Callisto

Let Me

"You're gonna go back to that couch and lie down, young lady," he added shakily. "Or else."

Her fury did not abate. "Or what, Jespar?" she asked, rounding on him. "You will fight me here? You may as well kill me. I am already a failure in the eyes of my Tribe. At least if I died to a creature of The Deadlands, I would be spared their judgmental faces. I would not have to look upon Father-Mother as I did within that evil tunnel."

At the mention of the tunnel, he narrowed his eyes.

So, you went through something too, he thought.

"Chief," he said calmly. "You are not a failure."

She suddenly flew into a rage.

"I am a failure as a warrior, a huntress of the Hanakh, and as a woman," she added with spite. "To let this thing lay me low. This stupid, stupid thing!"

"Chief!"

She had thrown herself at the door with a scream, intent only on breaking through to take what she could and then - perhaps she did not know what. Maybe she no longer knew why she was even here anymore. Everything in front of her had become an obstacle, an impediment to the path she was supposed to walk—the path to Callisto.

Now, even her own body slowed her down.

And with this thought echoing like a mirthful taunt in her head, she observed the contents of the new room:

The curtains were drawn, and the moon"s light peered only slightly through the torn holes in their veil to illuminate the small objects that dotted the room. There looked to be some wrappings that covered the wall, emblazoned with the words "Happy Birthday." Beneath these signs were many small ornaments and toys that even Rain-Born could recognize were the playthings of a new life: plastic balls, smiling dolls with button-eyes and dirt-caked skirts, and stuffed animals all staring at the object in the room's center. Rain-Born crept closer to examine this strange thing while Jespar hung back, saying nothing.

It looked like an oddly shaped wooden cot, with thin feet jutting out from its base and high, slatted sides enclosing something within. This something seemed to be a tiny bundle wrapped in white cotton cloth - and as Rain-Born traced her fingers along it, she felt its softness. It was probably the most exquisite fabric her calloused skin had ever felt.

But they felt something else beneath the blanket. She felt the bumpy sensation of a small form concealed within. Something hard and oblong.

Then she saw the tiny skeletal hand that poked out from under the blanket"s side.

She gulped as she unveiled the rest of the body.

"Hey, Chief," Jespar said, slowly inching forwards, seeing her bow her head and watching her shoulders sink. "Listen..."

"Have it your way, Jespar," she said. There was no sadness or pain behind her words. Truthfully, there was no emotion at all. "I will rest."

She walked passed him without saying anything more and only spared a slight glance in his direction. He was left in the room sighing, staring at the "Happy Birthday" banners littering the interior.

"My way, huh?" he said to no one but the dead air. "Where have I heard that before?"

He covered the baby"s mummified body back up before leaving the room.

...

"Happy Birthday, Jespar!"

A barrage of balloons and firecrackers hit his face, and searing light assailed his senses. He hated being woken up by the lab buzzer early and grumbled to himself as he stretched his legs and made for his breakfast kibble. She had waited in the darkness of the laboratory research station to assault him like this.