Glitch -VI

Allure walked up to the hut and knocked on the door. She waited silently before a very tall very skinny young man opened it. Diana blinked back the intruding light from inside of the hut. As her eyes adjusted she saw more of the figure “Grim! Hey I thought you would be at work by now!” Allure said. The young man had a sullen face; his eyes had large purplish bags under them. All except for one large mole on the left side of his chin, his face was perfectly symmetrical. “I’m striking.” He said in a low almost grumble of a voice. His face then bunched around his cheeks and summoned forth a bright smile. The smile changed everything about his face, his eyes looked bright and he suddenly looked healthy.1

Allure smiled back. “So where is your dad?”  “I don’t know why?” Grim’s voice was now light and playful. “Cuz I wanna make sweet love to him!” She moved her hips in a tantalizing circular motion and both Grim and Allure laughed. “I want to register this new girl. I found her in a bar.” Grim gave Allure a look - which Diana could not interpret - which caused an eruption laughter from both of them. “My dad is using the lavatory at the moment but I can do it for you. What is your name?” Diana realized she was being asked the question and stalled for a second wandering if it were safe to give him her real name. “She says her name is Hel but I’ve just been calling her Glitch.” Allure said quickly. Diana was relived but also annoyed that Allure answered for her. Grim smiled and nodded. “I’m not projectile vomiting yet.” He said with a side ways smile and a small leer toward Diana’s face.2

Diana smiled lightly, she knew he was referring to the goddess Hel of whom it was said that one look upon her face would cause the most painful death by projectile vomiting.  There was suddenly a loud, startling noise. Diana realized it was a deep human type noise probably made by a male. “That must be your dad now!”  Allure said, “You’re going to love Grim’s dad! He’s a real…um… looker.” Grim chuckled. “More like looker the other way-er.” Allure and Grim suddenly burst into laughter. Diana wished she knew what they were laughing about. She liked to laugh and it made her kind of upset that she couldn’t laugh with them.3

After a few more minutes of wander what they were laughing at and wishing she could join in the fun Grim’s father came into view and Diana finally understood what all the laughter was about. Grim’s father was very tall, at a guess he must have been at least seven feet, but he wasn’t thin or lanky the way most very tall men looked. He was wide, if seen from a distance; he would look like an average man. The right side of his face slid down by an inch, it had many wrinkles, scars, and knots of blood vessels in it. Diana was reminded of a picture of what her mother dubbed “spider web thighs” where the blood vessels were visible and looked just like spider webs. These same spider webs were scattered across the man’s features like someone took a blue paintbrush and shook it dry in the direction of his face.  Over the man’s left eye there was a huge bulge of skin which threatened to droop down and envelope his eye at any second. His hair hung limp and in some places plastered to his face. It looked as if it used to be a light brown but from sweet and probably many a week without washing, it had turned a near greenish color.4

“Hel,” Allure called Diana was too busy taking in the man’s monstrous features, “Hel!” Allure called louder. Diana continued to remain enthralled. “Hey Glitch!” Diana broke out of the near hypnosis she was in and turned her attention to Allure. “This is Paul.” Allure gestured to the grotesque man who had been the object of her enrapturement “Paul, this, for all intents and purposes, is Hel.”  Paul extended his extremely hairy arms in a welcoming gesture. Before Diana knew what was going on she was swept up in an enormous hug. “I know he’s not the comeliest person in the world,” Allure said as Diana regained her footing, “but he might just be the nicest.” 5

Diana smiled and said in a very quiet voice, “nice to meet you.” Paul smiled, the right part of his face remained the same but the left half light up, it had the effect of making him look very silly but somehow it also made Diana feel more comfortable around him. “Hey if you need anything, I’m they guy who can get it for you.” The right side of Paul’s face didn’t move while he was talking, which reminded Diana of a disease she had read about once. All of the sudden Paul’s attention shot off to his son, “Why aren’t you at work Grim?” Grim sighed heavily, “I’m on strike.” He repeated to his father. “Why?” “I’m demanding a three percent increase in my wages.” “So that would be like thirty dollars?” Allure chimed in, all three of them laughed “No,” Grim said solemnly, “unfortunately, a three percent increase of zero is still zero.”  “What kind of work do you do?” Diana inquired. “Isn’t it obvious? I collect the dead.” The last part Grim said in a monotonous voice which caused uproarious giggles from the whole group. “Wait,” Diana interjected, aren’t they supposed to pay you to take the bodies away?” Grim smiled at her the way an adult would smile at an inquiring child. “You think those artificial superior humans want to get any ware near a natural born human let alone pay him for anything? I’m lucky I look enough like a sup that some of them do pay me, but enough dawdling I have to get to work.” “I thought you said you were on strike.” Diana was confused. “Well my union is on strike but I’m being paid under the table to do my work quietly so I don’t find out what I am doing and go slaughter myself.” Diana laughed heartily as she realized Grim was making fun of the unions which some of the poorer of the Sups had set up, if they wanted something they would strike for it but most of the time half of the strikers would work for under the table money from the company they were striking, that usually lead to fights between the strikers and the ones who worked which invariably lead to death.6

