Martyr Chapter 1

ONE

I was never going to get there in time. The voice in my head had been quiet for almost an entire minute. My legs pumped towards the double doors of the co-ed dorms. If I could just get close enough…

No! Let go! Her voice was thinning, much quieter than it had been only moments ago. I’d seen her in my office just an hour ago. Now she was fighting a masked man in her college dorm room. The time frame for saving her was running out. Finally inside, I ran towards the staircase, pausing at the first two floors to listen for her. At the third door, a weak plea broke through.

Stop… stop… oh god, no. please, no.

It wasn’t until I reached the middle of a hallway that the man’s voice chimed in. Shit… what now. What do I do with her… if she would have just came quietly… he’s going to kill me… why wouldn’t she…

In his mind, Chloe was lying on the floor, her red hair slung over her face. Closing my eyes with all brevity, the barriers on my mind snapped shut, forcing his increasingly incoherent thoughts out.

Their struggle had been silent. She’d been scared enough at the appearance of a masked man in her room for it to resonate all the way across campus. With the rag smothering her pleas, she’d only been able to protest internally, a brief mental struggle which I alone had witnessed.

My fists pounded on the door, shaking the knob and hitting the wood with my shoulder. As he approached, my hands clutched the side of my head as if I could keep his rage from boiling into my brain. He hid behind the door as he opened it, and I kicked it into his face. His anger only amplified as he hollered and held his gushing nose.

My barriers slipped as the previously quiet minds accelerating. The noise brought the surrounding students from their rooms and out into the hallway. 

Doing my best to ignore the incoming assault on my mind, I ran to the girl on the ground.

“Chloe? Chloe come on wake up.” Her head felt loose as I shook her shoulders. It wasn’t until my hand slapped at her face that her eyes fluttered.

I’d never heard someone more than a few feet away from me. The groggy girl on the floor, clinging desperately to her last bit of awareness, had projected almost a mile. As she came to, her fear and the man’s anger joined together, dropping me to my knees. Now it was my turn to keep from passing out. My own struggle was short, as the minds in the hallway projected their own emotions and words that wouldn’t separate.

As we sat on the floor, her head cradled in my lap, the huge man push his way through the students. Laying her head down on the floor gently, I tried to stand to take chase. The crowd forming by the door closed off my exit. A few people made an attempt to stop him, but the rest of the students were more curious about the beautiful girl lying on the ground, barely moving.

Frustrated and overwhelmed, I went back to Chloe. My head shook, trying to force the cacophony to quiet.

The sound was becoming deafening. It was too loud to shut out. A vicious cycle that left me crawling away from Chloe and pushing myself into an empty corner. Seconds later, my stomach emptied on the beige carpeting. I held my hands to my ears, mumbling to myself to keep focus. A few minutes later, as the paramedics and police came in, both of us were scarcely holding on to consciousness.

***

A couple hours later, I was sitting on the stairs outside the dorms listening to Chloe talk to her father on the phone. She’d thrown around the words ‘Senator Stein’ until the paramedics had agreed to look us over in the ambulance instead of transporting us to a hospital.

“Dad, it’s okay. It was just some drunk dude being stupid. I think he was trying to steal something. I woke up, got scared and hit my head.” Her eyes widened as she listened to his response. “No, no you don’t need to come here. I’m fine. I have a friend I’m staying with I’ll be fine.”

Her shaky voice was hardly believable, even as she mumbled a weak goodbye and hung up. My eyes stayed on the campus, searching still for the man in the dorm room. Where had he gone? Where was he now?

“Lying to your father isn’t good.”

She stared out at the lawn while chewing on her bottom lip. She’d been doing that a lot since we came downstairs. “Yeah, well. He worries too much.”

“Weren’t you almost just kidnapped?”

Her face scrunched up briefly before a loud sob broke through her quivering lips. I sat by her awkwardly, wishing for any social skills at all. In an attempt to make her stop crying, I put my hand on her back and patted her gently.

While she cried, I sat looking at the campus. The third floor had been sealed off, and a few students were enjoying the chilly October afternoon in the sun. Without a Frisbee or group of familiars, the afternoon just seemed cold and the cement hard. How much longer could this really take?

“He didn’t want me to come to school. He wanted me to wait until after the election next year. If he knew, he’d want me to go back home.” She spurted, talking to keep from crying. The embarrassment was rolling off her in heated waves, making me uncomfortable right along with her.

“I’m sorry I don’t know what-“

The officer’s voice interrupted me.  “Ms. Stein? I’m sorry, but regardless of how you obtained your… injuries, I’d really prefer if you had somewhere else to stay.”

