by A. Eggleston
He couldn't help thinking that he must have done something to upset her. Did he say something that offended her? Did he make another pass at her, and she finally had enough? Of course, with Ash, it was probably something weird and out of the blue. The question he focused on the most was how was going to deal with him.
When Cooper caught up with them, he gently moved Evelyn away from Ash, allowing him to stand between them. "What's going on here?" he asked, leering at Ash.
Cooper hunched over to look her in the eyes, keeping his hands on her shoulders. "Evelyn, did he say something to you?" he asked her.
It all hit her at once. The yelling, the shouting, the arguing, why was she putting herself through this? She wondered why she didn't just walk away and leave him alone. Why did she just involve herself in some big scene like that? She felt so embarrassed, that
she couldn't talk for a moment. "He--just--", she tried to justify herself. She became frustrated and tried to calm herself down. "he started yelling at me, and--I don't know, I guess I--"
Cooper cut her off, and whipped the other way around so that he faced Ash. "Have I not made it clear during the past week that I don't want you bothering her?" he said.
Ash remained calm, irritated, but calm. He looked at Cooper with resentment in his eyes. "Alright, I've had it up to here with your bullshit. Both of you!" he pointed at Evelyn.
He stood up straight, looking down at Ash. Cooper squinted his eyes, and turned his head to the side, inquisitively. "What the fuck is your problem? You don‘t talk to my girlfriend like that!" he said.
Evelyn grabbed him by the arm and pulled him down, so that she could speak in his ear. She was already furious, she didn't want to get Cooper involved. "Cooper, stop it, I can deal with this myself." she said, curtly.
"No," he said. He turned back to Ash. "I wanna know why this guy's always such a flake." He stepped closer to Ash, as he was talking he noticed him turn away a little bit.
His nostrils were still flared, and his eyebrows were still cocked, but Ash looked defensive. Cooper played on it. "Yeah," he said. "you know what I'm talking about, don't you?" he interrogated. "You always look like you're trying to hide something."
Evelyn paused for a moment to think about that. She had mentioned how Ash always seemed nervous for some reason. Was he keeping some kind of secret? She thought maybe Cooper was actually onto something. She looked at Ash and saw how nervous he looked. Even though he tried to hide it, he wasn't very good at it. She continued listening to Cooper.
"The constant coffee runs...the twitching, the spazzing. Do you stay out all night?" he asked. He smirked, and jutted his face in front of Ash. "What? Did you kill someone?"
Ash averted his eyes the other way, looking guilty.
It's more like hundreds, really... he thought.
Cooper's face dropped. Suddenly his smirk-y demeanor turned more serious. He stepped closer towards him. "W-wait? Did you?" he asked. He said, "Dude--"
Ash cut him off right then. He poked him on the chest with his index finger. "I'm not your 'dude'." he said sternly.
"Okay, sorry." Cooper looked at his metal hand, which was placed on the roof of his Oldsmobile. "Is that how you got the RoboCop hand?" turned back to Evelyn. "I knew it, Evelyn! I told you this guy was weird!" he said, cocking his thumb at Ash behind him.
Ash blew up with anger. Ash jerked his head up and stared straight at him. He pointed at him with his metal hand, threatening him. "Alright, listen, you little pipsqueak!" he barked.
Cooper intruded. "What are gonna do about it, 'Ash'-hole?!" he dared. Although, in Cooper's position, that wasn't a very bright thing to say. For all he knew, he could actually kill him right then and there.
For a quick second, Ash glanced up above the top of Cooper's head and saw the sunset slowly receding into the horizon ahead of him. It was going to get dark soon. Very soon. In fact, if he didn't leave right that very moment, all hell would break loose, literally. He
had to think quick, so he directed his attention back to Cooper, and said, "I don't have time for this, I gotta get out of here. Now." he said, more to himself than to Cooper. He pushed him away, got in his car, slammed the door, and sped away.
Cooper and Evelyn listened to the sound of the tires squeal, and watched the red tail lights fade into the distance.
