Sam and Teri held their breath. Something was shambling past them towards the gorge. The click and drag of its movement was suggestive. Teri quietly exhaled through her nose and slowly and carefully inhaled. She saw stars. She blinked them away trying to calm her swaying head. As her vision cleared a mostly bone skeleton shuffled by. One of its legs had been rotated awkwardly, forcing the thing to drag its leg.
“Fuuuck,” Sam breathed.
Teri elbowed him gently. She gave him a look as her eyes darted between him and the former human below. She darted her eyes back to the skeleton, it was staring at them.
“I can see you, you know.” it said.
“I’m surprised you could hear us over the rattle of your bones.” Sam laughed.
“Hmm, they could use some oil couldn’t they. Maybe you have some extra tendons that could help with that.” The creature gave a dry slow laugh. It laughed longer than most people would.
“Fuck you, creep.” Sam said.
“It’s not like I wanted this, you know,” the creature said, wounded.
“What happened to your leg?” Teri asked
“What are you doing?” Sam hissed.
“Just being nice,” she whispered back.
“Fuck this stick bag. why be nice?”
“Because, I can.” She looked back at the skeleton, “Sorry about my asshole here.”
“You mean ‘asshole friend’, right?” The skeleton asked, cocking its head.
“No, he’s my asshole, shit just spews out of him.” She laughed at the dirty look Sam gave her.
“Ha. Ha. Ha. Potty humor. Ha. ha. Ha.” The skeleton gave something of a sigh. “I’m not sure what happened to my leg. It’s always been like that.”
“Can’t you fix it?”
The skeleton clanked a bony finger tip against its white bony chin. “I don’t know.” The skeleton reached down and tried to rotate the leg. It didn’t move move, but it tried to move.
“Why don’t you sit on that stump there?” Teri suggested. She jogged down the embankment they’d been hiding on. She glanced back up at Sam once at the bottom. She sighed, yep, they were almost completely visible.
The skeleton awkwardly sat. The twisted leg made the process difficult and slow. Its leg almost immediately sprang forward. It gripped its leg again, but only managed a bit of rotation.
Teri walked towards it, “May I?”
“Teri!” Sam cried, “Don’t go near it! It’ll turn you into one?”
“Hey! That’s not how it works, kid.” the Skeleton said harshly.
“That’s what my mom said!” Sam pouted.
“Your mom’s wrong.”
“Well, how does it work.”
The skeleton slumped. There was a fierce rattle as the bones bounced and jostled against themselves. The skeleton held its head in its hands. “I don’t know. I know the ways it doesn’t work, though. I know because I woke up holding my wife. I was, I was already like this.”
It looked up at the young man, “If she didn’t become a skeleton then, no one will from touching me.”
Teri had been inspecting the skeleton’s leg while the two had their back and forth. “Excuse me, there’s something down there.” She gestured towards his pelvis area.
“What?” The Skeleton popped his head off and brought it close. “Oh dear. How embarrassing. To be walking around this long with that there. How did it do that?”
It reached down through the pelvis pushed a beaded latex device down thourgh his pelvic hole. It rotated its hips to unwrap the short thing from around its leg.
“Fuck.” The skeleton looked up to the sky. “Can you help. It’s stuck, right there.” The skeleton popped its head back on and held onto the device while pointing with the other hand.
Teri reached down and found where it was pinched. She gently tugged on his leg while pulling on the device. It popped out of the hip joint. The skeleton’s leg released and rotated back into a normal forward facing direction.
The skeleton made a throat clearing sound. “Um, you should go wash your hands.”
“Why? What was that?” Teri asked.
The skeleton shook its head. “Nothing for a girl like you to worry about.”
“Me? I’m almost an adult!”
“Well, maybe you’ll understand it then.” The skeleton stood. “That feels so much better!” It jogged in place, then did some jumping jacks, and finally a little jig.
