Chapter 9

“Good evening Aeron,” her father said, not looking up from the cat toy in his hands. “Keeping this for memory?” He tossed the cat toy at her and she deftly caught it.

“I haven’t had the chance—”

“To be rid of your dead cat’s items? How touching.” His eyes had a glazed, red look to them, and he wobbled as he stood. “I couldn’t find it, so don’t worry your little heart. Your cat is safe—for now.”

“I—”

“I..I,” her father mimicked, advancing toward her. She slowly backed down the hallway to the living room. She needed to be sure there was an escape route. Aeron stuck a hand in her pocket, grabbing her cell phone and hoping the she was hitting the right keys to send a message to Decius: 911.

“What are you doing?” her father yelled, as they entered the lighted living room. “Get your hand out of your pocket!”

He lunged for her and she tripped backward over an ottoman. They were a tangle of limbs, and Aeron tried to extract herself from his grip. She could smell the whiskey heavy on his breath—a habit of drinking after a hit—it made him deadly, and she hoped her text had gone through.

“You are a worthless piece of crap,” he growled, finally pinning her to the floor. He slapped her hard across the face, and she felt blood begin to trickle out of her nose. “I should have drowned you at birth.” Another slap.

Aeron struggled to get free, but his adrenaline was still pumping from his recent kills, fueled by the alcohol. Aeron knew she was no match for him in her exhausted state. She did the only thing in her power—she spit. It hit him square in the face, and he released her long enough for Aeron to get away.

“Stay away from me,” she said, pulling herself up and glaring at him. He wiped his face, and glared back. Aeron backed up to the breakfast bar. He advanced again, and Aeron dodged his first fist.

“I see you survived your pony ride today. Tell me, did you cry and beg to keep the big scary ponies away?” He swung again and missed. “I was hoping you’d buck up some courage, and then have a tragic accident, ridding me of your useless carcass.”

Aeron grabbed a knife from the counter, but it shook in her hand and he easily knocked it away.

“Do you want to know the only reason I kept you?” He grabbed the front of her shirt and pulled her close to his face. “Because your mother begged and pleaded with me. I would have fed you to the wolves, but she assured me you would be of some use to this family—a doctor to care for your brother.”

He pushed her hard, slamming her head into the wall and back-handing her. Aeron slid to the ground, her vision dangerously blurred. She reached around looking for a weapon—any weapon to defend herself.

“Can you heal that cut there, Susie?” he taunted. Her breath caught in her chest when he called her that, Mr. Wayward’s words ringing in her ears. She held her scream in as he landed a solid kick to her ribs—she felt at least two of them break. “How about those ribs? No? You are a failure. Why did my father keep you!”

Aeron bit her lip as he continued, enduring each kick and punch while feebly fending off the blows. She remembered the first time he had hit her—she had been seven years old, and proudly presented her report card to him. She had aced every subject, and was asked to be moved into the advanced classes. Instead of being pleased, he had asked what Decius had accomplished. With a smile, she had said, “Good grades, but not as good as mine”. He slapped her across the face, and she had cried. “Stop it. You are never to do that again, do you understand?” he had demanded, and shook her small seven year old body. She had thought he had meant cry, and when he hit her across the head with his decorative cane, she cried harder. Aeron was ten before she learned how to stop.

Aeron snapped back to reality as her father snatched her right arm. “How well are you at splinting? Surely something as easy as that you can manage.” Aeron lashed out with her left hand, her wrist colliding solidly with the side of his face. Raised, red, elongated S’s stood out on his pale cheek, dripping blood. He stumbled back, releasing her arm but latching onto her ankle for balance. She heard the terrible pop before she felt it. Aeron finally let out a scream, and allowed the tears to spill over.

“There’s my girl,” he cooed, as she rolled on the floor gripping her ankle. He stroked her hair; she cried harder. “It’s okay,” he cooed to her, and Aeron was unsure if he was talking to her, or to Susie—whoever that was. He stood suddenly, leaving her on the floor, a bloody and bruised mess. When he touched a hand to his face—it came away wet with blood and he seemed to snap out of whatever psychosis he had been in. She had marked him. “You are a disappointment, Aeron,” he said, leaning against the counter, catching his breath.

