Kai Delmas
May 20th 2022
A book slipped from my grasp and fell with an echoing thud.
Shit!
I froze. Just listened to the eerie quiet of the desolate library.
Nothing. No moans, no movement.
Sighing with relief, I checked my scribbled notes before grabbing some books. Big sciency ones.
God knew I didn’t know squat about what I was looking for, but dammit, one of them could be what I needed.
The books lay heavy in my backpack on my trek home but I was close to an old pawnshop I used to frequent before the world went to hell and wanted to take a little look-see.
I crawled through the smashed display window because of the damn chimes hanging above the door. I didn’t want to be ringing any dinner bells, now did I?
A shattered porcelain ballerina lay among the destruction. I gathered all the pieces I could find and was satisfied. Ears pricked, I headed home.
Safe inside, I retrieved the broken ballerina and placed her on my workstation. Mended figurines watched as I fixed her up, gluing everything back where it belonged.
As I finished, I heard a moan from below. I went to the fridge and pulled out a rotting slab of beef, opened the cellar door and threw it down.
Sighing, trying to keep tears at bay, my eyes wandered from the figurine to the books on viruses and Biology for Dummies.
I had to start somewhere.
Maybe one day I would be able to fix you, too.
Author Bio: Kai Delmas loves creating worlds and magic systems and is a slush reader for Apex Magazine. He is a winner of the monthly Apex Microfiction Contest and his fiction can be found in Martian and is forthcoming in Tree and Stone and several Shacklebound anthologies. Find him on Twitter @KaiDelmas.
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