Ander - Part 4: Subchapter 44
44
Banno put the fire-starting kit back where he had found it, checked the candles on the table one last time to make absolutely sure it didn't look like they had been tampered with, then continued on to his room - his eyes, ears and nose on full alert.
_Come on... just a little bit further..._he thought to himself, marking the distance to the door by the number of pictures staring at him from the walls: the landscapes, the butterflies, the flowers, and that one weirdly empty space. They all slid past until none were left.
He opened the door, slipped inside, and shut it behind him, very careful not to let it click like it did last time. He wiped the dirt from the crutch's foot and carefully put it back in the corner, right where James had left it. Leaning against the wall for support, he painstakingly worked his way back to the bed and fell on top of it with a groan and a sigh.
He had done it. It had taken him all night, but he had done it.
Banno worked his tired body underneath the blankets, relishing the warmth spreading all the way up from his toes. He hasn't felt a rush like this in ages.
He yawned, feeling the fatigue and muscle ache seep out of his body like a miasma, leaving behind only blissful content. Not even the itch below his stump could spoil this feeling. He was sinking down into the depths of well-deserved sleep, but he forced himself to stay awake just a little while longer. He watched the window... the silhouette of the Cora and the towering pines lightly illuminated by the moon... shadows among shadows... and he listened.
The minutes flowed by like leaves on a stream, and then he heard it: the screams of a horse in pain. Happy pain. Peaceful pain. It filled the air. And suddenly the pines outside weren't just shadows among shadows anymore. He could see them clearly, bathed in a far-off orange glow, pulsating in the night. He could smell the smoke, he could hear the roar of the flames growing louder and louder. Any minute now... Any minute...
"Daaaad!!" The scream cut through the peaceful music of the fire like a blade, but that was okay. "Dad! The barn's on fire! Wake up!"
Things happened very quickly after that. Banno listened to it all, his eye closed, hovering halfway between the world of dreams and the other world of dreams. It was all a dream, in the end. Why separate the two? It was all the same...
Banno listened to them fly down the stairs, screaming and shouting, he listened to them go outside, he listened to the dying screams of their generous little horse, and he listened to the screams of...
Was that Valery?
She didn't sound very happy. She sounded terrified, like she was being torn apart by something other than her saviour, something that wasn't him. It sounded like she was in agony...
Banno lay in the dark, watching the faint fireglow through his window, and he listened to her scream, and the more he listened, the more beautiful it became. It was almost... orgasmic...
Banno smiled, lay back against his pillow all snug, and as he drifted off to sleep, he wondered... he wondered if, when the time came... she would scream so beautifully for him...
Hey, guys. Sorry this one is so short. We're going through a bit of a heatwave down here, and let me tell you, a heatwave in Africa is like being stuck inside a sauna built in a volcano that's been stuck up Satan's ass. The next updates will be way longer, I promise. Until then, I think I'll just lie in bed, gasping for breath, trying not to spontaneously combust. X_X
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