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This guy’s first problem was thinking. Something tells me he doesn’t do it a lot. “I’m her Daddy now!” I raise the gun and shoot him in the face. I step over his body before helping Eden do the same. “How’s that for compensation?”
Chapter Five
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Eden
I try not to look around me, try not to think about…anything really. Just getting out alive. I especially try not to think about the line of bodies we are leaving behind us. I just keep my head down, tucked as far into the shadow of…Demon as I can get. Demon. What kind of name is that, anyway? I realize that’s not his real name but still. Most people have nicknames like…well, like Cricket. I am trusting this man to walk me through the fire and bring me to safety AND his name is Demon.
Two more men step out in front of us and I tense up. Waiting for them to say something about me, my father, something awful. They don’t disappoint.
“What you got there, Demon?” One of them has something sharp in his hand.
“You planning to share, brother?” The other man leers at me. I can feel his eyes on me even though I try to stay behind Demon.
“Demon doesn’t share, dumbass.”
“Cricket, if it ain’t the bug of the cell block. I would have thought Demon here would have squashed you already.”
“Yeah, like the bug you are.” The second guy puts in.
“The two of you have two seconds to turn around and make a better decision than the one you’re about to make.”
The two men look at each other before giving us a grin that sends a shiver down my spine, “Yeah, see Demon, pussy this good might be worth whatever you’re handing out…brother.”
They rush forward. Demon pushes me back into Cricket who places his hand on my arm, “You might want to turn away, ma’am, er…Eden.”
Before I can answer Demon meets the two men with punches. He grabs the bigger of the two -still inches shorter than Demon himself- and makes a quick jerking motion with the guy's head. There is an audible crack before the guy drops from between Demon’s hands. The second man, the one with the sharp object, takes a swipe at Demon, but Demon is as agile as he is large.
He knocks the man’s hand away, spins, and uses his other hand to hit the arm he is holding. The bone in the arm snaps and Demon ends up with the homemade knife. He jerks the guy up and slams the sharpened metal in his stomach before he pulls him closer.
“That ‘pussy’ is mine! I don’t share what belongs to me!” He jerks up as the man’s eyes grow wider and his mouth opens in a silent scream. “And I’m not your brother.”
He lets the man fall to the concrete floor. His eyes find mine as he bends over the first man and wipes his hands and the knife on his shirt. He comes to stand in front of me once he’s got most of the blood off his hands. “You shouldn’t have seen that.”
His eyes shift to Cricket and narrow. Cricket holds his hands up, “Hey, I ain’t touching your girl. I told her she ought not look, that’s all I can do. I’m not ending up like those guys.”
I hold my breath as the two men look at one another. “Smart man.”
It’s all Demon says before turning back around and heading off again. Cricket gives me a big smile before both of us rush to follow him. Even though we can hear the shouts and screams coming from somewhere else in the prison, no one else bothers us. We pass by one cell that is on fire and find a dead inmate in another. I swallow the scream that tries to wrench itself from my throat when we come upon the latter of the two.
I take a step back and run into Cricket who is also looking in the cells. “Eden.”
My name is snapped out by Demon’s gruff voice which pulls me from where I’ve been staring at the man hanging in his cell. A sound catches our attention and has Demon back in full protection mode. I look over at another cell and see…
“Oh my God! Adam!” I rush to go to him only to be lifted off the ground by an arm around my waist. I twist in his arms trying to get down. “Please, he…he was the only guard that didn’t look at me…like, um…he was nice to me.”
He looks from me to the wounded guard. “Fine. Cricket go help him.”
“Sure thing, Demon. I always liked Adam too. Decent sort of man.” It’s a struggle but finally, Cricket gets Adam up and helps him out of the cell. Adam is in pain but his first words confirm what an amazing human he is.
“Leave me. Get her out of here! She’s…too young…”
“Hold on, Adam. Just hold on. Demon won’t let anything hurt Eden. They have a deal…”
“Cricket! Shut up.” Demon interrupts Cricket before he can disclose our agreement. “I’m sure Eden doesn’t want the world to know what she did to survive this hellhole.”
Was…was he trying to protect my…dignity? We start back again, this time moving a little slower since we have an injured man with us. With luck and the single-minded determination of Demon, we make it to the warden’s office.
