The Kingmaker

2 - Pretty

As it turned out, the woman did dial the district attorney before they left, and she even delivered Eden’s threat with decent accuracy. She managed to make Eden sound far more hysterical than she had been, but that wasn’t something she was about to throw a fuss over. She had to pick her battles carefully. She knew what kind of city she lived in, the disgusting corruption that existed here. Crime and law went hand in hand. Maybe she didn’t understand all of it, but she would learn whatever she needed to learn on the way.

Until she found justice for her mother, her father, and her sister who lay dead in the morgue, Eden wouldn’t stop. Who cared what the DA’s office said, about how her mother had made far too many enemies in her six year career as the city’s police commissioner to narrow down the suspects? Who cared about the supposed paralysis of the system in the face of such messy odds?

Someone had done this to them, and Eden would make them pay no matter what it took. She had nothing else to lose, anyway.

An hour and a half later after Mrs. Hoggsfan had driven them to the local McDonald’s for a 2 AM sympathy meal, they were now on their way to some kindly old woman’s house where she would stay the night. No chance of returning to her own blood-splattered house, of course, where her family had suffered ‘til their last breaths in agony. Eden leaned her forehead against the cold window of the rear, right-side passenger window and looked out into the night, straining to push back the cold, suffocating weight that threatened to close around her again.

How could it be so hard to push this feeling away, she wondered, when closing off her emotions to others had come so naturally all her life? What was so different about grief that made it so monstrous, so horrific, so powerful? She could barely breathe.

Maybe she was dying, she thought. Maybe she was already dead and she didn’t know it. That meant an afterlife existed, and if this wasn’t hell, then she didn’t know what was.

She closed her eyes, quietly enduring the car’s stale air conditioning and the infuriating rattling of the car’s brakes every time they stopped at an intersection. At least the woman wasn’t trying to talk to her. She liked that. Liked it a lot, actually. And now that she thought about it, not once had the woman tried to throw a hug on her as if it were some kind of medicine that would heal all the wounds they couldn’t see. Not once.

Hm. Maybe Mrs. Hoggsfan wasn’t so bad after all. She was already more tolerable than most, being so hands-off under the correct circumstances.

Eden’s eyes fluttered back open when the car began moving forward again. The streets were deserted, and these intersections had no cameras to watch for red light runners. If it were her, Eden thought privately, she would have just ignored them all and gone straight through them. There were no other cars around, anyway. No one to hit, no one to hit them, and no one to see. It seemed that even though the district attorney was as crooked as a ribbed bobby pin, his assistant was of a different breed. Annoying, but endearing.

The car picked up speed ever so slowly, and Eden continued to stare out into the darkness illuminated by only a few functioning street lights. If only the city funds didn’t all find themselves lining the pockets of its politicians, maybe people could get around safely at night. They wouldn’t have to worry about…

Eden squinted. Was that a car coming from over there on the right side of the intersection? Who else would be out at this hour? And why weren’t their headlights on? More importantly, were they just going to run the light on their side that she knew had to be red, since theirs had just turned green?

Oh, God. They were. They were so close already, how fast were they going -

“Mrs. Hoggsfan, stop - !”

No time. Nowhere to run. Eden braced herself, and then the world turned upside down.

How many times the car flipped over before it came to a ruinous, crashing halt a hundred feet away, she didn’t know. She was sure if she counted the rotations and could figure the approximate speed of the incoming Hummer, if she knew the weight of both vehicles and at what angle the impact had been delivered, she could calculate it in her head.

But all she knew now was red, red, red and pain and trembling as she shook in her seat. The car was upside down, somehow. No, not somehow. She knew how. Collision. T-boned, would be the vernacular. She almost giggled.

In the front seat, if she strained herself, she could see Mrs. Hoggsfan lying limp in her seat, eyes open and blank.

Dead?

“Mrs. Hoggsfan,” Eden croaked. She thought she could hear her own voice, but could she be sure? Maybe one more time in case this ridiculous ringing in her ears had magically swallowed her words.  “Mrs. Hoggsfan.”

