Vespers: A Never Prayer Story, Episode 2

Aaron Michael
Ritchey

In the Gedikpasa Orphanage, I met Seda. She was nice for a dead girl.
Seda, even in death, loved the stray cats who pestered the orphanage people for scraps. She spent countless hours chasing the cats. And even though the strays were terrified of her, part of them loved the game, that was clear. Sometimes Seda would huddle around the children as they pet the kittens, and Seda would cry in her own ghostly way…not out of sorrow, no, but out of joy for the children and cats that were happy and comfortable for a few moments.
And the moments were few. Gedikpasa was a sewer of despair and I couldn’t leave, not unless I found another soul willing to help me. I chased Seda, like she chased the cats, but while her games were done out of play, my game was desperate and sad. Seda loved cats like Eladio loves his fat little dog. Eladio won’t leave Goy. But going back into the apartment is suicide. Already, Mrs. Romero lay dead on the floor of her room. Kendrick is in the apartment building and his butterfly knife has a thirst that nothing can slake.
No, Eladio, don’t go back for Goy. He’ll be fine. Please.
My whispers are ignored. Like always. Humans and their love…it’s very frustrating.
Eladio is parked on the street painted black by the moisture in the air, but soon it will be white from the snow. He closes his car door quietly and then creeps quietly across the frozen grass until he is back at the fire-escape stairs. He grabs the ladder and pulls it down. The squeak is loud. He winces.
I can’t stand the suspense, so I fly up the side of the building and back into Eladio’s room. It’s like it always is, messy and roach-y, the bathroom a bit too stinky. But it’s empty of people. As for dogs? One little Chihuahua mixed mutt stands on his hind legs with his front paws on the bookcases, staring up hopefully at a plastic container of dog food on the top shelf. I’ve seen hope on the faces of countless people, and Goy has that same gleam in his eye. He has high hopes that at some point, if he scratches enough, the food will come tumbling down and he’ll get a meal. For dogs, meals are very important.
I drift through the wall and find Kendrick in Mrs. Romero’s bedroom, shoving jewelry into his pocket. It’s a good bet that none of it is worth anything, but for Kendrick, he is following his script. You break into someone’s apartment, you kill them, you take their stuff, even if it’s worthless. A blind endeavor.

Read the entire second episode of this exciting new serial story in the September 2018 issue of InD'Tale magazine.

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