Of Flesh & Bone

CHAPTER 47

Eve

T he crowd at the game is intense since Eden is playing their longtime rival, Halebrook University.

Eden leads the entire game, but the play is violent with three of the Halebrook players being ejected from the game for unsportsmanlike conduct.

Ada and I are sitting together in a sea of crimson and black, our school's colors.

The beer sold in the concessions has been died red, and at least half of the fans on Eden's side have their faces painted with the Eden University symbol or our mascot, the Eagle.

Ada leans into me and yells so that I can hear her over the crowd. "I need a beer. You coming?"

Few things appeal to me less than wrestling my way through a bunch of drunken strangers hyped up on overpriced beer and school spirit but, oddly enough, I also don't want to sit here without Ada or let her brave the raucous crowd alone, so I nod and get up to follow her.

I am touched no less than thirty times on our way to the concession and at least twelve of those nonconsensual touches were not accidental on the part of the sloshed miscreants doling out the gropes.

A taser would be handy right about now .

I watch closely for any ass, or tit grabs perpetrated on Ada.

I don't want to have to lose my shit on these assholes but I'm only willing to take so much.

If I weren't in such a hurry to get back to our seats, I would've performed a testicle twister on every one of those thunder cunts.

Ada and I have almost made it back to the entrance of the stadium seating area when she's knocked flat on her back by a group of douche cannons running out of the same door we're trying to get through.

She's about to take a drink when she hits the ground hard, causing her crimson-dyed beer to spill all over her face and splatter onto the ground around her head.

I stare down at her motionless as the blood spreads out from her head in a pool. A pool of blood.

Suddenly, the stadium is gone. The crowd fades away and I'm back there.

Sprinting to the top of the stairs, hesitating once I'm there. Again, I look back to see the man at the bottom of the steps looking down at the limp body in his arms. I push the door open further and the sight has me staggering backward into the open door.

It's a kitchen. There's a body on the floor and I hear commotion in the room behind me.

There's no time to think. I run in the direction opposite of the clattering sounds.

This is a smaller room. There are two doors in here.

I open the first and find that it's a closet.

There are metal boxes and wires running everywhere but no way out.

I turn to the other door which looks heavier.

I suck in a huge breath of air and turn the knob pulling the door open quickly.

When I open the door, I can't believe what I am seeing.

The breath escapes my mouth in a gasp. It's night, but that isn't shocking to me.

It has felt like night my whole life. I never could imagine the sunshine even though I've read about it so many times in so many different books.

I step out onto the stone steps with bare feet and into the night air.

The air that feels clear and smells fresh.

The air that doesn't burn my eyes or sear my lungs.

I heave in a quivering breath as tears blur my vision.

A lie. It was all a lie. The girl was right. They all were. What have I done?

I run. Having no idea where I'm going, but I run anyway.

I race for the gate, swinging it open as soon as I reach it.

Continuing on past the fence, I run right into a person.

A man. Someone I've never seen before, but I see recognition in his eyes.

I don't know him, but he knows me. I'm so confused, so hurt, so completely out of my element that he is able to act quicker than me.

He must have already had the cloth in his hand because I don't see him reach for anything other than my face.

He places the cloth over my mouth and nose, instantly blurring my vision and scorching my lungs and nasal passages.

Quickly, my legs go limp, and I lose focus. Everything goes dark.

It's so dark....and cramped. When I attempt to stretch out my feet, I hit metal. The same thing happens with my head and arms. Where am I? My head is pounding, and I still smell whatever was on that cloth. It's like that scent imprinted in my nostrils.

Thankfully, I'm accustomed to the dark, so it doesn't take my eyes long to adjust to my surroundings and I can see fairly well. Beneath me is a rough fabric. Around me is metal except for whatever is to my right. It's similar to the rough fabric that I'm lying on.

I'm not sure what I'm inside of, but it's moving.

It's a steady, soft bounce and every now and then, a force slides me to one side or the other.

