Green Desert - Chapter 3.2.3 - Fírí

The “chapel” was like I left it, except some of the braziers had burned out and except that Zhíno was naked. I hurried across the dirt floor to the sacrificial altar. “Zhíno!” I grabbed his face with both hands, turned him towards me. His color was gone. He was dead. Tears leapt to my eyes.

Why? Why did they do this to him? Head in hands, I collapsed to his chest, the tears streaming. His skin was still warm. I had just missed saving him. Vata had just killed him. I raised my head and screamed, “You fucking bastards!”

I dropped my face to his bare chest again. Why did they kill him? What had he ever done to them? Why was his heart still beating?

I stepped back. He was alive.

Shadows blocked the hallway light. The Kılímıs. Pí‘oro glanced down the hall before saying, “We can either hide him in here, tell them it’s a closet, or we can get him outside, run away.”

Police were thorough. “We have to leave.”

Pí‘oro leapt down to the floor, ran the few steps to me and Zhíno. “Get his clothes. I’ll carry him.” He took Zhíno’s arm, bent slightly, straightened with my naked boyfriend on his shoulder. “Get his clothes!”

Where? Nothing in this room but the altar, the braziers, and–– ah. Outside the circle, shelving. I ran. A tidy pile of folded clothes. A big handgun.

“Come on. Let’s go!” Pí‘oro stood in the door.

I shoved the gun in the dirty clothes and grabbed the whole pile.