Page 76 of Karma

I was just an idiot for trusting them. Like always.

Nothing I can do to change that now. The war is coming fast now. Maybe we’ll meet on the opposite sides of the battlefield. I’ll make my decision about what to do with them then.

But I can do something else now, before I get too drunk to care about anything.

I lay my bottle down on the dusty porch planks and walk into the house, the creaking and groaning deafening as I climb the steps to the first floor.

Eden’s bedroom is dark, but there’s no fear in her voice as she says, “What do you mean to do? Starve me to death?”

But there’s plenty of fear on her face as I turn on the light and she sees I’m not Joker. I very nearly take a step back at that fear. I’m not used to seeing it on people’s faces when they look at me and I don’t like it.

It seems her tough girl act is reserved just for Joker and whatever they have going on. Because she looks scared as all hell of me. She’s even moving away from me, though she can’t get farbecause he chained her up good. She’s all contorted, sitting on the floor like a dog. I can’t believe Joker just left her like this.

“Not much breaking going on in here,” I say as I approach her. “Just as I thought.”

“No one’s gonna break me,” she says and I’m glad to hear the defiance back in her voice.

“Who are you?” she asks.

I don’t think we need to get to know each other. I’m done trying to make friends. A part of me wants to just leave her chained up. It’s the same part that hopes Joker will follow through in his sick plan of torturing and raping her. But it’s not a very loud part.

She yanks the chain she’s bound with out of my hand when I grab hold of it. Such fire. Such fight. I wish I still had that. I lost it a long time ago. Found some of it again with Karma and Grim. And lost it all over again just a couple of minutes ago when I learned how they betrayed me. I laugh at that. Not happily.

“What? Do you want to stay chained up here like a dog?” I ask, showing her the lock picks I’m holding.

“You’re just gonna chain me up some other way,” she says.

I toss the bag of food I brought her onto the bed beside her.

“I brought you some food and water, and thought you might like to use the toilet,” I say. “But if you’d rather stay chained up and wait for Joker, that’s fine by me. He could be a while though.”

I’m done arguing with her, because I’m suddenly very tired. I just want my bottle and sleep, so I head for the door. She wants to stay chained up like an animal, she can. I tried to help her. I can say that. Probably should’ve tried harder, but nothing much matters to me anymore.

“Yes, I do need to use the bathroom,” she finally says. “Please… please unchain me.”

The sincere innocence in her voice makes me laugh. Did I ever sound like this? Probably. Possibly while begging my captors to at least untie me. I remember doing that. Vaguely. “OK, but only because you asked so politely.”

I never got that response from the monsters that tied me up. Had to rip right through the zip ties they used to do it, nearly severing my hands off in the process, to get free. My wrists still ache on cold, rainy days from those wounds.

I untie her. It’s the least I can do for her, and my own conscience. It’s hard, causing someone the same ordeal that still haunts me fifteen years after I survived it. However this plays out, she’s still gonna be scarred for life by this, one way or another. I should’ve told Joker to come up with a different plan. But it’s too late for that now. Too late for all of us.

I jangle the chain in front of her face. “Don’t do anything stupid like try to run. This is a privilege. Abuse it and you’ll end up in the basement. And you won’t like that at all.”

This house doesn’t even have a basement, but she doesn’t know that. She swallows hard and nods, her eyes so innocently obedient I have to laugh. Then I point out the bathroom and start walking to the door.

“Thank you,” she calls after me. “What’s your name?”

The question makes me stop dead. I know what she’s doing. She’s thinking she’ll make friends with me and then I’ll help her escape. A classic tactic. And hell, a part of me wants to do it. I won’t. But she can at least know I was the one who treated her kindly from the start. That would go a long way towards easing my conscience.

“The name’s Scorpio,” I say. “But don’t try to make friends with me. I’m not your friend. Never will be.”

“Got it, you were messed up because of something the Devils did too,” she says. “And now you want me dead.”

She has no idea how bad I was messed up. And she never will. Because I’m never trusting anyone else with that story. It dies with me now. Soon, I hope.

“I’d like to see the Devils eat some of their own medicine, yeah,” I tell her. “That’d go a long way.”

Not far enough though.

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