Culiseta Requiem - Judy Colella (english readers txt) 📗

The proboscis. An amazing thing, really. Gluck contemplated her own, thinking her last meal may have caused the slight crick in it. At least there was no pain.

“Whatcha doin’, Gluck?”

She swiveled one eye toward her mate – well, the most recent one – and decided to answer. “I think I got slightly injured during supper. See?” She stroked her marred facial feature with one leg.

“Nope. Don’t see nothin’.”

“Who taught you to speak?” She groused, annoyed at his lack of perspicacity. “Anyway, it’s there, even if you can’t see it. That reminds me, Sloop – did you find any water?”

“Yeah, I guess. Nice kinda pond thing a ways back. Real stagnant. I like it. Wanna see?”

Gluck realized she was getting tired of Sloop’s lack of decent conversation skills. Much more of this, and she’d have to either leave him or kill him. It hardly mattered either way. “Sure. Let’s go.”

As they flew off, Sloop decided to wax philosophical. “You never know,” he observed.

Gluck caught herself about to ask what it was he thought she never knew, but wisely chose silence. With any luck, the big idiot would forget what he’d been about to say.

“One minute you’re here, the next…splat!”

Nope. He hadn’t forgotten. “And your point?”

“It’s at the end of my face! Ha! Ha!”

“I’m going to bite you, Sloop.”

“No you ain’t. I’m your cutie, remember?”

“When did I ever call you that?”

“Dunno. Ya did, though.” His wings making a louder whine as he zoomed away, he headed downward toward a bit of water that to one of the Blood Giants would have been no more than a puddle.

Gluck followed, wondering why she bothered with Sloop at all. She lighted next to him on the ground at the edge of what to them was a pond. “Not bad.”

“Ever wonder where we go when we get squashed, or zapped, or keel over from old age, or – ”

“No.”

“Oh.”

Silence.

And then the irresistible aroma of fresh blood, wafting through the early evening air, stirring Gluck to action, while Sloop’s eyes bugged out a bit with anticipation. A second later, the ground began to shake as the two-legged Blood Giant lumbered into view.

“Mine!” Gluck rose into the air.

“Well, ain’t no one else around, Gluck – yours for sure, but you better share…uh-oh. Gluck, look out!”

She was so intent on the promising-looking veins snaking along the back of the Blood Giant’s hand, she never noticed its other hand hovering ever closer, waiting for her to start feeding. Crick or no crick, she plunged her proboscis into the –

SMACK!

“Aw, crap.” Gluck realized she was looking at what was left of herself smeared across the Giant’s hand. “Wait – how am I seeing me like this? I mean, I must be…er…”

“Dead?” supplied someone in a vaguely hollow voice.

“Huh?” Gluck turned and found herself staring at the strangest thing she’d ever seen.

Clearly, it was a mosquito – a female, from what she could tell – but it was mostly covered by something. The covering reminded her of certain items on the bipedal Blood Giants, only this also covered the mosquito’s head so that only her proboscis was visible. And a very impressive one it was, too. What else was impressive if totally incomprehensible, was the item it carried.

Gluck pointed one foreleg at it. “What’s that?”

“A scythe.”

“What?”

“A…never mind. Look, you’re dead, my dear, and I’m here to take you to the afterlife.”

“I have an afterlife? And who are you?”

“Yes, you do. I’m the Grim Reaper for all mosquito-kind. Every species has one, you know.”

“No, I didn’t.” She was suddenly reminded of Sloop, and wondered for a fraction of a nanosecond what he’d do now that she was gone. “What is this afterlife thing like, by the way?”

“Well, if you’ve been a good mosquito, you get to spend the rest of eternity feasting on Blood Giants that have been tied up so they can’t swat you. If you’ve been a bad mosquito and didn’t share your meals with the males, you spend eternity getting squished in millions of interesting ways.”

Gluck gulped. She was afraid to ask which one she had been, but then recalled all the blood she’d shared with the likes of Sloop and so many others. “Er, and I was, um, a good one, yes?”

“No, you were horrible.”

More silence.

“Just joking!” The Grim Reaper chuckled. “Come on – your eternal feast awaits, my dear!”

“Whew! Heh-heh!” Hmmm. Strange sense of humor, this Reaper had. “Well, lead the way!”

Back at the pond, Sloop contemplated the remains of his erstwhile mate which had been flicked off the Blood Giant’s hand with obvious disgust. “Well, there goes supper.” He gave a mosquito’s version of a shrug. “Wonder what happened to her when she – aw, heck, Gluck. You were a good ol’ gal. Gonna miss ya.”

Rising into the air, Sloop gave what was left of Gluck a kind of salute. “Better go find me another one, then, eh?” He looked into the growing darkness, saw what appeared to be a number of his kind hanging around by a street light, and whizzed off.

At about the same time, Gluck was contemplating once more. She was sitting on the exposed rump of a hapless Blood Giant, but was in no hurry to start feeding. After all, she had all of eternity, and just then, the sight of her meal lying there, helpless, was simply too lovely not to contemplate for at least a little while…

Text: Judith A. Colella
Publication Date: 10-12-2013

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