Vicious Memories

Chapter 17

We found Sirus's body exactly halfway between the village and the farm, covering the ten minute walk in less than two. The shade between the trees had turned menacing in the hours between this morning's trek and now.

Gasping, I pulled up short as soon as I saw the corpse.

"Jesus Christ save us," Neema said, crossing herself.

"Shit," I agreed.

We stood uneasily on the edge of the small clearing we'd crossed this morning, as if it was the precipice of a cliff and we were both afraid of falling. Surveying the body before us set off alarms of recognition in the forefront of my mind.

This, I thought, is what Neema was just talking about.

I understood it now. At least a little bit.

Vivs pulled up behind us, winded from her run to the farm and back.

"Vivs," I said calmly. "Keep going and get Gabriel and Arun from the village. Bring them here. Skirt the edge of the clearing, don't step into it at all. Have you touched the body?"

She looked at me with wild eyes, uncomprehending, and I repeated myself.

"No," she said. "I haven't."

"Okay, good. Can you bring Gabriel and Arun here? Don't tell anybody else. We don't want to cause a panic."

"I should have gotten them first. I wasn't thinking. I was so surprised and upset, I just ran back the way I came."

"That's totally normal," I assured her. "Can you get them now?"

To her credit, Vivs suppressed her anxiety and did exactly as I'd asked, carefully skirting the clearing and disappearing down the jungle path at a jog. Neema looked at me shrewdly, eyes bright.

"You mind waiting on the edge while I take a look?" I asked.

"After you," she said.

On the surface, the clearing was the same as before - thirty feet across, circular, strewn with dead leaves - but something in the evening light had caused a shift in the atmosphere. The shadows were longer, weaving on top of each other to form a dark tapestry, the air suffused with evening sunlight that didn't quite manage to reach the forest floor. The trees around the edges of the clearing seemed to lean inward, as if trying to get a better glimpse of the gruesome centerpiece that had materialized in their midst.

"Sirus," I asked as I stepped forward, "what happened to you?"

The old tree stump still sat in the middle of the clearing and, like Shel's Giving Tree, it had given up the only service it had left to offer: a place to finally rest.

Sirus's body was draped over the stump on its back, his arms and legs splayed out around him, his eyes staring sightlessly up at the sky. While his bulbous nose would never again twitch with every easy smile that split his face, a brand new smile had formed. This one was located on his throat in a deep and angry red, easily visible thanks to the way his head tilted back at an extreme angle as it jutted over the edge of the stump. The replacement bucket he had gone back to the village to get sat neatly on the ground next to him.

"See anything strange?" I asked, crouching down by the body.

Neema grunted in the negative.

I stared at Sirus, remembering the way he had guffawed at my farming techniques before generously helping me finish my work. I examined his throat for a few minutes.

"It's called a red smile," I said. "A cut across the throat to sever both carotid arteries. Most people yell, 'Go for the jugular!' in movies, but it's just a large vein, not an artery. If you cut it a person will bleed out in a few minutes, but they can still be saved. The carotid is different. They're on the left and right side of your throat and bring blood to your brain. If one is cut you'll pass out after a few seconds from the change in blood pressure, and you're dead in under a minute.