Effigies By Harlots, Fueled By Lithiums

 

CHAPTER ONE: IGGY
Yesterday did a lot to me. That kid's a lot and there's a lot I could never really ever understand. But I want to.


He made the sky, like, warp out the...I should just explain how I met him first. Give you the backstory and all that.


You know how you sit down and your mind just goes? And you think about a lot of stupid shit? And then you believe it because there's nothing else to do? That's just me and my friends. We go out every Wednesday, 'cause school's out early on that day. 


Yesterday, when we were going to go out again, I see this kid in the car. Probably like, seventeen or eighteen years old. He's in the front seat like nothing. His face has nothing. Like someone took his happiness away, out of his throat. And I was thinking, "Maybe that's Ragna's little brother?" But I didn't know for sure, so I say it out loud. 


Edite goes, "What?" And I go, "Who's that in the front?"

Edite tells me, "I mean, go ask Ragna, how should I know?"


Ragna left us inside her Dad's car with the door open and the car on. I didn't hear what she said before she got out, so I didn't know where she went or what she was doing. 


And not in a weird way, but I couldn't stop wondering about that kid. The town we're in is pretty small. Everyone knows everybody. But I never saw his face, ever. 


I wanted to peak over to ask him something, and then I couldn't believe my eyes. His skin on his hands were growing and looping over each other like shoe laces, but it looks like weird gum. I tap Edite's shoulder, but she gets all pissed with me.


That wasn't even all of it. It wasn't just that.


When we were out in the woods, Ragna showed us the kid again and out her hands on his shoulders, kind of like when your Dad is showing you to a teacher and she says to us, "Before you all start anonymously tipping the police, I want you all to meet someone who'll bring our spirit resting to the next level. Introduce yourself, kid."


Ragna kinda hit the kid in the back and he stared at us with his weird, empty and possibly emotionally traumatized eyes and did this weird bowing motion thing. He said his name was just "Theron." No last name, it was just "Theron."


Okay, and before I explain what this kid did, I just want to talk about the spirit resting stuff.


Edite's dad had a bad stroke and I don't really remember what strokes do, I just know he had it really, really bad. He was also really bad, too. One time, Edite's brother had a birthday and you know, she invites me and Ragna over. 


Her dad brought in this weird lady and she had on this weird nightgown with high heels on. After that, I found out what a prostitute was. 


But that isn't what I was trying to say, I just wanted to show where he was at. 


After he had the stroke, he just died. Edite was really upset, but Ragna was just smiling and stuff. We asked her why, and she told us about this method humans could use to send spirits to a better place that isn't really heaven. And apparently, if we're successful, we can still talk to them and stuff.


That's why I was really on fire when I heard Theron could change it all, because spirit resting really takes work. We've tried to find out if Edite's dad went to Not-Heaven for seven weeks now.


But Edite's actually really pissed and she goes, "Where...on earth did you find that kid?"

"Uh, I'd just say...an associate lended him to me." Ragna says in this really weird voice, and Edite's like, "An associate?! Are you apart of some... child trafficking ring or something? Because I don't care if i let you read my diary in fourth grade, I will call the cops on you!"


They're arguing for a long time and Theron says, "My friend Arden imparted her about my powers, and now she wants assistance. She's paying a rate of about... fifty dollars per hour."


Ragna makes this weird face and says, "That's right!"

"Well, why didn't you say so!? Now I look like a big idiot." Edite didn't really say anything after that.


And this is where the magic started. 


Theron said that Edite's dad was still wandering the woods...and then he proved it.


I'm not all that good with words, but I'll try to tell you what I saw.


All of the leaves on the trees in the forest changed colors. Not like in fall where the green leaves turn yellow. It was green, then it was blue, then it was white, and then it was yellow. And then they all went away. The trees didn't have leaves at all. 


Then, like I was trying to say, the sky bended. It was weird. It's like it was falling down. And then the sky changed color, too. It was yellow orange-ish. It opened up, and we saw this guy. He looked like God, almost.


You couldn't see his face or his body, because it was all covered in light. It hurt my eyes. 


That was Edite's dad. 


I looked at Edite to see if she was seeing what I was seeing, and she was crying. Not in a sad way because she was smiling. I was smiling too. And Ragna was smiling. And maybe even Edite's dad was smiling. But Theron just had that weird face. I would smile if I could do something like that.


Ragna said to Edite, "Go talk to your old pops, girl!"

Edite couldn't say anything because she was too busy smiling and laughing. Geez, my dad didn't even die and I felt all emotional and happy for her. 


At first, I got all confused, though. Doesn't she hate her dad for all the bad stuff he did? But, then I remembered I had a bulldog named Sally, and she was a real bully. She bit me real hard, tripped me up, all the worst things you could imagine. But I cried when I lost that dog and cried even more when I found her. Maybe Edite's dad is my dog.


What was weirder than all that is their lips were moving, but I couldn't hear anything. I could hear Ragna and I could hear myself and my feet move around the grass, but I couldn't hear them. Ragna just said that's the way it's supposed to be.


I didn't say anything in the car when we went back home because I just couldn't. That kid really took the words out of my mouth.


I couldn't even talk to my Momma in the kitchen properly because I was just messing up my words so much. I don't even think I can sleep tonight. 


I need to find out two things: What Edite and her dad were talking about and where that kid is.


I really need to ask him some questions. I think he knows a lot more than the smartest people on Earth.

 

END.

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