Habeas Corpus: Black Womb (Black Womb Collection Book 1)

by Matthew LeDrew

  Tim raised his head again to meet Duncan’s gaze, feeling a smile spread over his lips as the both of them started to walk towards the exit.

  After fifth period, Xander, Mike, Derek and Cathy all sat around the picnic table in the back lot of the school, where this had all started mere days before. It felt like years. Horrible years spent tortured in hell, where not even the crows could peck at their eyes.

  They knew by now that Bram Raine had been paid for his part in everything. That he’d been a hard case in high school, but had tried to turn himself around... Until his wife and daughter had been diagnosed with cancer.

  The daughter wasn’t expected to last much longer, and Xander wished that she could have maintained her image of her father for her final weeks.

  It made the victory sour, neither of them feeling much like celebrating as they licked their respective wounds.

  Derek shuffled slightly, uncomfortable with the dragged out silence. He frowned as he looked to each of them, all of whom were avoiding eye contact with one another. The pain was too great, too much of it to simply smooth over like a hot knife would butter. His black shirt ruffled slightly in the wind and made him cold. They all felt it, but he was the only one to wrap his jacket around his arms. The rest of them felt they deserved the cold, for one reason or another. Finally, Derek asked the question on all of their minds: “What now?”

  They all glanced at one another’s faces for a split second, then found their way back into the separation again. This time Derek joined them, resting his head on his knees. After a few more minutes, Cathy got up and walked away without so much as regarding either of her men, going home to lie down on her bed and cry.

  Somewhere, Xander thought he could hear Spider laughing at him.

  BOOK THREE: SMOKE AND MIRRORS

  INTERLUDE:

  SHE RAN

  Lawrence Hogan leaned his head back against the concrete step he was sitting on, the sharp stone digging into the back of his skull. “Ow,” he said to himself in a dry, dull voice. He made no attempt to move or shift into a more comfortable position, choosing to sprawl his thin, lanky form across the stairs in every direction.

  “Well, if it hurts that much, don’t do it,” Julie Peterson sniped, rolling her eyes around her freckled face as she turned away from him and back toward the three girls she was standing with. “So anyway, I call up my cousin and she’s dating this guy named Walter. She said that she tried to call him the night before, but that she couldn’t get through because she said he said he was in a no call zone. What an idiot, right? Only no call zone is out with the trailer trash on the TR. Might as well just admit to...”

  Lawrence let the conversation fade into the background, slowly dissipating into a dull mumble as he let his gaze flitter up and over the girls with his big brown eyes, a slow smirk growing to the left of his mouth.

  Julie’s light brown hair fell down onto her thin shoulders, just touching the top of the pink shirt she wore. It looked to be about two sizes too small for her, and he thanked heaven for growth spurts as he examined the small, heart-shaped emblem on the center of her chest. Her jeans clung tightly to her diminutive hips, so form fitting that they didn’t even have pockets, just smooth denim travelling down her long legs and withdrawing into the black leather cowboy boots she’d taken to wearing lately. She shifted her weight from foot to foot as she spoke, trying to find a comfortable position to stand on the cracked, shattered sidewalk as she continued with her story.

  Jesse Newhook nodded along, smiling politely as she listened to Julie. She had short black hair that had been braided on the back and sides, yet gelled into spikes on the front. Her eyeliner was a deep purple and had been layered on thick, offset by shimmering pink lip-gloss that winked at him every time she moved her head. It was an odd combination that somehow managed to work for her. She wore a Coral Beach Cougars sweatshirt so big that it didn’t stop until it reached her knees, hiding even the shorts underneath it and showing only her bare, shivering legs. His eyes lingered on them for a moment, then travelled back up until they met with hers before moving on.

