Taking her hand, Theseus asked, "What’s wrong? What’s going on?”
“There are some things I need to tell you guys. The truth, though.” She looked around. "I’d prefer if we had some privacy.”
Surveying the room, I could see that there were several people in the library milling around, reading, browsing, or studying. Percival noticed it too.
Walking back around his counter, he picked up the phone and pressed a button. His voice came up over the com system. “Attention, the library will be closing early tonight. Please make your way to the front to check out now. Again, the library is now closing, so please make your way to the front.”
He put the phone down with a loud CLA-TCK on the speakers.
“We could have gone into the back or to Ajax’s or something. No need to kick them all out,” Atalanta said.
Percy just shrugged in reply and sat down, waiting at his computer for people to come up. We stood around awkwardly for a couple minutes as a few of the patrons came up and checked out, but the majority those in the library were blatantly ignoring Percy’s announcement.
When it became clear that those people weren’t leaving anytime soon, Percival stood up from his seat and shouted, “EVERYONE EITHER COME CHECK OUT YOUR BOOK OR GET THE FUCK OUT!”
Wow. Who knew the deep-sea Mer could be so loud?
Our little group stared wide-eyed as the last of the stragglers came to the front and begrudgingly checked out their books. Percival’s steely glare was probably what kept all the people from complaining.
Once the last pair of patrons left, Jason locked the doors behind them. Turning back to Atalanta, who had positioned herself against a wall, Jason walked up to her and took her hand.
“You can start when you’re ready. We take this at your pace.”
The four of us nodded in agreement.
Atalanta tilted her head towards her favorite lounge chair. Continuing to hold Jason’s hand, she slumped into the chair. Not wanting to crowd her, Theseus, Hip, Percy, and I pulled up chairs and sat across from her while Percy brought up a seat for Jason to sit in.
I watched the two of them. Feeling how Jason’s touch physically soothed Atalanta’s nerves.
I missed that feeling.
“Well,” She exhaled. "Where to begin?”
Jason gave a soft smile. “How about starting from the worst part?”
She squeezed his hand, her anxiety spiking. Along with this feeling, an odd emotion that I had felt before but could never place. A sort of hollow horror. It felt familiar somehow, and I wish I could remember why.
“When I was twelve years old, I killed four people.”
Oh, that’s why.
Chapter Nineteen
Atalanta
Yep, those were the looks I expected. The four men before me showed me the usual series of emotions. Shock, disbelief, and finally settling on horror. From there, people typically tended to break off. Some moving to pity, others disgust, perhaps being bland and sticking with horror, and sometimes, a rare few showed understanding.
In this instance, Ajax and Percy had been of that rare few. I had to wonder what had happened in their lives before they had met me. Jason and Hip fell into that pity category, and Theseus, he sort of just looked sad. Like what I had said made him feel the weight of his own past. Was he like Ajax and Percy? Did he understand?
“Now, please, start from the beginning.” Jason said, his voice a little croaky.
My chest felt hollow as I entered a familiar headspace. It had been a long time since I had repeated this story aloud to anyone. Starting was always the hardest part, so I supposed Jason’s method made it a smidge easier to just blurt out most of it.
“I’ll save you from the gruesome details. My mother was a drug addict. Had been one on and off for years. One night, when I was stuck at home with a fever, my father had taken Cal out to the movies while our mother stayed home to watch me.”
Broken pieces of the night flashed in my mind. I had been so jealous. They knew I wanted to go see the new Disney movie, but there I was, stuck in bed, all covered in sweat and snot.
“My father never realized how deep in debt my mom had been with her dealer. Nor did he know that it wasn’t just some street thug that sold the stuff to her. That night, they came to collect.”
The BANG! BANG! BANG! at the door met with my mother’s muffled curses, when I assumed she realized who was on the other side.
“Four guys and a woman came busting into our home. Demanding all sorts of things.”
You’s owes us over ten G’s, Mary! You’s better pay up now or it will be your body.
“They got ahold of my mother and I. At the time, I honestly didn’t understand what was going on, or what two of the guys were doing with my mother in the next room. All I knew was when the woman and one of her goons came storming into my room and dragged me out of bed, I was afraid.”
The woman’s breath on my face was disgusting as she held me up by my hair. Look what we’ve got here, Tony. An unripe bitch! We could use this one at the warehouse if she doesn’t fill out enough to be used on the streets.
“They wanted to make me some sort of worker in their operation if I didn’t work out for them as a prostitute,” I take a deep breath, not looking into any of their eyes. Not wanting to see the pity. "I struggled, of course. It didn’t get me much of anything beyond a few good punches to the face and a bullet hole in my shoulder.” I rubbed the shoulder as the memories made it ache.
My mind was nothing but panic at first, but that screaming force telling me to live surfaced, pushing through all the pain in my shoulder and making me take action.
“My father was a federal agent, and the way he raised us, Cal and I knew how to hold a gun. Knew how to fire one, too. I fought the gun away from the woman, and in the struggle, I shot her.”
Stay alive.
Gotta keep living, gotta protect momma.
Stay alive.
I touched my malformed hip. “Her guy got me pretty bad in the leg, but honestly, by that point, it was all a blur. A twelve year old sick girl with a gun in her hands, and terrifying men who were trying to kill her.”
What’s going on in here? Another man entered the room and I screamed, firing the gun again, and again, and again. Until two more bodies laid at my feet.
“One of the guys that had been in the room with my mother freaked when he heard all the gunshots and bailed out the window. And that’s how my father and Cal found me, ten minutes later. Bloody and beaten, surrounded by dead bodies.”
I paused, let out a shaky breath, and took the chance to watch the guys’ reactions. They were all kind of stuck between shock and horror. Not gonna lie, it was kind of funny. Despite not being human, their reactions perfectly matched the face of every jury member and judge that had handled my case after I told my account.
“Well, fuck.” Hip sat back and stared up at the ceiling.
“I knew something horrible had to have happened,” Percy rubbed his face before whispering, “I had hoped it wasn’t something like this.”
“You were so young.” Theseus murmured thoughtfully.
“Tragedy doesn’t have age restrictions. It could have been worse. I could have been too young to actually defend myself.”
His eyes cut away. “You’re right, but still.”
“What happened next? Why witness protection?” Jason choked out, his grip on my hand like a vice. He was quivering so violently as tears streamed down his cheeks.
I reached up and wiped a few away. “I was in the hospital for a while, then on trial to testify my account. It was hardly ever a question of if I were to be locked up for killing those people, but more if I should be kept safe from the remaining members of the gang. The woman I had killed, she was the sister of Emmanuel Milos, a drug cartel general with an extremely large following.”