Innocence Forsaken

Ch 10. Repression

All Eve-Anne could hear was the dripping of a liquid, and she could feel an intense sting waving through the delicate muscles of her hand, but she didn't care. Some of them were bored, some of them wanted more pay. In the end it didn't matter. Eve-Anne could hear everything, for a moment she thought she was going crazy, but it didn't take long for her to realize that those voices weren't inside her head, they were thoughts.
One of her fingers were gone, the ring finger on her left hand. 
"Please, don't." Her voice was broken, and she looked down. 
She was breathing heavily, her head burned. 
"Tell me what you know." A gun was pulled out and pressed against her head. 
"Don't." Eve-Anne's tone changed, it was more threatening, and something about her eyes… Just didn't seem right. The once bright blue colour had shifted into a snow like white. 
Eve-Anne grabbed his wrist, and a wave of burning energy was thrown against the thugs. It was a mess. There was blood, fire and fleshy bits all over. 
She picked up the bloodied tool from the table with her free hand, and started to cut the zip tie. 
With a quick snap, the tie fell to the floor with a plasticy click. 
Eve-Anne stood, and went to walk out, stepping over the pools of sticky red liquid over the floor. 
She looked around confused and held her left hand to her shirt, leaving it stained with blood. 
Outside, there were deep layers of thick snow. The clouds were rolling in fast, by the looks of it, and any snow in Finnigan meant frostbite if you were left outside, especially with a missing finger. 
She was also starting to feel dizzy, and a stream of tingling travelled up her arm. 
It was weird, almost like the finger was still there but every time she looked it was gone. 
She didn't even know where it was, she scanned the place and it wasn't there. 
Eve-Anne dragged herself through the snow. The cold dug at her skin, leaving tiny red marks littered over her right, bare arm.
There was a roar like a lions from the clouds as slight little crystals glided down from the sky. 
She was nearly there, nearly home, but it was so cold and she was so tired. 
Eve-Anne yawned, and stumbled down the small driveway of the house. She used her elbow to nudge the door handle, but the door wouldn't open. She tried again, and again until the door swung open in a coincidental gust of wind. 
"I-I'm home." She stuttered as she used the wall for support. Her legs were starting to feel like jelly. 
"Eve-Anne!" Susanna yelled, her unmistakable accent rung throughout the house. "Where have you been?" 
Susanna skidded around the corner, her greying ginger hair a mess of strands and grease. 
She stared at the hand. 
"How did that happen? We have to get you to the hospital, or doctor or--" Susanna was cut off by a scream at the door. Jessica ran to her, while K and Far stood at the door awkwardly. 
"No, there's a blizzard picking up outside." K finally said, as he nodded toward the window. He pulled his backpack off, unzipped it, and grabbed a first aid kit. 
K went over and took her hand. Jessica gave him an odd look. 
"I didn't know you had first aid training." She said, holding her ring finger like it stung. 
"K's done loads of training." Far said as he skipped over and handed him some surgical tape that he'd left in the kit. 
"Not loads but enough to get by." He muttered. K scanned Eve-Anne's bandage up and down, it was ripped and showed a slight bit of pale skin underneath. 
"Hey, you okay?" He asked Jessica, but she just stared at him for a while. 
"Oh, yeah. I don't like the look of… that." She pointed to the blood. 
Eve-Anne fought to resist rolling her eyes, Jessica felt the same pain as Eve-Anne. They always had that. 
"You'll have to go to hospital after the blizzard, but this should be fine for now." He said as he finished up, he glared at Jessica for a moment with a strange shine to his eyes, and then back at Eve-Anne. 
"How did this happen?" He asked, with a curious expression on his face, although it was obvious that he was up to something. 
"I cut it." She said, taking a sip of water from a water bottle on the table. 
"Yeah, with garden clippers?" K said sarcastically. 
She looked down. 
"It's okay, we can talk about this later." He said, as he went to sit down, and Jessica followed him. 
"Why are you here?" Eve-Anne said, as she looked over to Far who was dragging the backpack over to his friend, and then pulled out a packet of digestives and some pancakes in a container. 
"I guess it's fate." Jessica said, cutting K off before he could even start talking. 
She smiled at him. 
"Is there any folklore about this place?" K asked suddenly, "Just curious."
Jessica looked at Eve-Anne for a second, and put her finger on her chin. 
"Ooh, I know one!" Far yelled as he reached into the air. "The monster in the forest."
Jessica nodded, "I know that one."
Eve-Anne was pretty sure everyone knew that one, but maybe this could be the right time to learn about the detective. 
"A creature has been spotted in the woods a few times since the 50s, each time a body was spotted with really bad head trauma and injuries to the body as well as scratches believed to be from blunt claws." Far shrugged, and he jumped around like a little girl. 
"Probably a stray cat or something." K said.