TAÍS GYNAIXÍ
Edan was busy following the heavenly floral trail that a lady had left, when he was distracted by a black cat elegantly arching its back as it crossed the young man’s path. He quit his search for entertainment and turned left at the corner of the street. He walked past 13 street lamps and there it was, on the right, a tall, eerie, old house that dominated the scenery. Everyone in Savodsizlikvillage knew who owned it as for what happened that very night.
When the gentleman came back home, he was greeted by no one. Although, he was not alone in that house. His elderly father was sitting up on the highest floor, at his desk, facing the huge stained–glass window that covered a big portion of the front of the house. Edan marched up the stairs and knocked on his father’s door. He complained to him – «My days are empty. I must find somebody to spend them with. I need a wife.»
His father stayed silent. In that moment, he decided that was the right time, so he walked all the way down to the basement, he proceeded to a line-up of refrigerators and got all the material he needed: corpses. He took out his surgical tools and started cutting up the bodies to get the organs he needed.
But first, to create the perfect match for Edan it was necessary for them to have something in common. So, he made his son go to sleep, carried him downstairs and laid his body on a bed. He made an incision and took out one of his ribs.
He started stitching everything together. The heart started pumping blood: it was working. He connected the spinal cord to the brain. That was when everything came together and the monster woke up. At the same time, Edan’s anaesthesia had worn off.
«This is Feeraha» – his father explained – «Your wife.»
Years went by and Edan was satisfied: he had what he wanted. Not only him. His father created an entire business of monster making and selling. There were actual shops in which you could go to build your own personal servant. The creatures were treated very poorly. They didn’t have real families, they were enslaved by people who ordered them around, never giving them a break, not caring if they got sick.
Others were married off. Were they ever asked if they wanted to? Did anybody even care if they agreed or not? The answer is no. They were beaten up until they lost consciousness if they ever even tried to stand up for themselves. They were often forced into sexual activities. Their owners surely didn’t worry about contraception, so the poor creatures often got pregnant and even then, they still hurt them. They were merciless.
One time, Feeraha’s belly started growing. Edan stopped feeding her. She became weaker and so did her baby. While she was changing, Edan saw her stomach was even bigger. He got mad. He started throwing her clothes everywhere, until he found some food that Feeraha had been hiding, to survive. He was furious. He put his hand on her throat and started choking her and kicking her in the belly. Once. Twice. Three times. Four times. She started spitting out blood. He pulled her arm and threw her on the ground. Her shoulder detached from her body. She started bleeding. He took a few steps back, charging to hit her, when his father burst into the room. He was angry. He started yelling – «We have guests in a few hours! Why would you do this?». He grabbed what remained of Feeraha, took her to his lab and fixed her.
By the time the doorbell rang she was like new, or at least her body was.
Two tall men walked through the door, followed by a monster, Uroboro.
They arrived to have a meeting about the creature–business.
Edan and his dad greeted them. They all sat at a table to discuss their important matters, and they ordered Feeraha and Uroboro to go to the kitchen and make them some food.
They were both very happy to be spending some time together unsupervised, or at least that’s what they thought. They were cutting ingredients in silence.
The sound of the knife hitting the cutting board was broken by Feeraha – «You know, I’d really like to read a book one day.»
«Too bad it’s never going to happen to either of us» – sighed Uroboro – «Why is that stitching so fresh? Are you new?»
«Oh no, it’s nothing» – said Feeraha putting the knife down.
She got dizzy and her heart was pounding. She took a few steps back.
Uroboro put a hand on her shoulder and tried to comfort her – «It happens to me too. I think it happens to all of us.»
Feeraha looked up, with tears in her eyes. They got closer and they hugged so tight that their stitches could have unraveled and they could havebroken into pieces, but they didn’t care.
Time went by and the meetings continued. Feeraha and Uroboro started talking about the horrible ways in which they were treated and sharing information about everything they knew. They were learning together, thinking, making each other stronger and the men at the table didn’t like that. They were watching them on a monitor to make sure they weren’t doing anything they weren’t supposed to. They started getting suspicious, but they went back to what they were doing. Edan showed the two collaborators a previous project he had worked on: a snake monster. It didn’t work out very well because the serpent constantly kept trying to eat its own tail.
In the meantime, the two creatures were silent, sad but resilient, staring deep into each other’s eyes. They got closer.
Feeraha glanced at Uroboro’s lips. Right when she was about to kiss her, a blade dashed through the air in between them, only a fewmillimetersaway from their faces and plunged into the cabinet behind them. Startled, they ran away to the opposite sides of the room. They were used to things like these happening all the time. Risking their lives had become part of their daily routines. Although this time was different. They were not alone. They could fight back.
They quickly picked up the first thing they could find to defend themselves: two big butcher knives. They slowly headed out of the room and to their surprise, there was no one left at the table.
They cautiously walked towards the main entrance of the house, when, running down the stairs, came Edan, with a chair in his hands. He threw it on Uroboro, who fell on the ground whimpering.
Feeraha was filled with rage, she got a good grip of her weapon and jabbed it into Edan’s side, right where his rib was missing. At that same moment, the two collaborators showed up. One held down Feeraha, taking advantage of her distraction. The other one was choking her to death. Uroboro was desperate. She tried harder than ever, but she could not get up, her legs were almost completely disconnected from her body. She sobbed violently, she was so mad at herself for letting this happen.
The two men walked away, they went looking for Edan’s dad.
Uroboro didn’t give up. She looked for a solution around her. There was a chest of drawers on her right, in it, she found a sewing kit. She took the needle and the thread and started stitching her legs back to her body. She felt better. Newer. Ready to get revenge.
She took the knife out of Feeraha’s hand and looked at her. She kissed her on the forehead and then wiped off her still fresh tears. She stood up straight, walked to the dining room and found one of the men collecting his documents on the table. She ran towards him and swung herblade at him, tearing open his chest and breaking the snake cage into a million pieces. A few moments later, she was upstairs. She heard some steps, so she followed them, she sneaked up from behind and poked her sword through the head of the man.
Only one person was left. He was the reason all of this happened. He was also the reason they were alive at all, but did that really matter, considering that he let all of these horrible things to happen? The answer is no.
She walked up to the highest floor and found him sitting at his desk. He was too old and weak to resist. She moved his desk to the side. She lifted him from his neck and threw him out the glass-window. After a few seconds of screaming, there was silence.
Uroboro took the body of Feeraha on her shoulder and she walked towards the door, followed by the snake, who had finally stopped biting its tail.
They walked out into the sunlight, the sun was rising and so were they.
Alice Scazzieri
Liceo E. Fermi, III F