My Black Beast Read Online Free PDF

have to watch her
shovel food into her mouth this time.
    She worked out how the container opened and
looked at the shrimp fried rice with skepticism. The smell had
clearly enticed her but the rest seemed as though she wasn’t quite
sure what to make of it.
    “ Here.”
    Lowell offered over a plastic fork. She
recognized the shape and grabbed it from him without hesitation.
When it was in her hand, she became more curious. She bent the fork
a few times and shrugged to herself, satisfied that it would work
well enough.
    The fork buried deep in the rice and came back
heaping. The small girl had no trouble shoving the massive bite
into her mouth. Her eyes opened wide and for a moment Lowell was
convinced her throat had swollen shut immediately. It hadn’t and
she chewed vigorously, swallowing and gasping in a large breath.
She focused her attention on the dish.
    Lowell stood and made for the door. “Okay,
don’t choke while I go get some water. And we’re going to have to
talk about taking you home. Or whatever home-like thing you’ve got.
If it’s a box or something, you can stay here.”
    When he was outside he muttered to himself.
“Sure, I’ll just adopt you and it’ll be the most normal thing in
the world. A mute, dreadlocked, tattooed twelve-year-old girl that
I found in a pile of rubble. Probably standard paperwork for
that.”
    He filled a pair of glasses with water and a
couple of cubes of ice and returned to the room. When he got back
he found all the boxes from the bag were on the bed and opened
along with the little rice towers. The glasses went on the bedside
table and Lowell returned to his appointed chair.
    For a few minutes she smelled at everything,
maybe testing for poison. Finally she decided on his Yuxiang
chicken.
    “ That one’s pretty spicy, so, you
know—”
    Before the warning, whatever good it would
have been, had managed to make it out of his mouth in full, the
food was in and out came the smallest little yelp.
    “ Hap!”
    A surprised little chirp. A bit raspy, but
youthful and high. Lowell couldn’t help but laugh at it. The tiny
sound was entirely out of step with her demeanor and the surprise
on her face was too much.
    The laughing died almost instantly though as
he looked at the girl again. Her face was flushed with terror and
her hand was clapped hard over her mouth. He could see the fingers
digging hard into the skin. She stared at the food until Lowell
shifted to grab the water. Her eyes shot to him in horror and she
flailed back to the corner, kicking the food away and sending it
flying.
    He stood and put his hands up.
    “ Whoa whoa! It’s okay. No, it’s
okay! Is… I’m sorry. It was really spicy, I didn’t
know.”
    She slapped another hand over her mouth and
winced, a tear rolling down her cheek and he realized it. It wasn’t
the food. She’d made a sound.
    Lowell’s mouth fell open and he sat down in
the middle of the floor staring at nothing. This was beyond him. He
couldn’t… He had brought her here, but this was not something he
could deal with. His eyes looked up to see her again. She was
pressed tight in the corner, eyes drilled shut and the grip on her
mouth still like iron.
    He shook his head. No, no, no. This wasn’t
alright. He stood.
    “ Look, look. Uh, god… fuck. Okay. I
don’t know about your whole thing, but it’s… you can talk here. You
can make sounds. It’s okay.”
    Fuck, he wanted to stomp and shout and just…
beat the living shit out of whoever or whatever. He forced himself
to calm down and start again, sitting on the edge of the bed,
looking at the wall ahead of him.
    “ I don’t know if you can really
understand. It’s safe here. For you. Nothing is going to hurt you.
I won’t let it. I mean, I’ll do what I can. I’ll protect
you.”
    He turned to see she’d opened her eyes. The
hands were still across her mouth, but not quite as tightly as they
had been. It was the softest expression he’d seen from her since
the second