Symbiotic

Chapter Thirteen

Roxie had to admit that Eve’s call hadn’t exactly come at the best time. She was in the middle of a perfect eyeliner wing, that she just knew she wouldn’t be able to do right if she stopped now. But she couldn’t exactly leave it. Not when Eve never usually called her, always preferring to text. She had the feeling that an actual call meant this was important.

Her theory was confirmed when Eve’s first words weren’t even so much as a ‘hello’. No, the first thing Roxie heard on the other end of the line was “it’s not him. I’m sure now.”

“What? Eve, what are you talking about?”

“The killer. It’s definitely not Chase.”

All thoughts of eyeliner fled from Roxie’s mind. “How are you so sure?”

“Because they’ve had him in custody for a while now, and there’s no new information on the murders or Renee’s kidnapping. The police would have interrogated him by now, which means that if he actually did it they would have something by now. Even if they only had a shred of evidence right now, they would still name him as a suspect at the very least. It calms people down, makes them feel like the police are handling things. They haven’t even done that.”

“Which means they haven’t found anything to link him to the crimes,” Roxie finished. “I was so sure, too. Especially once he brought a damn gun to school. Are we ever going to find this asshole?”

The line stayed silent for several long seconds, and Roxie felt like she had swallowed her own heart. When Eve did speak, it was quiet and hesitant.

“I don’t know. I hope so. But we’ve hit another dead end. If it’s not Mr Latimer, and it’s not Chase, who the Hell is it?”

“Damnit, I don’t know Eve. Ok? I have no idea who it could possibly be at this point. I don’t think we even have anyone else who’s connected to all the victims.”

“Not that I remember. But I tell you what, we had better start working on it real quick. Otherwise we could be in trouble. The last two he’s taken have had some kind of connection to us. The more that happens, the more likely it’ll be that he ends up taking notice of one of us.”

Roxie gulped. “That won’t happen. We won’t let it get to that point.”

“I really hope you’re right.”

They finished their conversation and hung up. As soon as she was off the phone, Roxie found that she needed some time to calm herself down before she tried her eyeliner again. Her hands were shaking too much to form a decent line.

She could feel herself starting to panic, and she needed to nip it in the bud now. If she didn’t do anything she would stay panicked the whole day. If that happened, someone was sure to notice and ask her about it, and then everything would end up coming out. So she just sat and focused on her breathing, until it was back to what she considered normal.

She finished up doing her makeup, and left the house, trying to avoid tripping over the carboard boxes that littered the floor on her way out.

Most of the day passed relatively normally; the classes were normal, if you ignored the atmosphere of fear that had started to form amongst the students. After all, three of their own had gone missing and two had turned up dead. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what was going on in their humble town, or that they needed to be worried. The air was thick with it. The teachers, for their part, pretended as much as they could that nothing was different. Exams still needed to be passed, after all, and final assignments completed. For a lot of students, they were about to leave school and be thrust into the real world. And that, for some, was a much closer and scarier reality than the idea of being taken by any kind of murderer.

Roxie spent much of her free time with her usual gaggle of popular kids. A couple of the boys were noticeably absent; they were the ones who still supported Chase. Some of them held very unsavoury opinions that Roxie and Eve had ‘provoked’ him, and that the near shooting thus hadn’t been his fault. For that, they’d been ostracized from the group. The lot of them now resided alone, as part of their own separate group away from the rest.

As those boys passed in the cafeteria, it didn’t take long for the conversation to turn to Chase, and from there it took even less time to turn to less comfortable subjects.

“Hey Rox, how did that weird art girl get involved anyway? What was her name?”

“Something from the Bible, wasn’t it? Eden or some crap like that.”

“Eve,” Roxie automatically corrected. Her friend waved a dismissive hand.

“Whatever. Hasn’t she been around for a lot of this stuff that’s been happening recently? First that fight between you and Renee, then the fight with Chase, and then the shooting. When were you planning to tell us the story there?”

