Sour and Soot and Rot (Fictional Short Part II)

It was the size of a marble, a black spot on the fuzzy looking screen. It looked like radar, Brynn thought. Like underwater radar on a boat. Like a torpedo should be in there making little echo noises, headed straight for her insides.
"Do you want to keep the printout?" The nurse was all smiles, drawing little lines through the black circle on her computer screen.
"...No. That's okay."
"You're not even five weeks along, you know."
Brynn was staring at her feet, swinging them back against the post of the examining table. "You probably conceived three-ish weeks ago."
"What does that mean? Like. Whats in that black bubble?"
"Blood." The nurse ripped the picture prints out of the machine and tore one off. "Its just blood, really. It's like a yolk sack. Everything will happen inside that bubble. Just give it a few weeks, and you'll really be able to see stuff."
Just give it a few weeks, huh. Brynn thought.
"You sure you don't want the print out?" She held out the picture with the little black bubble.
"No." Did she? It would just be something else she'd have to hide. "I don't want it."


How deep are the secrets that lurk beneath the surface.
How dark is the human heart.
With what hope do we crush all the things we won't say,
And smash them and tear them apart.
I am perfect, the lamb says, though lamb he is not.
I am faulty, the wolf says, truth teller, forgot.
And all of us swirl in the Land of the Not,
Swallow sour and soot and rot.


"They asked you if you wanted a picture of it?" Leo was driving her back to work.
"Yeah. She kept asking me all these questions. She said it probably happened three weeks ago. But you know, they count back from the first day of your last cycle. I thought it was further along than that."
"I wanted to come back in the room with you, you know. I just wasn't sure. Was it scary?"
"No... it was okay. This whole thing is scary."
"I told you, though. I'm here for you."
They were stopped at a redlight, and Brynn leaned forward, her head between her hands. There were little bits of dirt in the floor board of Leo's Honda. They were dancing along the side panel, where the door connected.
"You're here NOW, though. How do I know you'll be here later?"
"You think I would leave you?"
"But just because of this, or because of me? We can't predict the future, Leo. If we could this never would have happened."
"What are you saying, that you think I'll end up leaving you?"
"This is you and me in here, you know? Nobody can change that. No matter what happens for the rest of our lives. This happened. Its a fact, and its always going to be there. No one else will ever take this from us. And I don't want... I just... I don't think I'm strong enough without you anymore. I don't want to ever be without you. Not now, and not a year from now. Not ever."
He looked over at her and gripped her hand. She squeezed it between her palms on her lap.
"I will never do that to you. I will never hurt you. This is it. Okay? You and me."