Aberrant: Dead Rising - Hana and Eve

[Atomicweasel]

May 10th, late evening...

Having parted from Bond, Hana undertook the delicate balancing act of keeping her Snapples in hand, with the help of chin and arm, while wrestling the door to Violet’s open, with hip and elbow. At the counter next to the jukebox, Hana set her Snapples down and hoisted herself up onto a stool. I’ll save one. she promised herself, twisting the cap off the bottle she’d inherited from Pumpkin and taking a long sip of the still cool peach flavored iced-tea. As she sat enjoying her drink, twisting lightly left and right on the stool, Hana glanced around at the women laying out their make-shift beds along the floor. Some had sleeping bags, some had blankets, and some, making due as best they could, had bunched their clothes into pillows and laid shivering under old ragged jackets. A few of the women, Hana saw, had taken the raised stage and set up there. She watched as three of them, still wearing the faded orange jumpsuits they’d worn as prisoners in Paradise, crowded around a bag propped against the stripper pole.

Hana blinked and sat up straighter, her almost empty Snapple bottle half-way to her lips. A hard-jawed Latina woman in her late teens or early twenties was rummaging through a backpack. She was wearing a gray tank top and had her jumper zipped down to her hips, the arms of it tied around her waist. The woman was fit and strong and tall, with lean hard muscles in her arms and shoulders. She might have been pretty once, but someone had taken pains to make sure she wasn’t now. Her hair was cut razor short and her thick eyebrows formed a unibrow. Her nose was smashed flat and crooked, like a boxer’s, and a perfectly round burn scar sat pink and shiny underneath her right eye. The woman pulled a Twix bar out of the backpack and held it up like a prize, grinning at her two friends.

“Hey! That’s mine!” The Snapple bottle banged on the counter-top as Hana bounded off the stool and started for the stage.

“Oh, shit...here comes trouble, Eva.” One of the woman’s companions, a short blonde with a spattering of freckles across her face, said. “You better watch out,” she added, snickering.

“Give it back.” Hana stopped at the foot of the stage. Her backpack sat at Eva’s feet, her things spilled out around it. She felt dizzy with anger, seeing her carefully guarded stockpile recklessly spread out and dumped across the floor.

“Nah, this is mine. I found it.” Eva said, flipping the Twix bar up and snatching it back out of the air. She spoke with lazy menace, sneering down at Hana.

“You didn’t find it! You took it out of my room!” Hana pointed accusingly, her throat dry, her hands shaking.

“Aww, she looks scared, Eva. You’re scaring her.” The blonde tittered, mistaking Hana’s fury for fear.

Eva’s lips stretched slowly until they formed something like a grin. “Fuck off.” She told Hana crisply.

“You fuck off!” Hana shouted back. She started climbing up onto the stage, but just as Hana was straightening, Eva took a short step toward her and shoved hard with one hand, planting her palm firmly in the center of Hana’s chest and throwing her right back off the stage and onto the floor below. Hana fell with a thump, banging onto her back, the air rushing out of her lungs and leaving her twisting in pain.

“Oops.” The blonde giggled nervously.

Eva hopped lightly down from the stage, moving to stand over Hana. The other women were watching now, some with wicked interest, some with concern, and the room filled itself with a charged uneasy silence, until Eva spoke again. “Possession is nine tenths of the law, putita.” Eva explained to Hana. She peeled the wrapper from the top of the Twix bar and took a big bite. “Mmmmn, this is real good,” She watched as the little Asian girl rolled onto her hands and knees and began to rise, then casually set her foot down on Hana’s pert little ass and stomped the child flat again. “You gotta learn your fucking place, Chinita...” Eva held her foot on Hana’s ass, easing more weight down onto the teen, tapping with her shoe. She took another bite of the Twix bar, chewing noisily, messily, then leaned over Hana. “Hey, you’re pretty cute, Chinita. Maybe, if you behave yourself, I let you be my little bitch.” The blonde still standing on the stage looked crestfallen. Eva paid her no mind. “You like that? Huh? You wanna be my tasty little bitch?” Eva laughed out a spray of crumbly Twix bits, watching Hana fight back tears of humiliation, then she pushed Hana onto her back with her foot. “Get the fuck up out of here. Go cry yourself to sleep, you fucking baby bitch.” Eva feinted a lunge at Hana, who gave a startled yelp and scurried back, “Fucking chimba-sucking China. Think you’re something?”