They had just barely made it to the street corner before the engine in Cooper's El Camino started to sputter and the stereo began go on and off. He put it in "Park", and proceeded to bang on the dashboard. "Oh, come on! Why?!" he muttered, hoping they wouldn't have to drive back home in silence. "This piece of crap's always got something wrong with it."
Evelyn had freed herself from the seatbelt, but still slumped in the cushions, watching Cooper hit the dash with the bottom of his palm. She knew why he so desperately wanted to fill the silence. She was really pissed at Cooper for interrogating Ash just a few hours ago. What he had said to him would have gotten Cooper a square punch in the face. She guessed he must have just been lucky.
The party was being held at Steven's house--well, technically, his parent's house. But, his parents were out of town, so all bets were off. It was a pretty nice house, too. Steven Gordon and his sister, Jill, lived in one of the more posh neighborhoods in Springwood. Of course, every neighborhood seems picturesque when compared to the crummy apartment building that Cooper and Evelyn lived in.
The house was two stories, painted olive green on the exterior. It had a garage, and square windows, one by the door, and three on the second story. From the windows, you could see strobe lights and high school kids passing by. The front door was off to the side, guided by a trail of various shrubbery and flowers. They had parked about a block away from the house. The rest of the street was lined with cars and high school kids.
Cooper leaned back in his seat, and turned to Evelyn. "Never mind." he said. "There's no point. You ready?" he asked.
Evelyn still stared at him with detest in her eyes. "Yeah..." she said passively. "I guess so." she pushed the clunky, metal door open and stepped out.
Evelyn slammed the door with a little more vigor than Cooper, which didn't settle well with him. It sounded like she was trying to shatter the windows. He flinched his eyes at the mere thought of it.
"I take it you're still mad at me?" he said, still flinching.
Evelyn put her hands on the roof of his car. "Yes, I'm still mad about what happened."
Cooper looked at the floor in shame. "I am so sorry, baby." he said, ashamed. "Please don't be mad." He raced over to the other side to meet with her. He took her hand in his. "I'm really sorry. I didn't mean to be disrespectful to you. It's just that, if I see someone
getting in your face like that, I flip the fuck out."
"I know you do. And I appreciate it, but I can handle things by myself, alright?." said Evelyn. "And, it's not just you. I was mostly mad at Ash for acting like that. He just blew up for no reason." She playfully smacked him on the back of the head. "But you made it worse by almost getting in a fight with him."
"Ow!" said Cooper, rubbing his head. "Yeah, that's true. But I could've taken him, I'm
like..." He put about half an inch of space between his index finger and thumb. "that much taller than him. So, no wonder he left, 'cause he was going to go down."
Both of them laughed. Cooper put her palm on the side of his face. He pouted his lip like a sad puppy. He said in a baby voice. "Sowwy. Do you forgive me?"
Evelyn exhaled deeply. She gave him a half-smile. "Okay, you're forgiven…this time."
"Yay!" he said and hugged her. "I love you."
"I love you, too."
They released themselves from their hug and walked on the concrete walkway leading to the front door.
They both had switched their S-Mart smocks for something more suited for a night out. Cooper had worn his gray and orange jacket. Evelyn wore a Black Sabbath jersey, with her freshly curled hair slightly covering the logo.
By time she reached the door
way, Cooper raced ahead of her to knock on the door. When he extended his arm to knock, the door had already flown open. Following was the sound of "Hey! Look who it is!" It was Steven, flailing his arms up, with a game controller in his left hand. It was amazing he could tell who it was, since Steven had dark emo hair covering most of his face. If it weren't for the bright, red, shirt and converse sneakers, he could easily be mistaken for a run-of-the-mill goth kid. "Come in!" he yelled over the music.
They edged themselves in, trying to avoid bumping into anybody. "Hi, Steven." Evelyn said, her voice almost fading in with the music.
"Hey, man!" Cooper yelled, nearly interrupting Evelyn. "What's up?!"
Evelyn stood between them, cramped and uncomfortable. She was starting to regret coming here in the first place. Steven stepped back and leaned over to Evelyn. "Jill's in the kitchen, I'll get her for ya!" He took a half-step to the side, poked his head out to the kitchen and yelled, "HEY JILL! EVELYN'S HERE!"
