FEBRUARY 2022 - STATE STREET BRIDGE
The sound of a gunshot haunts the shivering metal of the State Street Bridge in Chicago, IL. Nobody will find the bleeding body for 28 minutes. By then the once warm blood running through the veins of Micheal Berzatto will be ice.
Yet the blood that pours out from the crown of his head, that drips and slides across the grates. Resembles something of a halo. He was always an angel, but never a god. The irony of those words spoken seven years ago, in that exact spot where Micheal Berzatto lays and takes his final unknowing breath.
It's silent, nothing can be heard but the drops of his blood hitting the water below. Disappearing in seconds as if it was never there in the first place.
But on the other side of the world, the sound of the gods laughing at Ophelia Iver and her longing curse of death can be heard. Haunting and echoing through Ophelia's restless sleep.
matches burn after the other
pages turn and stick to each other
wages earned and lessons learned
but I, I'm right where you left me
.....
you left me no choice but to stay here forever
(right where you left me)
SEPTEMBER 2016 - THE SAME PLACE
The eighteen-year-old is standing in the middle of the State Street Bridge. The autumn wind whips through her clothes. A feeling sinks over her, one of dread. She did not want to have this conversation. Her phone buzzes once again, not even looking at the caller ID she picks it up.
"It's 1 in the morning and I am fucking freezing, where are you?"
Her words come out without registering.
"I wasn't the one that asked to talk."
The voice didn't come from the phone. But from behind her.
As Ophelia turns her head, there is Mikey. Micheal Berzatto. The man she has known since she was 12. Though, he wasn't that recognisable anymore.
"I should probably say Congratulations. Three hit albums in less than a year and just finishing up a nationwide tour. You are a wonder kid."
"Not three just yet, in 2 hours it will be." Ophelia's response was snappier than she wanted it to be. But this was a serious conversation she wanted to have, and there was no time for the usual chit-chat.
"Okay, Okay Eli. Why the fuck did you call me down here then."
"I'm worried." Her voice goes quiet. Once again, she is put in a position where she feels like she is talking to a god. Somebody above her, somebody she looked up to.
"What? About who? If it's Carmen, You should just call him up. He wants to talk to you, even with the bitch move you pulled at Christmas."
"NO-" Her voice is just below a scream. She did not want to talk about Carmen. But what really could stop Mikey from talking besides a scream? "I'm worried about you. I think you're going down a path that-" Before she can get her full sentence out, he cuts her off.
"Stop. Just because you got down in the dumps and tried to off yourself by sticking your nose in cocaine. Doesn't mean you can come preach your addiction bullshit on me."
"I wasn't-" All she wanted to do is make sure he stayed safe. Not try to-
"I mean, you haven't even been here for the past six months. You have been fucking around with the rest of the U.S., What about your mother?-"
"Stop."
"What about Elliot, how is he coping?" Mikey was going too low. But everybody knew even when you thought he reached the line. He goes above and fucking beyond.
"Do not-" Her eyes were getting blurry. She doesn't cry. She won't cry.
"What about Lottie? How is her residency going?"
"Stop it."
"Oh right, you wouldn't know because there are still pieces of her over the side of the 505."
That was it.
"I guess, you haven't had the time to cope. Because you decided to skip town and go on tour, didn't ya?"
But Micheal Berzatto was no God. And Ophelia Iver was angry.
"FUCK YOU" She screams because she doesn't know any better. She just turned eighteen, four months ago. She is still a naive little child that didn't want to lose the person she thought of as an older brother. "ALL I WANTED TO DO WAS HELP, BUT I GUESS THAT IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR SOMEBODY LIKE ME. I WAS JUST MAKING SURE YOU DIDN'T FUCK EVERYTHING IN YOUR LIFE OVER. MAYBE NOT ONLY A STUPID SIXTEEN-YEAR-OLD CAN IGNORE ALL THE SIGNS AND OVERDOSE. MAYBE A THIRTY-YEAR-OLD GROWN MAN CAN TOO."
She calms down as a honk of a car, can be heard through the silent night. Only the wind and the rush of the water stop the conversation from continuing. Eli can feel her emotions calming down, but something has changed. The man in front of her is Mikey. The man who gave her a job when she was lost, would invite her to the Berzatto family dinners, or the man that saved her life.
The man in front of her was not a god, not even an angel. He was human.
Eli had lived her whole life thinking the people around her were nothing but above her. She couldn't continue to yell. But she knew she couldn't stay either. The last string tying her to this city had been severed by a somebody she hadn't expected to be holding the knife.
"Here," She thrusts the paper bag that was on the ground next to her into Mikey's chest. He stumbles back ever so slightly against her force. "I wanted you to be the first one to hear it. Enjoy, Asshole." Before she gets too far, she stops. "You were always an angel, but you will never be a god. No matter how hard you fucking try."
And with that, Ophelia Iver walks off.
Off the State Street Bridge and out of Chicago. She wouldn't be back until the mistake in the shape of a bullet, would imprint itself into Micheal Berzatto's head.
Mikey was at a loss. The painkillers were numbing his senses and his brain was fuzzy. His hands, slightly shaken from the cold, pulls the object out of the bag. A CD, unnamed, with a blank cover on the front. He flips it over, '3rd Album from Eden; Tracklist.' The title is all in white except two, #8 and #9.
Throwing the bag into a nearby trashcan, Mikey marches the way back to his apartment. The CD sitting in his coat pocket, like a weight on his conscious. How the fuck was he going to explain this to Carmy. And What the fuck did him popping painkillers have to do with being an angel.
and they called of the circus,
burned the disco down
when they sent home the horses
and the rodeo clowns
...
and I'm still a believer
but I don't know why
I've never been a natural
all I do is try, try, try
(mirrorball)
YOU ARE READING
EDEN'S KITCHEN - Carmen Berzatto
FanfictionOphelia 'Eli' Iver, better known as Eden to the community of Chicago, finally steps got back in the city after half of a decade. Due to very unfortunate circumstances to say the least. Micheal Berzatto, her ex-boyfriend's older brother, left her an...