Aeron continued to sob, nausea from pain, and the absolute certainty the initial beating all those years ago was not because she had cried. It was because she was a girl—meant for nothing more than mending wounds, not for carrying on the family legacy. She lay, trying to catch her breath when footsteps—fast and steady—could be heard coming down the hallway. She tried to yell, but only a small whimper came out. The apartment door crashed open, since it hadn’t been properly closed, and she felt Decius slide to his knees next to her.

“Oh, Aeron,” Decius said softly, brushing the bloody, matted hair from her face.

“I knew you’d come,” their father said, and she felt Decius jump—he hadn’t noticed him.

“Good evening father,” Decius said politely, not leaving Aeron’s side.

“Giving you a sister made you soft. I tried to beat it out of you, and then her. I should have killed her when I realized she would ensure you were both a disappointment to the family name. Your grandfather is rolling in his grave!”

Aeron felt the swish of the cane, and flinched, hearing the thud of metal on flesh. “You should leave,” Decius said, slightly breathless. “The FBI has been doing sweeps of this block looking for the killer of Waterford and Wells. They found a trace of alcohol at the scene—”

There was another swish but a thud did not follow this time. Aeron flinched as the smell of whiskey assaulted her senses. He grabbed her and pulled her close to his face. “We have not finished, girl,” he growled. He dropped her back to the floor. Aeron sucked in breath and felt the piercing pain of her ribs.

“What the—what happened?” Luke was standing in the doorway, blocking their father from leaving. Aeron struggled to sit up. “No! Aeron don’t move. We have to get you to the infirmary.”

“No,” she gasped, trying to get Luke into focus. He was staring from Aeron, to Decius, and finally to her father. Luke lunged toward their father, but Decius caught him.

“Luke no,” he said, trying to keep hold of him, while their father laughed.

“Let the boy go Decius. Let me take clean this earth of that traitorous family of his—what an ominous message to send to Mr. Wayard! The death of his protégé.”

“You are filth, and deserve to die a slow death!” Luke shouted.

“You should leave, Father,” Decius said again, still struggling with Luke.

He glared at Luke. “Your father and uncle were honorable men and it is in their honor only, that I spare your life.” Aeron yelled out in pain as he knocked into her broken ankle as he left the apartment. Luke pushed his way past Decius to Aeron’s side. “We have to get you to the infirmary,” Luke reiterated.

“No!” Aeron gasped. “You can’t bring me to that wretched woman. Decius—” She looked up to see his face covered in blood, and a nasty bump forming on his head.

“She’s right,” Decius agreed. “We can’t bring her there. Why are you even here Luke?” Decius asked, sounding annoyed. He pushed Luke aside to assess the damage. “I said I’d be right back.”

“You looked worried, and I figured—”

“You figured wrong,” Decius spat. “This is a family issue. You’re not needed here.”

“Like hell I’m not. Look at her! I’m not going anywhere!” Luke retorted, anger rising in his voice.

“Luke,” Decius said again, and Aeron could feel the anger rolling off him.

“Decius,” she said softly, “Its fine.” Decius looked down at her, his gray eyes full of shame.

“How much did you hear?” Decius asked softly, directing the question to Luke, but not looking at him.

“Enough,” Luke said harshly. “How could you allow…”

“There was nothing—”

“Liar,” Luke spat. “There’s always something that could be done.”

“Stop it,” Aeron whispered. “Please, both of you stop it!” she said a little louder, and the two boys stopped arguing. “This is my fault.”

“No it’s not,” Decius said, kneeling next to her. “C’mon. Hang in there. I’m going to call for help.” Aeron nodded as he got up, which only made the room spin.

“Easy there Ronnie,” Luke said, taking Decius place. “You’re going to be all right.”

“Luke,” Aeron said frantically. She was losing focus, and need to be sure he understood her.

“I’m here. It’s okay.”

“Luke,” Aeron repeated again. She was breathing heavy taking short, raspy breaths. “You can’t…you can’t tell anyone.”

“I won’t,” he said stroking her face.

She struggled to sit up, willing him not to brush her off. “I’m serious…you can’t-can’t tell anyone. It’s…it’s not his fault.”

