A/N- Some drabbles on Eden's past. They're mostly irrelevant, but I hope you enjoy a short insight into Eden's mind before and after she joined the gang. Far fetched? I don't care :D Maybe more to later. When my head isn't hurting anymore.
Gym was the best.
"I said run, Cleare!" Coach Mills nearly snarled at me. "Or its detention!"
I glared right back, refusing to be intimidated by the bear of a woman.
Don't get me wrong, I loved running. Dad used to take me to the park just so we could have races, and he was one of the only adults that didn't let me win, but put an actual effort into it. But I hated running when someone forced me to. What was I, a show horse?
"Just do it, Eddie," Kyle nudged me.
Traitor.
"Don't call me that."
I realized that another moment of rebelling, and I would not only be put in detention, but also get a call home. Not that my parents would care- Dad's view on school was almost mocking, and he treated it like it was a waste of my time, but necessary for some reason. And Mom would just roll her eyes, pretend to be serious over the phone, and then laugh about it. Still, I didn't want the teachers thinking they won something.
I finally moved to the line, having successfully wasted ten minutes of class, something everyone would high five me about later. I started with a walk, the grass pleasantly brushing my ankles above my shoes. I sped up gradually, like Dad has taught me, mentally cursing the gym teacher and my friends, and the entire school along with them.
Soon, however, I forgot all about them, having hit my top speed. The air whistled in my ears, pushing the stray strands away from my face. The sides of my vision blurred. My legs moved almost too fast to comprehend, and I knew that if I started thinking about it, I would falter, so I just let the wind clear my mind.
My target, the finish line, where the timers waited for me, was suddenly thrown into sharp focus, as though all of a sudden, my entire world revolved around it. Nothing left. Just forward...
I continued running over the finish, and then I hit on the breaks suddenly, stopping my movement in one second,falling into a crouch facing back to where I started. My friends cheered as the timers shouted the time out to Mills.
Yet I felt strange, almost disappointed. All this running, the focus, the movement- there had to be a finish, as though I have missed out an important part of the chase.
What chase?
I straightened out when I realized that there was nothing more, just the stop of the run, and that's it. Now I had to walk along the sidelines back to where I have started. Nothing more.
My blood boiled in anger I suddenly couldn't explain, as though it was yelling at me "That's it? Finish it!"
I shook my head, deciding to fake sickness to get out of class. I felt it, anyway...
As I walked back to the teachers and another student started their run, I suddenly got an urge to look behind me. I did, feeling strangely paranoid. But it wasn't in vein, like I thought...
There was a man standing behind the wire fence, wearing dark, clean clothing, his hands deep in his pockets. His face was nothing special- attractive, but normal, with a wiry mustache and short beard on his chin, his hair either dark brown or black. Just a stranger passing by who stopped to look at the school kids gym class.
He was staring right at me.
I suddenly felt self-conscious, but it quickly passed when I realized just how he was staring.
The black pit of his eyes was cold and calculating. There was nothing warm or attractive in those, unlike the rest of him.
I hurried away from him, wanting to be beside my friends again. And then I furrowed my eyebrows, glancing back over my shoulder in wonder.
He was gone.
But the distance from me to the fence was way too great for me to be able to determine his eye color.
Yet...
Just my imagination.
I immediately through the incident out of my head, and forgot about the man with black eyes.
Sisters
"Eden!" Eve whined, hopping on on leg in frustration. "Why do you always do that?"
"Do what?" I innocently asked, hiding her mascara behind my back.
"Steal my makeup from my purse!" She pouted her lips. I rolled my eyes. Only twelve years old, but already wearing purses. It's like begging to have things stolen.
"Because you don't need it," I grabbed a hold of her, hugging her fiercely. "You're so pretty, why do you need make up?"
"No I'm not," she sniffed, not even trying to get out of my grip. "I'm ugly and none of the boys will ever want to kiss me."
"Who told you that?" I asked, my temper rising. Who dared make fun of my sister?
"Veronica and Marcy," she sold them out quickly, knowing what happened to those that made her sad. "They said that I'll end up with a toad, because we'll make such a good pair."
"They're just jealous of you!" I told her confidently. "You'll see, you'll be prettier than Mom when you're older!"
She smiled, flattered. "I don't even look like her, though! You're the one that has her eyes, and hair, and skin, and-"
"You're still beautiful though," I cut her off. I knew it, and everyone else knew. "I said you'll be prettier than her, not exactly like her!"
The other girls were likely jealous. Veronica had horrible freckles and red hair that looked more like faded orange, and Marcy's face was one huge pimple, and her hair was limp from being dyed over and over again. Meanwhile, Eve had clean, porcelain and smooth skin, forest green eyes framed by thick black eyelashes and amazing curls that shined with golden highlights in the sun. Boys not only her age but slightly older couldn't stop staring when she walked by.
"Besides what do you want boys kissing you for, anyway?" I asked with an adoring hug. "They're icky and gross-"
"You didn't seem to mind too much yesterday with Danny downstairs..." she suddenly gave me a sly look.
I blushed a deep scarlet. Okay, so let's just say I didn't suffer from the lack of male attention, either...
"Don't tell Dad, okay?" I asked feebly. And she snickered.
"Dad was thinking about dumping freezing water over you two from the stairs above, but Mom talked him out of it. I don't think that would have separated you, though, you looked like you were enjoying it..."
We giggled over it for a while longer, and then I suddenly said, "You know I love you, right?"
She tilted her head to the side. "I love you too, Eden."