I scowled at her. The paramedics had signed off on Chloe a long time ago. Only the police and campus security were incredulous about her story and my involvement in it.

Regardless of my status as an innocent bystander, both Chloe and the officer stood looking at me. The officer’s words were evidently meant for me, as if I hadn’t already done enough in a situation that no way involved me. If it wasn’t for her still blood shot eyes, I would have recommended somewhere else for Chloe to stay.

“Shit.” I closed my eyes and rubbed the bridge of my nose. “I’ve got a place she can stay.”

A vibrant smile shone on her tear stained face. “Really, Ms. Harper? Thank you so much.”

Though neither the officer nor the campus security guard behind her believed a word of our story, the political tape from Chloe’s dad was enough to thwart any more questions.

As we walked towards my car on the other side of campus, Chloe turned to face me, mouth already open to start spewing all the questions tumbling in her thoughts.

“Just wait until we’re completely out of earshot.”

Her face and mind were inquisitive, but she listened.

We stopped as we got closer to the heart of campus, and sat on a bench in front of one of the buildings.

“Ms. Harper?”

“Call me Evelyn, or Evie.”

“Are you angry at me?”

She was crying again, sucking her bottom lip in and out of her mouth.

“Why in the hell would I be mad at you?”

“You (are always mean) don’t like any of us. I don’t even know how you knew I was in trouble.”

The part she had said in her mind made me cringe. I’d always tried to be nicer to my students, Chloe most of all. I noticed her the first day of my British Literature class when she came in the room practically screaming in her mind. It’d taken me the last couple of months to get used to the volume, but I liked her thoughts. She was sarcastic, funny and generally likeable. Even for someone like me, who didn’t like anyone.

“How did you know I was there?” She whispered.

“Let me ask you a question first.”

“Okay?”

“Who was that guy?”

“Good question.”

I sighed and closed my eyes, trying to figure out how to proceed. She was scared, proud and currently homeless. Her mind was easy enough to sort through – every thought came through with unprecedented clarity. Despite her beauty, money and happy aura, she had no friends here. She went back to her hometown every weekend, and hadn’t taken the time to get to know anyone. As much as she was afraid I’d be angry at her, she had nowhere else to go if I told her she couldn’t stay with me.

I wonder if my dad would have known him. Where am I going to go? Wonder what her house looks like… I bet it’s cold in there… is she sleeping? Why is she so mean? When I opened my eyes, she was staring out over the campus, trying not to cry again.

“Look, I’m sorry I get snappy.”

Her pretty face turned back to me, trying hard to remain passive. The brownish-red blush she had put on that morning had a wide streak missing under her eyes. The rest of her make-up was amazingly still in place, even the pink and purple eye shadow on her lids. The only thing missing was the mascara and eyeliner that she’d spent the last few hours wiping off.

“I was next door when it happened. I heard you hitting the wall and came to help.”

“You’re lying.” Her voice was a whisper as she played with a string on her shirt.

“Excuse me?”

“I never had a chance to fight. I couldn’t scream or do anything. He put a rag up over my mouth and I just stood there like a moron.” She looked at me again, confident I was lying. “How did you know?”

“What do you want me to tell you? The truth? Or how about something that makes sense?”

“Does the truth not make sense?”

“Not in the slightest.”

“Were you lying when you said I could come stay with you? I mean… I don’t want to go home. I can’t tell my dad what happened and I really don’t want to sleep in my dorm. I can pay you or something-“

A wave of my hand cut her off. My body doubled over, rubbing at my temples to keep her emotions out of my head. She was scared, and not without good reason. The last thing she needed was my attitude.

Then again, what the hell should I care about some brat freshmen? Especially one that cared more about nice clothes than having her assignments done.

Regardless of what my mind wanted me to think, I knew something was out of place. I was scared for her, feeling oddly protective of her.

“You need a place to stay. I have a place. You can come, no payment required.”

“I don’t understand why you’re willing to help me. You always act like-“

“I know. And I’m sorry. Look it’s not that I don’t like you or have a problem with you okay? I have problems with people, in general. I promise I don’t bite and you can have my bed and bathroom until you find somewhere else to go.”

“It’s not that I’m not thankful, cause I am, I just don’t want you to regret this later. You know?”

Instead of answering, my shoulders shrugged, knowing already that I was going to regret it. In her head, she was just as apprehensive. She knew me as the bitch teaching assistant who always graded essays too hard and scowled when people asked stupid questions.

Her question and mine were the same… why was I being so nice to her?