  Nancy Kelly was a strawberry blonde with hair that went straight down to the base of her spine, moving and flowing with her when she laughed. Her smile seemed too bright for the size of her petite, heart-shaped face, with the sides of it almost touching her eyes at times. Her nose was cute and turned upward, even though from what he’d seen of her so far, her attitude was anything but. She was still wearing the dull brown, grease-smelling uniform from the restaurant she worked at, not even caring how she looked and somehow looking beautiful all the same. His gaze focused on her and stayed there, watching her as his mind drifted slowly into fantasy.

  “Ahem,” Julie coughed dramatically, tapping her foot as she glared down at him. “Got comfortable, did we?”

  He raised an eyebrow to her, then sat back up and placed his hands in his lap. “Um... Yeah.” He blushed, tossing a smirk at Nancy.

  She smiled back, regarding him for only a moment before she resumed her conversation with Jesse.

  Julie scoffed at Nancy, then turned her scowl back towards Lawrence. “Why’re you here again?”

  “Free country,” he shrugged, running a hand through his long, black hair.

  Julie shot him a look.

  “Relaxing before my Chem test,” he amended quickly, pushing off the stairs and getting to his feet. “But I get the feeling I may be able to do that someplace else.”

  “You must be psychic,” she drawled sarcastically, sticking out her tongue at him as she turned back toward her friends.

  He stepped forward to say something else, then stopped himself and let out a sigh. Frowning as his shoulders drooped, he turned and started walking toward the corner, kicking stones off the sidewalk as he went.

  Nancy’s gaze followed him for a second, the smile fading from her lips until Julie began to talk again.

  “So, anyway, I’m there at home and then there’s this knock on my door and it’s them, and I’m like, what the hell? What are you doing in my house?”

  Nancy nodded, not really hearing what was being said anymore.

  Jesse looked from Nancy to Julie and then back again, cursing softly to herself. “I gotta hit the washroom,” she said under her breath, stepping between the two and heading around the corner.

  “Whatev,” Julie piped, making a little ‘w’ with the thumb and forefinger of each hand without even realizing she was doing it, then continuing on with her story.

  Jesse jogged around the corner, seeing Lawrence just up the street. When she thought she was a safe distance from the girls, she called out to him. “Hogan!”

  He stopped, turning around quickly. His hands were up as if to block something, but he loosened quickly upon seeing the semi-gothic brunette stepping up towards him, almost out of breath already. “Jesse? What’s goin’ on?”

  She stopped a foot shy of him, pausing to consider her words. After a moment, she bit her bottom lip, realizing she had no idea what she wanted to say. Huffing, she grabbed him by the arm of his shirt and pulled him between two buildings. “Look... she likes you. Okay? She won’t say she likes you, but she likes you.”

  He raised an eyebrow at her, brushing the tip of his nose and smirking to himself.

  Her dark eyes darted around in their sockets, looking everywhere in the dust-filled alley but at him. “And you like her. Just because Julie’s a bitch doesn’t mean you should leave. Just, come back. We’ll figure out something to talk about with her and you’ll get to know her and it’ll be cool.”

  He leaned forward into her lips, bringing his hands up to cup either side of her face. His rough fingertips grazed the ends of her hair and her earlobes lightly before he moved his hands down, squeezing both of her arms firmly just before the kiss ended, her pink lip balm making a smacking sound as their lips parted. “Don’t like her. Sorry if it seemed that way.”

  She blushed so much that her cheeks turned bright red, still refusing to make eye contact
with him and instead picking a spot on the nearby fire escape to stare at. She brought her hand up, twirling the ends of her hair nervously before responding. “Oh,” she said finally, her voice small and sheepish.

  “Listen,” he smiled, touching his hand to hers. “I really do gotta go cram a bit more before that test, but maybe after we could get a bite to eat? I hear good things about that Deli down on Fifth but never go there.”

  “Um, yeah.” She nodded, finding it hard to catch her breath again. “Yes. Absolutely.”

  “’Kay.” He smiled. Reaching into his pocket and pulling out a pen, he gently scrawled his number onto the palm of her hand. “Give me a call in about three hours, and be hungry,” he laughed, before turning to walk out the other side of the alley.