“How can you defend him?” Luke asked outraged. “After what just—”

“Dee’s tried…so hard to…” She was willing him to understand. “Please…I’ll…”

“Shh,” Luke whispered, pushing her back down. “I won’t. Promise. Now stay awake for me okay? Just lay here and stay awake.” He took her hand and asked her the most bizarre questions. What was her favorite color? He knew that—it was gray. Where in the world would she like to visit? Could she still hear him? How old was she when she got Jazz? The room was beginning to darken, and she could hear Luke calling for her, but the black was just too peaceful, and she let it swallow her up.

***

There was a commotion coming from somewhere, but Aeron couldn’t open her eyes to see where. And then panic overtook her as she discovered she couldn’t move either. What had happened?

“This isn’t the time for it! She needs rest. There aren’t supposed to be any visitors!” The voice was familiar to her, calming her. Who wasn’t supposed to have visitors? What a bizarre dream.

“When then? After the next time she’s attacked? Decius, you can’t lie to me. I know your  father did this. And what did he mean my traitorous family?”

“I don’t know, Luke. I told you before, there is nothing that could’ve been done. I’ve tried on many occasions but—it does no good.”

“And your mother—”

“You’re crossing a line,” Decius said, anger rising in his voice. “She doesn’t know how bad it is. How many times have you gone to your mother for stitches and splints? It’s our way of life—it’s rough and violent.”

“All those times I’ve stayed at your house.” Luke’s voice was rising. Aeron couldn’t remember ever hearing Luke angry. He was gentle, and caring. “She doesn’t deserve this.”

“But I do?” There was pain in Decius’ voice.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because she didn’t want you to know.” It was Shannon, harsh and unforgiving.

“You knew too? Did everyone know but me?”

“Luke—it’s not like that.”

“No, I get it,” Luke said. “She doesn’t trust me…”

***

There was a bright light shinning in Aeron’s eyes. She had heard about following the light when you die, but how could you follow something that kept moving back and forth, and then disappearing completely? But this couldn’t be death, there was pain—pain everywhere. She opened her eyes and let out a hoarse scream.

“Aeron! It’s okay! You’re okay, here lay back down.”

The room was fuzzy. There was a red blur attempting to push her back down. “Shannon?” Aeron croaked.

“Hey there,” Shannon said. “Lay back down so I can give you some more morphine.”

Aeron obeyed, and slowly the room came into focus. She was in her own bedroom at the apartment. “So, do you remember what happened?”

Aeron shook her head, which was a bad idea. The room spun and her head throbbed. “How long have I been out?” she asked, closing her eyes.

“Two and a half weeks. We weren’t sure you would come out of it-”

“Two and a half weeks! What the hell happened to me?” Shannon let out a long sigh, and Aeron noticed how pale and drawn Shannon’s face looked.

“How’s the pain?” Shannon asked, ignoring Aeron’s question and checking her vitals.

“Better,” Aeron said. “But seriously, what happened?”

Shannon sat down on the bed. She didn’t answer right away, but took Aeron’s left hand and stroked the cuff bracelet smeared in dried blood. “What is the last thing you remember? Really think about it.”

Aeron looked at the cuff bracelet, and a face with blood dripping down it flashed in her mind. She couldn’t see who it was. She pulled her hand back. “I’m telling you, I don’t remember.”

Shannon didn’t push. She stood up and checked over Aeron’s vitals again—busy work, but her hands shook slightly. There was a knock and Aeron looked up. Decius was standing in the hallway, a black eye, busted lip and a slight lump on his head. “May I come in?”

“Of course!” Aeron said, ignoring the wave of dizziness as she sat up. “Decius! What happened to you?” He didn’t come in, but looked at Shannon, waiting for approval. She nodded.

“How is she?” he asked, standing next to Shannon and checking over the medical sheets.

“I’m fine,” Aeron said, annoyed. He barely allowed his gaze to fall over her as she spoke.

“Does she—”

“Hello!” Aeron yelled hoarsely. “I’m right here. What happened?”

Decius looked from Shannon to Aeron, and when their eyes met, Aeron saw the pain and shame. The memories of the attack flooded back to her. “Oh, my,” she said, sinking back to the bed, suddenly dizzy.

Decius knelt next to her bed. “It’s all my fault.” His eyes were moist, and Aeron wasn’t sure what to do. She looked to Shannon for help, but she had gone. Aeron looked back to Decius, who she had never seen so distraught. You would think she had died…

Her heart began racing. “Decius, what happened? What’s wrong with me?”

“I should have been there. I should have helped!” He stood up and began pacing.

