Forging Monsters

Not the Hero You're Looking For

"Magen can you go to your room to play for a little while, I need to talk to Emma for a bit," Zee said as they entered the house.

"I'm hungry."

"I know, kiddo, we'll go get something to eat soon, grab a snack first."

"Ok," Magen skipped into the kitchen and started rummaging through the snack cupboard.

Zee followed her, but Emma wasn't in the kitchen where she usually was.

"Emma? Are you here?" Zee called. She glanced out the window and saw that Emma's Vespa was parked behind the house, so Emma had to be there somewhere.

Zee walked up to the third floor to Emma's studio apartment and heard the shower running in the bathroom. She sat on Emma's bed to wait for her to come out of the bathroom.

When Emma came out of the bathroom her skin was bright red, like she had taken a superhot shower. She gasped and stopped in her tracks with a deer in the headlights wide-eyed look. It only lasted a couple of seconds until she realized it was only Zee, then her gaze slide aside and she would not meet Ze'Eva's eyes.

"Emma," Zee asked in a low tone. "What's happened?"

Emma sat on the bed next to Zee and picked at the quilt, uncharacteristically quiet. As the red of her skin faded, Zee could see scrapes on her back, and bruises on her arms and face. Emma's knuckles were split and mottled red as if she had been in a fight. Zee had the feeling that there was more to it than that.

"Emma?" Zee said after a few moments when Emma still hadn't said anything.

"I was..." Emma clutched a fold of the quilt in her fist. "I was attacked on the way home. They took my bracelet that my grandmother gave me...and..." Emma stopped and took a deep breath, staring unseeing at the wall.

Zee clenched her teeth, suspecting what Emma was struggling to tell her.

"Raped?" Zee asked, her hands curling into tight fists at her sides. Emma nodded mutely.

Zee didn't know what to say, so she just put her arm around Emma and hugged her, pulling Emma's head to her shoulder as Emma broke down in tears. Rage and helplessness clawed at Zee's heart. "Did you report it?" Zee asked.

Emma sat up and wiped the tears off her cheeks. "I reported it at the hospital, they did tests, and I talked to a police officer." Emma waved her hand as she spoke. "They probably won't ever find him, he wore a mask and gloves. I never thought this would happen in broad daylight. He grabbed me and dragged me into an alley behind a dumpster." Emma stopped and shuddered.

She turned and gripped Zee's arm. "Don't tell your uncle, it was hard enough to tell you, I don't want him to know, I just want to put it behind me. Promise that you won't tell anyone else!"

Emma looked at her so frantically that Zee promised, "I won't, don't worry." Zee patted her hand to reassure her.

Magen peeked around the door at that moment. Zee spotted her and stood up, blocking her view of Emma, not wanting Magen to get upset at seeing Emma's scrapes and bruises.

"Are you ready to go to McDonald's kiddo? Let's go," Zee steered Magen back into the hall and pulled Emma's bedroom door closed behind her.

On the way out, Zee glanced at the cellar door and her nostrils flared with suppressed anger.

"Do you have a photo of the bracelet?" Zee asked Emma later that day.

"Yes, my mother wore it for her wedding to my father."

"Can I see the picture?"

"Sure, but why?"

"I suspect that the man who attacked will try to sell it at a pawnshop, I want to take the picture to pawnshops in the area to see if I can track it down."