Earthbound

By: D.A. Madigan

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

IN THE WAR BETWEEN HEAVEN AND HELL, THERE IS ALWAYS COLLATERAL DAMAGE * * * I got Inga back onto the edge of the bed with my legs around her waist and my fists locked together just under her breasts. I pulled in, careful not to crack anything, just enough to make her breathe out. I let up so she’d breathe in. Crooned in her ear “Take it easy. Don’t pass out.” After a minute or so of that, her respiration shallowed, then steadied. “Now tell me,” I said, pulling her naked body back against mine, keeping my mouth warmly against her ear.. She relaxed, and then stiffened again. “I have to go,” she said, her voice barely a whisper. “Please. You don’t know. They took Carl.” Carl was her little boy – three years old. I felt a net of cold dread fall softly over me. “Who? Kidnappers?” Inga shook her head. “Blutgruppe,” she said. “But I pay the geld. Through work. It all comes out in the city taxes. I don’t understand… it has to be a mistake.” Blutgruppe… blood gangs. The icy net tightened around me and my stomach clenched itself into a fist. This is why I hate Dortmund. It’s a blood town… a nos city. A good portion of the municipal government, most of its organized crime, and all the gangs that run the lower city are Undead. The living, breathing population pays for protection, nails up their crosses and strings of garlic, stays off the streets at night, and generally they get left alone – but, sometimes, mistakes happen. Or something just gets hungry. “Can you get him back?” I asked. “Do you even know where to start trying?” She sagged in my arms. “I know Werner. Chante said it was Werner who took Carl. Werner and some other nos. I know where they sleep.” I thought about it. Nos drink blood, but they don’t need a lot of it – what they’re really interested is the life force, the essence. A three year old wouldn’t have a lot of that. It didn’t make sense, that they’d take a kid that young, unless it was as an example – but Inga said she paid the geld. So… “They probably don’t have him any more,” I said, “but I’ll start with them. Tell me where to find them.” “You?” Inga straightened up, turned in my arms to look at me. She had little pale parentheses at the corners of her mouth, and her blue eyes were huge and gleaming. “What can you do?” “Find out where they took him,” I said. “Then go there and see if I can… negotiate… with whoever has him now.” “I don’t understand,” Inga said. She blinked a few times. “What do you… do you think Carl is still alive?” It was four more nights before the dark of the moon. If Carl had been collected as part of a lunar cycle sacrifice – “Maybe,” I said. I cradled her for a second as I stood up, then gently set her on her feet. “Stay here. The room is paid for until checkout tomorrow. Don’t invite anyone in. If we’re both lucky I’ll be back before sun up with Carl.” - EARTHBOUND, by D.A. Madigan