Borderland: The Breeder (Conclusion)

Marc D. Goldfinger
Spare Change News

(In the last episode, Patricia, a captive of Joseph, was being led into the pleasure room of the Kaliedoscope Eye Bar by Garter, an Elvish Rat breeder, who wishes to trade two Elvish Rats for the young dark girl.)
http://sparechangenews.net/news/borderlands-breeder-part-one

They had entered the pleasure room, and Garter uncovered the Rat cage. It was a two-compartment cage with a main lock and an inner and outer cage. The first cage was immediately accessible when the lock tumblers were tapped. There was one small Elvish Rat in one compartment and two full-grown Elvi, as they are known on the street, in the second compartment. A door with a tie-lock kept the two larger animals separated from the tiny one.

Garter reached into the cage with a synthetically gloved hand and grabbed the half-grown Rat by the neck as it raged at him. He pulled a metal ball-peen hammer out of a satchel and rapped the animal right between the eyes. The hammer penetrated its skull and a high-pitched whine filled the room; the sound seemed to be too large for the creature that emitted it. Joseph looked into the cage at the other two Elvi. They were standing with their feet locked to the cage bottom, rocking to and fro in unison and staring at Garter. Their throats were moving but Joseph could not hear any sound coming from them.

Joseph looked at Patricia. Her eyes were on the Elvi and she was also rocking, as if she heard a strange song with the same rhythm that moved the furry creatures with glowing eyes.

Garter spoke softly to Patricia.

“This,” Garter said, as he cracked open the bones of the small Elvish Rat with a metal instrument, “is where the marrow comes from. You, Patricia, will be infused with fresh marrow. This is the most powerful drug of all.”

Garter twisted a dial on a tube connected to a sac.

“The control is here. Only a small influx is needed. You will enter the realm of a permanently flowed being with just a trickle of the marrow. Even a half-flow at this stage will mist your mind and send you out of reach forever.”

Joseph watched as Garter efficiently scraped the interior of the Elvish Rat’s bones with a special tool that put forth a hot beam, and a loose, moist powder fell onto the table. Soon there was enough to fill the sac. Garter scraped the powder into a funnel and the sac swelled and looked as if it would burst.

Patricia gazed at the two living Elvi. Garter slapped her with his large, hard hand and she dropped to her knees in a daze. Garter looped a cord around her hands and lifted her small body onto a table next to the cage and the dead Rat. He opened a small black leather bag and took out several stone-honed cutting tools. Garter pierced Patricia’s neck and the blood pulsed out for a second, until he stuck a tube into the hole and swiftly sealed it with a cauterization tool. Joseph could watch no longer, and left the room.

Patricia could feel the dull pain but the humming sound in the room made her able to bear it. Garter was adjusting something in her neck and it was rubbing her flesh—then it was still. Garter made a small twist of the dial connected to the sac. Patricia came to full awareness when the first trickle of the marrow hit her. It was a warm feeling and the humming became sharper and more intense. She sat up and looked at the two remaining Elvi. Then she looked at Garter, whose eyes spit foul light into the room, and saw a bladed tool near her hand. First she used the blade to cut the cords on her wrists. She felt like the humming noise was instructing her. Her hands had never moved so fast, as she held the surgical tool tightly and sliced through Garter’s throat.

Garter grabbed his neck as if to try to staunch the blood, which sprayed about the room. He began to lumber about with small heavy steps. He opened his mouth to yell but his vocal cords had been cut, and the only sound he made was a hiss that emanated from the widening slash in his throat. He fell against the table and reached for Patricia, but his hands hit the cage instead and it crashed to the floor.

For a moment the humming stopped. The cage door snapped open and the two Elvi leaped out. In a nervous gesture, Patricia reached up and twisted the dial on the poli-stirex tube and the gap was wide open. The marrow flowed freely into her and she swayed with the power of the hit, and then dropped to the floor.

There was Patricia, eyes wide, falling away from the world as we know it and into total communication with the Elvi. Garter’s life was spilling out onto the floor as the two free Elvish Rats moved towards Patricia. Joseph, hearing the clatter, ran back into the room and stopped in shock. For the first time in his life, he was too frightened to move.

Patricia saw the world with new vision and heard the song of the Elvi. For the first time, she totally understood what they were singing. She knew her name was no longer Patricia—the Elvi leaned towards her humming her true name. They called her Yemaya, and they leaned toward her, loving her with sound and fury.

The dark girl, Yemaya, now spoke in the Elvish Rat language and called to Joseph, no longer being afraid of the pathetic man. Joseph moved towards her like an automaton, unable to resist her call, just as she was unable to resist the call of the Elvi.

Joseph hungered for the marrow, but the two Elvi leaped into the air and tore at Joseph’s throat. As he fell, he knew that he would be food for the Elvish Rat hives. They ripped into his body and ate his flesh while Yemaya watched, radiating approval to her new friends.

Joseph slipped into unconsciousness as he fed the appetites of the Elvi. His eyes were opened forever. When they were done feeding, they climbed up Yemaya’s arms and rested on her shoulders. It was time to go.

Yemaya opened the door from the back room and walked out into the main room of the Kaliedoscope Eye Bar. Some of the patrons of the bar would later swear, as they told the tales, that the Elvi and the dark girl shimmered with rainbow light and floated a few inches above the floor as they walked out into the street.

Others said that all they saw was a skinny black girl holding a gold chain in her hand, flanked by two snarling beasts that leaped around her while she ran barefoot into the street. Some said that the Elvi rode on her shoulders.

There were some that said that she opened the door and walked out of the bar. Others said that she traveled through the door and it blew apart after the fact. None will deny that the door was ripped from its hinges and splintered in the street. On one thing they all agree. They all saw rainbows and then were stunned by magic.

Marc D. Goldfinger is a formerly homeless vendor who is now housed. He can be reached at junkietroll@yahoo.com and via his web page Marc D. Goldfinger. Marc also has books on www.smashwords.net that can be downloaded for $2.99.