Togi's Debt

Suki's Story
Part 1 "Togi's Debt"




Suki's father was an alcoholic
He drank so much, Suki's mother beat him with stick.
And chased him away.
Suki didn't miss him.
She resented what he had done to the family.
When she was a young woman
Her father came in to debt

"So it's the end of the month,
Togi,
And I see you empty handed."
Hissed the lizard. A large Iguanna in a white suit.
"I'm sorry," said Togi.
He cowered at the lizard's feed,
Crying and kissing his feet
"I need another month!
I just-"
The reptile stepped on Togi's head
It's claws dug into his scalp.
The reptile had no name for itself
Reptiles dont have a use for names
But those who knew him called him
The Deep
The Deep had long outlived
Anyone who knew the origin of the name
So it was just the deep
The strange bipedal Iguanna
His eyes were not on Togi, beneath him
But along the cieling
Following flies that whirled around the light

Togi spit, his tears spilling out onto the basement floor
He pleaded for mercy
For help.
No one helped
Togi was not in a friendly crowd.
At The Deep's left stood a Moth Man.
Slender with four arms.
He wore a derby between his large antennae
He smoked,
The cigarette tucked into his proboscis at the end of it's spiral
Like an instrument
Togi's painful whine reflected in the moth's kaleidoscopic eyes.
“Tell me Sydney.”
Hissed The Deep
The deep licked it's eye and bobbed
He tilted his bulbous head to the side to better look at the Moth
“How much money does he owe me?”
Sydney reached up to his cigarette and plucked it out
He exhaled through strange outlets

“Forty jons.” hummed Sydney
“Forty jons Deep.” exhaled Sydney
The Deep tightened his grip
“Forty jons of my own money that is not in my hand?” exclaimed the Deep
“That is a problem for me Togi.”
Togi cried but was unable to plead
The stench of the scales rotting at The Deeps sole
Was turmoil

“You must have something worth forty jons, Togi. Shouldn't he Sydney?”
“He's got legs. We can sell those for ten each.” hummed Sydney
Curling his clawed toe, The Deep loosened his grip on Togi
the claw hooked Toki's cheek, and strained his face upwards.
“Your legs can take the place of your debt Togi.”
“No! Look-Don't-Not my legs-” Togi stammered.
“Sydney tie him down please.”

Togi had always been fearful of dealing with The Deep
Stories abounded about how he dismembered those who wronged him
But it wasn't the fear of dismemberment that horrified.
It was the method.
No one dared to speak it
Horrified to even hint it.
But food for thought
Reptiles have terribly sharp teeth.

Togi kicked and struggled but was no match against the Sydney's four arms.
He pleaded but could not change their minds.
The Deep had begun to unbutton his suit.
“I don't want to get blood on it.” he said.
“No! Anything, anything of mine is yours! Please!”
“You have nothing you drunk leech.”
“I have a daughter!”
The Deep's head was tilted and twisted
So that his eye was looking down at the helpless Togi
“I find soft flesh a little beneath my tastes.”
“Then sell her!”
The Deep stopped.
He turned his head towards Sydney

“Sydney how much could a girl make me.”
“If she's fragile enough, we could sell her to Cue Ball for eighty jons.”
The Deep looked back at Togi
“Is that so...”
Reptiles had terrible memory
“Tell me Sydney, how much does Togi owe me?”
“He owes you much less than that Deep. You'd profit.”
The Deep licked his eye.
“Is that so...”

So that evening two samurai footmen went to Suki's home
They kicked the door in and held her mother at the sword.
The uglier one dragged poor Suki out by her hair and dragged her out to the street
Her neighboors ran out of their small homes and watched
The Deep was there, with Sydney and his samurai bodyguards
Balien the pimp to his right
The Deep made her look at him.
Like a ravenous animal she glared at her captor
Blood welling up behind her teeth she spat at him
He turned her face with his rough scaly claws
“What do you think Balien?”
The bulbous pimp stroked his chin. His skin digustingly pink
His fat stomach hung naked over his elegant leggings.
“She's fair, she's fragile indeed. And she is all yours?” asked Balien

Suki's mother screamed as she ran out of the house
She waved above her head the very same stick she had used to chase Togi away
She wacked the samurai who held Suki's hair across his head
Sending him tumbling down
She raised her arms to strike again
When another samurai impaled her chest
His sword reaching out from between her breasts

She looked down at Suki's horrified face
And whispered
“Be brave.”

A sick moan escaped her lips when the samurai withdrew his sword.

Her mother's blood dried on her face as she was taken to the brothel.

1.Image courtesy of Blaine Fontana