Chapter 7 - Harlow

I looked at the man at the door more closely. My heart hammered in my chest. My stomach tensed. He was probably the most handsome man I had ever seen. He was tall and muscular. His frame could barely fit through the door. His short, dark hair and scruffy beard completed the package.

         “I’m Malachi.” He said with a deep, firm voice.

         That voice tightened my stomach and made me wet.

         “He’s with me.” Joe came through the door. “Damn girl, did some damage didn’t you.” He walked past the man named Malachi. Behind him, another large man stood in the foyer.

         “Shut the fuck up and come and get that one.” I pointed the gun at the third man.

         Joe made his way over to him. The third man looked up at Joe and spit at him. “Mountain Creek Trash.”

         I shot him square in the throat. He gasped for air. “Don’t talk to him like that.”

         “Jesus, Harlow.”

         “What?” I shrugged. “They keep on popping back up like fucking daisies. What else did you want me to do? Kneecaps and throats are the things that have been keeping them in check.”

         Sirens started to sound in the background.

         “Some police force you have here. Takes them twenty minutes to get to an alarm. I feel really safe.”

         “When do you not feel safe?” Joe joked as he looked over his shoulder. He worked on tying up the third man.

         “Never.”

         “My point exactly.”

         Malachi just stared at me, not moving. The other man who was there looked at the damage in shock. I wasn’t sure why his face looked so surprised. It was like he had never seen a fight before. “Do your friends over there just stare, or are they going to help before I have to shoot this one again?” The first guy glared up at me, holding onto my foot.

         “Oh yeah, sorry.” Malachi started to move toward the man, I held down with my foot. “You can release him, I got him.”

         There was something about the way he moved. As if he didn’t want to touch me. I know I was covered in my blood and theirs, but it wasn’t that bad. I lifted my foot, and Malachi grabbed the first man.

         “Roan will get you.” He seethed at Malachi.

         “Shut up.” I took the butt of the gun and hit him against the back of the head he fell unconscious. Malachi looked at me with wide eyes. I shrugged. “Sorry, but I’m tired of hearing them talk. Bitch this, and we’ll kill you that. It was getting old.”

         Joe laughed. “Same old Harlow.” He shoved the man that he tied up next to a weight machine.

         “Shut up or I’ll shoot you, too.”

         Joe chuckled again. “What’s up with those eyes? Don’t think I didn’t notice them when I walked in.”

         “Oh, these old things? Consider them an upgrade.” I rolled my eyes to bring my normal irises back.

         I looked over at Joe, but my vision became blurry, and blackness started to invade my vision. And the world started to tilt on its axis. I took a deep breath.

         “Hey, are you alright?” Malachi asked, he grabbed onto my elbow before I fell. Even in my state, I could feel electricity shoot through his fingertips into my body.

         “Yeah, I just need to sit down.” Lucky for me, there was a bench close by that Malachi escorted me to.

         “Are you hurt?” He asked squatting down to be eye level with me. His green eyes were glowing.

         “You have nice eyes,” I said, before I could think better of it.

         He smiled at me. “Thank you. But that doesn’t answer my question. Are you hurt?”

         “I’ll be fine.” I waved my hand at him. “Just need a second.”

         “What’s going on here?” A man who entered the broken door yelled.

         “Hey John, let me run through it.” Malachi stood, but before left, he gave my shoulder a squeeze. He walked over to the two officers now standing near the office. Joe, Malachi, and the other man with them were talking to the officers. Joe escorted them to his office, that was unlocked and showed them his computer. No doubt they pulled up the video footage.

         I rested my head in my hands. I tried to steady my world. I was definitely suffering from blood loss.

         “Harlow?” Joe’s voice came from behind me.

         “Yeah?” I didn’t lift my head.

         “You doing alright?”

         “I’ll live.” I lifted my head slowly, an attempt not to disrupt my equilibrium more than it already has been disrupted.

         “From the looks of it, you have had a lot of blood loss. You need to go to the hospital.” He came and stood next to me.

         “No hospitals,” I said automatically.

         “You need to get stitched up. You’re bleeding pretty badly from your thigh and back.”

