Jonathan Hemsworth's Arc

Chapter 5 of 7

The door held under the blow. Jonathan pressed his shoulder against the plank and shouted at the shape in the coat. Behind him, deep in the black bathroom, Eva searched the floor with her hands. Her fingers found cracked concrete and cold water. Then leather. The book. She dragged it into the gray light of the doorway. The cover felt warm. That was wrong. The metal symbols on it seemed to pull at her eyes. She meant to carry it straight to Jonathan. Instead she stopped. The strange marks held her still, like a face she almost knew. "Eva," Jonathan called. "I've got it. Bring the book." His voice cracked. The hook scraped the frame again. "Eva!" She did not answer. The buckle came loose under her thumb without effort. The book fell open on its own. Rows of twisted letters filled the page. She should not have understood them. She did. The words rose in her throat and she read them aloud in a flat, steady voice. Jonathan turned his head. "Stop. Stop reading. That's how it started." Eva kept reading. Her eyes did not blink. The blade at the door went quiet. Outside, the man in the coat lowered his hook and stood still, as if listening to her too. Jonathan let go of the door. He crossed the room and gripped her shoulders. "Look at me." She did not. Her face was calm and empty, worse than any scream. She was the one who fixed things. Now she stood like a stranger, the book open in her small hands. He did the only thing he could think of. He reached for the pages to close them. She twisted away, fast and strong for her size, and kept reading. The old man had pressed himself into the corner. On the counter behind him sat the bottle of brown liquor he had poured earlier. Jonathan grabbed the bottle. He did not drink. He swung it flat against the book, knocking it from her hands. It struck the wet floor and slid into the dark bathroom. The reading stopped. Eva blinked. Her legs gave. Jonathan caught her before she hit the concrete. "I've got you," he said. "I've got you." Her eyes found his, confused, then afraid. "What did I say?" she whispered. He did not know. But the door had gone silent, and that scared him more. He looked at the window. The man in the coat was gone from the glass. Not sent back. Moved. The book still lay in the dark room where anyone could reach it. Eva clutched his sleeve. "It's in my head now," she said. "The words. I still hear them." She pressed both hands to her ears. "Get it away from me. Get it out of here." Jonathan looked at the black doorway. The book waited on the floor, and now it wanted her.