“Father—I knew he was in town. I didn’t think he would go to the apartment!”

“Decius—”

“And when I found you, I thought you were dead. And then we lost you once during surgery and Luke nearly killed me—I didn’t even fight back. I was hoping he would…”

“I died?” Aeron was shocked. She remembered her father beating her, and even Decius and Luke showing up, but she hadn’t been hurt that badly, had she?

Decius whipped around. “Well, yeah. But just for a minute!” He sat down on her bed.

“This is all my fault. I’m sorry.”

“It’s all right. Look,” she waved her arms, “I’m fine!” For the first time she could remember, she felt the need to comfort Decius, not just protect him. She slowly sat up. “Dee, it’s not that bad. Really, what do I have a concussion and a few broken bones? I’ll heal.”

“You shouldn’t have to. I should be in that bed, not you.”

She was suddenly pulled back into the dream she had while unconscious—Decius and Luke arguing. “You don’t deserve this either. Can we just move on?”

“You died.”

“And then I lived.” They sat in silence for a few minutes until Aeron couldn’t take it anymore. “Dee, where’s Luke?”

“Classes,” he said, not meeting her eyes. “We’ve been rotating who goes to class to be sure someone would be here when you woke up.”

Of course, over two weeks had continued without her. “What does everyone think happened to me?”

“A mugger. Luke knows, and of course I told Shannon, although she knew before I even said a word.” Aeron’s face burned, and she closed her eyes. “Are you okay?”

“That is so embarrassing,” Aeron admitted.

“Better then the truth,” Shannon said, returning with an arm full of books. “So you have three broken ribs, a small skull fracture, and you’re lucky your ankle snapped cleanly. It will heal faster.”

“Yeah, lucky,” Aeron said, remembering the sound and pain from the snap.

“And two weeks of homework,” Shannon said, dropping the books on the night side table.

Aeron eyed the books with disgust.

“It’s basically all done,” Decius said. “You just have to copy it over in your hand writing.” Aeron smiled at Decius, who gave her the faintest ghost of a smile back. “I have to let everyone know you’re up. We’ve have some stuff to catch you up on.”

“Yeah, sure,” Aeron agreed, as Decius headed out of the room.

“Now that I know you are alive,” Shannon said, rounding on Aeron once Decius had left.

“You want to tell me what the hell is going on?”

Aeron looked at her best friend taken aback. “What do you mean?”

A small smile crept on to Shannon’s face. “You’ve certainly had a few well-wishers stopping by, and by a few I mean some pretty strange ones.”

Aeron looked around the room, taking in the flowers and cards. She even saw a few boxes of chocolate–which she was sure were already half eaten.

“Who stopped by?”

Shannon walked around the room, picking up cards and reading off names. “Some of these were delivered, like Ivan—‘Get well soon’. Then there are the ones delivered in person—with flowers and candies, like from Mason. And here’s another box of chocolates from Perry.” Shannon’s piercing green eyes glared her way.

“That’s so sweet!” Aeron said, avoiding Shannon’s accusations. Ivan was her outside computer guy—the one she went to when she needed solid information. How had he known she was even injured? And Mason and Perry, well they were her mentor and an old friend—why wouldn’t they stop in to check on her? “Did you save me any chocolate?”

“No.”

Aeron wasn’t sure why Shannon was being so short with her—she had done a complete three-sixty from when she had woken up. “Shan, what did I do?”

“Is there something going on between you and Mason? And what about Perry?”

“What? No! Of course not. Neither! Why would you even think that?”

“Because, Lesley saw Mason leaving here the other day, and said you seemed a little flustered. And you do spend all that extra time with him, and—”

“Relax!” Aeron said, fighting off a laugh. “He was stopping by to see if I would shadow Molly. And seriously,” Aeron said blushing, “he’s not like that.” Aeron sat back half offended by what Shannon was suggesting, and half guilty—remembering how close they had been sitting that day. “What would it matter anyways?”

“Because.” Shannon was becoming more frustrated, and it amused Aeron slightly to see her level-headed friend losing it. “Because he was dating Laura—no one was supposed to know.”

Aeron sat up, fighting off the nausea. “Why didn’t you say something! We could have asked him what happened to her!”

“I was going to,” Shannon said, “but then you got attacked, and everything just kind of got put on hold.”