         “No hospitals,” I repeated. “Do you have a suture kit? Or a staple gun?”

         “You can’t possibly suggest stitching yourself up?”

         I looked up at Joe. He stared at me in disbelief. “I’ve done it before; I can do it again. But may need the help of an old colleague.” I gave him a weak smile.

         “You’re crazy.” He shook his head. “I’ll be right back.” Joe walked into his office, behind the men watching the computer screen, they were all enthralled by what was happening, what I did.

         “Oh!!!” The two officers yelled as they watched me damage the men who broke in. I wondered what part they were at. Probably the breaking of guy one’s leg, or the other guy’s elbow. Either way, they were going to get a show.

         Joe made his way back to me with a medical kit and a small box on top. “I don’t have a suture kit, so this will have to do.” He handed me a sewing kit.

         “Better than nothing.” I took it and attempted to thread the needle. My hands shook.

         “You really should go to the hospital,” Joe said as he watched me try to thread the needle over and over. “Give it to me.”

         I handed over the thread and needle. The small objects looked even smaller in his giant hands. He got the thread through the eye in one attempt and handed it back to me.

         “Show off.”

         He grinned back at me.

         I doubled up the string, made it as thick as possible so it didn’t break going through my skin. I took a deep breath. I pinched the skin of my leg together and pushed the needle through; I connected the two pieces together. I hissed out as I pulled the needle and string through. I made a knot and went in for another stitch. My hands shook as I continued to make the stitches. Five minutes went by, and I completed my last stitch. I made ten haphazard stitches along the cut; it would scar, but it wasn’t bad for what I had available.

         “Not bad,” Joe said as he watched me cut the string with my teeth.

         “What can I say? I should have gone to medical school.” I laughed weakly.

         There was no way I was going to be able to stitch up my back. I would only stab myself. I needed Joe to do it. I held up the needle and string to him.

         “What?” He looked down at my offering.

         “I need you to do my back.”

         “Oh hell no. I’m not doing that.”

         “Come on. Just think of it like sewing material together.”

         “I’m not about to do some Ed Gein bullshit.” He shook his head.

         “You would rather let your friend bleed out than help and stitch them up?”

         Joe let out a long sigh. “Fuck.”

         “Ahh, there’s the team player.” I laughed.

         “I really hate you; you know that.” He begrudgingly took the needle and thread.

         “Yep.”

         “Lean forward.”

         I pulled up my shirt far enough so he could see the cut and leaned forward.

         “Shit, Harlow. That’s deep.” He barely touched the area, and I sucked in a breath. “You may have some internal injuries.”

         “I’ll be fine. Just stitch me up.”

         “If you die, it’s not my fault.”

         I heard a growl coming from the office. I looked up and saw Malachi staring at us. His eyes were intense, watching as Joe started to stitch up my back.

         “Hey, Joe. Can I say something, and you not think I’m completely crazy?”

         “Yeah?” He was focused on stitching me up, his face inches away from my skin.

         “While I was fighting those guys, something strange happened. The main guy’s face changed to what looked like a snout, his eyes glowed, and his teeth elongated.”

         Joe stopped mid-stitch. I glanced up at the office. All four men stared at me, not moving, not making a sound.

         “Joe?” I said and glanced behind me, but he pushed me back down.

         “It was probably the adrenaline.” His normal, calm voice was strained. As if he were trying to keep something from me.

         “I’ve seen some crazy shit before, but an actual morphing into something different was a first.” I paused, not really sure if I was waiting for him to respond or not, but then continued. “You’d tell me if I was walking into something I shouldn’t be walking into…right?”

         Joe cleared his throat. Something I knew he only did when he was stressed.

         “Right?” I asked again.

         “Of course, Harlow. It’s probably nothing.” That was the first time he ever straight-up lied to me. I wasn’t sure what he was hiding, but I knew it had to involve these guys I just took out. They knew Joe, Malachi, and the other guy. Who was this Roan guy? For now, I just needed a couple of days to recover, and then I would dig a little. Murphey said I couldn’t bother the other Faction members about their assignments. He never said I couldn’t petition my own.