Well, jeez Evelyn thought. I could have done that.
She edged herself away and stood by the hallway, a few seconds later, she saw a beam of blonde hair darting in and out of the crowd. Jill ran up to her and hugged her. "Hey!" she said over the music. "I'm glad you made it!" Jill stepped back and Evelyn noticed her stars-and-stripes t-shirt, which had a few holes in it, and the sleeves were cut off. Jill was pretty much the standard blonde-haired, blue-eyed, pretty girl in high school. She had just turned eighteen a few months earlier, now making her two years older than her brother.
After the kind of day she'd been through, Evelyn needed some interaction with sane people. Evelyn and Jill had known each other ever since they were in high school, before she met Cooper. It was nice for her to know that no matter how difficult it was on her own, she had Jill to let her know things will be okay.
Steven turned Cooper, holding his controller up by his head. "Coop?" he said. "Do you hear it? Do you hear the call?" Steven asked.
Cooper squinted his eyes at him. "What call?" he asked him back.
Steven grinned and cocked his eyebrows. "The 'Call of Duty'!" he exclaimed.
Cooper put his hands close to his face and rubbed them together. He laughed evilly. "Ha ha ha ha!"
They both ran over to the living room and planted themselves on the couch, along with
the rest of the gaming nerds. Cooper immediately picked up the controller that was laying on the coffee table and picked up where everyone had left off.
Jill nodded her head in disapproval. "Look at them. A bunch of five year olds..." She turned to Evelyn, smiling. She lead her into the kitchen. "Come on, I got food."
Evelyn and Jill walked over to the kitchen, the male, adolescent screams, and profanity slowly fading with each step. The kitchen was crowded with people, too, but it wasn't as bad. It least it was more quiet. They leaned back by the marble counter, watching the people zoom in and out. Jill grabbed a big bowl of chips and placed it between them. They each grabbed one and took a bite.
"So...how're things?" Jill asked between bites.
Evelyn looked at her derisively, mentally telling her that today had not been such a good day. "Pretty crappy." she began, "I mean, everything's fine now, but..." Evelyn grabbed another handful of chips. "I mean, I guess it was partly my fault. I kinda started a thing after work, but..." she said, her words muffled.
"But what?" Jill inquired.
Evelyn kept replaying the whole scene in her mind over again. The way Ash had been acting. How defensive he was about himself. His whole demeanor was strange, really. She kept trying to find a plausible explanation for it, but she just couldn't. It just made what Cooper said to him seem even weirder. Evelyn wasn't sure whether or not she wanted to show her face at work tomorrow and risk the chance of running into Ash again.
"I can't explain it." she said. "It's just--"
Before she could elaborate, their friend Faith Mori had walked in through the entryway and was now just a few feet from them. "Hi!" she yelled across the room, frantically waving her arm. Faith was a vision in 90's nostalgia. She wore a black tank top, with a red, flannel shirt tied around her waist, draping over her ripped up jeans, which were rolled up just above her knee. She looked like she had just been to a Pearl Jam concert. Her hair was short and auburn gently flowing against her pale skin. Her bangs just were above her eyes, making her look like her own anime character.
She walked up to them and sat on top of the table in front of them. "'Sup?" she asked casually.
Evelyn copied her remark. "'Sup?"
She answered. "Pretty good. Pretty good."
Jill turned to her. "Faith, where have you been?"
She looked around before answering, all the while smirking. "I may or may not have been out with your brother for the past hour."
She cocked an eyebrow. "Doing what?"
"Going to S-Mart, stealing one of their shopping carts, and then taking turns riding down a hill." She turned to Evelyn. "It was fun."
“I must’ve just missed you, then.” said Evelyn.
"That was very strange, but I'm going to ignore that for now. Jill turned back to Evelyn. "So?" she said. "You were saying?"
Evelyn continued, "Oh, yeah." She paused for a moment, wondering how exactly to put it into words. "You remember that guy I work with?" she reminded them. "Big chin, kind of intense looking?"
