Interlude: A Girl Among the Demons

TW: torture, near drowning. (yeah. Racism... isn't pleasant)

Where will he go next, this phantom from another time, this resurrected ghost of a previous nightmare – Chicago? Los Angeles? Miami, Florida? Vincennes, Indiana? Syracuse, New York? Anyplace, everyplace, where there's hate, where there's prejudice, where there's bigotry. He's alive. He's alive so long as these evils exist. Remember that when he comes to your town. Remember it when you hear his voice speaking out through others. Remember it when you hear a name called, a minority attacked, any blind, unreasoning assault on a people or any human being. He's alive because through these things we keep him alive.

He’s Alive: Twilight Zone.

Stupid fucking moron, Aisha thought as she ran. She’d been out, not even in the bad part of town, because Bro would absolutely freak. But she needed a walk because Mom had been screaming that she deserved money for her, and one of her boyfriends was joining in, at least as much as a guy out of his head on booze could…

And Bro told her that she couldn’t run away, that they could get her out, for good, but they had to do it the right way, and if she just took off, it could screw things up.

Never did that before. She’d just head out to a friend's house until Mom calmed down, but now they had to do everything the right way because Bro was part of the Protectorate.

Why couldn’t they just have Alexandria come by and chuck Mom into orbit?

But then she saw two skinheads following her.

Fuck.

Aisha turned down a street to lose ‘em, but they were following her.

Double fuck. They were after her.

Something was fucked up. They—then she saw another pairof skinheads heading right for her from ahead.

This wasn’t some guys who saw a black girl they wanted to fuck with. They were coming for her.

Aisha turned down North Street, looking for someplace to get into, but this part of the town was mostly warehouses, a little holdout before you got to the Boardwalk.

That was why they’d come for her here.

And that was really fucking scary because Nazis didn’t plan much.

Time to yell for help. Aisha fumbled for her phone, when the guys behind her broke out into a run, and then she was running. She could pull the phone out later, but it wouldn’t help if she got knifed—

And that was when the van screeched to a halt by her, and suddenly she was grabbed, big guys, all tattoos and shaved heads.

She fought, one guy screaming as she dragged her fingers down the side of his face, another doubled over as she kneed him in the groin, but then they were dragging her into the van, Aisha screaming her head off.

Nobody helped her.

The phone went skittering out of her pocket, ending up on the street, and then she was pulled into the van, and it took off. Someone jammed a rag into her mouth, not before she bit down hard enough that someone screamed like a little bitch.

“Fucking bitch!” one man snarled. “She’s gonna pay for what she did to the Empire.”

The fuck?

She didn’t get to hear much else when a bag was jammed over her head, and she could barely breathe. Someone put zip-ties around her wrists, binding her arms. The van took several turns and then came to a stop. She was pulled out, and there were other guys there, she could hear them. Someone kicked her in the ribs, and another guy gave orders for some of them to keep watch in the front.

Then the bag was pulled off, and the gag was yanked out of her mouth. She was surrounded by guys, and she could smell seawater.

They were in one of the old wharf houses, where small boats could come up, even when the weather was bad, rotted pilings falling into the gray water.

Fuck. This is bad.

“So, what have you got to say for yourself?” One greasy guy asked.

“I dunno, you’re stupid? Or ugly?” Aisha said. “Where the fuck did you get a chin like that?” Because it wasn’t like begging was gonna help her.

And the asshole didn’t have much of a chin, and he looked like he was thirty, and what kinda thirty-year-old had a beard like that.

Then he snarled and kicked her in the face. Aisha’s nose cracked as it was broken. She fell back, and then everything flashed as she hit the concrete, blood pouring from her nose.

“What was that, you jigaboo?”

Aisha shook her head. Then looked back up. “I said, where the fuck did you get a chin like that? Are you deaf?” Part of her was terrified. They were gonna kill her. They were gonna kill her.

But she wasn’t going to give ‘em the pleasure of seeing her beg.

“You fucked with the Empire…”

Aisha didn’t know what the hell he was talking about, but she didn’t bother to deny it. After everything they’d done, they weren’t letting her go.

“I thought the Empire was tough. How did little old me hurt you?”

“Need to teach her some respect!” someone shouted. “Let’s dip her!”

“Yeah!” others were shouting, and a big tub full of water was brought up.

“The fu—“ and then, before Aisha could say anything, they pulled her up to it and jammed her head under the water, big hands holding her down. She held her breath, but it got harder, and harder, and how she was fighting to keep from opening her mouth, but—

They pulled her out, and she gasped, life-giving air filling her lungs.

“So what do you have to say?”

“Fuck you!” and she went down again, this time for a little longer.

When they pulled her up again, she didn’t say anything.

“Oh, baby girl’s learning how to be polite!” There was laughter around her, someone yanked her hair, so hard that some of it came out.

“Fu—“ She went down again. God, it was hurting. She couldn’t seem…

When she was pulled out, someone was tying something to her legs. No-chin bent down in front of her, and his breath made her want to puke. “Gonna teach you a lesson. We’re gonna you to a sixty-pound bag. When we toss you over, you’re gonna stay down there, and never come up, and I got a special present for you. You’ll only be about a foot under the water. Just so you can see the sun when you fucking drown.”

Aisha spat in his face.

He punched her, once, twice, three times. Aisha was dazed, but she knew why. This kinda asshole wanted respect.

Well, fuck him.

“Give her some more!” No-chin shouted.

And Aisha went under again. She struggled, but this time, they waited. Waited longer. Little sparks started firing off in her vision, her struggles getting weaker.

Oh God, I’m gonna die I—

They pulled her out, but this time, when she tried to take a breath, they put her right back in so she got water instead of air.

Her body wasn’t moving the way she wanted. She needed to breathe! She needed air!

Big Bro, sorry… And suddenly, a mad thought came to her that Taylor was wrong. She was never gonna be able to come back to the reunion in a fancy car… she was just gonna be another black kid who ended up dead. Taylor was gonna be pissed.

They pulled her up.

“Oh look, baby girl’s crying!”

And Aisha was. The ultimate humiliation. Bro wouldn’t cry, not like a baby, not like her—then they put her down again, tying the ropes around her legs, but she couldn’t breathe, and she would beg them, just let her live for one more minute please—

Great shapes moved in the darkness, as Aisha saw something, something beyond anything she’d seen before. Strange forms…

“What the fuck?” A guy asked. “Where’d this come from? Fuck is she—“

Someone pulled her out and kicked her in the head, and whatever she was going to do vanished with the way her skill rattled around. She knew she'd changed, she could do something if only everything stopped rattling around in her brain.

But then... The sky went dark. There was a rumbling sound that filled the air, made the old building shake. Guys were looking around, no longer looking tough but terrified.

And then she heard a sound, rumbling over the shouts, and the gunshots and the sound of something smashing cars to bits in outside.

If you gave a city a voice, all the anger, all the sorrow, all the rage of everyone who lived in it or who had ever lived in it, it might sound like that, filling the air, with its furious words.

"YOU DARE!!!"

No Chin kicked the sack she'd been tied to over the side, and Aisha was pulled down, as the men dissolved into panic, running away, but they'd killed her. She was gonna die and she'd let them see her cry and--

And he hadn't been lying. The bag went down to the floor, only about twelve feet down here, and Aisha shot for the surface--only to be stopped just a foot away from life-giving air.

Please, please God--

But God didn't answer prayers in the Bay.

The world was graying out as Aisha inhaled the seawater, her need to breathe conquering any willpower she had left.

Her last thought was if God didn't answer prayers...

Who was it that had just dived in the water after her?

And then she closed her eyes.