On the bed lay Ellie. Her pale blue eyes wide open, sweat pouring from her forehead, and her muscles fighting desperately against the straps they used to tie her down. There was real fear in those eyes, Agent Bradford saw that much.
The girl didn’t try to scream or speak. Not even so much as a whisper came from her paralyzed throat. There were only those pale blue eyes, set into her tanned face, that drove home the reality of her absolute terror.
Agent Bradford had trouble looking at her. This young girl, struck down by an unknown illness, was in degrees of pain he couldn’t even bear to imagine. Her sweaty body and her strained muscles that worked so desperately to escape an unseen truth sent shivers down his spine.
This wasn’t like Ethan Walker, the special agent thought. This felt so much worse to him. He realized then that he had never seen Ethan Walker in the early stages. He had seen the young man only as he was now, docile and drugged up. Agent Bradford almost questioned his decision to go against Jane Elring’s recommendation.
What was done was done. He was here, now, with a fresh victim, and fresh victims always presented the best learning opportunities. That was how he had to see the young girl on the hospital bed now. As a chance. As a thing to be researched and examined. If he allowed himself to see her as a person he wouldn’t be able to make good choices. He might fuck up the investigation.
“Do you know what happened, Mr. Toaves?” he asked.
The old man had difficulty tearing his eyes away from the suffering girl.
“They told me she had an episode in class, injured a teacher even. Then she ran from school without her belongings. Next thing we know is that she lay collapsed near the south border of town, just beyond the Williams farm. Edgar Williams actually found her when he came driving into town,” Arthur said. “Edgar participates in my program. Several people are housed with him and help out on the farm in return. He’s a good man.”
Agent Bradford’s phone buzzed, but he paid it no mind. At this hour it was probably his wife checking in. She would want to talk about her day, the kids, and to hear about what he had been up to. That stuff could wait; it wasn’t important.
“You said she attacked a teacher?”
Arthur nodded, his face pained by the realization of what had transpired. “Mr. Boothby. She broke his nose after class when he tried to explain some of the material to her.”
Agent Bradford returned his gaze to the young girl struggling on the hospital bed. This little thing had assaulted a teacher? A nose was easy to break, he knew that much, but it was hard to imagine this girl striking out with any kind of ferocity.
“Has she been violent before?”
“No. Ellie has been kind and gentle ever since I picked her up.”
Agent Bradford knew about Arthur Toaves and his projects. The old man was fond of the underdogs, he knew, and probably had a penchant for the strays, too. The Ellies of this world.
Agent Bradford could almost sympathize, but he knew too much about human nature. It didn’t change or improve. It was ugly, always, and how it behaved was strictly dependent on the rules greater forces set for it. There was no real good; there was only enforced order because the alternative was worse for everybody. Chaos and destruction—those were human nature’s proclivities.
“Ellie is a runaway?” he asked.
Arthur nodded.
“What do you know of her past?”
“Painfully little. I know she is from Cleveland originally, but she refuses to speak of what made her leave. She spent several months hitchhiking before I found her. Hitchhiking is actually how I found her.”
Agent Bradford knew that a girl this pretty hitchhiking through the country could only mean one thing. She had been sexually active, trading her goods for the next ride and shitty meals.
“How old is she?”
“Ellie is fourteen, Agent Bradford.”
Agent Bradford’s own daughter was only one year older and, involuntarily, his mind jumped to his relationship with her. It was troubled because they didn’t understand each other very well. She lived in an age of freedom and liberation, leaving her unaccountable for her actions. What little control he once had over her he saw fading over the years, as the love she felt for him was no longer reason enough to obey.
In a different universe it could have been his daughter tied down to this bed, trying to run away from demons others could not see. It could have been his daughter that had fucked her way through the country, offering up her vagina as a fair trade for gas and sustenance.
What Ellie had done, what Ellie was in his mind, scared Agent Bradford. He hated the girl for it.
“Shouldn’t you call in your investigator? Jane Elring?” Arthur Toaves interrupted Agent Bradford’s haunting thoughts.
The old man was right, of course, but the mention of her name always left him with his hand in his right pocket. Safely on the button.
“I’ll give her a call.”
Agent Bradford turned around and pulled out his phone. He had two missed calls from his wife and a message from Dr. Greer. Without hesitation he cleared the notifications about the missed calls and looked to see what the doctor had to tell him.
Larry, don’t worry about the bodyguard. It was always expected that she would look for the boundaries of her new freedom. As long as she does the work there is no reason to panic. You know there’s a team standing by if need be. No single bodyguard is a match for trained elites, surely. The specimen is my property and has nowhere to run to. She knows that.
Agent Bradford thought the doctor was being too arrogant. As if he couldn’t see the clear danger he himself had set loose on this world. It boggled Agent Bradford’s mind that a man of Dr. Greer’s intelligence could be so blind to the obvious.
Agent Bradford saw her daily and he knew the girl was dangerous. Dangerous because she was powerful beyond measure and didn’t have the character to control that power. No woman ever had. When the time came she would burn down the country just to get what she wanted. Without a sense of responsibility, and with a complete disregard for the consequences.
Women needed to be kept in check. Even if his society had for some reason forgotten that fact, it was still true. It was true for Agent Bradford’s wife and his daughter, and it was true for Jane Elring.
For now, all he could do was play the game and prepare for the time he knew was coming. That moment where it was just him and her, and the button he had in his pocket. He’d get her to fall in line. He’d keep her in check. If the rest of his society failed, he would just have to try harder.
Agent Bradford had Jane on speed dial but she didn’t pick up. He left her a brief message.
She had come to watch him die.
Ethan Walker knew it as soon as the angelic face appeared above his own. She didn’t have to say anything; he knew it was time.
He had known that it was his time to die when Billy’s putrid teeth finally broke through his skull and pierced his brain. It didn’t hurt or anything; he was just afraid of what was coming next. What if this was just the beginning?
Billy was his reckoning, his punishment for the mistakes he had made years ago. He hadn’t atoned and so the devil sent for him. If the devil took a personal interest, then maybe there was a special place reserved for him in hell. Where it was hottest? Or maybe the coldest? Ethan didn’t really know what to expect from hell.
He was afraid, but a little less so because she smiled her kindest smile at him. He didn’t know her name, but her dark eyes and golden crown told him all he needed to know. She was an angel and had been sent here to support him in his last moments. She didn’t judge him and that was all the relief he could ask for.
Ethan’s mind was so tired and he wanted to die. He wanted for Billy to stop eating his brain and to get out of his face. To leave him alone and take the horrible scent of decaying flesh with him. It was always that scent that was stuck in his nose now and made him sick to his stomach. His body was just too weak to throw up.