“No,” Aeron said, excitement coursing through her. “I mean you should have told me because he was trying to tell me something about Figg that day he was here. I would have pushed harder for answers. I would have—”

“It doesn’t matter,” Shannon said, moving closer to the bed, to calm Aeron down. “He told me. I already talked to him. Who do you think I went running to when we needed someone to perform surgery? If he knew where Laura was I needed him to come out and tell me.”

“Then why were you just jumping down my throat about him coming to visit?”

Shannon’s face turned bright red. “Well—never mind. It’s not important.”

Aeron brushed off the feeling Shannon was hiding something from her. “Has Luke been in to see me?” she asked.

Shannon shook her head. “He was here during the surgery, and then he and Decius had a terrible fight—I’ve never even seen them argue before—and then Luke just left. No one’s seen him since.”

Aeron fiddled with the sharp edges of her cuff bracelet. “What about classes?”

“He’s been to those, but not back to the apartments. I’m sorry Aeron. Listen, I’m going to go shower and eat before everyone comes back for the group meeting. Are you going to be all right?”

Aeron nodded. She was lost in thought about Luke and Decius. Perhaps that dream hadn’t been a dream. Jazz jumped lightly on the bed next to her, and purred while she scratched behind his ears and waited for everyone to arrive. It didn’t take long for their small group to congregate. It all seemed oddly formal in her bedroom, and Aeron wished she had requested to have it somewhere else—although she couldn’t move yet.

“I called this meeting so we could catch Aeron up on the last few weeks,” Decius said.

Lesley smiled at Aeron. “Glad you’re okay!”

“Yeah,” Justin said. “Classes are so much harder without you there.”

“Hey!” Decius said, but Aeron smiled.

“Making you actually work?” Aeron asked, and Justin smiled back.

“Now, as I was saying—” Decius began, but Aeron cut him off.

“What’s wrong Alicia?” A small hiccupping noise had been coming from her, but Alicia just shook her head and tried to hide her tears. Aeron looked around to Shannon who shrugged.

“I think your attack sort of rattled her,” Shannon whispered.

“Enough!” Decius said, exasperated. “Listen, we figured out what happened to Laura—well kind of.”

This caught Aeron’s attention.

“It seems that Dr. Figg was let into the Institute on Laura’s recommendation—supposedly.”

“Supposedly?” Aeron asked.

“Well yeah,” Shannon said. “Laura would have never let her take over the medical ward. We dug around in the databases here in the tech rooms, but the geeks there couldn’t pull up a shred of anything bad on Figg.”

“So we outsourced,” Decius said.

“Ivan,” Aeron said, connecting the two. Decius had gone to Ivan for information, which was how he had known she was injured. “How’d you get him to cooperate? He won’t work for just anyone.”

“He has a soft spot for you which I sort of, well exploited,” Decius admitted. “It wasn’t easy either.”

Aeron smiled in appreciation. She couldn’t imagine it would be. Ivan was a skittish computer hacker she had befriended six years ago. He flew just under the FBI radar—he was good, just not good enough to be any real threat to the government, but she wasn’t trying to hack government files so they’re relationship had worked out. In the beginning, he got his practice in and she got her information. As he got better, she would pay him—in money, comic books, rare memorabilia—it was a strange friendship.

“Once I convinced him who I was,” Decius continued, “and he got to work, I realized someone had tampered with our research systems.”

“Figg,” Aeron supplied.

“Yeah,” Justin said. “I approached my father about it, said I was having a hard time accessing some documents. He called in the big guys, of course, and they realized our system had been hacked.”

“But we couldn’t pin it on Figg,” Shannon said. “That’s when I went to Mason again. He said Laura had been planning to come back to school. They had talked just weeks before and agreed to meet up for coffee the first day back, but she never showed. We’re still not sure what happened to her, but Mason is one hundred percent positive this all has to do with Figg.”

Aeron laid back and closed her eyes. Her head was beginning to throb. “What about those kids who attempted to break in?” she asked.

“Nothing,” Lesley said. “I tried to pull data bases from McCarthy, but they must do hard copies only like we do—no electronic trail.”

Aeron nodded, or tried to. Her eyes were too heavy to open, and she felt slightly dizzy. The noise around her began to fade out and she silently thanked Shannon for drugging her when she wasn’t looking—although there was something she wanted to ask…connections and…