, darlin’. But not right now, all right?”
Another burst of magic came flying our way and we scattered again, rolling across the lawn and coming up grass-stained. “Really?” Annie was about as solemn an’ serious as she could be, through huffing for air and scrambling around on the ground. “Really? Not now? Are you sure? Because I think now might be a good time to talk—”
I hadn’t been paying any attention to Hester at all. Neither had the kid, not until she stepped up behind him an’ grabbed the sides of his head with her hands. They both shouted, an’ the whole world went red an’ yellow around us.
Truth was, I barely saw the fight in the Lower World. We busted through and