Title: In a Child's Eye
Author: Meridian
Rating: PG (there are children present, after all)
Author's Notes: scene filler from the attack on the Honeycomb Hideout to the rescue at the Talos apartments. A short piece that refused to not be written.
The man who scared her did not speak very much. The ones who had come for him, to collect her, too, spoke a lot. They talked fast and in different languages. It was hard to understand them, even if she had been paying attention. They moved around the monster man like they were afraid of him, too. That made her feel better. It was okay to be afraid if grownups were afraid. Mom said that was smart, but fear on your own was just being silly.
"We're ready to go, sir," one of the men said to the monster man. He pushed her forward, letting go of her shoulders for the first time since he'd dragged her out of her hiding space. The man who spoke took her, picked her up. She didn't struggle or kick like she usually did when someone she didn't like picked her up. She was too sad to fight back much. Instead, she crawled inside, curling up in a corner like she had been in the vent. She missed Mom.
"Damn, this fucker's heavy," the man closest to her said. Zoe clapped her hands over her ears like she'd been taught. Bad language was not always your choice, but you could choose not to listen. She watched them throw King down on the floor. His head hit the bared-steel floor, but he didn't move. Mom said people who didn't move were dead and that she should always move if she could. Life was movement and dizziness, like when you spun around really fast. Death was balance, stillness. Maybe King was sleeping. Whatever he did, he had to move or he would die.
"Move," she whispered to herself and watched carefully. He breathed. That was movement, and she relaxed and looked up at the men closing the doors.
The monster man stared at her until she couldn't see him any more. She heard something land on the roof, and the two men got in the front.
"Son of a bitch."
"Quiet! He'll hear you!"
The monster was on the roof to make sure she stayed. He didn't need to. As long as he was out there, she was staying inside. Hugging her knees, she rocked back and forth as the van moved along, singing a song her mother had taught her. It was okay to be afraid of the monster, it was okay to be sad Mom was gone, but it wasn't okay to cry.
So, she didn't.
The monster man held onto her when they got out. She held onto King's hand, screaming when they ripped him away, but the monster man held tight.
"You will see him again, child."
It sounded almost like something Mom might say. But he wasn't Mom. He had hurt Mom. She wanted Abby to hurt him back. She wanted the other scary man with the sunglasses to hurt the monster man.
"I don't believe you," she said.
"You don't have to. You will see."
He pushed her inside the building. In the elevator, he let her go. She stood away from him, but she knew she couldn't run. The monster was faster, and she was so little. She felt little, but she acted big. Mom said never to show fear, even if you were afraid. When the elevator opened, the monster man grabbed her hand, not her arm. Zoe let him lead. It wasn't so scary when the monster held your hand. He must be impressed she was so brave. Of course, she was brave. Her Mom was brave.
A man in funny clothes walked up to them and looked at her. She stared back.
"What's with the kid? Snack?" The man licked his lips at her and bent down to look her in the eye. When he sniffed at her, she pushed him away with her free hand.
"Stop that."
"Ooh, isn't she precious?" The man grinned and showed off his sharp teeth. That didn't scare her. She'd seen plenty of those. And Mom and Abby and King and Dex and Hedges always took care of bad people with bad teeth.
"Enough." The monster man pulled hard on her hand. It hurt, a little. The other man patted her head.
"I'll see you on the buffet line, angel," he winked at her.
"You smell like shit," Zoe said. Mom had said plenty about using bad language, but she had also said there were times it was okay to use it. She needed more practice because the man started to laugh and lean closer to her again.
"I said enough," the monster man grabbed him by the throat. The man kicked at him, but the monster man didn't let go. "My people," he said, and then he changed. She squeaked, afraid, because this monster was real, and it was okay to be afraid. The monster man bit the other man and dropped him. He pulled on her hand again, wiping blood from his teeth as they passed the still man. Still meant he was dead. She turned to watch him breathe, but he did not.
"That wasn't nice," she said. The best way to be good, Mom said, was to want to be good and to want others to be good. She also said that when someone did something for you, to be sure to say thank you. "Thank you," she mumbled.
"Hush," the monster man told her, and she hushed. He took her by the shoulders again, pushing her forward towards a door. It was big and metal but brushed funny so she couldn't see her reflection. She wondered if, like in the movies, the monster man wouldn't have a reflection. Maybe.
"What are we waiting for?"
"Hush." He held her firmly, still facing the door.
After a few minutes, it opened. On the other side, King looked back at her. He looked hurt. It was hard to be brave and strong when your friend was hurt. He looked sad, too. He missed their friends, too. She wanted to hug him, but the monster man held him. An ugly woman with the bad hair turned around and hissed at her.
"Take her someplace else for now. We don't need her now."
"Don't worry, Zoe," King called out to her.
"I won't," she told him. The monster man shoved her away, and the funny metal door closed behind them.
"Come, child."
He took her to a room and made the people in it go away. There was a funny suit, like the kind in museums, on a dummy. There was a chair, and a table, too. Attached to the floor were some handcuffs. She remembered them from the police shows on TV. It was how the police kept people from escaping. The monster man put them on her and sat down in the chair.
"Do you know who I am?"
He was a bad man, but he didn't seem to know any better. Like the Nome King in the story but scarier.
"You're the Nome King."
"The Nome King." He stared at her, smiling a little, as if it were a good thing to be bad because you'd never learned otherwise. Because your Mom hadn't told you to be good. "How sweet. Tell me, child, do you want to die?"
"I'm not afraid. I'll go to Heaven." With Mom, she knew. Mom was in Heaven and would look after her if she died. Dying wasn't so scary. Death was just stillness, after all.
"There is no Heaven. No angels. The only thing in your future is nothingness." He moved closer to her, and she didn't move. She could be brave. "But what if you could change that? What if you could remain a child forever?"
Mom told her once that being a kid was great, but being an adult was better. People listened to you, and kids had to listen to you because you were older. If she could grow up, she could be strong, like King, and tough, like Abby, and smart, like her Mom. She was a kid now, but she would grow up. She wanted to grow up, to make Mom proud.
"Wouldn't you like that? Wouldn't you accept that gift?"
A present was something you wanted or needed, Mom said, something that would make you happy. Living forever didn't make the monster man happy; he couldn't fool her. None of the silly looking men here or the strange woman with the fur looked happy. With her Mom, she was happy. With her friends, she was happy. Her friends. The monster man wanted her to say she wasn't happy. What would make her happy? If he really wanted to know, she would tell him. And that was a kind of bravery, too.
"My friends are coming to kill you."