“Amazing!” It cried. “Thank you so much young lady. There’s no way I can ever repay you, but if there’s anything I can do for you let me know.”
“How?”
The skeleton rubbed its chin. It made a grating sound every time the joint of a finger rubbed against the jaw bone. “I’ve been told that a bone of a skeleton can summon the skeleton. I’m not sure if it’s true, but we’ll see, right?”
The skeleton glanced at his various bones. He took his pinkie and tore the tip off from his left hand. “Here.” He reached out to hand the bone to her.
She tentatively took the bone from him. She looked up at him with big eyes. “Wow, thank you. What’s your name?”
“Huh, I haven’t thought of my name in such a long time. Why not call me Pete.” Pete nodded. “Yea, I like the sound of that.”
“Where are you off to, Pete?” Teri asked.
“I’m off to see if I can find an enclave. I hear there’s one up in Washington, up close to one of the mountains.” Pete quickly looked down at the young lady, “Fuuuuck.”
“Look, just forget about what I just said. There’s nothing up there. I’m a lone skeleton wondering. Forced from where I was resting. I was resting.” Pete’s voice seemed to catch on something.
“I’m alone too.” Teri said.
“Hey you have me!” Sam called.
“No, I’m alone, I don’t have my family any more. My dad couldn’t handle things any longer. I wasn’t home.” Teri sniffled. “I’m found them later.
Pete squatted in front of her, “Teri, you aren’t alone, Sam up there’s your family. Found families are some of the most powerful and meaningful in the world.
“When you’re an adult, you get to define who your family is. Not just who you grew up with. It can be really freeing.”
Teri got the sense the Skeleton would have been smiling. “I hope you find your family wherever you’re going, Pete.”
“Thanks. I better get going. Someone might get the wrong idea.” Pete waved to both kids and walked away. Each step was confident. He may have still rattled and shook, but he no longer dragged his foot.
Years later, Teri cowered against the wall. Sam was in a rage, again. He’d been drinking. He was screaming at her. His face was red. His neck bulging, veins protruded on each side. He spat as he talked.
Sam turned his back on her. He staggered towards the cupboard. One held more booze, the other his weapon.
Teri whispered to herself, go left. get the booze. pass out drunk again.
He veered right.
Fuck.
Teri bumped into a bookshelf as she ran to get away. She staggered to the ground. She heard Sam slam home something in the weapon.
A little bone bounded towards her. She caught it. “Pete, please help me.” She sobbed into the finger tip.
“That fucking perverted skeleton.” Sam laughed. “Ha, he’s not going to help you. If he was going to, he’d have come a while ago.”
Teri staggered to her feet. Sam was towering over her. He raised his weapon, it was some barreled club, with a spear on it. He’d found the weapon years ago. He’d found a way to add the spear thing on it. He swung the weapon towards her, but held it against his shoulder and pointed at her. She lunged back and pulled the bookshelf in the way. It exploded into pieces around her. There was an earth shattering boom.
Then suddenly, Pete was there. He grabbed the weapon and pulled it out of Sam’s hand. He punched Sam in the face once, bone on nose made a sick squelching sound.
Sam dropped.
Pete dropped the weapon on top of him.
“Pervert, huh. I guess you did learn what it was, then.” Pete let out his slow dry laugh.
“Take me with you?” Teri sobbed
“Of course, you need to get me out of here! wherever here is!”
Teri laughed, “Oh, right, of course. Let’s put some of Sam’s clothes on you. I’ve got a festival mask you can wear.”
The two quickly made their escape. Teri never returned to Sam. There’s stories to this day of a woman roaming about with a pack of skeletons. Some say she’s their leader. That she’s some sort of Necromancer constantly expanding their group. Other’s say she’s a witch and she fuels her life from children who grow into skeletons.
Only Teri and Sam know the truth. Sam was the case of a broken man who shattered. He’s a skeleton now, buried in the communal grave for the unloved and poor.
Teri had found her family.