Read Online Fiction River: Moonscapes by Fiction River - Free Book Online

moment to catch my breath, then held up the toy. “I saw what the bear saw.”
    She crossed her arms over her chest, hugging herself. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
    “He beats you.”
    “He ... he just has a temper. It’s something we’re dealing with.”
    It was what I expected her to say, and changing her mind wasn’t why I was there. “I don’t care about that. I just need to know if he’s hitting your daughter.”
    She touched her throat. “Alexa?”
    “He ever laid a hand on her?”
    “No! No, he’d never do that! He’s not that kind of man.”
    “But he’s the kind of man who hits his wife?”
    Her blush was an unnatural one, reddening her ears and her neck but leaving her cheeks pale. Another side effect of the bioshaping, most likely.
    “Mister Duff,” she said tersely. “This is a family matter. I assure you that if he ever, ever , so much as laid a finger on Alexa, I and my daughter would be gone in an instant. And he—he loves us! He may have flaws, but he really loves us!”
    I didn’t know what to say. On some level, she was probably right. He probably did love them. After all, why else would he keep erasing the bear’s memory rather than just get rid of the toy altogether? But just because he loved them didn’t mean he was good for them. It didn’t mean he could control his urges. My own urges may have been different than his—I never laid a hand on my wife or child, and never would—but it was becoming clear to me that Strawn and I were more alike than I cared to admit.
    “What’s going on here?”
    It was Strawn. I turned and there he was, coming up the steps like a hulking ape. His jaw was set, and his hands were clenched into fists. Those fists looked as big and solid as barbells.
    “Just having a word with your wife,” I said.
    He continued upward until he stood on the same step as me. “I came back because I forgot the money, and I find this ... I don’t remember hiring you as a family counselor, Dexter.”
    I smiled. “Consider it a free bonus.”
    “You betray my trust, sir. Go inside, Meladine.”
    She closed the door without a word. The two of us stared at one another. The wind picked up, rippling the yellow leaves. His white hair, like packed snow, didn’t stir at all.
    “Give me the bear and I’ll forget this transgression,” he said.
    “Why did you erase its memory?”
    “That’s not your concern. Give me the bear.” He held out his hand. “I paid you to do a job, and you’ve done it. If you know what’s good for you, you’ll hand it over. Now .”
    He reached for it. I took a step back. With a growl, he threw a left haymaker at my head. I saw it coming, but he was faster than I thought he would be, and he managed to clip my jaw. It was like being hit by a sledgehammer. Tasting blood, I staggered and tripped on the step, falling on my hands. The bear rolled away.
    My ears were still ringing, but I saw his right foot surging toward my chest. I twisted away and grabbed his leg and sent him sprawling backwards. The anger took hold of me then, a white hot rage that lit up my body like an electric current. I was on him in a flash, a whirlwind of fists pummeling his head. After the first few blows, he lay limp, but still I punched on, the blood darkening his face.
    “Don’t hurt my Daddy!”
    Alexa’s girl’s cry hit me like a bucket of cold water. Breathing hard, my eyes stinging with sweat, I stopped hitting Strawn and looked up. She stood in the doorway, her dress the same yellow as the leaves and shimmering in the same silken way. She cradled the Paqil against her, pressing its face against her chest.
    A memory slipped out of the black recesses of my mind: Linna’s face, the last time I saw her. Covered in blood on the floor of our apartment. Eyes glassy and unblinking. Then I remembered something, something I had long since forgotten. She had been holding a teddy bear of her own that day. It hadn’t been anything as fancy as a