XANNY ▹ Harry Bingham

WHAT HAPPENED . PT 2

mention of alcohol, mental illness, drugs, and abuse. this is a trigger warning. please do not read ahead if you'll be negatively affected.

chapter six

"i'm not where i want to be, but thank goodness i'm not where i used to be"

_

Eden took the bag out of Campbell's hand and discreetly slipped it up her sleeve.

"You need helping." He looked around the surrounding benches to see if anyone was watching, then leaned in to whisper, "I help you, you help me."

Eden quickly nodded her head in confirmation, then stood up, squeezing past him to slip out of the church. The fresh nighttime air hit her face like a bucket of ice water. Her hands shook as she peeled open the bag, pouring some of its contents out onto her fingers.  She tilted her head back and threw them into her mouth, swallowing hard. Her head remained at its upward angle to observe the sky. To her, it was the most beautiful at night, alive with the energy of the stars, a song for her eyes. It was the promise of life in the darkness, a sense of warmth springing from the cold air.

Eden closed her eyes, taking in a breath of fresh air, before coming to her senses. She quietly creaked open the doors to the church, causing a few heads to turn in notice of the new presence. She slid back next to Campbell, making eye contact with Wren as she did so. Neither girl smiled.

"Listen up. Listen up!" Cassandra's voice echoed from the front of the church, grabbing the attention of the students. "While we're here, together, there are some things we need to figure out." Her words were welcomed by silence, so she took it as a cue to continue, "No one knows what's going on. Maybe Luke is on his way back with some good news."

Harry interjected, "Why don't we wait and see, Cassandra?" There was faint disdain in his tone of voice, but Eden easily picked it up.

"I would rather prepare for the worst before the worst happens." Cassandra turned to stare him down as if waiting for a rebuttal. He avoided her eyes, so she proceeded with her plan, "We need to agree not to just take things because we feel like it. If you do, we'll run out of food." Her sentence faded into the air, leaving everyone to their assumptions of what would happen next. They all thought the same thing: it would lead to starvation.  

There were murmurs of both approval and concern fluttering throughout the crowd until Harry stood up. "This is bullshit. What are we agreeing to? Which one of us gets to decide who gets what?" 

"It's called democracy."

"I'm not an idiot, Cassandra."

She turned to her peers for approval before she publicized her thoughts once more, "We need to share resources, food--"

"I'm not listening to this anymore." Harry stood from his seat and looked over at Eden. She'd been watching them speak, but no words had processed in her mind. It was like a silent movie.

Silent, until it wasn't. Their stares were interrupted by a deafening crack in the air, almost as loud as the thunder from a tropical storm. The noise reverberated in the ears of the students and rang out far over the altar. In mere seconds, panic set in. Girls and guys ran for cover, Eden choosing to fly under her bench, smacking her head against the ground as she did so. She muffled the cry of pain with her hand, not sure if a scream would give away her cover. 

There was a second noise once the room had gone silent-- the cocking of a freshly shot pistol, belonging to none other than Campbell. "Well, fuck this."

Eden refused to pull herself out from under the bench. She still laid there, cradling her head, and listening to him speak, "Harry's right. No one elected you king, Cassandra."

She heard his footsteps fade, assuming he was heading away from her direction and towards Cass.  "I don't want to shoot you, wanted to get everyone's attention. This meeting's obviously over. We'll be back when Luke gets here. Until then, if anyone else is tired of listening to Cassandra, you can follow me."

Eden clutched the side of her head, pulling herself out from under the bench. She was met by the hand of Campbell. She looked to his lips; he was mouthing something. You owe me. She reached out in defeat, and he pulled her onto her feet. There was a posse behind him, made up of the rich teens from the neighborhood, including Kelly who stood underneath Harry's arm.

"Couldn't you have done that a bit less... aggressively?" Eden groveled.

Before Campbell could answer, the church doors burst open.  Gasps wavered through the hall, and Eden looked over to the doorway in response. Luke had emerged with a limp body in his arms. Eden's hand raised to her mouth, blocking the open gap it'd left from shock. It was a corpse. She turned away as her stomach heaved, still with the image of its drained face burned into her mind. She'd never seen a dead body before, just in the movies, but this.. this was nothing like the movies. This was real.

"She died from a snake bite." Luke's voice filled the empty void of silence from the altar. "Her body just shut down."

Eden's head continued to pound, and now her stomach had begun to churn at the sight of a dead classmate. Without another word, she held her mouth closed and slipped out of the church's doorway.