The Forgotten God

Chapter 55

"It-it will cost...my life..."

Aiden sank to the ground, his sole leg buckling like sodden paper beneath him. He reached blindly to touch the large paw of the hound who moved to his side curiously, shuddering at the cold feel of the claws.

"Babi cares not for you. But for the power your body will have. The blood of a virgin, however soiled with the pestilence of life and excess, is rare and grand for any magic."

Aiden's head shot up, his eyes wide in feigned indignity, his cheeks flushed. "Wha...?"

"Don't try and lie," Am-Heh's lip curled in contempt and Aiden drooped, nodding in beaten obedience. "It does not become you. You voiced your desire to die, I am giving you the chance to do it in glory. To do something that endears you to your fellow man and will hold sway in the beyond."

"I...suppose so," Aiden looked across at a growing shadow. The sound of dragging feet and grunts of exertion from dead lungs seemed to drill his head. "I don't want to be remembered, if anyone would, as a cancer on the earth. Those things...you're going to feed me to them?"

"No."

Am-Heh moved swiftly, seizing the shrivelled neck of the walking corpse, tearing the head from the shoulders, the spine dangling down like a reptilian tail.

The woman's mouth continued to move in a silent, agonised wail before the sparks of 'life' dulled.

"That would hardly garner the attention I require." Am-Heh leant down, biting on the tip of his finger. A bubble of blood welled up on his skin, soon smeared away as he drew a strange symbol on the tarmac. "I hope this suffices. I haven't the required items that are normally used, but with my own power and the added drew of the buckle, it is more than likely a spirit will respond."

"Spirit?"

Aiden's pretence of bravado had faded the moment he lost his leg to Babi. Inside, he tried to keep it at bay, his fears and weakness. Men didn't voice them, didn't show them. His grandfather had always threatened to beat him if he ever did, just like he had with his father.

His parents had been lousy...no, no they hadn't. He had been lousy. Life had been unkind to them and instead of trying to help like his sister, he had drowned his sorrow in alcohol, then drugs. They upset him, so he'd upset them more. That childish bitterness only increased with the intoxicating substances.

Tears filled his eyes as he thought of them.

All their faults, all their gripes, they had loved him. Before the hardship there were holidays to the coast, fun and laughter. A brightness that chased away the dark that constantly lurked. They had tried their best to keep it from them like the imagery monster under the bed.

'They could be dead.' He thought, all reality fading as he stared at the floor, lost and trembling in images of his past. 'Because of this or...because of me...all their woes were my fault!"

His head pounded and a he let loose a long, low groan, pitching high as it finished as a sob followed.

Am-Heh remained unmoved. Watching with waning patience.

"Do it." Aiden whispered. "I ain't got anyone to miss me but I might as well die with some dignity, knowing I might have helped save someone. Doubt it'll make up for anything." He managed to sit up. "I had girlfriends; you know. Drug addicts or strippers after a quick snort of coke to chase away the grime of the club. I pimped them. Promised em' to dealers for a bit more time to pay. One killed herself, they found her floating in the river. I shrugged it off, one more slut off the street, who cares? That's on me, and the the rest of their trauma."