Eden (10 page)

As I was finishing up my homework, I heard the front door open; my mother was home. Heading downstairs, I asked my mother when dinner would be ready.

“Why?” she asked, “you have plans tonight?”

I could hear the wishful tone in her voice. She was hoping that I had patched things up with Eden.

“Yeah,” I answered, “I’m going to Kyle’s tonight.”

“Oh,” I couldn’t miss the disappointment in her voice, “Dinner will be around 5:30, as usual.”

“Ok,” I told her, “I’ll be in my room.”

Dinner was served promptly at 5:30. My father always got home a few minutes after and was always happy that dinner was ready and waiting for him when he opened the door.

We all gathered at the dinner table and swapped stories about the events of the day. Most of the talking was done by my father, he always had the most interesting stories to tell. This time, the conversation took a different turn; this time it was focused on me.

“So what’s this that your mother tells me,” He began, “you and Eden had a fight?”

“Kind of,” I told him.

“Did you make up?” he asked.

“Not yet,” I replied, “She isn’t talking to me.”

“Give it time, son” he reassured me, sagely.

“Yeah, thanks,” I said.

“I’m not too good at these father–son talks, am I?” he asked with a weak smile.

“You’re not so bad,” I reassured him.

“You’re better at it than I am,” he laughed.

“Guess I take after mom in that respect,” I laughed back

We both laughed at that.

The situation was a little more complicated than he made it sound, but how could he know the circumstances behind our break up? I didn’t foresee Eden and me getting back together at all. It was just too dangerous to be with her and it seemed that I had somehow insulted her in our argument last night and now she wasn’t talking to me anyway.

My mother looked like she wanted my father to ask more questions, but my father never got involved in other people’s business, even his son’s. He would give advice, but it was always up to me if I wanted to take it. He never asked too many questions and he never forced his opinion on anyone.

Dinner passed without a recurring third degree from either of my parents and at six on the dot, a knock sounded on the door.

My mother jumped, hope clearly visible on her face.

“Relax, Mom,” I said, “it’s only Matt.”

She quickly took her seat again, “Oh.”

“We are going to run to the mall real quick,” I explained, “Matt wants to get a book before we go to Kyle’s.”

“Ok,” my mother replied, “be careful, you know that I don’t like it when you cross the highway.”

“I will,” I promised, grabbing my jacket and heading for the door.

Outside Matt was waiting for me. There was a slight chill in the air and I was glad that I brought a light jacket with me.

“Get your homework done?” Matt asked as we set off for the mall.

“Yeah,” I answered, “I didn’t have much; how about you?”

“I’m almost finished,” he confessed, “I’ll do the rest before class. It’s not much.”

We walked through the large parking lot that served all the nearby restaurants; the mall was directly across, on the other side of the highway. We waited for a red light and dashed across to into the mall parking lot.

“Did you want to check in the bookstore?” I asked.

“Nah,” Matt replied, “Let’s just go to Game Shop. I am sure that they have it.”

Entering the mall, we proceeded directly to Game Shop. Matt easily found the hint book that he had been looking for and flipped through it before paying.

“Check this out,” he exclaimed, turning the book so that I could see, “Secret weapons and secret missions, awesome! See, I told you that hint books rule.”

“I don’t understand why you are spending fifteen dollars on a hint book for a game that you don’t even own,” I pointed out.

“Kyle owns it,” Matt said with a smile, “so it practically is mine.”

I couldn’t argue with him there. There have been times in the past when Mrs. Lafferty would let us wait in his room for Kyle to get home. Of course we would always spend that time playing his video games and rummaging through his drawers. Kyle’s mother would be shocked by the number of porno mags he had stashed away.

After paying for the book, Matt and I left the mall and headed for Kyle’s house. We were both so preoccupied with playing ‘20 to Life’ that neither of us noticed the same black car parked down the street from Kyle’s house.

Matt and I arrived at Kyle’s a little after six. Matt waved the book under Kyle’s nose when he opened the door.

“Look-ee what I got,” Matt teased.

“Sweet,” Kyle exclaimed, his eyes bright with anticipation, “Any cool codes?”

“Tons,” Matt replied with an evil grin.

“Well what are you waiting for?” Kyle asked, stepping aside, “Get your fat ass in here!”

Drake was already playing the video game in Kyle’s room. He glanced over at us when we entered.

“Dude, this game is crazy,” he said with glee, “I just beat this hooker with a baseball bat. What could be more fun than that?”

“You’re scaring me,” I replied giving him a wary glance.

