by Hadena James
“Did you have enemies back then?” Lucas asked.
“I have never exactly been popular, but aside from a few serial killers and other violent criminals, I’d have to go with ‘no’. I’ve never really had enemies. Nyleena and Malachi are both popular people, I was always sort of the odd person that hung around with them. So while I was never really well liked, people didn’t detest me. Usually, people were too afraid to talk to me; they believed I was damaged goods. My town wasn’t very big before I was kidnapped and killed my kidnapper, after that, it got even smaller.”
“Why did you get an admirer?” Lucas continued to prod at me.
“I don’t know exactly. I think I know. I think it was because of an incident in November 2004.”
“What incident?”
“Police reported that on the night of 21 November 2004, a group of thieves broke into an occupied home. The homeowners, plus four minor children were inside at the time. Police went on to say that because of the bravery of the homeowners and one of the minors, the group was subdued and arrested. They have been linked to twenty other home invasions, including one that left a child in a coma and one where two people were shot.” Michael answered.
“That would be the incident,” I confirmed.
“Explain.” Alejandro looked at me, his eyes darkening.
“I was at my friend’s house, when three men broke in. They waved guns around and corralled Malachi, myself, his two younger brothers and his parents in the living room. While two went and ransacked the house, one stayed to watch us. Malachi got loose first, dislocating his thumb to pull his hand free of the ropes. Once Malachi was free, the ropes that had bound both of us were loose enough to slide off my wrists with a little help from the corner of the coffee table. Malachi attacked the gunman. The gunman fired a shot and the other two came running. By then I had managed to use a pocket knife to cut his parents loose. Malachi was tall, even back then. He was already 6’10”, wiry and psychotic as can be. Malachi subdued the gunman that had been watching us and then got hold of one of the others. I helped his dad with the last man while his mom called the police. Since I had been in the spotlight before, Malachi and his parents told them that I had been tied up with his younger brothers during the struggle. There was a cop or two that didn’t believe them and it went into the report with a question mark. Malachi got a letter that January too, but not the same kind. Just definitely from the same person. Malachi became less interesting as he graduated high school, went to college and then went into law enforcement. My letters probably would have stopped too, but things kept happening to me.”
“They didn’t to Malachi?” Lucas raised an eyebrow.
“Oh no, they did, just not the same types of things. Serial killers seem to want to take me on. They seem to want to run away from Malachi. He’s actually scarier than I am.”
“I find that hard to believe,” Xavier muttered.
“Trust me on this. If you ever run into Malachi on a dark street in the middle of the night, I wouldn’t even wave. Just walk on past and hope for the best. I’d suggest turning around, but he’d probably take that as a sign of guilt or weakness and pounce on you.”
“You’ve seen that side of Malachi?” Lucas asked.
“Malachi lives in the darkness. He always has. I may be his only true friend in the world. Everyone else is just a passing shadow. Ask him who his girlfriend all three years of high school was, he can’t even remember her name.”
“That is a bad sign.” Lucas agreed.
“I once saw Malachi pick up a baseball bat and beat the hell out of a guy for slapping a girl that Malachi didn’t know at a bar. His temper is a thing of nightmares. Even worse, it isn’t really a temper because he doesn’t experience anger. Only rage. He has three emotions, rage, euphoria and nothingness. About ninety percent of his life is spent feeling the nothingness. The other ten percent is scary. Even euphoria is strange on him. Malachi even…” I stopped and thought for a moment. Malachi. “In 2006, Malachi tracked down a guy.”
“What?” Lucas asked me.
“In 2006, Malachi had a run in with a guy that he had purposely tracked down. Left him in a coma. However, it was self-defense, to some degree. Nyleena and I were out one night. We had gone to see a rock concert at the Blue Note. Great band, good show. Anyway, this guy there kept harassing us. When we went to leave, he followed us to Nyleena’s car. Grabbed hold of her arm and jerked her around. Nyleena kneed him in the groin, but dropped the keys to her car in the process. I went and picked up the keys. When I did, this guy attacked Nyleena’s car. He slashed her tire, took a knife to the door and scratched it up, broke out the driver’s side window. He just lost it. Nyleena filed a report. The police took our statements and found the guy. He plead to something stupid, he got six months unsupervised probation. The next time we went to the Blue Note, Malachi insisted on joining us. Different concert, but the same jackass was there. He started harassing Nyleena again. Malachi told him to back off. He didn’t. As we left, Malachi hung behind some. This frucking moron followed us to her car again. He began hurling obscenities at Nyleena, calling her a whore and a slut and all kinds of stupid shit. Then he punched her car. Malachi grabbed him, pulled him away. In his defense, he just tossed the guy away and told him to leave. By this time, we were gathering a crowd of onlookers. For some reason, that seemed to embolden this guy. He charged Malachi. Malachi punched him in the face. We all heard the guy’s jaw shatter. He was too drunk or high to notice though. He charged Malachi again, this time with his knife drawn. Malachi put him in the hospital, in a coma. Malachi ended up getting a misdemeanor assault charge, but the prosecutor on the case didn’t really want to press or file charges to begin with. The only reason he did was because Malachi got stitches and this asshole ended up in a coma. There were plenty of witnesses that said Malachi was being defensive, not aggressive. It went away a month later when Malachi turned 18.”
“Why is that significant?” Alejandro asked.
“Because when Malachi shattered the guy’s jaw with the first punch, he broke out all the teeth in the guy’s mouth. I remember the guy spitting them out onto the ground. One had to be surgically removed from Malachi’s hand as well.”
“This guy still in a coma?”
“Yes.” I said.
“Then how does that help us?” Alejandro frowned.
“Because the guy wasn’t alone either night. He had a girl with him. Turned out to be his younger sister.”
“Why would she hold what Malachi did against you?” Michael asked. I went out onto the balcony to smoke a cigarette.
Chapter 38