No answer. Blood dripped down the deep lacerations that littered the woman’s face. Well? All right then, maybe dead.

Eden numbly undid the seat belt, and she found herself tumbling down onto the roof of the car, now littered with glass from the shattered windows. Oh, upside-down. Everything, just upside-down and wrong. She had to get out of here. She crawled through the shards, mindless of the cuts that dug into her skin. The frame of the car had twisted horribly, but she was small enough to slip out of the bent window with a little effort. The window was gone, after all. Nothing in her way. Absolutely nothing.

She pulled herself out onto the dark asphalt and choked on what ended up being a mouthful of blood. Blood? Yes. Definitely, unmistakable. And the wetness all over her face - that was blood, too. Streaming from her nose, from her face. Everywhere. Where did it end?

She tried to crawl forward a few feet, but collapsed uselessly into a pile on the hard ground. Something hurt. What was it? Where? She blinked slowly, numbly as she watched several pairs of boots approach through the darkness. Feet, that was all she saw. If only she could look up, but her neck was no longer responding.

The first kick knocked all the air out of her lungs, and she thought she might have screamed. She couldn’t be sure. The second one broke something - now that she was certain of. She felt every single rib that caved when the blows continued to come, a blood vessel bursting in her eye when her socket caught a steel-toed end.

Pain. Unspeakable. Was she dying? Was she dead?

More blows. No words. No voices. When would it stop?

Finally, someone kneeled down next to Eden and lifted her up by the collar of her blood-soaked t shirt. She stared blearily into his face through swollen eyes.

“Special delivery,” he said. “There’s more where that came from, if you don’t keep your head down like a good little girl and quiet the f**k down. Understand?”

Eden coughed. Her body convulsed with pain from the sudden movement.

“You’re very lucky. You get to live, not because you’re a cute little kid or because of your brains, but because someone thinks that it’ll be funny to see you come back for more. I think it’ll be funny, too.”

He paused to reach into his leather jacket with his free hand and pulled something out. He placed it in his mouth, still holding Eden’s torso up with his other hand. “Light,” he muttered through his teeth, his voice strangely muffled, and someone stepped forward to oblige him. The red cherry cinders at the end of the cigarette glared at Eden through the darkness.

“You’re going to be a very pretty girl if you grow up. I can see that kind of thing, you know.” The man took a long drag before blowing the smoke into her face.

She didn’t even have the strength to cough again.

“You wanna know why we broke just about every bone in your body but didn’t touch a hair on your little head?” he asked. He took his time before continuing, enjoying a few more mouthfuls of smoke and tapping the ashes away with a flick of his wrist. “It’s the other reason they’re letting you live. You’ve got brains, peach. It sure would be a waste if you lived the rest of your life as a vegetable. Would be good for a laugh, though. Shame. But can’t have your cake and eat it too, huh?”

He took a final drag from his cigarette before grinding the stub down on Eden’s thigh. She quivered.

“Take this as your warning, and it’s the only one you’re going to get, peach. We’re gonna call emergency services in a minute, and you’ll leave in a helicopter for a hospital that’s gonna put you back together again. And then you’re gonna stay there and live real quiet, understand?”

Eden’s eyes fluttered shut.

“Ah, s**t. We’re losing her. Call it in, now.”

Someone grunted in assent, and then the same voice began talking into what was probably a phone. Eden had enough functioning neurons to figure that much, somehow.

“Hey, peach. Isn’t that neat? You’ll get to ride in a helicopter. Bet you’ve never done that before. Makes me jealous.”

Eden could barely hear him anymore. His words floated in and out of her consciousness.

“Peach, stay with me. It’s not half as fun if you go out like this.” He slapped her across the face, sending blood splattering off to the side.

Eden’s eyes cracked open again, and they latched onto the silver cross that hung on a chain around the man’s neck. Crucifixion, she thought dimly. At least it wasn’t that bad.

“Hey, peach. Last thing. Feel free to come find me when you’re all grown up and pretty, alright?”

Eden would have smiled if she could move a single muscle. He should have killed her while he had the chance. He should have killed her ten minutes ago, five. Now.

Oh, I promise I will.