Devil Crossings

Promises

The silence of the cell was insanity.

Drip. Drip. Drip.

Ali dragged the edges of her pillow above her head. Anything to block out the noise.

Drip. Drip.

The sound had not stopped since the day she arrived. Like a bully, it tormented her ruthlessly, playing on the delicate fields of her insanity. She supposed it was a fitting punishment.

Katelyn got to die forever; Ali got to live.

---

"I see here it says you're very qualified to work with children. Can you tell me about your experiences?" The principle sat back in his chair, lips pursed as he observed the young woman before him. Whatever he was thinking was not in Ali's favor.

She folded her hands in her lap. "I worked for three years at a daycare in the Great City. I have a letter of recommendation from the head caretaker." She reached into her purse for a copy, but the man stopped her. 

"No need, Ms. Fairchild. Frankly, I don't see how you're fit to be a teacher."

"Not to be rude, Mr. Emerson, but the state of schools in Lower Eastside is declining. All of your best teachers have left and parents are pulling their kids out of school left and right. You need all the help you can get." There. She had thrown her best card on the table. Ali could only hope that he would play to her hand.

Mr. Emerson stared at her for a long time, the frustration on his handsome face evident. Ali knew his type. Hardworking and honest, but never malicious. He was also intelligent, if the plaques and awards lined up against his wall were anything to go by.

He relented. "God help me, I do." He rubbed his temple. "Go see Tracy in the main office. She'll you get your payment and schedule worked out."

Ali smiled, teeth and gums showing. "Thank you Mr. Emerson." She stood up and headed to the door. "I promise, you won't regret it."

"See that I don't."

---

Ali sat in the stiff chair, the cool metal of her handcuffs stopping her from reaching out to strangle the man.

The prison psychiatrist wouldn't stop asking her stupid questions. If he was trying to get her angry, it was working.

How does that make you feel? Do you regret anything? What would your parents think?

On and on they went and her answers remained the same.

Nothing. No. They're dead.

The elderly psychiatrist closed his notebook shut. He and Ali both knew that today's session would lead them nowhere. Just as the session before and the one before that. 

"Why do you feel nothing?" 

Ali was surprised by the question. It wasn't something that had been asked before.

"Because. . . " She stopped. Her brain tried to formulate an answer. One word stuck clearly in her mind. "Because I'm broken."

"Is that your answer for everything?"

"I guess."

---

The two girls sat on the roof of the house, watching the sunset and the people down below scurry to their houses. It wouldn't do well for any of them to get caught out after curfew.

Katelyn snorted. "Look at them. Like rats in a maze." 

"That's not very nice," Ali said, tucking a strand of kinky brown hair behind her ears. 

Her friend leaned, her pale face marred by a scowl. Ali was struck with an intense wave of envy. How she wished she could have her friend's pale skin and blonde hair. It was better than Ali's darkly colored skin. The only person of her kind in Lower Eastside.

"Since when have you cared about being nice?"

Ali knew she had changed. She didn't expect Katelyn to understand, with her happy family and her ability to blend in with the rest of the city.

"Since my parents were gunned down in the street because a man thought they weren't nice."

Katelyn closed her mouth.

---

The crow's voice echoed pitifully through the town square. It knew a death day when it saw one.

Ali's knees began to hurt as they dug into the fresh earth. She supposed they couldn't be bothered with a chair for a murderer. 

Out of the corner of her eye, she caught sight of Mr. Emerson.  His face was blank, but underneath, a vengeful man screamed for her head.  

Ali heard the executioner approaching. She imagined him with his black mask and smell of death. How many people had stood in this spot? Head bowed, arms and feet bound as they waited for the inevitable end.

She heard him raise the ax. Instead of closing here eyes, she stared directly at Emerson. She wanted him to be the last thing she saw.

The ax fell. 

Nothing.

---

"Alison Fairchild, you stand accused of the murder of Katelyn Gripern. How do you plead?"

"Guilty."

This caused a wave of commotion within the jury. In the hundred years since the Great City had been created, not one person had pleaded guilty. Most went screaming to their deaths, but Ali, with her fathomless eyes and shameful skin, stood without a care in the world.

One could almost think she wished for death.

---

Katelyn knocked on her door. "Ali? Are you there?"

Ali nodded her head, though she knew Katelyn couldn't possibly see.  Her friend must have been psychic because she entered the room without a hint of caution on her face. 

She took a seat on the edge of the bed, observing Ali as if she'd become a caged beast. Perhaps she was.

"I'm sorry, okay?" Katelyn didn't apologize to many people, but Ali was the exception.

"It's fine," Ali murmured. She didn't feel like arguing now. What was the point? Katelyn would just come back and apologize and Ali would forgive her. "Emerson likes you more anyway."

Katelyn didn't deny it; she didn't shake her head and say you never know. He could be in to you. They both knew that would never happen.

Ali blinked as a hand suddenly waved itself in front of her face.

"Let's make a deal: No guy will ever come between us. Deal?"

Ali shrugged. "Deal." Too late now.

"Pinky promise?" Katelyn smiled and held out her pinky. It was something they had learned in history. Apparently, kids, before the Great City came, use to make binding contracts with their pinkies.

"Pinky promise," Ali agreed.

---

Ali gazed down at the body. Katelyn was still beautiful, even in death. Another thing to hate about the girl.

She backed away from the widening pool of blood. It never occurred to her that death wasn't like the movies. The victim didn't fall gracefully to their untimely demise with little blood leaking out. Death was gruesome and it spread everywhere.

Grabbing her jacket, Ali exited the apartment.

Promises were for children.