Dividing Earth: A Novel of Dark Fantasy Read Online Free PDF

the cup was dry, he removed it, patted her head and said, “Good girl,” as if she were a dog. She was too busy wiping the liquid from her lips to notice. “What is it?” she asked.
    “It’s called Jungle Juice,” he answered.
    “Oh,” she murmured, starting to feel it sliding down into the depths of her. Her chest was warm, her cheeks hot.
    “Ever had Everclear?” Mike yelled over the music and screams.
    She shook her head. She either needed more or needed to leave.
    “Sixty percent alcohol. Good stuff.”
    “How much have you had?”
    “Almost enough,” he answered.
    “May I have more?”
    “You sure can, sweetheart.”
    When he returned, she was half past buzzing and going on shitfaced. Mike, smiling at this happy discovery, poured the cupful down her, and this time, she didn’t cough. As she wiped her forearm over her lips, she asked, “Where’s Grady?”
    Mike pointed to a closed white door beyond the garbage cans. “I think she’s keeping Enrique company in the bathroom.”
    “Oh,” she said. Her tongue was thick as a drain stopper. “Water?”
    “How ‘bout another cup?”
    “Can you get me some water with it?”
    “Oh, you bet.”
    Mary looked around. People moved, but without meaning.
    When Mike returned he had another cup but no water. Mary opened her mouth and downed it, a true pro this time. It didn’t taste good. It hadn’t tasted good from the start.
    As the third cup settled in her like a sickness, Mike sat beside her. “You’re gorgeous, a fucking angel,” he whispered, but to Mary the words were disembodied, part and particle of the air. She smiled under the onslaught of the Jungle Juice and the boy’s insistent voice; her eyes rolled up. When she could see again there was a white rectangle, within which an impenetrable darkness gathered. He was carrying her like a bride. The heat glowed in her abdomen, descended toward her legs and she wiggled around, noticing she lay on a bed. Fingers fumbled on the catch of her jeans. She squirmed, too drunk to make sense of it, until hands clapped onto her thighs and lifted them. “Open your mouth,” said Mike, his voice an octave lower than before. Before she could scream, hands pried her mouth open. Her dry, cotton tongue quivered as the flesh shoved between her teeth, drove over her tongue, slammed into the back of her throat. A pulsing, skin and hair, vague of piss. She gagged. Hands took hold of her hair. Fingers clamped over her ankles, shoving them back at her. She struggled.
    “Close the door,” someone said. There was a shove, then another boy said, “No, I’m first.”
    She thought it was Mike’s voice so she arched her head to see, but could only make out floating silhouettes against the backlit window. Outside, a bloated moon sat on the edge of the world.
    * * * * *
    Mary awoke to darkness. Her head swirled, her entire body ached, and she felt sick. The odors of beer, sweat, and mildew plunged into her. Looking out the window, she recognized the window mullions as the last thing she’d seen before passing out. Outside, the stars didn’t look so much like pin pricks in the blackness as rips. The moon was opulent and pockmarked. And that’s when she remembered. She was sharing the bed with two naked boys. On the floor was another, wearing piss-stained underwear. Snoring and hissing breaths filled the room. Looking down, she noticed her top was still on, but she was naked from the waist down. Her panties lay neatly over a boy’s ankle. She covered her eyes and tears fought through her fingers, spilling down her cheeks. She cried silently, afraid to wake the boys, afraid they might want another go. She reached down, lifted her panties and stood, careful not to step on the boy on the floor. As she stepped into her panties, her vagina felt afire. “Oh God,” she whispered, thinking of her mother. Shame wrapped its arms around her. She didn’t look for her pants. Tiptoeing out, she evaded the kids strewn about. She