Transformation (35 page)

48.

Dawn had to abandon her sister’s body. She had no idea what to do with it. Maybe she’d come back for it. For now she was tired and scared. As much as she hated Cullen and pretty much everyone else in the world, she missed them. Being institutionalized most of her life, even when she was locked in a room by herself, there was always the presence of others about. She was in a horrible, shitty, but familiar place. Now she was alone and in a strange place, out in the open and at night. And Gerald didn’t count. He barely registered as human to her. He was an ugly stupid lump. He was of no use to her either. He couldn’t fight, he could barely walk, and he was absolutely not going to be her Adam. She kissed her sister’s cheek once again and wiped her tears away. She started walking towards the airport with its big buildings and promise of food and shelter. She’d never been on a plane before and in fact hadn’t even been in an airport.

Gerald huffed and puffed behind her and complained.

“Owie. Owie. Owie. Owie.”

Dawn spun on him and screamed, “Shut up! You are being too fucking loud!”

Gerald recoiled like a beaten dog. He tried to be quiet but he couldn’t help himself. He continued to let out long, low, mournful sobs.

He couldn’t help himself and started asking her questions about when they would stop, eat, and if she was going to fix his boo-boo. He was also curious about Egg. He wanted to know if Egg was really asleep or dead and how you can tell the difference.

Dawn had spent less than twenty minutes with Gerald and by the time they reached the terminal, she was ready to cut him loose. She turned towards him at the door.

“Okay, Gerald. This is my place. You have to go somewhere else.”

Gerald looked blank, like he hadn’t understood what she said. But he did.

“Dawn. I can’t… Ow. I can’t go off by myself. Ow!” His chin was already quivering.

“You have to.”

“But there’s a lot of room here.”

“It’s not enough for the both of us, now leave.” She pointed away from the terminal.

Gerald suddenly became oddly animated and backed away from her screaming. “I don’t want to! I don’t want to!” He was backing away from her and waving his fists as he yelled over and over. “I don’t want to!” He reached back down to his wound and started shrieking.

“Shut up Gerald! Shut up!” Dawn was following him trying to quiet him.

He kept walking backwards and screaming, words giving way to pure screams of frustration and anger. His eyes were pressed shut, his face turning red.

Dawn ran at him and slapped him in the face to break his tantrum. She had to deal with him in a different matter. He stopped yelling but his eyes were bulging and he was looking around the ground like he’d lost something. Dawn slapped him again. He snapped out of his tantrum but Dawn gave him a few hard slaps because she wanted to.

“You can stay,” she said exasperated. “You can stay OK.”

Gerald became still and quiet, only now he was weeping. He rubbed tears from his face and smeared blood all over his face. Snot ran down his arm and mixed with the blood.

“Jeez, let’s go.” Dawn said. Gerald wouldn’t just leave her. She should have known that.

A few yards inside the terminal and it was dark. Dawn led the sniveling fat boy to the nearest escalator.

“C’mon Gerald. Up. Up. Up we go.” She smiled as she pushed him hard on his back. He fell forward on the sharp metallic edges of the escalator stairs and wailed loudly.

Dawn was all smiles because she decided to enjoy this.

“It’s OK Gerald. Everyone falls down.”

“But you did that on purpose! Ahhhhh! Owie!” he said started to scream again.

Dawn slapped at his face but he blocked her hand.

“Damn it, Gerald. You don’t accuse me of something like that then refuse your punishment. Now put your hands at you sides and look at me.”

Gerald blubbered. “But my owie.” But he did as he was told and wailed in misery as Dawn made him stand there for one, then two, then three long minutes. Blood dripped at a steady rhythm on the floor from his open wound.

“Close your eyes,” she snapped.

He did and his face jumped and flinched as if he were being beaten by an invisible hand. Dawn looked at him with disgust. She cocked her arm back and slapped him across the face as hard as she could. The impact stung her hand. Gerald dropped and sobbed.

“Up, up, up again Gerald. You aren’t supposed to fall down.”

Gerald tried to stand and started screaming as he fell back to the ground. “OWIE! OWIE!”

Dawn kicked him in the head when it was right in front of her. It was to perfect an opportunity to pass up. Gerald yelled loudly but managed to get to his feet.

“Again!” she yelled.

They repeated the routine. Dawn smiled as she slapped the boy in the face. He bent forward and moaned. Snot and blood flowed from his nose and formed a little revolting puddle at his feet.

“Again!” She yelled. Her eyes bright with glee.

Gerald stood again and boo hoo’d as he was forced to stand still with his eyes closed. She decided not to slap him.

“OK turn around. Let’s go.”

When the boy turned, she pushed him again. He cried, dared not say a thing, and tried to climb the stairs. Halfway up, he stopped.

“Can we turn the stairs on? Please my ow…”

Dawn punched him in the nose and snapped.

“Walk damn it. Walk goddamn it!” She yelled.

“Walk! Walk!” She screamed repeatedly until he reached the top. He was sweating and making a dramatic production of trying to catch his breath in addition to his real pain.

Dawn pointed at the pedestrian crosswalk.

“I am getting really sick of your shit.” She kicked him in the ass and he barely reacted. That pissed her off. He was walking very slowly and whimpering. Pissing her off even more. She pushed him again and he tripped forward onto his face. He rolled and cried. He seemed to be getting weak and tired.

“Get up! Get up!” She screamed manically just inches from his face. “Get up you fuck!”

She danced around him and kicked him any place on his body that she thought might hurt. The face, the balls, the top of his head—his wound. Gerald rolled and screamed and she danced and kicked.

Finally, she stopped.

