Adam and Eve

As I hear the man’s footsteps coming back in my direction, I hurriedly push myself up from my crumpled position, my wrists smarting as I do so. I look around to gather my bearings: I’m in what I assume is the kitchen: there’s an oven, counter and cupboards and a beautiful antique chandelier hanging from the ceiling, strangle out of place in the decrepit room with rotting drawers and peeling wall paper.

When the man enters the room he immediately heads to the fridge where he rummages around, eventually pulling out a carton of eggs. As he turns round, I get a full picture of him for the first time: he is unnaturally thin and his clothes hang off him like a wire hanger; his fingernails are broken and bloody, dirt stuffed into every crevice; and his face, well his face isn’t there. It’s hidden behind a mask, the type from carnivals. I hold my breath as I take it in, it hides any humanity that I could have gathered from him, leaving him a terrifying stick creature, bent and disfigured: the stuff of nightmares.

He turns away from me and places the carton on the counter, opening the lid with a wondering reverence: taking each egg and cradling it in his palm, as though it were made of spider webs. He inspects each of them carefully and purposefully before placing each of them ever so carefully on the ground.

He does this with the whole carton, all the while muttering manically under his breath, until the floor is covered with delicate cases of life, practically begging to be smashed.

As he places the last of the eggs on the ground, a cry of such intense pain that I can almost feel it myself echoes through the house before it is quickly stifled. The man’s head jerks up at the noise as my hand flies to my mouth to stop myself from crying.

Who was that? Are they going to do that to me?

“Juliet!” The man hisses, his voice ripe with fear, “Quiet! Quiet! You have to keep him quiet.” The man’s voice is almost sing songy as he hops from foot to foot.

There is a horrible, scraping-thudding noise edging through the house towards us: a women enters the room - her face also bound in a mask – and horrifyingly, she is half pulling, half dragging a dishevelled wreck of man behind her.

She drops the man down next to me before she goes over to inspect the masked man’s work.

“Have you done it, Cain?” Her voice is low and raspy and far more terrifying than the mans.

“Yes, yes, yes, all the little eggs are lying on the floor, they’ll shake, Juliet, they’ll shake, then we’ll know, we’ll know.” The man lets out a nervous chuckle.

“Yes, this is perfect,” As she speaks the man mutter under his breath, “perfect, perfect, perfect...”

“Yes, but no one, no one- NO ONE CRACKS THEM!”

The woman starts to shout so suddenly that I jump; the man slumped next to me lets out a wheezy laugh which turns into a coughing fit, clutching his side as he does so. “Cracked ribs,” he explains to me he sees me looking.

“Shhhhh, shush, Juliet, no one will crack them, no, no; we have to stay very still, very, very, still. And watch them! Shush, watch them, watch them, then we know if they’re coming!”
Both Juliet and Cain crouch down on the floor together, as if they are being pulled by the same invisible string. Cain places his finger to the lips of the mask.

“Shhhhhh,” he whispers to himself and laughs a little.

I can feel fear bubbling up with every word they are saying: they’re wrong in the head, you can’t reason with people like that.

I hear a voice next to me, more of a rasp really, “You’ve done it again, haven’t you?”

I turn to look at the man sitting next to me; he’s younger than I thought he was, maybe only a bit older than me. I can’t really tell beneath the blood and bruises.

What is he talking about? How much blood has he lost? Maybe he’s delusional.

When I don’t say anything, he sighs, “I’m Adam.” He whispers. He holds out his hand to me. I back away instinctively before I realize he means to shake hands. I reach forward tentatively, eyeing Cain and Juliet who are still staring intently at the eggs on the floor. He shakes my hand, chucking a little.

“I’m not the one you want to be afraid of; I’m the good guy in this situation.” He seems to find this funny as well and laughs to himself. “You don’t need to tell me your name your name, I know it’s Eve.”

“How do you know my name?” I ask him, trying to sound as confident in myself as I can in this situation.

“Well, you told me already, but I knew before that anyway: they only take girls called Eve, like thy only take guys called Adam. I’m assuming it’s something to do with the bible. Guess it’s just another way my parents screwed me over.” He laughs again though I don’t find the situation very funny.

“What do you mean they only take girls called Eve?” My voice shakes slightly as I beg that what I think he means is wrong.

“We’re not the first people they’ve taken, not even close! God knows how many there have been. All I know is you’re not the first Eve and I’m not the first Adam, though I’ve not met any Adams.”

I feel sick from how matter of factly he puts all of this, as if we’re discussing something inane that’s slightly above his contempt.

“Have you- have you met some Eves?” I dare myself to ask in a low voice.
Adam shifts his weight so he is sitting more upright and he grimaces before answering, “Yeah, two actually, Eve number one got herself with a piece of glass to her wrist and Eve number two only lasted a few days, died of shock.”

