Eve's Hollow by Charles Bedlam (best free e reader .txt) 📕

“Taking care of the usual business,” Harrison simply replied.

Two large, decorated wooden doors adorned the threshold of the estate. One of the doors was propped open and a cool burst of air filtered in. The air tickled her skin. She was very sensitive to the cold, it seemed. It made her feel safe though. It made her feel alive. Right as Estelle and Harrison reached the doorway, he stopped and turned on his heel.

“Look,” he said, looking into her eyes with a serious expression. “Like you, I'd rather be somewhere else and with someone else, no offense. I can tell you're smart. You don't need a babysitter and I know you don't want one. We'll go our separate ways from this point on.”

Estelle didn't expect this. Harrison was offering her freedom.

“What will Mr. Grigori say?” Estelle asked. “Will he not be angry when he realizes you lost me?”

“Fuck 'im. I'll make some shit up. We're good.”

With that, Harrison turned back on his heel and disappeared out the door. Estelle was left on the threshold of Mr. Grigori's estate. From here she could see the foggy red sky, shrouding the tops of buildings. She walked outside and marveled at her breath appearing before her eyes. Seeing it manifest was like taking a new breath of a new life. She came out upon a large stone staircase with black railings on either side. She descended and stepped into an inch of snow.

A white blanket covered the entire courtyard. All of the people were walking around in it, children were playing in it, and even the soldiers of the estate seemed to be lax. While most of the survivors were dressed in multiple layers of clothing, Estelle's skin was pleased by the cold. She felt it, but it didn't bother her. She knelt down and scooped up a handful of the powdery substance. She closed her palm and watched as the snow fell apart in her hand. She smiled. She forgot where she was for a moment. The high walls charmed her into a false sense of security and she knew it. For a moment, she let herself feel like a child. She kept her goal to escape in the back of her mind.

Estelle began to wander around the courtyard. She quietly observed the other survivors. Some of the children had crudely built a snowman with what little snow they could get to stick. Adults huddled together and drank something warm out of old tin cups. There extended a main path from the front steps of the estate and divided the courtyard in two halves. The path stopped at the main gates of the courtyard, on the other side of which the wall rose up. Atop the wall, Estelle could make out several people pacing back and forth. She took these men to be snipers.

The child in her felt that these armed soldiers were angels, protectors sent by Mr. Grigori to watch over the helpless survivors of Eve's Hollow. The much wiser person in her knew that he could order those men to shoot her if he was so inclined to. She wondered why the civilians were not free to go. The more she thought about it, the more it intrigued her. She found herself walking toward the wall. As she approached she saw that the wall was made of piled up cars and chunks of metal with various items filling the gaps. Everything seemed welded together in a rush. Items from cinder blocks to fire hydrants to wooden furniture were stacked, nailed together, and crushed into place.

“Not too close, Sunshine,” a familiar, gruff voice said from behind.

Estelle looked over her shoulder to see Mike standing there.

“Why is no one allowed to leave here?” Estelle asked him.

“What's the matter? Ain't ya happy here? Or you'd rather be torn apart by the Punished?”

“I'm just... curious.”

“For your own safety. All there is to it.”

Mike held an assault rifle that was strapped to his chest. He looked up at the sky, then down at his feet.

“Snow's nice though,” he said.

Estelle didn't like talking to Mike. She knew that his response would be less than helpful. She found it difficult to continue acting as a child and being carefree. Her mind drifted back to her mission. Find Supernova. Escape the compound. Estelle began to feel small and helpless as she looked around, searching for a way out. The walls were solid. She didn't even know how the machine that brought her there got inside. The sadness came again. With it a cold wind blew across the courtyard, throwing her hair in her face. With an unconscious swipe of her hand, she moved her hair behind her ear. Mike pulled his coat tighter around himself. Estelle wished for a way; any way to get out of the compound. She felt like she needed a miracle.

“I'LL DESTROY YOU!” A monstrous female voice tore out across the sky, followed by the boom of thunder.

There was a flash of bright royal blue light followed, again by the sound of thunder, shaking the ground. Before Estelle's eyes a massive section of the wall had been broken down by a collapsing beast. This beast was massive and humanoid with dark purple flesh. It's eyes and mouth glowed like the Punished. With slimy, black hands, the creature tried to rise up.

“WHEN I SAY DIE... YOU DIE!” the woman screeched.

Estelle saw a light, similar a small star, shoot at a crane situated on a nearby building. The light fixed there and a savage bolt of royal blue lightning struck it from the ground below. A person attached to the other end of the bolt swung up from it and leaped high into the air. Wild hair flailing about, the Pale Lady hovered high in the air for a few moments. With those moments, she put her hands high above her head and materialized a car-sized ball of lightning. Without mercy, she cast it down upon the monster.