“That’s nothing,” stated Matt flipping through his book, “I got a code here that will allow the hooker to give you a lap dance…topless.”

Drake almost dropped the controller in shock, “What?”

“That’s not all,” Matt continued, proud of his discovery, “After this certain code is input you get a close up of her face when you hit her with the baseball bat…all of her teeth get knocked out in slow-mo.”

“No ‘effing way!” Drake shouted jumping up from his chair and making a grab for Matt’s book, “Let me see that code!”

“Keep it down in there,” Mrs. Lafferty’s voice called from the kitchen.

“Shh,” Kyle emphasized.

Matt handed the book over to Drake’s waiting hands. Looking at the page, he entered the codes into the game. After hunting down another hooker, Drake was astonished to discover that Matt had been telling the truth, there really was a code that allowed you to do everything that he had just described.

“Whoever programmed this game is a freaking genius,” Drake whispered under his breath, “I will be forever grateful.”

The four hours that we had to play ‘20 to Life’ flew by and before we knew it, it was ten o’clock and we had to leave. Kyle had to practically wrench the controller from Drake’s hands.

“Can I come over tomorrow?” Drake pleaded like a junkie.

“Sure,” Kyle assured him.

“Sweet,” Drake smiled slipping out the door.

“See you tomorrow at school,” I said.

“Bye,” Kyle waved from the doorstep as we each went our separate ways home.

I was on my way home, all alone when I realized that there was a car behind me. I stepped to the curb in order to allow the car to pass, when it pulled to a stop beside me, the window rolling down. I recognized it as the car from last night, the car driven by the alleged government agent.

“Hey kid,” he said glancing out at me, “Can I ask you another question?”

“S-sure,” I stammered, afraid of being cornered all alone late at night.

“Do you know who bought the house next door to you?” he asked with a smug expression on his face.

“No,” I said quickly, “What do you mean? Someone moved in next door?”

“Nice try,” he said, “Get in the car.”

“Are you crazy?” I blurted out before I could think, there was absolutely no way I was getting in that car with him.

“There’s nowhere you can run,” the man stated.

I decided to do just that. He was in a car, but I could cut through some backyards and across lawns where he couldn’t follow, I could lose him easily. This was my town, I knew this place backwards and forwards. There was no way that he was going to catch me. Those thoughts were running through my mind as I bolted away and straight into a brick wall. At least that was what it had felt like. I looked up, surprised to find that I hadn’t, in fact, collided with a brick wall; it was the blonde from Pizza Heaven last night.

I was caught; there was nowhere else for me to run. I didn’t know why this couple wanted me so bad or why they wanted to know about Eden, but something told me that I was soon going to find out.

11

“Don’t worry, I’ve got him,” the blonde said lifting me off the ground with one hand.

I couldn’t believe how strong she was. She must be as strong as…I didn’t have time to finish that thought because I was being thrown through the air and into the black car as easily and effortlessly as if I had been a rag doll.

I landed in the back seat with a plop and the blonde scuttled in beside me.

“Let’s go,” she muttered to the driver.

I had no idea what was going on. Who were these people and what were they doing with me? I wanted to ask them, but the words wouldn’t seem to come out.

“Where’s the little bitch?” she asked me.

“W-who?” I finally managed to say in response.

“Your girlfriend,” she replied with a sickly sweet smile, “Your new neighbor.”

“I don’t know what you’re…,” I started before the driver cut me off.

“Stuff it, kid,” he said gruffly, “We saw you and her arguing on your front lawn last night.”

“Oh,” was all that I could think to say, “So what do you need me for then if you found her?”

“We still need you,” the blonde said with a smile that I didn’t care for, “We need you to serve as bait.”

“B-bait, but why?” I asked nervously.

I wasn’t paying attention to where we were heading but looking around; I could quickly see that we were on the outskirts of town. We were surrounded by warehouses and winding country roads.

“Where are we going?” I asked after a few moments.

“Don’t worry about it,” the driver replied.

His response did nothing to alleviate my fears. The car pulled to a stop in front of one of the huge dark warehouses and the driver got out of the car.

“This is the place,” he said to the blonde, “bring him out.”

I opened my door and tried to escape. I was a pretty fast runner, one of the fastest in school. I hoped that I could out run these two and reach the forest before they could catch me. I had barely gotten two steps out of the car before the blonde was standing in front of me. I skidded to a halt. How was that even possible? She had been in the car, her door not even open. It didn’t even look like she had been running at all, she wasn’t even breathing heavy.