“What story? Weren’t you there both times too? Don’t you know this stuff already?”

“Well yeah,” the friend pressed, “but you were talking to this Ava chick like you knew her or something. Have you been hanging out with her or something?”

“Don’t know why anyone would want to be anywhere near a freak like her,” the second friend giggled in hushed tones.

One of the remaining boys piped up. “Is that why we’ve barely seen you out of school recently? God, please tell me you haven’t been ditching us for her.”

“No, of course not. I’ve never been one for art anyway. Most of those kids are freaky as all Hell.”

Roxie wouldn’t exactly say she was comfortable dissing her girlfriend behind her back. In fact, she’d say that ‘feeling like a dirty, two faced b***h’ was closer to the mark. But the guilt she felt simply from saying the words was nothing compared to how she felt when she heard a familiar voice speak calmly behind her.

“Oh, I knew there had to be a reason you kept ignoring me at school. But I never expected it to be embarrassment, of all things.”

Roxie spun around, realising too late what she had done. Eve was standing behind her with her arms crossed over her chest. Despite the controlled expression she was wearing, hurt was radiating through every inch of her being as clear as day.

“I got kicked out for you. I was almost homeless for you. I got shot for you. I destroyed my relationship with my own mother for you. And this whole time, you’ve been talking crap about me behind my back? Pretending you don’t know me! Calling me names! Laughing about me! Eve the f*****g weirdo, Eve the art freak!”

“Eve, you know I would never-“

“You know, I really believed that! That’s the sad thing. I really thought I could trust you. What can I say? You had me, hook line and sinker. But here we are, right?”

Several of the kids behind Roxie started chittering. Roxie turned and fixed them all with a glare that would freeze flames.

“Shut. Up.”

Turning back, her mouth was already opening to explain the situation, to apologise – only for her to find that Eve was already walking away. She ran after her, calling out.

“Come on, can’t we talk about this? Work this out, just like we have everything else?”

“Oh, I don’t think there is anything to work out here. You made yourself perfectly clear. You’re one of them. You have more than enough friends; don’t need any more. And what am I? I’ll never be anything more than an art freak, right?”

“No- What I mean is- This isn’t about whether I need more friends, damnit! You know perfectly well that you’re not a ‘friend’.”

“Then what the hell am I?”

“You’re…” Hearing the way her words trailed off, Eve spun around. This time, her feelings were perfectly clear in every line of her face.

“I’m what, Roxie? Go on, say it.” And despite herself, Roxie baulked.

“Here? In front of everyone?”

“Yes! If you’re not too embarrassed to even be associated with me, that is. If what we had ever meant anything to you, say it! Right here, right now!”

Roxie knew she couldn’t bow out of this one, not without doing irreparable damage. Eve’s face left no room for argument. So she just straightened her posture, and spoke in a loud and clear voice.

“You’re my girlfriend.”

Despite the gesture, Eve’s face softened only slightly before she hardened herself again.

“Slight correction. I think that at this stage, ‘ex-girlfriend’ seems a little more appropriate.”

Roxie’s blood ran cold in her veins. “You don’t mean that. Eve. Eve!”

Eve ignored her, disappearing down a hallway. Roxie took a step backwards, feeling like her entire world was underwater. Her chest felt like it had been staked straight through, and her limbs were refusing to cooperate with her.

She had seriously messed up. She could see that now. What she didn’t know was how she was going to fix the mess she had created for herself. She knew that she couldn’t just give Eve up. Not yet.

Several students tried to pull her side, curiosity shining in their eyes. She pushed them all aside, and went off on her own.

She spent the rest of her day alone, not seeing or speaking to anyone. She only wanted to be in one place right now. As soon as school ended, and she managed to pry herself away from the groups of curious students, she went there.

As she passed through the thick line of bushes that separated the grove from the rest of the park, she barely noticed that some of them had been trampled. The only thing she could concentrate on was getting to the one place where she actually felt safe. Happy. She needed some time to think.