The crowd attempted to disperse as the mass of lightning washed out everything with intense light. Estelle turned her back on the creature and tried to run for cover. Before she could even find something to dive behind, she felt the force of an explosion and an intense heat at her back. She was thrown forward into the snow. Mike was thrown to the ground near her. She watched as he quickly recovered. She shakily scrambled to her feet. Where the beast once was, there was now a smoldering carcass, completely unrecognizable. The corpses of nearby civilians were charred. The Pale Lady, gone.

“Shit!” Mike screamed. “The Punished are comin' through! Get inside! Now!”

Mike tore off toward the hole in the wall, the rapid fire of his gun drowning out his screams. Estelle looked in the direction that he was running and saw a flood of glowing-eyed Punished rushing over the crushed portion of the wall and filtering into the compound. The once carefree survivors fled to the mansion in a wild panic like scattering insects beneath a freshly overturned rock. The survivors were fast, but the Punished were relentless.

Screams rang out across the courtyard and Estelle froze in fear as she watched two dozen of the Punished attack and brutally kill an equal number of survivors. Men, women, and children all fell to the insatiable frenzy of the Punished. The worst realization was that the Punished were not armed and were taking human lives with their bare hands. Ripping, tearing, mutilating. The Punished tore through the people and Estelle remained petrified as they protected their Hollow.

Mike disappeared into the chaos. Many of the other soldiers were firing their weapons into the crowd of Punished. At first, Estelle wondered about all of the innocent people among the Punished. It was only after that she realized there were far fewer humans and the Punished were making their way to the house. The savagery of the Punished would get inside and kill everyone. Everyone would die. Including Grigori himself.

Estelle was caught in an unforgiving moral seesaw of emotions. She found that even though she didn't know any of these people, she didn't want them to die. The crueler side of her thought of the bigger picture. Mr. Grigori would be out of her way. For good this time. Estelle thought of Aleena's words and she began to relax. Freedom is everything. If you can't be free, you might as well be dead. She was right. Estelle already knew that she wanted her freedom. She'd even wished for a miracle. So it was delivered.

It was then that she looked toward the damaged wall. The Punished had ceased filtering through it and now the Punished and Grigori's soldiers were battling for control of the courtyard. She saw Punished rip men apart as well as the men putting the Punished down in bursts of bullets. The beautiful, sparkling snow now splashed with crimson. She looked at the hole in the wall again. There it was. The freedom that she had so desperately desired. Before she could stop herself, she ran for the breach. She whispered an apology for the lost lives of the survivors, but knew that where she was going, her odds would be far worse than theirs.

Taking advantage of the chaos, no one seemed to notice Estelle making her way to the wall. She maneuvered around the smoldering corpse of the monster and began to climb jagged pieces of metal to get through the wall. It pained her hands to have to grab the sharp holds that would lead her to freedom. Hearing more of the Punished, Estelle quickly ducked under an upside down car in the middle of the wall. After they passed, she quickly climbed through and out of the wall. Dress torn and flesh cut and scraped, Estelle took off into the city. Not really knowing where she was going, her mind only focused on escaping from Damian Grigori.

She didn't know how long she was running or how far. She knew, though, that she gone far enough when she could no longer hear the screams and the gunfire. She stopped on the stoop of a building and looked around for the Punished. She knew that they could be anywhere and attack at any time. She knew she had to keep moving so she forced herself to go. She looked up and saw that the red fog in the sky had gotten lower, further obscuring the entirety of the skyscrapers around her.

Taking it much slower, Estelle was able to rest and pace herself. She took in her surroundings and again realized how small she was compared to the great city. For an instant she wondered if she would have been better off if she had run for the house. She wondered if she would be able to find Supernova in this dreaded city. She also recalled the conversation about the Blue Key Club. That was a place that she'd love to go, but she had no idea how to find it. She wondered how Tabitha fared, especially with the breach in the wall. These thoughts plagued her. They plagued her so much so that she didn't hear the rumbling coming toward her.

Tall, slender, and seemingly made of flesh and shadow, Estelle gazed upon a creature that walked the streets of Eve's Hollow. It stood fifteen feet tall and was humanoid in appearance. It was several hundred yards away, but Estelle could see it's glowing orange eyes. She did not want to cross paths with whatever it was. She swiftly ducked into a store with a giant neon sign that read Milton's Mirrors.

The store was packed with crates and mirrors of all shapes and sizes that were covered in dusty drapes. Estelle hid behind a crate and watched as the shadow skulked by. Estelle held her breathe as it passed in front of the store, then stopped. Heart in her throat, Estelle reached for her gun, though she didn't know how