"You mean the old guy?" Jill asked.
"Yeah."
"Oh, right." Faith remembered. "The guy with the--uh--" Faith raised her right hand and waved her fingers from left to right, mimicking Ash's semi-robotic hand. "Yeah, I know who you're talking about. What happened?"
Evelyn recalled her experience. "I was standing by the register, and I heard this crash. I went over there, and it was Ash. He..."
"...fucked up royally by the Housewares department today." Cooper said to Steven and the rest of his buddies. He didn't turn to face them as he spoke, as he was too busy shooting bad guys and dodging snipers. Like a boss. he thought. Cooper jerked and twitched his body from side to side, as if it would somehow affect his playing.
"What'd he do?" Steven asked as he took a drink of soda, his controller in the same hand.
"He fell over a table and nearly got himself stabbed by a bunch of knives." he said, switching eye contact between Steven and everyone else. Cooper smirked. "I mean it was...terrible...but, kinda funny."
Sitting next to him was Kyle. He was lean, with some stubble around his face, and had short, brown hair. He was wearing an "Avenged Sevenfold" t-shirt which had, over the course of the evening, accumulated food stains across it. He joined in the conversation. "Dude, why do you hate him so much?" he asked.
Cooper continued to stare at the television screen. He scoffed. "He’s just such a..."
"...nice guy. Well, most of the time, he is." Evelyn answered her friends' question about Ash. "But today, when I wanted to see how he was doing, he was acting very strangely." she said.
"Strange how?" Jill asked.
"It was like he was in a hurry, you know? And he just acted really secretive." She elaborated. "And the more I asked about it, the angrier he got. Then Cooper got involved, they both started fighting, and it was just a big mess."
Neither Jill nor Faith really said anything for a while. They just nodded in passive sympathy.
"So," Faith said. "where do you think Mr. Big Chin guy was in such a hurry to go anyway?" She grabbed a can of Ready Whip and ate a palm-sized ball of whipped cream straight from the nozzle.
Evelyn stared at the ground for a while. She'd already been pondering that question for two hours now. If it didn't come to her then, she was sure the answer wasn't going to appear to her now. Evelyn simply shrugged.
Cooper lowered his elbows for the first time since he sat down to play the game. He rested the controller on his lap. Suddenly the sounds of gunfire and thematic score, along with the overlapping conversations from the crowd, and the techno music blaring from Steven's speakers, lulled in Cooper's ears. Everything just start
ed to run together and fade away. "...Fucked if I know."
Chapter Nine
The twin headlights illuminated the pathway as Ash cruised around town, hunting for demonic entities. He came across a long, stretched out overpass. Beside the moonlight settling on the indigo sky above him, the bright yellow lights coming from his Delta 88 were the only sources of light detouring him. He traveled so far that he was pretty sure he was about to reach city limits.
He hadn't seen a Deadite for the past few miles, he considered just turning to another street and heading to another side of Springwood. Ash looked around him, appreciating the quiet isolation around him, and the vast emptiness of Deadites so far. He traveled along a concrete road on the outskirts of town, above a railway that had been abandoned for over twenty years. Rusted boxcars and railroad fragments covered the ground. It was past midnight, so there weren't any people around to, hopefully, fall prey to the Deadites. He had felt this kind of isolation before, when he traveled to that cabin many years
before, so Ash didn't feel so out of place here.
On each side of the road, there was a barrier of metal railings that stood beside him, acting as a wall. Where they to protect him, to keep him from the evil that lurks outside? Or, where they to seal him in and trap him? Ash decided not to revisit that thought, and instead focused on the road ahead.
It was the silence that calmed him. Ash never turned his radio on at night. If he did, he would likely become distracted and allow himself, or someone else, to be attacked. He had a feeling that tonight would be a slow night. At least, he was hoping tonight would be a slow night. He hoped that the Deadite population was slim to none by now. Ash had desperately wanted his run in Springwood to be over. He needed to be away from this town, and the delusional madness that came with it.