She supposed she shouldn’t have been surprised to see Eve leaning against the bench. After all, if she’d had the idea, why couldn’t the other girl? She paused, unsure of what to do, before taking a step forward and addressing Eve’s back.

“So, hi.”

Eve didn’t answer. Sighing, Roxie tried again.

“Look, I know you’re pissed. And I can’t blame you. I deserve it. I was… I was being a b***h, ok? I was just-“

She started to take tentative steps forwards, continuing to explain herself.

“I’ll admit it; I’ve always cared a bit too much about what other people think of me. I’ve never been able to help it, you know? Don’t ask why, because I honestly don’t know. But I got involved with a lot of these other kids at a really young age, and until I met you, I never had any reason to question the things they said. They told me that the art kids were weird loners, the jocks were awesome people, and the teachers were lame. I never had any reason to not believe that.

“You showed me the truth, Eve. You showed me that all those stupid stereotypes? That’s all they are. And you’ve got to believe me when I say that I never, ever wanted to hurt you. You’re… You are, without a doubt, the best thing that has ever happened to me. I can’t lose you. So please, can we just sit down and talk?”

It was here that she paused, expecting some kind of sarcastic comment. Something, at least. But Eve remained steadfastly silent. It was at this point that Roxie felt the first tingle that something was wrong. Not just in Eve’s silence, but in the strange way her body was positioned. Upon getting closer, she looked more like she had fallen into that position as opposed to willingly sitting down like that.

Approaching more quickly, she spoke again. “Hey, Eve? You awake?”

Nothing. Finally taking the dive and moving around to Eve’s front, she gasped in horror.

Eve, while alive, clearly wasn’t doing well. What Roxie had initially perceived as her casually leaning against the bench was actually a state of almost total unconsciousness. Eve’s eyelids fluttered weakly, but she didn’t respond to Roxie’s various attempts to wake her.

Roxie gathered the girl into her arms.

“Oh my god, Eve! What the hell happened?”

Checking the girl’s prone body for injuries, she noticed an odd bruise on her bare arm. It didn’t look like it had come from a conventional injury; it was small, localised entirely to one point. Roxie had just enough time to consider what this meant when she felt someone grab her from behind.

Dropping Eve, Roxie threw herself forwards with a shriek – or at least, she attempted to. Whoever had her was strong, and she was caught firmly in their grasp. One of the arms holding her released her, only for a stabbing pain to shoot through her arm seconds later. Stamping on her attacker’s foot, she was released and immediately hit the grass.

As she looked up, she noticed that the world around her was spinning slightly. While she had bumped her head, she didn’t think the grass was solid enough to cause a concussion.

All of a sudden, the truth of the situation dawned on her.

Standing and grabbing Eve again, she took a couple of weak steps towards the bushes before her legs collapsed underneath her. The spinning grew more intense, and she tried to make her limbs work again to no avail. It was like she was a marionette who’d had her strings cut; her arms and legs simply refused to obey her commands.

Hearing noises to the side of her, she saw Eve’s unconscious body being dragged out of her peripheral vision. A couple of sharp ripping noises sounded, followed by a plastic crinkling. A few seconds passed, and Roxie lost the strength to even sit up anymore. She fell to the ground, still conscious of the sky above her but not much else. She knew that something about this situation was wrong, but for the life of her she could not figure out why she was lying on the ground, or why her brain was screaming that she needed to get up. She felt calm, at peace, and just wished the danger signals going off in her subconscious would shut up for a few seconds.

She felt someone lift her arms, heard that ripping sound again, and then felt a firm pressure against them that refused to yield. Her arms were dropped, but the strange pressure remained, holding them together instead of letting them drop naturally to her sides. As the last vestiges of her conscious mind fled into the darkness, she perceived one last image. And laughed at the ridiculousness of it all.