My Black Beast Read Online Free PDF Page B

she’d woken up.
    Lowell stood from the bed and began to clean
up the food from the floor around. By the time he had finished and
returned with a rag from the kitchen, she’d put her hands flat on
the bed. There was the low drone of the TV in the living room while
he cleaned up the floor. When he was done he stood up and looked at
the girl.
    “ I’ll order some more food. Maybe
pizza this time.” He forced a laugh. “Nothing spicy, I
promise.”
    He let out a bit of a sigh and tried his best
to keep things together.
    “ It, uh…” He looked at the food.
“Don’t worry about the food. Or… making noise. It’s really fine. It
might be hard to believe that, I guess. Just… you can go back
whenever you want. If I’ve got to go to jail, heh… yeah, I guess
that’s fine.”
    He picked up the bag with the ruined Chinese
lunch and looked at the girl on the bed. She was still concerned
and skeptical, it showed.
    “ I’m Lowell.” He pointed to himself
with the hand that was still holding the dirty rag. “I never said.
If you need anything, just call me. Or come get me. Or… I’ll check
on you sometimes.”
    He turned to leave and as his hand reached for
the door, he heard the high raspy voice strain into the
room.
    “ Marka.”
    Lowell did everything he could to keep from
whipping around and somehow managed a slow turn. The girl looked
away and pointed, slowly, to herself as he had done. He
smiled.
    “ Marka,” he repeated and
nodded.
    He turned and left, closing the door behind
him. As soon as it was shut, he let the bag fall to the ground and
ambled over to the far hallway wall. He slid down against it,
gripping the locket he always wore. He couldn’t sit there long, he
knew. He needed to order pizza.
     
     

Chapter 4
     
    He’d never sat on his couch for such an
extended period of time before and it was slowly starting to dawn
on Lowell that it might be a piece of shit. In truth there was no
good reason for him to be sitting on the couch now. Normally he’d
sort of sprawl out on the floor and tuck one of the disused pillows
that were meant to be on the couch up behind him. Somehow, it
didn’t seem like it’d set a good example or something so he stayed
on the couch.
    It’s sort of a sad thing when the floor is
preferable to the couch, but it’s not as though furniture shopping
was high on the list of priorities before he took in some abused
magical demon slaying child. Couches were expensive
anyway.
    The pizza had gone down fine. He decided to
forgo the pepperoni since it might be a bit much and he didn’t feel
like waiting another thirty minutes to try eating again. Later, he
figured out that he could have just given her a single slice on a
plate, but still he’d hate for her to be upset like she was if the
pepperoni was too spicy. And he brought water along with the pizza
this time.
    The sun was down and sitting on the couch had
turned into a game of fidget around the springs. It was exhausting.
The whole day had been exhausting. Dinner would probably be more
pizza. Maybe some spaghetti or ravioli or something on the side. No
point in risking things. The TV had helped wile away the hours. She
didn’t ever call for him and so Lowell kept his
distance.
    When the sun was gone and the clock was
pressing eight, he stood up to grab the cordless phone and summon
the pizza guy. The call was short and the phone returned to its
place in the base station. It was an act that half defeated the
purpose of a cordless phone, but he never used it really anyway.
Cell phones are basically all that separate us from the animals
anymore.
    Lowell mumbled to himself and poked at the
answering machine buttons on the base station of the cordless
phone. He turned around when he was satisfied with whatever it was
he was doing and saw Marka standing in the hall in her
cloak.
    “ SHIT! Jesus!”
    He yelped and bent over at the waist to steady
himself.
    “ You… yeah. You are quiet. Why are
you in your cloak?