O N E

~E V E~

Seeing the happiness on that woman’s face as she held her son tightly made my stomach turn, because as she was relieved that her son was safe, I, on the other hand, was drowning in misery.

The police officer, who looked around his mid-twenties and was seemingly proud of his job, carefully examined Gabriel. “Thank you so much, officer, for helping me in search of my son,” Gabriel’s mother thanked him.

“Not a problem, ma’am; I am very happy to help.” The officer said with a heartwarming smile, which made me cringe. There is no way he loved his job this much; he was clearly faking it. “I see Gabriel is perfectly alright,” he added.

“Alright?” This woman, who has now taken the hand of her daughter again, questioned, She just won’t get off my back, will she? “Miss, I suggest you file a report against this lady here,” she eyed me with spite. “This lady here pushed your son to the ground and made sure he stayed there while mocking him; I saw it happen,” the woman reported.

Oh for heavens sake, that didn’t even happen; she is clearly making things up at this point just to score cheap points.

“She did what?” Gabriel’s mom reacted to this as she walked into the circle. I instantly growled, not her acting like the self righteous mom I once called these women before, because who leaves her child roaming about without holding them still? Surely they don’t think I was going to take another round of this nonsense.

I walked away completely unbothered by the insults they were hurling at me.

“You should apologize first,” The officer told me as I reached the end of the path the mothers had parted for me, I guess he too decided to be another kid advocate for safety rather than doing his main job. I stared him up and down before looking at his name tag, “Zachariah.” I read out his name aloud before looking up at him.

He nodded before pointing back to the kid’s mother and saying, “I suggest you apologize.”

“You think I should?” I raised a brow clearly not in the form of doing anything of that sort at all, but Zach thinks I might by the way he grinned and went on to preach peace, so I chose to play along. “If you do, I will help put in words for the mothers to forgive you as well; by the look of things, they are very angry,” he spoke in a hush, laying much emphasis on the mothers temperament toward me.

“They are, aren’t they?” I looked back to see all of their reactions, and Zach was saying the truth. They all looked like they were prepared to take torches and set me ablaze for the thing I had done, though clearly innocent because that kid caused all of this, but no one would listen to my side. “Maybe I should apologize.” I paused, giving Zach hope that he had convinced me. “Or maybe not,” I cackled as I passed Zachariah, who looked utterly astounded by my stubbornness.

I went on to sit on my seat and wait for whoever wanted their kids books to get signed.

No one came; rather, they all staged a walk-out, which left my entire book signing empty. I sat there watching all of them leave one after the other, even Zach. Of course, I didn’t try to get up, not when I had been bold enough to sit there in the first place.

It wasn’t much of a hard pill to swallow because, at the end of the day, they were all humans; their suffering will come one way or another, and I will have the last and best laugh.

“Eva, what happened?” Raghul came in to ask me at the table, sighting the deserted book signing events that were previously packed with parents and their kids. “Did something happen? Something surely happened. I leave you alone to fight off the man who took away my parking space, and you just can’t stay still,” Raghul muttered.

I glowered at him. “My name is Eve, Raghul; how hard can it be for you to get it right? It is not Eva but Eve! You tard! And you too, Pamela.” I changed the subject as I directed my annoyance towards something that had pissed me off before. Pamela, whom I sighted coming up to me, looked all sullen.

“I just got off the phone from the publishing house; it turns out reports have already gotten to them about everything that has happened.” Pamela’s voice broke at each sentence she made. I could see the weariness in her eyes as she spoke.

“And?” I demanded that she speak quickly, not having the time for some pity party Raghul was about offering her, bloody humans.

I swallowed hard as she spoke, her lips chattering. Clearly, she had reached her breaking point.

Pamela broke down as she began shedding tears during her utterances. “From the look of things, it seems like I am going to lose my job,” she sniffs. Here comes the sob story: “I have nothing, absolutely nothing; all of my savings I had given to my family back at home because my brother has been diagnosed with leukemia. I have also been behind on payment for most of my bills. I was heavily depending on this to work so I could get a bonus, and now I don’t think I have a job anymore."

sniffs how touching

I chuckled, relaxing comfortably in my chair. “Maybe if you had done your job better, maybe you wouldn’t be in this situation. Not to worry, there are more opportunities out there. Thank you for your services.” I said I was doing the best of my effort to calm her down; clearly, this too wasn’t taken lightly.

“I did my job properly; you are the reason things end up this way and I am in this mess,” Pamela said angrily, not hiding her long-suppressed hate for me. Well, that switch up was expected, but what is wrong with the little speech I gave? “You never do things right, always staring up problems wherever you go. Alright, we get it. Your style is gothic, and you must dress up like that lady from the Addams family.”

“You mean Morticia? She is an icon; I love her to bits; great movie too,” I chimed in as Pamela expressed herself. “You can carry on.” I couldn’t be much happier seeing the disgusted face of Pamela and how I was enjoying the most of this.

“Why should I even bother? You are such a heartless human being and a selfish one at that too,” Pamela cussed out.

I loved each insult except the one in which she deduced me to be an ordinary human, which triggered me instantly. Raghul saw that I was changing form slowly as my tinted black hair was losing color and changing back to white. My hands twitched underneath the gloves that held them down. Just a single touch from me and she was gone. I thought I could manage her rant when she continued, but my eye contact, which I wore to change the color of my eyes, suddenly cracked, and then I knew I just couldn’t sit here and listen anymore.

I got up with urgency and took a flight up the stairs with my feet, trying to get as far away from her as possible. When I was safe on the roof of the mall, I felt more relaxed. I took off both contacts and exchanged them with another.

As I could see more clearly now, my eyes shifted to see a high school teen standing at the edge of the roof. “Jump,” I whispered into her ears as my soul stood close to her, my body still standing in its exact position. It would be such a great sight if she did, so I need a front row seat without being there directly.

“I am trying to; can’t you see?” The teen girl cried out with her eyes closed, her feet edging further, but she squirms away at each attempt. I guess I am not the only one coercing her too; the devil seems to be heavily at work because I just requested that she jump just now. “Alright, I am going to do it,” the teen girl screamed as she took the step.