In a Handful of Dust

The prongs dug deeper into Lucy’s neck, and she felt a trickle of blood slip down her skin. “I’ll do her in, Lander, don’t think for one second I won’t.”

The big man’s eyes searched Lynn’s, then Lucy’s, sliding off her face down to the burn mark left on her collarbone from the earlier shock. “You’re a cold woman, Lynn.”

A white sheet flipped off the second bed in the room, and Ben staggered from the darkness, eyes heavy with sleep. “What’s going on?”

The jolt of electricity going into her neck sent Lucy to the ground in an instant, her teeth grinding against one another.

“Holy shit,” she heard Ben say. “She actually did it.”

Lynn’s hand was on her neck and hauling her to her feet before Lucy trusted her own legs, and she buckled slightly against the older woman.

“And I’ll keep doing it, ’til she’s of no more use and you all die a dry death.”

Lander watched the two of them, his mind moving much faster than Lucy’s as she struggled to stay on her feet. “I don’t know I need her all that much, really. Ben says she was confident about those flags yesterday, wasn’t she, son?”

Ben came forward to stand next to his father. “She was,” he said enthusiastically. “Although if you think sticking her again might make Dad change his mind, go ahead and do it. I haven’t seen a girl dance in a long time.”

“Listen,” Lynn said, her voice barely masking the beginnings of a quiver. “I don’t—”

“LANDER!” Nora’s scream ripped down the hall, her robe flapping behind her making her seem like a white specter in the darkness. She ran awkwardly, limbs still deadened by the jolt Lucy had given her. “She’s got away from me!”

Lynn turned toward this new threat, and Lucy’s legs collapsed without her support. Nora careened to a halt, grabbing the doorway to stop herself and glaring at the huddled form in the darkness of the hall.

Lucy peered up at her, a new kind of electricity surging through her limbs as her body warned her to get up, to get away from Nora, seconds before the older woman fell on her.

“You ungrateful little bitch!” Nora screamed, blood trickling from one nostril as she smacked at Lucy’s face. Lucy fended off her blows, scooting herself up against the wall. From the corner of her eye she saw Lynn barrel into Lander with all her strength, barely knocking him off his feet. The two of them rolled into Ben together, sending him into the wall. The hard click of Ben’s teeth slamming together ricocheted around the room, and the moon came back out for another moment, turning the blood that flowed from his mouth a dark purple and starkly illuminating his own fascination with it as he lifted his stained fingers in front of his face.

Lucy pulled her Taser from her belt and slammed it against Nora’s torso, forcing the other woman away from her before delivering the shock. Nora jerked and was still, a matching stream of blood now flowing from the other nostril.

Lynn screamed as Lander bent her arm behind her back, forcing her face down into the carpet and digging his knee into her spine. Lucy dove for Lynn’s Taser, knocked free during their struggle. Lander let her have it, eyes watching her as she rose.

“I’ve got all kinds of ways I can hurt this one, little girl,” he said, teeth stained with blood from where Lynn had got a good kick in. “You know I will.”

Bright-blue electricity jumped from the prongs. “Get off of my mom.”

Lander bent Lynn’s arm upward. She writhed but refused to cry out, bringing a blood-tinged smile to his face. “She’s not your mom.”

“The hell she isn’t,” Lucy said, grabbing Ben from where he lay and digging both Tasers into either side of his neck. “Now you give her back to me or Ben’s dead, and not missed by many.”

“That’s more true than you know,” Lander said. “Go on then.”

Lucy felt the thunder roll through the room as clearly as the rage that pulsed through Ben as he knelt in front of her, disbelief sagging his shoulders. “Dad?”

“What?” Lander asked. “You really don’t think I can make one better than you?” He reached down and touched Lynn’s hair with fondness, despite the fact that his other hand was still threatening to crack her arm in half. “This woman here and me combined? Now that’s something I want to see.”

Ben sprang so quickly Lucy lost her grip on the Tasers, one of them nearly sliding from her sweaty palm. Ben hit Lander in a ball of fury, his attack so unexpected it sent his father reeling off Lynn, who dragged herself out of the way as the two struggled. There was a loud crack and a squeal of pain from Ben, and then Lucy was above both of them, jamming the Tasers into Lander’s temples and delivering a jolt that sent electricity flowing from father to son as their entwined limbs danced.