Page 43 of A Brighter Yellow
“You had your chance,” said Brett calmly. “You are too slow. Now give an offering.”
“You just made her give one,” protested Elliot, backing away. But Brett’s hand shot and grabbed the other man’s hand. “Come on, Brett,” gasped Elliot. “I need my hands.”
But Brett didn’t listen. Instead, he hauled Elliot by his forward blue button-up and shoved one of his hands into the bowl. Elliot shrieked and yanked his hand away. Even at a distance, Ochre could see that the hand was withered and black. Through tears, Elliot began to mutter a series of rhythmic prayers. Ochre couldn’t make out the words, but he thought maybe it was Latin. Slowly, his hand returned to its original color.
“See?” said Brett. “Faith is always repaid.” He patted Elliot on the shoulder and then strode off. Elliot staggered after him. Only when the door shut again did Ochre let out his breath.
Episode 21
The Rescue
Ochre
Ochre and Anna crept cautiously out of the temple area and into another bland, indistinguishable hallway. Ochre paused, but Anna let out a furious growl and ran toward the left.
“Anna, wait,” hissed Ochre.
Her nails made hard clicks on the cement floor that sounded too loud to him, and as she reached a door inset into the cement wall, she hurled herself against it with a resounding thud.
“Anna!” Ochre hauled her back, wrapping one arm around her neck and shoving her out into the hallway. “Yeah, I get you’re pissed. Just give me a minute.”
He turned back to the door, and behind him, she paced, making a low rumbling growl. The door was locked and also sealed with magic. It was a metal lock and an evil magic. The door was also metal. None of that gave him much to work with. He finally found help in the hinges. They were rusty. He concentrated on the rust, feeding it, growing it, nurturing it. He leaned in and blew on them, feeding them oxygen. The hinges turned brown, the metal giving away to oxidization and corrosion. There was a crunching noise behind him, and when he turned to look, Anna was human and naked again.
“What’d you do?” she demanded. He tried to pull his eyes up from her breasts. It was an extremely difficult endeavor.
“Metal is hard to work with for me, but sometimes I can accelerate its natural tendencies. Give it a sec. Do you want your clothes?”
There was a clunk, and one of the hinges fell off, followed shortly by the second and third.
“Well, hot damn,” said Anna, putting a hand on one hip. “That’s cool. Now it’s my turn.”
Before Ochre could question what that meant, she stepped in and punched the door. The lock snapped, and the door bent back and then fell on the floor. Anna stepped on the door, walking across it like she was the goddamn conquering goddess that she was.
“Charlie?” she called, looking around the interior of the room.
Ochre followed and saw that the room was set up like a lab, but it reeked of some foulness he couldn’t identify.
“Anna?”
A hand appeared from under one of the tables, followed by the tendrils of a natural afro.
“Charlie!” Anna exclaimed, rushing forward.
Ochre hadn’t known what to expect from Charlie, but if someone had asked, he would probably have said it was someone more like Anna—tall and imposing. He saw now that Charlie was about their age but on the petite side and curvy. Currently, her clothes were ripped, and she had a black eye and a fat lip. Her skin, which probably in normal times would have been a warm sepia brown, looked ashen. He didn’t know what they had done to her, but she wasn’t well. Anna hugged her, and Charlie gasped in pain.
“Sorry, sorry,” said Anna, backing off and patting at her frantically. “Are you OK? You’re not OK. There’s too much blood on you for OK. I’m sorry.”
Charlie began to cry.
“No, please don’t do that!” Anna also began to tear up. Anna edged in and tried to embrace her friend gently. It would have been funny if it hadn’t been so desperately sweet.
“I came as soon as I could,” said Anna, rocking Charlie. “I didn’t know where you were. But we found you! And now I’m here, and we’ll get you home again, just as soon as I rip out that Elliot guy’s intestines.”
“Anna,” said Charlie, putting her head on Anna’s shoulder and sniffling. “You’re naked.”
“Yeah,” said Anna, patting Charlie’s back, “Ochre has my clothes. I’ll put them on again in a minute. Or maybe not. Depends on how much biting I need to do.”
“Ochre?” asked Charlie, looking up at Anna.
