Hand Crossbow
HAND CROSSBOW. (See also, ARCHERY, CROSSBOW) The hand crossbow is a petite version of the crossbow that can be fired with one hand and that discharges an arrow that, though small, can cause more damage than its appearance would suggest.
Unpublished manuscript, "Bad As They Seem"
Author: Hayden Collins
Undated
Bleached paper, typewritten, 8.5x11 in
-16-
Not every monster must be slain. There had been a time when the twins lives had contained neither monster nor murder. But perhaps some monsters could become allies. Could become weapons.
Fin had been gone for three days. Her hallucinations took her suddenly and completely, and this time she was on the hunt when consciousness left her. She awoke covered in mud and mosquito bites, hungry, and grateful that the gators had disappeared from the swamps. Jos had not noticed her absence, but Lynch had been nervous, and looked relieved when she returned
During Fin's first vision, the snake had spoken of initiation. The visions of the past days left her certain now: She could not trust Lynch, and she would have to summon the snake of her own volition to complete the ritual it had begun. Fin spoke to no one of her plans, uncertain who she could trust.
Fairy tales had long warned her of the treachery of snakes, but for now she chose to trust. Murder was always an option later.
Seven snakes must be caught, entranced, and then released: messengers to call the snake of her vision back to her side. This was no rudimentary summoning. This involved the boundaries of the Land of the Dead. A length of iron, a dog, and a palm frond, laid on the shore, would also be required.
The Seven would carry her message. But because she was wary, she also purchased a syringe, wrapped in brown paper. When she removed the paper from the metal curves of its length, a greenish glow shone through the glass: the antibody, the antidote, the cure that, she hoped, would see her through if superstition failed her.
Unpublished manuscript, "Bad As They Seem
Author: Hayden Collins
Undated
Bleached paper, typewritten, 8.5x11 in
-17-
The shore writhed with their long bodies in smooth wave-like crests, and the mass continued out into the water of the Bayou. Many had come, though not the one Fin had called. Not yet.
Hundreds of fangs had already sunk their hollow points into her flesh. Thousands more surrounded her now, waiting for the chance. Her body ached. She had spoken seven words over each of the seven snakes she had released, and they had called their brethren.
She forced the syringe's point through the skin of her left arm, forcing the plunger down just as she began to lose consciousness. But as her eyelids began to fall shut, she caught sight of a silhouette.
It approached through the water, enormous. She forced her eyes open and faced it. Would it be adversary or diplomat?
The snake was a combination of the most venomous locals: The keeled scales of the Canebrake, and the black crossbands ringing a beige body. The elliptical pupils of the Cottonmouth. The broad head of the Copperhead. The rattle of the Diamondback and the hydrophilia of the Coral snake. It was the biggest snake she had ever seen, tall as a house with a body thick and solid as a dozen trees lashed together.
More venom than blood now pulsed in her veins. She began to convulse, struggling to remain standing so as to face the approaching beast. She need not have bothered. As it sped forward, the snake opened its mouth and enveloped her in one smooth motion, continuing on into the night. Its brethren soon had abandoned the shallow waters as well, no longer compelled to remain by the summoning ritual. The bayou fell silent, a single cricket the only singer who dared break the silence.
Unpublished manuscript, "Bad As They Seem"
Author: Hayden Collins
Undated
Bleached paper, typewritten, 8.5x11 in
-18-
Fin's body was found on a muddy bank by passing hunters. It had been seven days. Devil knows why they even bothered to carry her back to town, where they delivered her silently to the doorstep of a doctor. They might have mistaken her for a corpse.
She was alive, but badly disfigured - bones broken or crushed, skin scalded by digestive acid - and thickly coated with mucus. The doctor assumed that she would not survive, but allowed her to occupy the single bed in his practice while he attempted to locate her kin. But she healed quickly, and the doctor, who was a devout Christian and could not attribute what he saw to an act of God, gave up the case, and threw her out without ever learning her name.
The flesh wounds did not scab, but scaled. Where the skin on the right half of her skull had been peeled away, her head was now covered with fig-sized green scales, as were her forearms and large swaths of her legs. She did not speak, and her movements had become more fluid. To look into her eyes - with pupils now shrunken and stretched to oblong slits - was to confront a being both cold and alien. She was no longer twinned.
She walked from the doctor's house to her own door, where she found Jos and Allison sat before the fire. Her first words were spoken in a dry but certain hiss, as they had been spoken to her as she traveled with the snake:
Lynch cannot be trusted.
Unpublished manuscript, "Bad As They Seem
Author: Hayden Collins
Undated
Bleached paper, typewritten, 8.5x11 in
-3-
It took all night to clean the blood from the floor. The twins burned the bodies in the fire of the forge, and in its heat they fashioned two identical knives that they would carry with them for the rest of their lives. When the first customer arrived, they did not hesitate to speak of the murder. In the face of a visit from a local law man, Durant was handed the blame, and they were left alone
They remembered their uncle-father over a single shot of whiskey every night until the bottle was empty, and they called an end to their mourning. Fin became obsessive in her dedication to fashioning crossbow bolts. They barely spoke.
One morning, two strangers entered the shop: One a woman, one a man, both outfitted in the rugged style of gunslingers, both showing the wear and dirt of long travels. The story of the blacksmith and Durant had reached them on the other side of the country.
"You killed Durant." The woman offered no other greeting.
"That was what he said he was called." The woman, a stranger, could not tell yet the twins apart and did not know who spoke, though she had already been told their names.
The woman nodded toward the weapons displayed on the walls. "You made these?" Identical nods answered her. "You know how to use them?"
Jos picked up her crossbow, strung it, and shot the man, who had hung back in the doorway, silent and grim. He groaned and fell on to his knees, then to one side. The woman, who had not flinched, not even looked down as the man beside her fell, smiled.
"I would like to place an order with the smith."
