I felt the back of my neck warm up as if I was going to pass out. I felt the rest of my body go cold. I didn’t say anything for a while, and then, “What did you say?”
He looked scared for a second, but then broke into a wide smile. “There are seven billion people in the world. So many acid snowflakes. Hikers go missing all the time in the mountains, so many people that are never found. All that meat, go to waste. So, yeah,” he started to laugh. Not that sad laugh, a different type of laughing. I never heard anything like it before. “You ate people too. The meat you ate, that was people. That’s why they all taste the same.”
“No,” I whispered, my lips shaking as I let the words escape. “Where . . . William, you have to be joking. You’re not making any sense.”
“I do make sense,” he said. “Why do we even need people? There are too many. Not enough food? With close to eight billion people in the world, there is enough. The strong survive. Kill the stupid people. Eat them, they have flesh, we can eat it-”
“You’re insane!” I screamed. He started laughing. Not a lonely laugh. A laugh that was just not him, that really showed his monster side. It didn’t matter that he was my dad. It didn’t matter if he made me. I wish he hadn’t made me.
“I’m insane?” he laughed. “I’m insane? You should be thanking me!”
I wanted to scream at that point. But I didn’t. “For what?”
“When the world is going to shit, I am here to protect you!” he smiled proudly, like the first day we met. That cocky smile, those bright blue eyes, this was him all along.
“No!” I screamed. I grabbed my head to allow myself to wrap around the sick words he shot at me.
“And that little friend you had, the gay one?” he said, reaching for his pockets. He pulled out a piece of paper and slammed it on the table. I froze, recognizing it. It was the phone numbers I had given her.
With my shaky hands, I picked it up. “Where . . . where did you get this?”
“I knew you shared too much information with her, I knew it, because I know you the best.”
I felt the back of my neck warm up as if I was going to pass out. The rest of my body went cold. I looked up to him, “Where . . . is she?”
“In the freezer in the shed, where I store the rest of the frozen meat,” he said, raising his fat finger to me. “And you ate her.”
A hiccup of a scream had come out of my boney stick body. Somehow through all this torture, through the broken spirit, I let out a scream. His eyes grew wide. “Please, William, please, tell me you’re joking.”
“You want to go see her now?” he asked. “Because we can.”
“No,” I whispered.
“I would have let them go, if it wasn’t for the fact that I found that note. That’s when I knew I couldn’t risk your safety. It’s your fault I had to kill them. I had to do what I had to do, to protect you, to protect us.”
“NO!” I ran and attacked him with my fist. It didn’t do anything, I was so angry. He grabbed my hands and pinned them to my side. He pushed me up against the kitchen sink.
“Listen up, kitten. I know you hate me, I know you can’t stand me, but I am a patient man. I’ve waited years for you to come here. No one,” he started. I was trying to fight him and break free. He ended up grabbing my throat. “No one is going to give two shits about you. I do, I care about you Tavi, but you calling me a monster, you fighting me, it’s not going to help you. I’m going to stop being soft on you, and if you don’t shape up and know your place, I will be forced to do things I did not plan to do.”
He let go, and I hit the floor, gasping hard for air. He stepped back and looked down on me. I thought for a second I could see horns, black eyes, and sharp teeth on him. He got down to my level, and with his hand, he cupped my face.
I didn’t allow myself to cry in front of him. He smiled at me, “You got it, kitten?” He made me nod my head up and down. “Good girl,” he said.
He stood up and started to walk away. I stayed on the floor, watching him walking away to the table. Slowly, I rose up. Looking to my left, I saw the bow and arrows, resting by the front door. I walked over, trying to make each step as soft as possible.
I grabbed the bow, placed the arrow, and aimed at him.
He started talking; grabbing my plate from the table, “You know, you should eat all of your-”
He turned around and saw the arrow aiming at him. He didn’t change his facial expression. He raised a hand up. “Tavi put down the bow.”
I shook my head.
“Kitten, please, put down the bow, please,” he begged.
I didn’t.
“We can talk about this,” he said, fear rising in his voice.
I let go of the arrow.
ns 15.158.61.20da2