It's not until the moving ceases that I realize I'm in a car.

The trunk. I've never been in a car. I've never even seen a car, but I've read about them.

All I've done all my life is read. Read and fight. Fight and kill.

This time, when the tears threaten to fall, I welcome them.

I let them fall in torrents down my face.

I don't dare make a sound because I still don't know what's happening.

I don't know who that man was or if he is even the one driving this car, but I do know that I don't want whoever is in this car to know that I'm awake and, before long, I'm not. I cry myself to sleep.

Awoken again sometime later, I hear a door shutting.

The car door. I go deathly still and quiet, listening to the sound of footsteps crunching rocks on the ground.

I hear a click and there's movement above me.

The ceiling is opening. I close my eyes and relax every muscle in my body.

My shoulder is pushed, and I allow my body to sink with the force.

"Beautiful Slayer" a deep gruff voice says above me. "He'll pay top dollar to get you back."

The man leans over me, grabbing my hips and throwing me over his shoulder.

I take this moment to survey my surroundings.

There are thick, tall trees on every side.

We're in a small clearing. The only thing here is us and a small log cabin.

I can't let him take me in there. He's not a big man, but he's bigger than me and I don't know who else might be in there. I won't be trapped again. Never again.

I don't have strength over this man, but years of survival have taught me that no one is faster, and no one is more cunning than I am.

Using all the speed I have, I wrench one leg from his hold and move it to the other side of his head.

He doesn't react in time to stop me, but he clamps down on the leg that's still in his grasp, just as I knew he would.

This movement swings my body sideways, allowing me to have one leg at the front of his throat and one leg at the back of his neck.

My body is hanging off the side of his and I just allow myself to dangle there.

It will hurt less when we hit the ground if my body is loose, and we are going to hit the ground.

I twist my legs together, tightening my grip on his throat with all of the power that I have in my legs.

He's clawing and punching at my legs, trying desperately to get me off of him.

His attempts at saving himself are so feeble that I know this man wasn't trained by the Master.

This man is no slayer. I clench my thighs tighter as he gurgles and splutters.

I can't see his face, but I know that it has turned purple by this point.

He changes tactics now realizing that attacking my legs is futile and he punches me in the ribcage.

The breath is knocked from my lungs, but I don't let up. This is survival. This is what I know.

Soon, he falls to his knees as his whole body begins to convulse.

I protect my head with my arms but keep my upper body as limp as possible.

Finally, he falls forward onto his face both of us hitting the ground hard and still, I don't let up.

I keep my legs wrapped in an unyielding grip on his throat.

I count out six minutes in my head before releasing him.

Scrambling to my feet, I look around frantically. If anyone had been in that cabin, they might've heard the car pull up or heard the struggle, although it was a fairly quiet death. The cabin must be empty, but I'm not willing to risk my freedom to check it out.

I search the area around me until I find what I'm looking for.

A large rock. If I have learned anything in all these years of survival, it's that you assume nothing, so I won't be assuming that this man is dead.

I pick up the rock and walk over to the penis loaf that had the audacity to abduct me and bring down the rock onto the back of his skull once.

..twice...three times. I feel the blood hit my face with the first contact.

I watch the bone splinter with the second contact, and I feel the soft pink material on my arms with the third. Brains means dead every time .

I stand back up, wiping my face and arms the best I can.

I need to get this off of me . Brains are the worst. As I walk over to the big red car, I see a small black leather bag in the backseat.

In the bag are two shirts, a belt, one pair of pants and a pair of shoes.

It's only now that I realize I'm not wearing shoes.

I never wear shoes. I don't even own a pair.

I feel an odd excitement as I pull the large grey shoes onto my feet.

This isn't how they're supposed to fit, but I'm going to wear them anyway.

I remove my shirt and use a shirt from the bag to clean myself up.

Then I put the spare shirt on. It's also too big, but it fits better than the shoes.