  “’Kay,” she said happily, waiting for him to leave the alley before letting out a squeal. She turned around the corner and started back the way she’d come, her heart beating faster than it ever had while running as she tried to figure out what she was going to tell Nancy and Julie and came up with a blank. She took a deep breath and rounded the corner to greet them, trying to hide the smile pasted across her lips.

  The sidewalk was bare except for the small stones Lawrence had kicked up while he was leaving. “Guys?” she called out, raising a pierced eyebrow suspiciously. “Nancy?”

  There was no answer and nobody on the street, period. Not even the sound of people close by. “Frig,” she huffed, shoving her hands down into the pockets of her sweater as she started to trudge down the sidewalk towards home.

  Her scowl faded after only a few steps, the memory of the kiss coming back to her and making every inch of her skin tickle. His lips had been so smooth and warm, her face still scratchy from the patches of stubble that dotted his angular cheeks. She could almost feel his fingertips as they just barely touched the tips of her ears, wondering if he’d done that on purpose or not.

  Her stomach growled, but she wouldn’t let herself get hungry before she went out with him... or maybe she should, so that she wouldn’t eat too much while she was out? She sighed, turning the corner by the courthouse and taking one hand out of her pocket, sliding it along the wire mesh fence that stood along the side of the road.

  -tink!-

  She stopped a moment, looping her fingers through the fence and turning to look past it and into the salvage yard. There were old tires and engine parts scattered everywhere, their rusted out frames casting weird shadows against the ground. She let out a long sigh, smiled, and then sighed again as she leaned her head forward against the fence. “Frig,” she said again, gripping the fence tighter and tighter until she felt the cold metal start to dig into her flesh.

  -tink!-

  Pushing back from the fence and backing up a pace, she looked down at herself. She grabbed at the sweater, tugging in out until she could see the entirety of the letter C printed across its torso. She almost gagged, then turned and started walking again. “I can’t believe this was what I was wearing for my first kiss,” she moaned, letting her head fall back and looking up at the sky. She almost laughed at the words, the concept itself still foreign to her. First kiss. She’d just had her first kiss.

  -tink!-

  She turned down the alley behind Claire’s Video, making a smooching sound towards a kitten as she did so. Suddenly, and without her even realizing she was doing it... she began to skip. Had she noticed what she was doing at all, she would have stopped immediately. Never before would she have thought of herself as the type of girl who skipped, even as a child. Yet she bounded down the dark, slimy alley as happily as if it were a yellow brick road, her short hair bobbing each time she landed.

  -tink!-

  -tink!-

  She stopped, skidding to a halt just shy of a puddle as she finally noticed the sound. Furrowing her brow, she turned around with her mouth already open and her tongue forming a defiant curse.

  Her head hit the wall before even the first syllable came. She was unconscious before her body even splashed into the puddle.

  CHAPTER ONE:

  WHERE THERE’S SMOKE

  “Okay class, shall we pick up right from where we left off last time?” Professor Miles smiled, turning from the board to face his class.

  He was greeted with twenty-three blank faces staring back at him, their eyes vacant and dead. Randy Owchar sat in the back row tapping his pen against his desk, making the only sound in the room.

  “Oh, for God’s sake,” he sighed in his thick British accent, taking off his gold-rimmed glasses and rubbing the bridge of his nose before addressing them again. “We were discussing evolution. That little thing that gives us opposable thumbs and straight spines. Ring any bells?”

  Near the front, a cute, chubby girl opened her mouth to speak, then stopped.

  “Yes, Calla?” Miles coaxed, smiling warmly again.

  “I just don’t understand it, I guess. I just don’t see it. I mean, no matter what you do to a dog... it’s still going to be a dog. It’s not going to change.”

  Leaning his chair against the back wall, Derek frowned and rolled his eyes dramatically. He closed his notebook and dropped his pen back into his bag, realizing that nothing said over the next few minutes was going to be particularly helpful on an exam.

  “You’re right, Calla,” Miles agreed, nodding.