“Sh-she’s just a little girl, Eva.” A young woman with curly brown hair standing next to the jukebox stammered in protest.

“Cassie, you want me to bust your fucking face open like a sieve? Huh?!” The terrified young woman shook her head emphatically. “Then shut your fucking mouth up, puta.” When she turned back to Hana, Eva found the precocious little teen standing right in front of her. She smirked and took another hungry bite of the Twix bar, chewing with deliberate exaggeration and staring down at Hana. “Whut? You want this? Huh?”

Eva advanced in two loping strides, chin out-thrust, mouth still full of Twix bar, expecting Hana to cut and run. Instead, Hana stepped inside and threw a stinging punch into Eva’s teeth. Hana felt the jolt from her knuckles all the way to her shoulder, but watching Eva’s head snap up and Twix bar go flying everywhere was well worth that numbing pain.

There was a collective gasp from the room and then Hana slammed a haymaker into Eva’s ear. She pressed the attack recklessly, blistering Eva’s ribs with a sharp shin kick and in the same breath banging her bruised right hand off of Eva’s nose with a satisfying crunch. She was about to drill a flying elbow into Eva’s temple when the Latina dropped an overhand right squarely into Hana’s left eye. The punch sent Hana sprawling and as the world spun wildly, Hana was dimly aware that Eva had pulled her back onto her feet.

“She’s gonna kill that kid!” Someone said.

“Don’t just stand there, go get Inanna!” another woman urged.

“You little cunt!” Eva roared at Hana, taking her by the shoulders and slamming her back into the wall. Hana tried to focus and then the back-handed slap landed against her face like thunder. The coppery taste of blood was in her mouth. Her limbs felt weak and rubbery and she would have fallen, but Eva was holding her up. “I’m gonna teach you a fucking lesson, putita,” Eva’s blurry face was right up next to her, nose bloodied, lips peeled back in a snarl. Eva held Hana upright and rammed her knee up hard between Hana’s trembling thighs.

If Hana could have screamed, she would have. She managed a strangled, agonized whimper, then crumpled to the ground when Eva let go of her shoulders. Her hands cupped her crushed pubic mound and she pressed her cheek against the floor, retching up a thin line of blood and drool. “We ain’t done yet, putita.” Hana hazily heard Eva say. A ripping pain in her scalp pulled her face up off the ground as Eva grabbed a fistful of her beautiful hair and yanked Hana’s head up. “I’m gonna give you something to remember me by...” Eva pulled her leg back, her face twisted with malice.

“EVA,” the loud clear voice sounded like a gunshot. “You stop this. Now.” Everyone in the room turned toward the newcomer, a black woman with soft features, intelligent eyes and a proud bearing. Because they were all looking at her, they failed to see what she herself saw. They assumed, naturally, that the urgency in her voice was due to the injustice of what was taking place, a strong grown woman, a fighter as fierce as any of them had ever known, beating a little girl senseless. It was not. What Inanna had seen, what sped her steps toward Eva and Hana and lent the hint of panic to her tone, were the girl’s eyes. They were like pools of oil that swirled and shimmered with a terrible darkness. Inanna saw, and knew in her spine, that behind that darkness lay an evil deeper than any she had known...

...and it was about to come spilling out...

[Dawn OOC]

To Hana's surprise, the behemoth stopped, like a trained attack dog releasing an arm at its master's command. Inanna knelt next to Hana, putting a gentle hand on her back. "Lie still," she murmured softly, even as she considered the danger in being too close to the child. "Eva, get out, wait for me inside the caravan enclosure. Cassie, go get Helen. Now!" The two women hastened to obey.