My only way out of here is my feet or this car and I don't know how to drive. It's one thing that none of the books I've read ever explained in great detail. I know there's a gas pedal and a brake pedal. I know the keys turn the thing on, but I don't know what to do with them to make that happen.

First, I search for the keys and can't find them anywhere in the car. This means he must still have them on him, so I rifle through the dead man’s pockets until I find them. There are two keys on the key ring along with a key chain that says, 'IT technician because BADASS MOTHERFUCKER was taken'.

I chuckle quietly before speaking aloud. "So much for that BADASS MOTHERFUCKER title, eh? I'm fourteen and you're a corpse." Shit. I think I'm fourteen. What else has been a lie?

The laughter continues all the way back to the driver's seat and I don't know if I'm laughing at my insult to Mr. IT or if I'm laughing to keep from crying.

I look all over until I find a slot that one of these keys might fit into.

The first key I try fits perfectly. It feels like an eternity has passed by the time I figure out that the key has to turn and be let go, and then another eternity to figure out the relationship between shifting and the pedal on the left.

Finally, I'm ready for motion and it doesn't take long to learn the different options on the handle. Two are stop, one is forward, one is backward. Unfortunately, I need to go backward. I put the car in R and learn fairly quick which pedal is the brake and which is the go.

The car rocks when I hit a big bump with the back tires.

"Ope. My fault, badass motherfucker." I keep going and the front tires roll over him next.

There's finally a point where I can move forward, and my first thought is good thing you're already dead as I drive over badass motherfucker one final time.

The road isn't paved, but there are no choices to make.

It's just a curvy dirt road with no possible turn off, so I know I'm going the right way for now, at least. I can't resist the various buttons and switches, so I try them all.

The radio is an absolute treasure of a discovery. Through the speakers, I hear:

If I leave here tomorrow

Would you still remember me?

For I must be traveling on now

'Cause there's too many places I've got to see

I don't know the words, but I know the feeling. Rolling down the window, I can feel the clean night air on my skin, and I cry. I let the tears fall and I don't try to wipe them away. I'm free from the cage I didn't know I was in.

'Cause I'm as free as a bird now

And this bird you cannot change

I'm not sure how long I drive before I come to a point where I have to turn so I choose left based solely on the fact that I am left-handed.

I'm not on this new road long before I see pavement.

I see cars and trucks. People . People living in the free world that has been hidden from me for fourteen years.

I'm feeling so many things in this moment.

I'm overwhelmed in a way that I haven't been in many years.

I have no idea what to do next. How will I get food or even stay free?

Will there be someone else who wants to lock me up and use me?

Putting my face in my hands, I sob. I sob with everything I have even though I don't have much.

I cry so hard that I don't notice when the car begins to roll.

I've taken pressure off of the brake and the car rolls directly into traffic.

There's nothing the other cars can do to miss me. The first car hits me right in the driver’s side door, catapulting me into the opposite lane and into the path of a truck that hits me head-on.

The first thing I remember is walking. My feet are moving one in front of the other when a man walks up to me.

He's dressed really nice. He's clean and wearing all black.

There are patches with insignia on his arms. He's speaking softly.

He has one hand stretched out toward me and then I notice.

The belt. His belt is full of weapons. A threat. This man is a threat.

...........................

"Eve!" I blink my eyes when I hear my name. "Eve! Are you okay?" Ada is standing in front of me now. Her skin is stained red, and her hair is wet. Ada. No. No, no, no.

In a whisper, I hear myself say, "I remember you. It was you."

"Eve, are you okay? Should I get a doctor?"

"Ada." I reach out and feel the back of her head. She places both hands gently on my arm as I feel her scalp.

"Yeah. Yeah, Eve. It's me. We're okay. Okay?"

I feel it. I feel the bare patch of skin where she was once in a basement knocked to the ground by a killer. This killer.

"It was you." Tears burn my eyes, and bile rises in my throat. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." My heart pounds in my chest, threatening to explode.

I have to go. I have to get out of here. I have to protect them. All of them. From me. It's me. I'm the threat.