He looked up and, through his tears, he saw the silhouette of the woman looking down at him from the massive hole in the ceiling.
Then the floor of the fourth-floor apartment collapsed, too. He plummeted into the apartment below. His body landed with a loud thud and rumble, as if lightning had struck the building. He was knocked unconscious, clouds of dust swallowing him whole.
Evan’s eyes fluttered open. He saw the massive holes in the ceilings above him. Plasterboard dust spiraled down on him, caking his skin and irritating his eyes and wounds. He whined as stabs of pain surged from his broken legs. He felt some numbness down there, too. He babbled, but he couldn’t say a single word. He propped himself up on his elbows and lifted his head slowly.
More pain throbbed from the nape of his neck. His spinal cord was injured during the fall. Before he could examine his legs, he saw something red glittering in his vision, like a ruby. And behind it, he saw the shadow of a person crouching near his feet. His heart skipped a beat while his head bobbed from his lightheadedness.
As his vision cleared, he saw Miki squatting near his feet, smoking a cigarette with a mask dangling from one of her ears. He recognized her clothing from the chase.
“You’re awake,” she said, smiling. “Are you okay?”
Evan panted. He peed himself, soaking his tighty-whities and denim shorts in urine.
“Aww, poor baby,” Miki said. She took another puff of her cigarette, then she asked, “Why did you run from me?”
Evan’s eyelids twitched and his head swayed. He fought to stay awake through the unbearable pain. He gritted his teeth and tried to scoot back, but his elbows slid on the dust and he fell back to the floor. He barely moved a centimeter. Whimpering, he propped himself up on his elbows again and flailed on the floor.
Miki asked, “Oh, are you still trying to get away from me?” She pouted and sniffled, then she said, “That hurts my feelings. And I just wanted to ask you a question.”
“Ma–Mommy,” Evan cried, his voice barely perceptible over his whining.
“Oh. I know what I’ll do. I’ll earn your trust. Let me help you, honey.”
She set her cigarette down on a broken floorboard, plumes of smoke rising from the cherry. Then she took a stainless-steel lighter out of her pocket. She opened it and flicked the spark wheel until it ignited.
“Now don’t you move,” she said in an eerily calm tone. “This is going to stop the bleeding.”
Evan wiggled on the floor. Splinters of wood scraped his elbows and the small of his back. Miki squeezed his right thigh and held the flame up to the open fracture under his knee. Evan’s head bounced off the floor as he shrieked. The boy’s scream went through the abandoned apartment buildings next door and reached some of the occupied houses on the other blocks.
Some of the neighbors heard it but dismissed it as a scream from one of the local drug addicts. Most of the neighbors missed it, though.
Miki heard his blood sizzling. She watched as the flame bounced off his bloody, splintered bone and his smooth, hairless leg. She could see blood inside the broken bone, too. She circled the wound with the flame, then she led the fire into the mushy cavity under his knee. The fire illuminated his stringy muscle and durable ligaments while burning it all.
The gore didn’t bother Miki—not one bit. Acts of torture and murder desensitized her. The lighter went out. So, she pulled it out of the wound, ignited it again, then put it back in.
Evan fell unconscious, but his body kept jerking involuntarily. He awoke some thirty seconds later, gasping for air. His wide, zany eyes swiveled in their sockets until he saw Miki.
“I thought I lost you,” she said, stroking the brown hair away from his sweaty forehead. “I’m sorry. I was just trying to help. But don’t worry, sweetie, I have another idea. If this doesn’t work, nothing will.”
Grimacing, Evan shook his head rapidly, foamy saliva spewing from the corners of his mouth. His hearing was starting to fade because of the pain, so he couldn’t hear everything from Miki. He already knew she was a bad woman, though—a monster. He wanted her to stay away from him. He wanted his mother.
Miki put one hand on his kneecap and the other on his shin. Her face trembled as she fought the desire to grin. She was acting like she cared about the boy, but she had always planned on murdering him.
And if it wasn’t him, it would have been one of his unlucky neighbors.
Miki pushed the broken bone back into his leg. Blood came gushing out of his shaking leg as the sharp edges of his bone shredded his nerves and blood vessels. It oozed past the slits between her gloved fingers. To her, it was a beautiful sight. So, she placed more pressure on his kneecap and shin, tightened her grip on his legs, then she turned her hands in opposite directions, as if she were wringing out a wet towel. Large drops of blood rained from his leg.
Miki laughed as muffled popping and crunching sounds came from somewhere on the mangled limb. She couldn’t tell if she had accidentally shattered his kneecap or if his tibia had broken into smaller pieces—or both.
Evan lifted his head from the floor and unleashed a long, pained rasp. The numbness in his leg was replaced by a fierce pain. He had never felt anything like it before. The heat from his blood scared him, too. He felt like his leg was on fire. And there was so much of it. It pooled under his broken legs, turning darker as it mixed with the dust.
His eyes rolled back as he fainted again. He stayed unconscious for nearly three minutes. When he awoke, Miki’s face was just a foot away from his. She gently slapped him and said something to him, but he couldn’t hear it. He blacked out, then he woke up two minutes later. Miki was gone. He drew a deep breath, then he sobbed.
“You’re awake. Again,” Miki said, crouching beside him. She took a drag on her cigarette, then she blew the smoke at Evan’s legs. She said, “You’re a fighter, like me. When I was beaten like you, I got up, fell, and got up again. I respect that… but you should have just stayed asleep. It’s only going to get worse for you, kid.”
Miki pressed the lit cigarette against the boy’s smooth forehead. Evan shook his head to try to dodge it, but the cigarette just slid across his brow, blazing embers crumbling on his skin. It left a bright red circular wound at the center of his forehead, and a red horizontal mark across it. It looked like a narrow skid mark or a dotted line, separated by small gaps. The cigarette butt fell out of Miki’s hand and rolled into the boy’s hair.
Evan writhed in anguish, floorboards creaking under his body. He wept and wheezed, the pain rendering him speechless. His grunts and groans sounded unusually deep and hoarse, as if the noise were coming from a man suspected of demonic possession. A nasty, pounding headache seized him. He lost control of his body. He saw flashing lights and ominous shadows, but he couldn’t identify any other objects in the room. Then he saw the glittering ruby in his vision again.
Miki had lit up another cigarette.
She grabbed Evan’s face—palm on his nose—to stop him from moving. With her pinky and ring fingers, she pried his right eye open. Webs of vibrant red veins infested the whites of his eyes. His eye rolled up, but she could still see part of his blue iris. The color reminded her of Adam. She sneered as she stubbed the cigarette on Evan’s eye.
Evan’s mouth widened, but he didn’t scream. His eye hissed as it burned. Within seconds, it appeared as though every blood vessel in it had burst. His eye and eyelids were completely red. His eye swelled up, a size too big for its socket. It looked like it was about to explode. The burning ashes clung to the corner of his eye like sleep crust in the morning.