[LNHY/ACRA] The Daily Super Short-Short Story #46

[Saxon Brenton]

The Daily Super Short-Short Story #46
 
A Devil Came Down to Georgia 28
 
Last time: Martin couldn't find Delroy.
 
     Lisa ran into Martin and pretended to be in shock. "Oh! Oh don't go 
back there! It's horrible!"
     "What?" said Martin. He glanced down the alley where she had come 
from, even as he unthinkingly began to disengage her from clinging to 
him. There was a shape lying under some rubble. He felt the particularly 
unpleasant clenching of the stomach as dread took hold. "Uhm, look, just 
wait here, okay?" he said absently and moved closer for a look. In 
response Lisa put forth a chocked-back half sob.
     The body was lying under some rubble, and seemed to be mangled. The 
head was still intact though, and Martin recognised Delroy's features. He 
gagged and turned away.
     "Are you all right?" she asked, pale and trembling herself. "Oh, 
you're not, are you?"
     "I... He was a friend of mine..." he managed. He felt numb. Of all 
the stupid things to happen.
     She hugged him. "I'm sorry. It's a dreadful way to be killed."
     "Yeah," he said, accepting the support she offered but not really 
taking comfort from it. He felt horrible. If he hadn't dragged Del off to 
mutant town this morning they wouldn't have been anywhere near here...
     And then Exclamation!Master! wouldn't have had any helping in 
stopping the Banjo Duelling kangaroos.
     No, that was silly. Some other superhero would have turned up to 
help. That was the way these things worked, wasn't it?
     Eventually he realised that he had a beautiful woman snuggled against 
him, resting her head against his shoulder. He felt vaguely that he should 
prise her away against; accepting a hug from a stranger in times of stress 
might be acceptable, but it should go on for too long. There were matters 
of decorum to consider. Worse, these days people were so paranoid about 
shows of affection, mistaking (or just taking) love for lust. He continued 
to hold her; it felt right somehow.
     In that golden moment he managed to forget Delroy. Managed to forget 
everything except how happy he was to be in her arms. But even as he sank 
deeper into a pink fuzziness, his attention was caught by a feeling of 
wrongness. A growing feeling of wrongness. A sudden surge of panic and 
alarm jolted him away from her.
     "Are you all right?" she asked guilelessly.
     He stared at her, feeling a fool. Obviously his paranoia about being 
accused for sexual harassment was getting too him. He felt like you do when 
you wake from a nightmare, and the harder you try to make sense of what was 
so frightening, the less coherent those fears became. He began to stammer 
out an apology, then stopped. The sense of certainty was becoming clearer 
as he tried to make sense of his feelings, not less. Martin stared at her, 
then demanded, "What are you?"
     She grabbed him by the throat and hefted him up in (another) Byrne 
Grip, then planted a tongue kiss in his mouth. Despite his sense of danger 
and revulsion, he felt a surge of desire for her. "I am the one who's going 
to bear your children."
 
Tomorrow: Another fight scene.
 
The Daily Super Short-Short Story series created by Arthur Spitzer, and 
used with belated permission.
 
All main characters created by Saxon Brenton are Ask First Before Use 
for the duration of this storyline, then they'll probably go to Usable 
Without Permission.
 
-----
Saxon Brenton University of Technology, city library, Sydney Australia
     saxon.brenton at uts.edu.au
The Eyrie Archives of Russ Allbery which collect the online superhero
fiction of the rec.arts.comics.creative newsgroup can be found at:
     http://archives.eyrie.org/racc/