  Derek squinting, leaning forward until his chair was back on all four legs.

  “Animals do not simply change their behaviour, unless some external source forces them to. It is the one key difference between human beings and animals that we have found. Humans change their behaviour, animals don’t.” He paused, wiping some gook off his glasses before continuing. “Now, those changes are the first steps to evolution. If the change in behaviour results in that particular animal surviving whatever oppresses it, then it will pass on that knowledge to its offspring until many creatures know it. Once the creatures that did not learn this die off, it becomes something that all members of the species inherently know.”

  Calla scribbled furiously, the side of her hand black as it rubbed the ink off the page behind it.

  “What about that dog?” Derek drawled, calling out from the back of the room. “With the bell?”

  “Good point. Excellent,” Miles agreed, pointing at him heartily. “Pavlov’s dog was one of the first experiments in purposefully altering animal behavior. He would ring a bell every day just before feeding his dog. After so long with this routine, the dog would begin to salivate at the sound of the bell alone, even if the food was nowhere in sight. It was a behaviour learned by human machinations, the first steps toward controlling evolution, albeit on a very small scale.”

  “What could that be used for, though?” Randy scoffed, smirking as he dusted off his red baseball cap and then placed it back onto his head. “What could controlling drool do?”

  “Well, nothing,” Miles admitted, smirking as he nodded his head. “But, it has been attempted successfully with more practical results. In 1993, a scientist named Bill Lishman used a bird’s natural tendency to imprint on the first thing it sees to get a flock of Canada Geese to follow him and his small aircraft from Ontario to Northern Virginia. The geese still follow the same flight pattern to this day on their own, and are now effectively a self-sustaining flock. He used his knowledge of bird instinct of Pavlov’s theories to alter their behaviour, taking them out of the flight path of poachers and predators... effectively changing the outcome of their species as a whole.”

  “Cool,” Derek said, smiling. “Crazy that he even thought to do that.”

  “‘We can see further than ever, because we stand on the shoulders of giants.’”

  “What?”

  “It’s a quote. From Albert Einstein. It means that we can accomplish more today because we already know what people before had to work to find out. In our own way, we ourselves are evolving.”

  Derek frowned, then grabbed his notebook and got up from his desk. “Can I go to the bathroom?”

  Miles fro
wned, gazing from Derek to the rows of empty chairs in his classroom. “If you must.”

  He walked out from between the rows, giving the teacher a small salute before heading for the door.

  “How will you ever evolve?” Miles called after him, a wry smile on his face. “If you don’t know what those who came before you found out on their own?”

  Derek turned, squinting at the man over his shoulder for a moment. He opened his mouth to say something, then shut it again and left.

  Miles frowned, shaking his head as he turned back to the rest of the class. “Now then, can any of you think of any examples where this type of species education has been seen in human history?”

  If you’re innocent, you’re hurt, or you’re scared... I’ll be there.

  He brought the gun to his head and put first pressure on the trigger.

  A shiver ran through him as he felt the metal against the edge of his temple, jerking away instantly and instinctively before settling back down. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, then slowly exhaled. The sudden rush of air blew a layer of dust off the wall beside him, sending it spinning outward like a miniature tornado. He opened his eyes just in time to see the last of it swirl about, caught in the light streaming in through his bedroom window.

  His fingers slipped from their grip on the gun, the skin hot and sweaty against the smooth wood grain of the gun. With an annoyed grunt, he stretched them, feeling the calcium in the joints crack before they resumed their position, index finger poised and ready to fire.

  There were no tears. He thought there would have been, had been each and every time he thought about it over the past few weeks. No there was just the grim certainty that came with the realization of an awful truth. The only liquid running down his face was a small dribble of whiskey from one corner of his mouth. He picked up the bottle once more, grabbing for it twice before his fingers actually found it, and brought it to his lips one last time. The putrid brown liquid burned its way down his throat as he let the bottle fall to the floor carelessly, its remnants pushing their way out and soaking into the floor.