Madelyne Blades Part II

Today I’ve got the bones of an old woman.

I spent too much time waiting for the boy to return from the Upside. My needs are simple and I’m not used to being kept waiting. I know that above me the daylight is fading.

I can’t see it, I’ve never seen it. But I know when it’s there and when it’s gone. The warmth from above is one of the few kindnesses that it throws down to me and mine.

A man once told me that warmth was one of the few scraps of heaven that were thrown to the likes of us. I didn’t like the thought of being considered as something less than equal. I might live amongst the dirt but I’m the same as those above.

The man was insistent, he told me were pigs that rolled in the filth that others left behind.

He told me I would find peace if I accepted what he said, so I killed him.

I was twelve. He was my first.

I’m more than he was and I’m as much as those that live above. They say that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. That might be true, but on that day I found that you could hack through his chest that much quicker.

I shift my weight from one foot to another as I crouch in a shattered doorway. I’m tired and my clothes are damp, maybe I should go home. I think of my familiar padding through the streets, and I wish I could be her just for a day.

One day with senses that can cope with this world. Senses that can see through the darkness, ears that can piece together a heartbeat in the silence. I crane my neck upwards to the sky and close my eyes and feel the vibrations of the world above.

The boy doesn’t come and I ponder my threat. I picture his mother and I think of his tears as I cut out her eyes. A promise is a promise after all.

I move out of the doorway and look back into the darkness of the shops. I disregard the fire blistered walls and the floors that are shrouded in glass and human waste.

I chide myself for this moment of self-indulgence. A moment like this could get me killed. I’m getting sloppy, I won’t see another year if I continue down this path.

The boy betrayed a trust, I gave him his life and this is how he repaid me.

I decide that I will find him, lure him and entrap him.

A burning angel falling from the sky.

I don’t even know his name