Nocturnal

Aggie’s Price

Aggie James was alone in the white dungeon. If he’d been a religious man, he would have prayed, but he knew there was no God. God wouldn’t have let his wife and daughter be murdered right in front of him. God wouldn’t have allowed these monsters to exist. And if God did exist and allowed these things to happen, Aggie sure as fuck wasn’t going to worship him.

So while he didn’t pray, he most certainly hoped that he could get out of this horrible place.

The white jail cell door slowly screeched open. Hillary entered, alone, carrying a heavy knit bag and a familiar-looking, familiar-smelling blanket. But there was a new scent … faint, just a tiny sensation in his nose. It smelled beautiful.

Hillary walked up to him. She held the bag out by its handles, offering it to him. “Are you ready to help me?”

“If you’ll let me out of here, hell yes.” Aggie took the knit bag and opened it. Inside … a baby?

A sleeping baby boy with deep black skin, far blacker than Aggie’s, the skin of a child from lower Africa. He was swaddled in a blanket marked with crudely drawn symbols. One symbol looked like a triangle with an eye in the middle, another seemed to be a circle with a jagged lightning bolt through it.

“You take this boy,” Hillary said. “I thought the king would make things right, but he is going to do dangerous things. And Firstborn, I think he will try to kill the king. If he succeeds, then he will come for me. I have to act while I still can, get one more baby out.”

She stopped talking. She just stared at the child, as if she forgot that Aggie was even there.

“Uh, Hillary?”

Her eyes snapped up. She blinked, seemed to come back to the moment. “I am going to hide you and the baby somewhere.”

“Somewhere up on the surface?”

“No,” she said. “A special hiding place. You will stay there with the boy until I come to take you above.”

Aggie nodded violently even though he didn’t really understand. “Yes, I’ll do whatever you ask.”

She smiled a smile of power. “Of course you will.” She unfolded the smelly blanket and draped it around Aggie. “You wear this and be quiet, just like you did yesterday.”

He nodded. He really had no idea if he’d last seen her yesterday, the day before or just a few hours ago.

She finished adjusting the blanket, tugging and twisting in her motherly way. “Good,” she said. “Now hold him close. Very close.”

Aggie pulled the baby-filled bag to his chest. Whatever this kid was, it was evil. Aggie would play along, say whatever he had to say, do whatever he had to do until he got out of here. Then he could toss the baby into the bay for all he cared about it.

He smelled that beautiful smell again. It was the baby … the smell came from the baby.

“Time to leave,” Hillary said. “Follow me.”

“Where are we going?”

“You know the place,” she said. “We are going back to the arena.”