"Charlotte, pick up her stuff, get it all together," Inanna added before bending over Hana. "Sweetie, just lie still. We've got help coming." She was afraid for Eva - fighting would get her kicked out of the Refuge. And that was a death sentence. Inanna knew Eva would need to be punished for this, but she prayed that the child would limp away and let Inanna do it instead of involving the men in charge - those damned men who had one punishment for everyone but the supers. That was one thing to change, if she could.

She reminded herself to focus on the child and the issue at hand. Her dark eyes were compassionate as she waited for Helen.

[Atomicweasel]

Shadows spilled from Hana’s eyes and pooled onto the floor, splashing out from her and spreading rapidly to coil around Hana. Inanna felt their touch, cold and dreadful, like death itself...and then Hana looked up. For half a heart-beat her face was wreathed in that awful darkness, and the oily stain of it was growing down her neck and shoulders and arms...it lasted only a fraction of a second and then it was gone. All of it simply vanished into Hana’s eyes again as if pulled into a void. Looking at Hana, Inanna saw only a hurt and frightened girl, an ugly bruise already beginning to form where Eva’s fist had struck. Inanna might well have concluded she’d imagined it all...were it not for the lingering cold that crept across her skin.

The summer dress Hana was wearing wasn’t built for fighting. When she rose and sat up straight, the dress, already hanging loose from her shoulders, dropped the rest of the way down Hana’s arms. Still stunned and disoriented, Hana was trying to get her legs under her, oblivious to her exposure.

“Shh, Sweetie, look at me.” Inanna said softly, quelling her fear at the unnatural display of darkness and letting her motherly instincts take over. She deftly maneuvered herself in front of Hana and swiftly slipped the dress back into place before anyone could see, pulling it up and over Hana’s little breasts and squaring the straps. “Just sit a bit and catch your breath.” She placed her hands on Hana’s slender shoulders, softly easing her back down to the floor.

Hana was bravely trying not to cry. She kept sucking in short shuddering breaths and sniffled back any inkling of a sob. Inanna could see her trembling with the effort of it. She lifted her hand from Hana’s shoulder to tenderly stroke the girl’s cheek, then leaned forward to whisper “If you need to cry, you go ahead and cry. No one’s going to think less of you for it.”

Right then Hana wanted nothing more than to do just that. She desperately wanted to bury her bruised face in the warmth of Inanna’s neck and bawl like a baby. She did not. What she did was look straight into Inanna’s eyes and tentatively touch the tip of her tongue to her split and bleeding lip. “You saw, didn’t you?” Hana asked in a small strained voice.

[Dawn OOC]

Inanna paused long enough for Hana to know the answer. But all she said was, "All I see is a hurt girl. You're Hana, right?" At Hana's nod, Inanna said, "If anyone asks me, I will tell them that all I ever saw was a hurt girl, and all I will ever see is that girl." The shadows had been terrifying, but Inanna had been through Hell; she knew that darkness lurked inside of people. She didn't envy that this child could unleash that darkness.

Still whispering, she added, "And even if there were something there, it's alright. Hana, we all have secrets, terrible things that we do." She smiled softly. "Everyone. Even the most innocent person on earth has something they hide."

Helen arrived, kneeling next to Hana. "Oh, you poor child. Here, let's get you into the kitchen. L-Inanna, would you please help me?"

Inanna nodded and turned to look at Charlotte, who was holding the gathered bag. Inanna took the bag from the other former prisoner, tucking it over her shoulder before helping Helen pick up Hana. Together, they limped her into the kitchen, giving Hana privacy as Helen checked her out.

[Atomicweasel]

“Here we go,” A less dazed Hana might have fought Helen’s efforts to scoop her up under the arms and lift her onto the kitchen counter. She would have resented being treated like a child and scoffed at the attentions of the two women. But she was overwhelmed with a mix of emotion. She was angry and hurt and scared of what she’d almost done. She’d almost let it loose. It had been like sand slipping through her fingers, getting away from her, seeping out out out. Inanna’s soothing voice had been there to help her rein it in. The soft touch of Inanna’s hand had pulled her back from the very edge of a bottomless precipice. Now Hana tried to still her racing heart and spinning mind. For clarity, she focused on her pain.

