The Smaller Evil Read Online Free PDF

sleeping arrangements. “Protocol,” he echoed. “Yeah, right. Everything they said in that meeting was so vague, who knows what we’re meant to be doing? We’re here to change, because change is needed. We’ll find answers when we stop asking questions. So maybe the protocol is no protocol. Maybe we’re supposed to spend our nights having some sort of freaky threesome with Arman here while all the old shits get off by watching us. Maybe that’s the damn protocol.”
    Arman felt flush. The mere mention of sex so soon after what he’d just done, it was almost more than he could handle.
    â€œI don’t think that’s what we’re supposed to do,” Kira told Dale.
    He shrugged. “Did you see anyone else in that room you’re dying to sleep next to? Anyone within two decades of your age?”
    Kira grinned and shook her head. Then she bounded across the room on those long legs of hers, leaping and soaring to land on top of Dale with a laugh.
    â€œNo,” she said, staring down at him. “I didn’t see anyone else I’d want to sleep next to. Those people, they were all . . . all . . .”
    â€œAll what?” Arman asked from where he still stood in the doorway, digging at his arm with his finger.
    Kira lifted her head. “I don’t know. I guess they were nothing special. That’s what they were. They were ordinary. A bunch of ordinary old folks.”
    â€œWell, what else happened at the meeting?”
    â€œWe already told you what happened,” Kira said. “Where were you anyway?”
    Arman dug harder. “I needed to take care of something.”
    â€œHmph.” She didn’t look convinced.
    â€œI’ll tell you what we did. We had to take an oath of secrecy.” Dale held up three fingers like a Boy Scout. “And we had to promise to do every single thing our trainers tell us to do. Or else.”
    â€œOr else what?” Arman asked.
    â€œYou get kicked out, I guess. Or maybe worse. They have security guards, you know. Armed ones. Maybe you’ll end up in an unmarked grave.”
    Arman gaped. “Armed guards?”
    â€œThey did
not
have guns,” Kira said.
    â€œYes, they did,” Dale scoffed. “Of course they did. They need guns to keep us here, because this place is about
Freedom
and
Discovery
and embarking on your
Personal Journey.
As if there isn’t enough horseshit in this world already.”
    Kira winked at Arman. “He’s just pissed because he can’t smoke weed.”
    â€œWe’ll see about that.” Dale slapped her ass then. Kira giggled, returned the favor, slapping even harder, and Arman looked away. Sure, he’d known they were dating or hooking up or whatever. Or at least he’d guessed that might be the case. It hadn’t been anything he’d cared much about. Only now, having to live with them, well, that made him a third wheel, didn’t it? Arman crossed the room and threw his bag down with a huff. Then he dragged one of the cots as far away from the other two as possible.
    Kira watched him keenly, her eyes bright. “You’re blocking the door,” she pointed out.
    â€œI know,” Arman said. He sat on his cot and kept his back to the other two. The windows to the cabin were open and he stared out at the vast California sky that was just beginning to purple. A heaviness settled in his chest and the warm glow memory of those brief gasping moments with the bare-legged cook was already starting to fade into something less magical and far more profane. More
ordinary
. It was the kind of heaviness Arman was used to, this steamrolling weight that knew how to press the joy out of him, inch by inch.
    Reaching to pick his forearm again, he tried telling himself to appreciate what he had and the chance he’d been given. That his time here wouldn’t be anything like the lonely month he’d spent at