Free Chuggie and the Desecration of Stagwater by Brent Michael Kelley

replaced the squeak. As if an unseen rope held her, he could pull her no further. Her face had turned purple in the day's fading light. With one hand, she clawed at her neck. The other pounded his shoulder.
    An invisible rope throttled her neck. The more he pulled, the deeper it dug. As soon as he realized he rushed her back on her side of the stone. She slid from his arms to the ground, gasping and weeping in the grass.
    "I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" he said, kneeling next to her. He brushed her hair back and put his hand on her forehead. When her sobbing died down, he lifted her again and carried her back to the fire.
    "Please, don't hate me," he said. "I'm drunk an' clumsy an' I'm not always as clever as I think I am. I didn't mean to hurt you back there. I'm very sorry."
    Wiping away the last of her tears, Shola said, "I'm not upset with you. For a moment, I believed I could be free. I could taste it. I can't remember the last time I was so hopeful."
    And there it was. He'd given her a boatload of hope , then he all but crushed her beneath it. Maybe it didn't mean he was a monster, but it damn sure felt that way. He couldn't bear her sadness any longer. But to abandon her now would be a crime against both of them.
    He looked her squarely in the eye. "What can we do?"
    Shola squinted her left eye shut and looked back with her electric-blue right eye. "With the right tool, I think I could break the hex myself."
    "What tool?" Chuggie hoped she meant something of his.
     "A purse," Shola said, "fashioned from the face of a goat."
    Shola gave Chuggie the big eyes . Firelight danced on her face as she bit her bottom lip. The burning wood popped, and smoke danced lazily toward the heavens. She leaned toward him.
    In that moment, Chuggie would have kicked a puppy for a goat-face purse.
     
     

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    Fey Voletta gathered up the bottom of her pristine, silky frock. She hated the thought of her snow-white garment, trimmed with crimson, dragging on the greasy metal floor of the Steel Jacks' inner sanctum. Sometimes she swore they kept things greasy and grimy just to make her squirm.
    Her skin, barely touched by the sun, was nearly as white as the robe. She wore only a light dusting of powder to keep her skin pristinely white. Her lips and fingernails matched the robe's crimson piping. For that matter, so did her hair, but she preferred to keep it hidden beneath her hood. Dressing up helped keep Fey Voletta sane this far from civilization. She took the task very seriously.
    Even though she was tall by most standards, the Steel Jacks towering ten feet above her always made her feel short. Essentially walking armor, the Steel Jacks were really creatures of energy. The metal suits they inhabited only served give them substance, to make them tangible. Two triangular openings in their headpiece formed eyes that glowed with blue light. A vibrating metallic instrument in the armor's neck area allowed them to speak. Slots in the speaking instrument allowed more blue light to escape. While they had no body parts to indicate gender, Fey Voletta always thought of them as male. Everyone did.
    "I don't belong here," she said as she tiptoed into the metal-walled office.
    "In Stagwater, or in this room, kitten?" buzzed Non, leader of the Steel Jacks. He sat at a huge metal desk examining sheets of lead with alien symbols etched upon them.
    "Both," she replied. "This room is so filthy, I feel like I need a bath whenever I think about coming in here."
    "I see," said Non.
    Fey Voletta closed the door behind her. While it weighed over a ton, Steel Jack design allowed her to close it with one pinky. Overhead, blue light flickered as the door latched. The light existed for her benefit only, since Steel Jacks didn't need light to see, and she was the only human allowed in this room.
    Being alone in any room with a Steel Jack gave her a bit of a thrill. Essentially a giant, metal killing machine, she had no protection from the alien creature if he