TEN VIRGINS (excerpts) by HANDELL

She dropped the shooter her eyes closed. The fire was reduced to a heap of ashes and a thin strand of smoke rising up to the air. Words stopped as well as other women’s curiosity. Their bodies laid prone position on the bare sand. The tenth woman walked out of some trees near the shore, her body all wet; she walked towards the crowd of women, went down on her knees and finally rested on her chest. Soon, she was asleep like everyone else.

The woman walked behind him. He led her through the woods, no words, no looks, just walking. It seemed they were going nowhere. As expected, green life grew everywhere. Many creatures dwelt around: small ones, flying ones, singing ones, all of them invisible. Her legs almost bent down, but she walked on. You’ll wait like the others. He whispered. His eyes were fixed on an imaginary line. Hers were fixed on the handle peeking out of his back pocket. As they went through the woods moonlight got scarcer, feeble, nonexistent. They walked on and vanished.

Her hand holding the black blade reached out for his throat and ripped it open. Both of them fell heavily on the ground. The woman tried hard to keep his hands still while he was drowning with his own blood. Her eyes were captivated by the deep purple stain eagerly growing all over his white and blue uniform. She didn’t notice her hands and face were wet and purple too. The moon hid behind brownish clouds and dying trees. There was nothing but trees surrounding the scene. The mesmerizing singing of insects merged with the rumorous wind through the feeble leaves and boughs made an arousing symphony that wrapped everything up, tightly. She sat for a while trying to catch her breath. The blood still ran when she decided to search the body. Her eyes stuck on the new features of his face: fat veins, the bluish color of his skin, the red and wet eyes, the expression of intense desperation. She looked for the gadget that forced her to stay no farther than five meters from the guard. If she dared to cross that imaginary boundary an electric stream would instantly break her back in two. Her clever hands found it after a while and quickly mashed it, mashed it to dust with two rocks. The former prisoner finally got up and dragged the corpse amongst some bushes. Now I’ll wait. She thought. Her silhouette moved over to a silent river nearby and dove.