“Well don’t just stand there!” Paul’s voice rang out amongst the peals of laughter, “Come on inside, I’ll get you all registered and find you a place to live.” “That won’t be necessary Paul, she’ll stay with me.” Diana felt herself nearly blush, she was happy she had found at least one friend. A blunt laugh escaped Paul, “you think she’ll be able to handle Grandma?” Paul laughed a bit more. “I’m sure they’ll get along.” Again Diana felt annoyance at the inside joke because she couldn’t understand why they were laughing or who exactly they were talking about.7

Paul sighed and stretched his enormous arms; a stench equal to him issued from him and began to make Diana dizzy. “Well,” he said as he thankfully dropped his arms, “They need me to fix some of the hunting spears so I’m off.” Allure looked annoyed. “Paul you were supposed to register Hel!”  Paul looked back; confusion was on his face for a second. “Oh yea!” He ran into his house, pulled out a long list of names and a pen, set the paper on his desk, and had the pen ready in his hand.  Each corner of his house had a torch burning, and there was a small fireplace directly opposite the door, the room consisted of one desk, a whole lot of bookshelves which were filled to the brim,  a few chars centered around a table, piled with kitchen equipment, and a spiraling stairway. “Do you have a last name Hel?” Diana started to pronounce her real last name, but then stopped because she didn’t know whether it was safe to give it to him. Before her silence was even noticeable, Allure quickly said, “Give her grand mother’s last name.” Paul scribbled something on the bottom of the paper, put it and the pen back to the spots they came from and rushed out the door waving a giant hand behind him. 8

The door shut behind Paul and Allure tuned to Diana, she gestured for Diana to sit down, Diana sat. “look I know you’re a Sup so don’t lie to me, I’m not sure exactly how you changed so much but I’m interested in knowing, if you want to live among these people you’ll have to maintain the story you told me earlier. Not many people that live here are very fond of your kind; many would kill you if they found out what you really were.” Allure took a deep breath and began to pace back and fourth. “Paul’s cabin is the best place to talk, here we won’t have any eavesdroppers, but you really have to be careful of what you say in another situation, don’t forget, walls have ears.” Diana looked up at Allure; there was compassion in her eyes. “How do I know I can trust you?” Diana said quietly. “If you couldn’t trust me I would have killed you a long time ago.” Allure smiled, the smile dazzled Diana. She decided to tell Allure as much of her life as she could remember and hoped that it explained at least a little bit about why she decided to run away.9

When Diana had finished, Allure sat next to her, and took her hands in her own. “Life is hard for everyone, Glitch, but it is especially hard for those among the Sups who have the curse of curiosity, apparently they haven’t figured out a way to remove that from people. Sometimes I see Sup men with that spark of curiosity who are poor and therefore not bright enough to really do much about their curiosity. But in a society where you must blindly go about everyday life, where it is dangerous to ask questions, curiosity in the smart is a very treacherous thing. Don’t think of yourself as running away, think of yourself as saving your life, if they don’t kill you physically, they have ways of killing your sprit.” Allure smiled her comforting, beautiful smile, and with her hand tucked Diana’s hair behind her ear. “Oh wow! I never noticed that before, I guess the light wasn’t good enough in the bar,” “What?” Diana asked, worried, “Your eyes, they kind of glow, and your pupils are shaped like a cat’s! They look really awesome.” Diana felt herself blushing, “Thank you.”10

Allure jumped up, “Oh I almost forgot, you simply MUST meet Grandma! After all you are going to have to stay with her.”  Allure rolled her eyes and giggled. Diana had the feeling she was missing out on another inside joke.11