“They’re dead!” My voice comes out much louder than I had intended. Adams eyes widen in fear as he places his fingers to my lips, glancing at Juliet and Cain who’ve snapped their heads up to look at us.

Adam waits until they’ve returned to staring at the eggs before telling me, “You can’t do that Eve, they don’t like shouting.”

Why am I here? I don’t deserve this, this isn’t fair.

I can feel my chest beginning to tighten and my breathing begin to hitch. As my eyes begin to fade into black, Adam grabs me by the shoulders and holds me still, “Eve, Eve, come on, focus on me, look at me, keep your eyes open and just look at me.”

Slowly, my eyes start to focus again and my chest opens up. I take a few shaky breaths before I trusted myself to talk.

“How did you know what to do?” I asked him, looking at him warily.

“You’ve done it before.” What is he talking about? And why is he smiling?

How can he be smiling? He is in the worst shape I have seen a human being, the amount of pain he must be in is unbelievable. He has seen two people die and has been trapped here for...

“Adam, how long have you been here?”

“It must be coming on fourteen months now.” He tells me cheerily.

I feel a cold sickness swoop through my stomach, “Fourte- Fourteen months?” I ask him weakly.

“Yep.”

“What is wrong with him? Is he crazy too? How can he be okay with being here for fourteen onths? How can he not have tried to escape? How come no one has discovered what’s been going on here? How long have these people been doing this for?

Suddenly a new question crosses my mind.

“How long have I been here for, Adam?”

“I’m not sure, I’d say about six months, give or take.”

Six months. He just said six months.

He’s lying, he must be lying. That doesn’t make any sense.

“That’s not true, how could I have been unconscious for six months?”

“Oh no, you’ve not been unconscious, you do this every two weeks or so, forget everything that’s been going on here. I reckon it’s some sort of defence mechanism, you know. Like, your mind can’t handle it all you know.

There is a rushing sound in my ears; I can’t feel my finger tips. I just sit and stare at him, watching his smile drip off his face. Suddenly, I hate him. I hate him for not caring about being trapped here, I hate him for not thinking it’s a big deal, I hate him for smiling through the pain.

“STOP!”

“Don’t shout, Eve! You’ll get it if you shout!” For the first time Adam seems genuinely scared.

“STOP IT! STOP ACTING LIKE EVERYTHING IS NORMAL AND LIKE ALL OF THIS IS NOT FUCKING CRAZY!”

“Eve, please don’t shout, Eve I’m begging you!”

Suddenly, I feel someone grab tightly onto my arm and spin me around. I’m face to mask with Cain; I can just see though the little slits for the eyes. His eyes are stretched wide and his stare is maniacal.

“You need to be quiet! Quiet, shh, shh...”

But I can’t be quiet, I can’t fall back into the nervous calm Adam had created, if I don’t should I’ll go crazy too.

“WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS? WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO US?” I can tell I’m hysterical, but I’m not in control of myself anymore, it’s like I’m watching myself do these things.

“No, shhh, we can’t have loud, no, no, they’ll hear us, no, no, quiet, quiet.” Cain holds a shaking finger to the mask’s lips again.

“AND WHY ARE YOU WEARING MASKS? TELL ME OR I’LL SCREAM!” I let out a manic laugh, “THEN THEY’LL HEAR ME, THEY’LL HEAR US IF I SCREAM!”

Juliet speaks up from her crouch on the floor, “We have masks so they can’t see our face; can’t find us if we don’t have face, no, people with no faces can’t be found.”

I am suddenly so angry at everyone, everything, I can barely contain it, “THERE IS NO THEY! YOU’RE CRAZY! THEY’D HAVE COME BY NOW RIGHT? THEY WOULD HAVE HEARD ME! THEY CAN’T HEAR US!

“No, no, shouting is bad, quite, quite, we need to save you, quiet, quiet, quiet.” Cain puts his hands to his ears and starts humming to himself.

“Eve, come one, don’t do this, please, don’t leave me alone here. I can’t do this by myself, I’m begging you. In two weeks, you’ll have forgotten about this, come one, just sit back down, stop shouting.”

I just look at Adam for a moment as I feel the last few strings holding me together snap and float away. There is a moment of complete silence as I process Adam’s words and everyone watches me.

And then I scream.

I scream even though my throat feels like it’s about to bleed; I scream even though Adam is at my feet begging me to stop; I scream even though Cain is scratching at my cheeks trying to shut my lips.

But then I feel something cold and something sharp enter my back and I can’t scream
anymore, I can’t stand anymore, I can’t breathe anymore.

As I fall back against the floor I can feel the sharp thing digging deeper into y back. I can see Adam looking down on me, tears splintering his eyes, and then Cain crouches down next to me.

“You should have stayed quiet, we can’t save you now.”