Her eye pulsed and her lip throbbed and her pubic bone ached so fiercely that Hana feared it might be cracked. Helen was fretting over her and Inanna had laid her backpack on the counter next to her. The shiny pink scar covering half of Helen’s face kept drawing Hana’s attention as Helen tilted her chin up and examined her black eye. If Helen noticed Hana’s staring, it didn’t seem to bother her at all. She turned Hana’s head gently to the right and left and looked into the girl’s glazed and hugely dilated pupils.

“Honey, can you tell me how many fingers I’m holding up?”

Hana reluctantly looked away from Helen’s fascinating face and counted fingers. “Two.”

Helen turned to Inanna, “Inanna, could you see if there’s some ice?”

“Sure,” Inanna went to the refrigerator and quickly came back with a tray of ice. Without being asked, she dumped the ice into a small hand towel and rolled it neatly, then twisted it closed and handed it to Helen.

“What’s your name, honey?”

“Hana.”

“And what’s your last name, Hana?” Helen asked kindly.

“Rothschild.” Hana murmured quietly.

“Hana, honey, can you remember your birthday?”

“Yeah, it’s...” Hana paused, blinking at Helen in confusion. “...um...” Her brow knit in concentration.

“That’s okay, honey.” Helen took the ice and put it in Hana’s palm, guiding her little hand up to her black eye. “I want you to hold this here, okay? It’s going to hurt a little...can you do that for me?”

Hana nodded, then winced as she pressed the ice over her swollen eyelid.

“How’s she doing?” Inanna asked, idly petting Hana’s long silky hair.

“It doesn’t look too bad,” Helen answered carefully. “maybe a mild concussion. We should make sure she doesn’t go to sleep for a while yet. Just in case.”

“I left my Snapple back there...” Hana said in a small voice, pointing back toward the bar with her free hand. Both women turned to look at her. “someone might take it.”

[Dawn OOC]

"I got it," Inanna said, stroking Hana's hair on more time. She went to the door and gave an order to Cassie, and a moment later, Hana's Snapple was back in her hands. Inanna hopped up onto the counter next to Hana and went back to offering her comfort.

"I can sit with her here," Inanna offered after a moment. "Would that be alright with you, Hana? Would you like me to sit with you? We could talk, or just be quiet." And hopefully, I can find out if you're going to get Eva in trouble.

[Atomicweasel]

Hana’s shrug affected a nonchalance she didn’t feel. “You can stay...” the precocious teen answered quietly, careful not to betray just how desperately she wanted Inanna by her side. At that moment, Hana would’ve given just about anything not to be left alone. Her heart was pulsing with fear and little goose-bumps dotted the smooth skin of her arms. I almost let it kill her. Hana thought, remembering how her anger had fueled the darkness inside of her, how it had suddenly surged up vast and unstoppable. Only she had stopped it, even if she could still feel it behind her eyes and building in her throat. Don’t think about it.

With the Snapple gingerly tilted to her busted lip in one hand and the ice-pack held to her swollen eye with the other, Hana was sure she looked ridiculous. She glanced again at Inanna as she returned the Snapple bottle to her thigh and felt a rush of gratitude. Inanna wasn’t laughing, or even fighting back a giggle. The woman was smiling gently in a way that made Hana remember her mother with a fierce and poignant intensity that felt like a needle going into her chest.

[Dawn OOC]

"Alright, I'll just sit here," Inanna said. She was quiet for a moment, thinking about how to broach the subject at hand: Inanna was going to keep Hana's secrets but she needed to know if Hana was going to keep Eva's. Inanna was pissed at the over-sized woman herself, just absolutely furious. But Eva needed help as much as Hana did, just in an utterly different way.

Inanna let the silence stretch. She wasn't entirely comfortable with it but she wanted to let Hana become comfortable before she spoke again. She thought instead about the long road that had brought her here and wondered what road had brought Hana here. Silently, she waited for the girl to speak.