Before I could do anything, she grabbed me by the arm; her grip was incredible. It felt like she was practically crushing my bones, yet I could see by her face that she wasn’t straining to maintain her grip at all.

“You got him?” the driver asked, irritation in his voice.

“Yes, I’ve got him,” the blonde answered angrily.

In one fluid motion, the girl lifted me up and walked calmly over to the warehouse entrance. I could see that this warehouse was closed and no longer used; the boarded up windows and the no trespassing signs posted in the parking lot were a testament to that fact. The driver tried the door but it was locked. The door looked like it was solid steel, too, not a cheap door. I sighed with relief; at least they couldn’t get me in there now. My relief was short lived though as the driver gripped the handle and with one arm, ripped the steel door off its hinges. What the hell was going on here?

The blonde hoisted me inside the door, holding me before her like I was a bag of garbage or something.

“What should I do with him?” she asked, casually nodding her head towards me, even though she was holding me off the ground and at a distance with one arm.

“Tie him up and lock him in the office in the back over there,” he said nonchalantly.

The blonde walked me over, still suspended off the ground, to the office in the back and tossed me inside. I landed with a crash, the breath knocked from my lungs. As I struggled to my feet, I could see the girl looking around in exasperation.

“Hey,” she shouted, “there’s no rope in here!”

“Well improvise, will you?” he shouted back from inside the warehouse.

The blonde looked around again, still finding no rope. Suddenly her eyes fixated on something and a smile crossed her lips.

“It’s not rope, but it should work,” she mumbled to herself as she crossed the office.

I followed her gaze, but all I could see was a thin metal pipe attached to the wall. There was nothing rope-like around. At that moment, she seized the pipe and tore it from the wall. It came loose with a shriek.

“What are you doing in there?” the driver yelled.

“Improvising,” she replied, advancing on me with the metal pipe in her hand.

I couldn’t imagine how bashing me in the face with a metal pipe could qualify as tying me up, but I couldn’t find my voice to object.

“Sit on the floor against that desk,” she ordered me, motioning to the heavy looking office desk in the center of the room.

I quickly obeyed and sat on the floor with my back against the paneled front of the desk.

“Move over to the leg of the desk and put your hands behind your back,” she ordered.

Again I obeyed her orders and shuffled to the end of the desk and placed my hands behind my back against the leg of the desk. The blonde took the pipe and somehow bent the metal as if it was a long cardboard roll. She wrapped it around my chest and shoulders and then around the desk leg. Feeling the weight of the metal pipe against my chest, I could feel that this was no cardboard roll, this pipe was solid steel and somehow this skinny blonde was strong enough to bend it like it was nothing.

Could these two have been sent by whatever laboratory that Eden had, allegedly, escaped from? They certainly both seemed to be super-strong like Eden, maybe they were here to take her back. If that were true, then I was a witness to their freakish strength. My odds of survival didn’t look good.

“My parents and friends don’t know anything,” I said to the blonde.

“What are you talking about?” she asked, stepping back to examine her work.

“My parents and friends, they don’t know anything,” I pleaded, “Please leave them alone.”

“Don’t worry,” she laughed, “we could care less about your family, your friends and you, as a matter of fact. All we care about is that girl. As long as she shows up, you have nothing to worry about.”

“But you are so far from town,” I pointed out, “How could she get here?”

“She’ll find a way,” she said.

I had no clue what she was talking about, if they knew where Eden was and they seemed to be as strong as she was; why didn’t they just take her? Why did they have to take me hostage? With everything that had happened last night, Eden probably wouldn’t even care if something happened to me. She certainly hadn’t even wanted to talk to me all day today; why would she risk capture for me?

Suddenly the driver entered the office.

“Nice job,” he smiled nodding his head towards my bound form, “did you take care of everything?”

“Yes,” the blonde told him, “I taped the envelope to her front door.”

“Hopefully she will be here soon, then,” the driver replied.

“We’d better get into position then,” the blonde said and they both retreated from the office.

Through the glass window in the door, I could see the blonde as she stood outside of the office. The driver walked across the warehouse to the opposite end of the building and stood against the wall facing the blonde, even though the warehouse was huge and completely empty, I couldn’t detect the echo of a single footstep.

Eden had to know that she would be walking into a trap if she came here. Would she be stupid enough to do that for a person that she no longer even liked? I doubted it and sat wondering what would happen to me when Eden never showed.