“Fuck you, Gerald. I’m trying to help you find a safe place to stay, a place all your own, and you are being a real asshole. She turned to walk away.

“Don’t leave me!” He shrieked.

“Are you going to try harder?” She asked.

“Yes. Yes. Yes.” He struggled to his feet.

“Now walk Gerald. Don’t stop, don’t make a noise, and move fast.”

Dawn was tired of tormenting Gerald and just wanted to deal with him already. She let him huff and puff and moan his way to the top of the short term parking structure, five floors above street level.

“Jesus Christ, Gerald. You are such a pain in the ass.” She started up again once they were on the roof.

Gerald was soaking wet, moaning and whimpering, as he dragged himself forward. He was red as a beet and dramatically hyperventilating.

“OK Gerald. You did good.” She was catching her breath, combing through her long blonde tresses with her fingers. “Good boy.”

Gerald just choked and gasped.

“Now. Get up on the edge here. You have to look around and see if there’s any food down there.”

Gerald didn’t like heights and shook his head no. He started backing away.

“C’mon. I tell you what. You can hold my hand.”

“Why don’ you get up there?” His fear energized him.

“Because your eyes are better than mine. C’mon. If you want to stay with me you have to do it. Do you want me to punish you again? If I have to I won’t be nice about it. Just look over the edge and tell me for certain if you can’t do it. Then I’ll try to do it.”

Gerald didn’t move. Dawn shrugged and said. “OK.” She started to walk off.

“I’ll look.” Gerald said. He shambled over to the edge and tried to pull himself up on the concrete barrier and recoiled.

“Owie…” Gerald caught himself and tried again. This time he pulled himself up to peer over the barrier. His wound must have torn open as blood started to run in a small stream down the concrete. The pain caused his body to spasm.

Gerald certainly didn’t need help falling off a building, but Dawn wanted to make sure he did. Plus, she wanted the fun of doing it. She deserved to have that much fun for all the trouble he caused her. The fat boy was on his stomach on the thick, four foot high concrete wall and looking down. His feet were about six inches off the ground.

“I don’t see anything.” He wailed and started to scoot backwards to get off the wall.

Dawn squatted down and put her shoulder into his ass crack and stood. She was amazed at how easily the fat kid just kind of rolled over the edge.

She watched as he tumbled head over ass all the way to the ground. He barely made a sound on the way down until he hit. It was an oddly brutal sound she could never describe to anyone else. She was thoroughly amused and hoped she got to do that again one day.

She went back into the dark building to find food and drink.

The first time she saw the guy with the dread locks they almost ran into each other. She had a tiny bit of forewarning and used it to step behind a pillar and remain still. Later she saw the guy walking outside of the terminal. His head turned, and he looked right at her. But it was dark, how could he have seen her? She watched him walk quickly to the nearest door and enter the terminal. He was quickly and quietly heading straight towards her. She walked off quickly.

She looked back, and he was still coming. She was sure he was following her. She decided to bait him to the upper level. She entered a stairwell and locked the door behind her to slow him down. She waited for him to arrive below her then walked in the moonlight down the second level balcony.

She waiting in the dark with a lipstick she’d found in the office drawers while looking for a weapon. When he poked his head into the room she came up behind him and pressed the round metal case to his head.

“Don’t you move,” she said.

“Not a problem darling.” The guy said. He sounded completely at ease.

“The name’s Ben. What’s yours?”

“Fuck you.”

“Nice name,” he said. “Do you like to get high?”

She hesitated. “Um, yeah. What you got?”

Ben dropped his arms and turned. Dawn put the lipstick into her pocket quickly.

“Not much darling. Some pills and booze. You mind if I call you darling or do you want to be called by your name, Fuck You?”

This guy was cute in the eyes of Dawn. She smiled and looked at her feet.

“Dawn. My name’s Dawn. I have some weed.” She’d grabbed a few handfuls off the old guys truck.

“No papers but I know how to make a pipe out of almost anything.”

“Dawn. Beautiful. I love that name.”

“Thanks. So…”

“So I have pills and the bars here are loaded with booze. Let’s go.”

Ben put his hand out. Dawn took it, and they walked in the dark airport to the nearest bar and started drinking.

They popped pills, washed them down with booze, and smoke up some of Old Francis’ Best Gold Shit. They swapped stories as they drank. Soon they were swapping bodily fluids.

“So what are you going to do?” Dawn asked Ben as they lay naked in the dark in the middle of the terminal floor. They’d taken the party to the wide open terminal after they stripped down and Dawn poured liquor on Ben’s back. She ran, he chased her, and they ended up on the floor. He poured an entire bottle of rum over her nude body as she giggled and screamed and squirmed under him on the floor.

“I was heading north. You?”

“Don’t know,” she said forlornly.

“You can come with me.”

Dawn brightened up. “OK.” She paused. “Can you help me with something before we move on?”

“Sure,” Ben said. “I’ve got stuff to do before I take off. Maybe you can help me with that.”

“Of course,” she said.

They spent several hours on the floor, falling asleep eventually in the wee hours. The weed, booze, pills and rigorous sex kept them knocked out until late in the morning. When they finally woke, they were in no rush to move. They lay naked in each other’s arms in the middle of the concourse.

“You ever shoot a gun?” Ben asked her.

“Of course.” She sneered as if insulted. “Have you?”

“Of course.”

But she was dubious. “Do you have one?”

“Not on me.” He cursed himself. He forgot he had the silver revolver and left it in the car.

“Ever kill anybody?” She leaned up on her elbow for his response. Her small breast rested on Ben’s chest. She threw her leg over his body.

“Lots of people.” He smiled at her. “Lots and lots.” He reiterated as he locked eyes with her.