East of Eden | Peter Parker

「v. silver court」

CHAPTER FIVE : WEEK ONE

The call only lasts seven seconds, but it's enough to turn all the blood in Eden's veins to ice. Her hands shake when the line goes dead, and for a moment, she's completely frozen.

"Peter!" She manages to call out in a voice that barely sounds like her own. "I have to go."

There's a soft crash from his room. "Now? Really? Is everything all right?"

Eden fights down the thick fear trying to flood her lungs. She has to sound calm now, no matter how many alarms are blaring in her head, intent on drowning out reasonable thought. "Yeah, I just got a call from my boss. He needs me to come in now, some kind of emergency."

Peter emerges from his room down the hall as Eden is stuffing all her work away. "Should I give the memorization sheet to you tomorrow then? I haven't found it yet. And do you want to do this again?"

"Yeah, of course. I just – sorry, can we talk more about it then? He really hates it when we're late."

"Okay, sure. No problem, I guess . . . I'll see you tomorrow."

Eden manages a nod his way before she slings her bag on and turns out the door on shaky legs. She isn't focused enough to notice the disappointment or the concern on Peter's face.

There's no time to wait around for the elevator again, so she strides right past it in favor of the stairs, which she bounds down as nimbly as her dread soaked limbs will allow.

It's only years of practice that lets her tune down the rising panic and the eerily familiar voice screaming in her head. Screaming to stop. Not to do it. But she has to. Has to pick up the phone. Has to follow his instructions. Has to run straight into the belly of the beast every time someone calls because it's the only thing she knows how to do. She has a choice, and she makes it every time.

The bite of the wind is still remarkably strong when Eden makes it to the street, but it barely affects her. She's too preoccupied to do more than notice the world around her in passing. The cold, the bustle of the people around her, the thick clouds growing in the sky. Nothing registers with lasting importance. In two minutes, her mind has gone from dynamic to one-track. The only thing that matters now is getting to Ridgewood before Montgomery grows impatient.

Montgomery. It must be something big if he's there himself, but Eden doesn't let herself worry about that until she's safely in a taxi and on her way there. Until she's given her cabbie the address and made sure her attention is on the road. Until she's held onto composure a minute too long and loses her grasp of it entirely.

What the hell is so important that it couldn't be left to one of his subordinates? Has he found out about what I'm doing? Has one of them let something slip? Is he going to penalize me himself? Or is it something completely unrelated?

The buildings outside the window slip by in a blur as Eden tries to stop her spiral by digging through her backpack in search of the pain meds she'd stashed as a precautionary measure. There's no water, so she forces a dose down dry, hoping it won't be necessary, but knowing that it's better to be safe than sorry when it comes to this. There's a sour taste in her mouth, dripping steadily down her throat and turning her stomach, but she's afraid it has little to do with the pills. More to do with the fact that the closer she gets to Ridgewood, the closer she gets to Montgomery. The fact that nothing good ever comes about when that happens. The fact that if he's there expecting her instead of Riel, something big must be happening. And big happenings never end peacefully.

The twenty-minute drive feels agonizingly long. Each second that passes is another second that keeps Montgomery waiting, and he hates waiting for his subordinates. That's something Eden figured out all too quickly. So, she's almost as relieved as she is scared when the car finally pulls down Forest and she catches sight of the familiar strip of shops that let her know her stop is in less than a hundred feet.

She's just starting to grit her teeth and get her things ready when something bangs on the window and the cab falls quickly from a crawl to a stop. Eden's heart is in her throat as her eyes jump to the street outside again.

"Mori?"

The cabbie turns back, confused and clearly about to ask a question, but Eden doesn't care. She tosses her bills forward and leaps out with her bag, slamming the door behind her without giving it a second thought. The ride was over anyway.

"Mori, what are y–"

"Shut up," she hisses before Eden can finish. "Get out of the road."

Eden's mouth clamps shut and she hurries behind her to the sidewalk.

"Do you know why you're here?" Mori asks once they've come to a stop under a travel agency banner.

Eden shakes her head, eyes wide and stomach turning again at the urgency in her voice.

Mori deflates just the slightest bit and Eden can't tell if it's a good or bad thing.

"Why? Why am I here? And why are you here?"

Mori shakes her head. She won't even justify such a stupid question with a verbal recognition. "Don't worry, you'll be all right. You should go now, Phee."

Eden pushes down everything rising up her closing throat and nods.

"But if you go in looking that scared, you'll never make it out in one piece. We've talked about this, don't be such an open fucking book. You'll be ripped to shreds. Get a grip, Apphia."

Eden clenches her fists until the skin on her palms starts to break. "I will."

"Good."

Then they're off, Mori disappearing into an alleyway and Eden running towards the corner. The beige bricked building stands looming up ahead, growing bigger still as she dashes across the walk and through the gate until she's right at the front door.

She stands between the twin pillars, staring at the Silver Court engraving for barely a moment before the lock clicks and she pushes off the stone steps to tug the door open. And then she's heading straight inside the hornet's nest, unaware of everything that awaits her.