"And I'll never let anything happen to you?"
"Are you okay? You're acting weird," she stated bluntly. I slumped slightly, and brought my knees up to my chest.
"I don't know. I just feel like something bad is about to happen, and I just want you to know that I'll protect you no matter what."
"Okay," she nodded, still looking at me curiously. "You're my big sister, you'll always be here for me."
I smiled. "Yeah. Always."
Dad left next day.
Repercussions
How strange, I noted.
The world didn't change in the slightest, though I thought it would at least have shot off its orbit.
I killed a man.
No one cared.
I killed. A man. A real human man who was breathing at this time yesterday.
And he was no longer breathing.
And no one cared.
"What did you do, fall down a few flights of stairs and then into an elevator shaft?" Lauren asked jokingly, but with a note of worry in her voice.
I looked at her without smiling. Without any first, she returned my eyes, and then began fidgeting. I tilted my head to the side, interested with the new discovery. I continued to look at her seriously, and she finally looked away, lowly muttering a small apology. I didn't listen to it, already distracted by my thoughts.
I tried that again, this time on a random person walking down the hallway. The result was about the same- he looked back in surprise for a moment, and then hurried to escape my eyes.
They were intimidated, I realized.
Throughout the day, I continued to try out this new found power to be able to make people stutter and trip over air. Some even looked scared, hid their eyes.
They were scared of me.
And I loved the feeling.
They should be afraid of me, I decided. Maybe they didn't know why they should be, there was no way that they could have know of what I did. But they should be intimidated. After all, they were weak. All of them. Even the jocks of the football team, and the barbies of the cheerleader squad that everyone here worshiped. They have never killed anyone. Given a gun, they would run. They would never be able to face anything larger than their petty small worlds...
But I didn't. Larry said I did well, even. As though I was born only for the sole reason to kill. That was why he branded me...
"Hey, you want to come hang at the mall today?" Kyle called me, already gathering the group of friends we usually went out with outside the school doors. I looked up at them, and then over to Jake, who was waiting for me on his bike across the road from the school, a cigarette in his mouth, his arms was going to take me to a place where he would begin my training. I glanced down at the leather jacket that hung over my arm, and then back to my friends.
My ordinary friends that I've talked and laughed with in a time that now seemed years in the past. The normal people that never even seriously considered harming another person. People who I could now force into submission with only my eyes.
Maybe the world didn't care. Maybe the teachers knew nothing of Tyler Beck that died of a bullet wound to the head. Maybe the students didn't realize where my bruises and cuts came from. And maybe nothing changed in any of their lives.
But I was a different person now. And to me, nothing could even be the same.
I didn't grace Kyle with a reply, only threw my new jacket over my shoulders, hiding the tattoo on my shoulder from sight, and headed towards Jake.
"Where are you going?" my former friends' voice reached my ears, and he seemed to have given chase after me. "Who is that? Eddie-"
I spun around, and suddenly towered over my friend, despite the fact that he was taller than me.
"Don't call me that," I said, but in my opinion, not as fiercely as I would have liked.
"But, Eddie-"
"I said don't. Call. Me. That!" This time was much better. My growl was close to that of a feral cat, and I gained intense pleasure in watching him stare at me with sudden fear as he shrunk away. Without looking back again, I threw my leg over Jake's bike and fitted my arms around his waist. The man stared at the boy with mocking pity, like an old wolf might stare at a small lap dog that's choking on it's bark.
"Is he forcing you to do something? Ed- Eden, please, let's just go the mall and we'll figure something out-"
"I'm not going anywhere with you."
The sense of power once again overwhelmed me, and I stared at the boy with suddenly twisted smile that bared my teeth, as though something purely primal has awakened in me, and this time, he visibly recoiled. As though he has realized that this was my choice, and this was me, staring him down. And he realized I was not the same girl that I was a few nights ago.
The string that held my nature in check before has popped. The generations of assassins before me have surfaced, the bloodline I knew nothing of has awakened in my veins after sleeping for so long.
Thudding of three hearts. One fast and nervous, another clam and non-caring, and another, frantic and spiked.
The barely visible flutter of his pulse at his throat. The dilated irises of his eyes like a rabbit faces with a snake, hypnotized and paralyzed by fear. He had gray eyes, I realized for the first time in years. A detail that was suddenly thrown into focus as I held his eyes with mine.
It was as though the entire world has suddenly become brighter, more vivid, more detailed. I could smell the gasoline in the bike, the boy's sweat, the leather of my and Jake's jackets, the blood stains that were hidden on his shirt beneath it...
The sense of complete power over the life of this boy, despite him being a few steps away and me being unarmed. It didn't matter. There was a gun in Jake's belt. I'd tear the boy apart with my bare hands if I had to.
The new sensations felt so absolutely and utterly wonderful, that I nearly choked on the feeling bubbling in me, the new bloodlust that has not never been there before made my hands itch to claw at this silly boy's skin, to tear the skin and let the blood flow, make him scream...
As soon as I felt it, though, I suddenly retreated, and the world snapped back to normal. The bloodlust dulled. The need for movement disappeared. The smells, too, and I felt sane again.
Jake kicked the bike into gear, and I realized that only half a second has passed since I smirked. And not everything has returned to the way it was. I still felt that strange new cold confidence. The smells still seemed to be sharper than usual, and the bloodlust didn't go away completely.
I didn't know what has happened to me.
But I only cared for the fact that I was not only not afraid of having to kill again, but I was looking forward to it.