Oliver Benjamin
but she kicked at him. He grabbed her legs and pulled them apart.
She tried to fight but it was no use. He thrust himself deep inside her.
She cried out and he pressed on her windpipe with his muscular
thumb.
“I’ll be taking you back down then.” He grunted as he invaded
her, her breath gagging in her throat, the dark wood turning and
quiet and peaceful all around.
As he pushed at her, Bean became increasingly aware of an
ambient sound rising all around the graveyard. It sounded like the
animals were coming to watch: footfalls and rustling and chatter.
When he turned to look he saw that they were not animals but
people.
“Unhand her, you bastard,” General Heck demanded.
“Who the fuck are you?” Bean said.
“We are the guardians of the garden!” Izzy announced.
Bean pulled out and yanked her head around to face the
assembled crowd. She coughed and sputtered up the brackish
pondwater as the air and light came rushing back.
“You set me up! You fucking bitch,” he said, “You knew I would
hide out here.”
“She didn’t tell us anything, man,” Bennie said, “We came to find
her because we love her.”
“Yak and Sprout had a date here,” Izzy explained, “He told me
this is where she went when she wanted to hide.”
But Bean did not know Yak and would not listen to them. Rage
pumped in his ears as he withdrew the knife from the crumpled pants
on the shore and flung himself at the dazed form in the center of the
lake. The blade plunged into her soft belly and her scream caused the
birds of the garden to burst from the trees like a cloud of black
smoke. She twisted and pulled away, clawing towards to the rocks
with Bean’s hand on her ankle, water of her mortality pouring from
the barren womb.
But before he could pull her back into the hole, a hard and heavy
object struck him on the side of the head. He released his grip.
Sparkling all around caused him to turn and see the avalanche of
boxes hurled into the pond sending increasing waves of tremor
through his flesh. He could no longer move his heavy limbs—the
electric current from scores of powerful batteries had turned the
small body of water into a soup of free electrons, and it was into this
undifferentiated field of energy that Bean Unbearable now found
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