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The whole process was mystifying to the woman as she watched her brother butcher his kill. His hands moved with a surety she herself never had, tracing invisible lines with a small blade that she would never be able to envision. He skinned the beast, folding the hide and setting it down, before setting out to remove organs and meat from the body itself. Parts she saw as useless were kept, for purposes she couldn't fathom; he seemed to know what was used and what wasn't, and most of it was used. Another separation in the mind of his sister, who was fast believing they were far too different now.
Her eyes moved from the carcass to him, watching his arm brush hair away from his face before setting out to bury what appeared to be a large and fleshy organ that dripped blood. The heart. For a moment, she felt nauseous, not often faced with evisceration on such a clean scale. After the item was put beneath the ground, he spoke words she couldn't understand, words that Marlowe and Ezekiel knew. And then he paused, stopping his movements. She knew that he knew she was there.
She still didn't step forward, but she let out a sigh. "Why do you do that?" she asked, voice filled with common curiosity as well as unease. It seemed religious, but she had never encountered such ritualistic things in her day-to-day life. If she were faced with the same project, she was certain she'd leave most of the animal behind for the birds, and would feel no guilt in doing so. But Ezekiel had a practice that he underwent at that moment, and she wondered if God smiled down on it or if he simply didn't care anymore.
Her feet finally carried her to his side, crouching low to the ground and wrapping her arms under her knees. She didn't ask anymore questions, but they filled her mind to the brim anyways. Instead, she reached out with a careful hand to touch her brother's arm, staring at the upturned earth that covered what had once pumped life into the now motionless animal remains.
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