Wait Until Twilight by Sang Pak Page B

want.” He leads me into the other room and grabs the burlap bag out of the closet. “Here,” he says, and tosses it onto the bed, like it was a sack of potatoes. One of the babies partially pops out of the bag on impact. He grabs it brutally and it screams, “Eeeek!”
    “Damn! Look at this thing. It’s the ugliest thing you’ve ever seen, right? Disgusting, but you can’t take your eyes off of it. Here, take it.”
    “No, I shouldn’t.”
    “Don’t worry, they’re sturdy little bastards.” He shakes it and it squawks, “Kyaaa!” When he stops shaking it, the baby becomes still. It keeps looking at me and at the man. Back and forth, with fear in its eyes.
    “The smell,” I say.
    “That ain’t them. It’s the bag. It’s my skunk bag.” He hands me the baby, which I hold out from my body. He takes the burlap bag and dumps the other two babies onto the bed. “Put it down,” he says, so I gently lay it beside its siblings. “Not like that,” he says, and picks it up and slams it down as it squeals. “Got it, Mr. Fucking Compassion?” He pulls out his knife again and makes a cut on his own forearms. “See how sharp this knife is? See?”
    I nod my head.
    “Look.” He puts the blade close to my face. I don’t answer. I’m so scared it’s like reality is starting to tear apart right before my eyes.“Don’t look at me like that. Don’t look down on me, boy.” He pulls back the knife and slaps me across the cheek. The tears start coming down my hot face.
    “What do you want?” I yell at him, anger beginning to well up in me.
    “That’s the spirit!” He picks up one of the babies with his free hand and comes close to me. “Hit it.” I stand there, and he says, “What are you waiting for, you little faggot!”
    “Why are you doing this?”
    “Isn’t that why you came here?”
    “No, I just wanted to see them.”
    “Liar, you came to kill them.”
    “No, I’d never.”
    He takes the knife and makes another cut on his own forearm. “Eeeeek. Kyuuuuu!” The baby screams. Then he makes a cut in the part of his chest that’s exposed at the top of his shirt. “It’s getting closer, closer. If it gets any closer, it’s gonna cut him.”
    “Please don’t do this!”
    “Do what? How do you know what I’m going to do?” He looks at me squarely. “Hit or I start cutting…both together. All three of us will bleed. One happy family. Blood is blood. Death is life. Three for one. Thrice cuts the knife!” He stabs at my arm, grazing it.
    “Oh God, stop. Please,” I say. I’m crying, and I can’t stop. He makes a motion to stab again. Then I slap the baby, lightly grazing its cheek.
    “Eeeeek!” it says, then moves its mouth like a fish.
    “Again,” he says.
    “No.”
    “Look at it. It doesn’t even feel it.” He presses the tip of the knife against the baby’s belly. “Now hit it again.”
    I hit it again.
    “Eeeeek!” it says. The sound of it screaming gets under my skin.
    “Harder.” I do as he says. “Again! Again! Again!” I’m hitting, but it’s like I’m watching myself from above me, like I’m a ghost. “Good! Now choke it.”
    “Please stop.”
    “Okay, okay. You’re right. This one’s had enough.” He drops it onto the bed and grabs another one. “This one, then. Choke this one.”
    “No, please. Just let me go.”
    “You puked the moment you saw them. They disgust you as much as they disgust me. Now you’re about to disgust me, too.”
    “It’s all a mistake! I’m not disgusted anymore!” I say.
    “Liar.”
    He drops the baby on the bed and puts his knife back. Next thing I know, he’s got me by the throat, choking the life out of me. It feels the same as that day on the front porch here. The same inhuman grip. It was him. He presses me down on the bed, and I can feel the babies next to my head. “Now see what you made me do? Now see what you made me do, you fucking piece of shit!” It feels like my head’s expanding. My face feels