Work In Progress: Screechers, Chapter 11

Paths collide

*Note! The chapter yesterday was misnomered. No chapters were skipped. 😉*

Echo slept the whole night and halfway into the next day. She awoke in her own bed, but she might as well have been at the bottom of the sea for all she cared. She drank her fill of water. She went back to sleep.

The next morning, though, she forced herself to get up. To search the outpost and retrieve Arin’s body.

There wasn’t much left. The boy had roasted in the sun for two whole days, and the vultures had picked at him with no less relish than they had the screecher carcasses. His face was unrecognizable. No gaunt cheeks or sad eyes. Just hardened blood and giant holes in his chest.

Fury flashed through Echo, and a scream ripped from her throat, burning and righteous. Her hand ached to slap Arin’s face. To shake him back to life.

“Stupid boy! I cared about you. I—” Her words broke off. She buried her face in her hands, waiting until she could look at him without this unquenchable rage.

Eventually, that moment did…