I sat there in silence for what seemed like hours, but in reality, it had only been maybe about thirty minutes when a sound came from outside. It sounded like a sledge hammer was pounding on the side of the building. The two kidnappers looked at each other in confusion and surprise, the driver turned to look behind him, where the sound was coming from. All of a sudden a pair of hands erupted from out of the wall behind the driver, grabbing him and pulling him through the wall and outside.

A second later, the body of the driver was hurled back through the hole in the wall at an impossible speed. His body slammed into the opposite wall, close to the blonde; the impact shook the building. I couldn’t see the body, but it looked to me like the driver wouldn’t be getting up again.

After she recovered from the initial shock, the blonde leaped into the middle of the warehouse, taking a martial arts-type stance. A figure stepped through the hole in the wall that the driver’s body had been flug – it was Eden!

She strode angrily across the warehouse, directly towards the blonde, who was tensing up and ready to strike. When Eden got close enough, the blonde leaped into the air; her leg extended. Her body spun so fast that she looked like a blur.

Just before it looked like the blonde’s leg would strike; Eden held up her hand and seized the blonde around the ankle with no effort at all. Swinging the blonde over her head, Eden launched her into the wall next to the driver.

The blonde hit with such and impact that it sounded like thunder booming in my ears. I could see her struggling to get up as Eden approached her. Eden grabbed her around the neck and twisted, the blonde stopped struggling; the blonde stopped doing anything and I looked away.

“Leech,” Eden spat in disgust as she dealt with the driver. I heard the audible crack as something in his body snapped, “I don’t know how they found me.”

Eden entered the office and saw me bound to the desk. I flinched in fear as she approached me; what had she just done? What will she do to me?

I was surprised and relieved to see sudden tenderness in her eyes as she looked at me.

“Are you ok, Thomas?” she asked, her voice full of worry.

“Yeah,” I said in a small voice, “I’m ok…so far.”

I didn’t know what else to say, I was still in shock. Eden had just killed two people in cold blood. Sure they kidnapped me and were going to try and capture her, but to kill them like that? It was more than I could handle.

Eden lifted the solid metal desk as easily as she did the couch a few nights before. When the desk leg cleared the twisted metal pipe that was holding me prisoner, she placed it aside and knelt down behind me. My body tensed, I half expected her to snap my neck too, so that she would leave no witnesses to the double homicide she had just committed; but instead she just snapped the pipe, freeing my hands.

“Are you sure they didn’t hurt you?” she asked with real concern in her voice.

“No, they didn’t harm me at all,” I told her, rubbing my wrists, “They said that I was just bait to capture you.”

“Let’s get out of here,” she said jingling car keys in her hand.

“Do those belong to the guy?” I asked nodding my head to the slumped body outside the office.

“They did,” she corrected.

“Do you know how to drive?” I asked, after all we were both only sixteen years old.

“I know a lot of things,” she replied, extending a hand and helping me to my feet.

“Who were those guys?” I asked, “How did you do that?”

Looking over at where I thought the bodies would be, I saw only black smears, almost as if ashes had been rubbed into the floor there. I didn’t recall seeing Eden do anything with the bodies; where did they go? They couldn’t have just vanished into thin air.

Needless to say after the initial shock wore off, I had many questions.

“After I get you home,” she promised, “I’ll tell you everything.”

“But why are there no bodies?” I asked in shock, “What happened to them?”

“We don’t have time right now,” Eden stressed, “I’ll explain everything to you once we are back home.”

This was what I had been waiting for, the answer to all the questions that had been plaguing me these last few days; but did I really want to know? How would I feel after I learned the truth about Eden?

Eden started up the car as I climbed into the passenger’s seat and buckled my seat belt. She did, indeed, know how to drive. She drove like an expert back into town. We decided to ditch the car in the parking lot of the nearby Benny’s.

“Cars are abandoned there all the time,” I informed her, “They just get towed after a few days.”

We walked in silence back to Eden’s house. It was after eleven, my parents must be crazy with worry by now. I could see all the lights on in my house.

“Why don’t we talk in my house?” Eden suggested, “It doesn’t look like we will get much privacy in yours right now.”

I didn’t like the idea of being alone in a house with a super-powered killer, but if I wanted any answers, I had to go through with it. Silently, I nodded my head to Eden and we, quickly and silently, ran up her walkway and into the dark house.

After closing the front door behind us, she turned to face me; her inner turmoil evident in her eyes. It looked like she was debating on whether or not to keep her promise and tell me everything.

“So, are you going to tell me what happened back there?” I quickly asked before she could make up her mind.

She didn’t reply. I didn’t want to miss what could be my only chance to get information.