Perils of Ms. Apple

When evil arrived, it arrived quickly and with a bang. She watched from her hiding place while the door crashed open and there stood two ugly white evil men. They looked uglier in the twilight than they did earlier during the day when she escaped them. Cautiously, they entered her violated sanctuary. Apple thought the men were somewhat amusing; entering so cautiously. Were they really afraid of such a little girl or were they just afraid of the dark? She peaked at them and instantly recognized coal oil lamps in their hands. They were ones used in the coal mines; a tin can with a wick. She had played with these types of lights on many a night. She would find them discarded in trash heaps. Many times they would have just enough fuel left in them to light.

“Come out; come out, where ever you are.” They slowly walked toward the bed, holding their lights higher in an attempt to illuminate the entire room. She could hear the sweat dripping off their hair then sliding down their necks and pooling at the shirt line. She watched with enlarged eyes but she felt no sense of panic or urgency.

They moved faster than she anticipated. With a blur of white light illuminated flesh, the heated vice grip of a grimy hand reached in and grabbed her by the back of the neck. He pulled her out from beneath the bed with one simple motion. Apple struck his ankle with the rock and stabbed through the foot with the tooth sharpened stick. She expected him to fall. Part of him did, but not the part she expected. She rolled to her side but not quick enough before the fallen object hit her. She saw the falling object as she looked up with her small hand still clinching the stick embedded in his foot.

Her face was smashed against the floor by the fallen object. It stunned and hurt her. The impact on the side of her head cut her enough for blood to drip across her face. She thought it was her blood but when she felt the impacted side of her face, all she felt was a bump but no cut.

She now realized the dead calm and quietness that she now sensed had arrived and was present for a reason. Slowly she opened her eyes. Her sight was parallel with the floor as she met the stare of her attacker. Confusion reigned. How could he be looking at her eye to eye and still be bent over and maintain his grip on her neck? She stared into his frightened eyes only to grasp the fact the eyes were connected to a severed head. “Did I do this?” she thought. Realizing that she was staring at a head and it was staring back, she jerked so violently his hands released her. The body fell over and struck against its head just enough to cause it to roll face over face, slowly away from her.

Apples heart was now racing and pounding loudly and attempting an escape of its own. Slowly she gathered enough reality and strength to look up. Attacker number two was staring straight ahead, past her and through her. His eyes matched the fright in the eyes of the disengaged head of attacker number one. Slowly, he fell to both knees. He tried to speak but his lips were paralyzed. Blood oozed from the corners of his mouth then spewed forward with the strength of a bent water hose.

“Well, these boys wanted to play rough with this little girl here, so what’s a matter now?” Apple heard the deep voice coming from behind the now kneeling man; his eyes still frozen.

“I say there young man, cat got your tongue? Are we still big and strong? Want to play some more? Guess not.”

With the sound she associated with tearing a sheet, a hand thrust through her attacker’s chest. The ugly white man’s light fell to the ground and flashed across his chest. Fingernail tips protruded out of his chest and then cut downward until stopping at his waist. The fingernails disappeared back into his body as blood gushed from the now unplugged penetrations. The second white man fell face down, staring straight into Apple’s eyes. She spit in his face as he died.

“My my my, what do we have here Jesse? She’s a mean one.”

“Oh, I don’t know Bobby, she just seems a little pissed off right now.”

Apple reached for the lamp and held it out from her face to get a better look at her new attackers. While doing this, she wiggled back under the bed. This is not right, she thought to herself. The realization she had just witnessed two men killed in a matter of seconds with no defense provided, frightened her more than the ugly white men had. How did the head come off and how could anyone stab through a man with a bare hand? These were just many of the thoughts escaping from her fantasy to reality. She knew this was not the fourth of July and this is a war and these men were frightening.

“We are not going to hurt you little one,” said the taller of the two.

“Here take my hand,” said the shorter one. Apple looked cautiously from one savior to the next. Her mind was racing with the realization that her two attackers had just been not merely killed but destroyed by these two. With the light, she could see the two referred to as Bobby and Jesse. They were black men. This gave her some ease even though she had also known mean black men. They were dressed in matching wide striped fancy suits: suits like business men and lawyers wore.

Apple was careful not to place her left hand into the pool of blood spreading from the headless body. The two pools of blood were mixing as the stabbed man’s blood seemed to be reaching for his partner’s blood. She raised her hand up and the one called Jesse pulled her not only to her feet but off the ground and across the blood sea. Her feet touched down on dry ground. There she stood just a foot or so from Jesse.

Jesse bent down on one knee and looked her in the eye while cupping her face in his well-manicured hands. “He may have been the shorter one she thought, but he was still so tall, skinny and muscular. His hands were cold, very cold.

“How did you get in this predicament?” he asked in a deep piercing tone. His eyes were also piercing and she suddenly realized they were yellow. As she stared into his eyes, they seemed to turn brown like hers. She felt strong and determined to make a quick exit but when she tried to speak, only a squeak emerged.

“Bobby, I think she is a little shook up.” Bobby walked over and kneelt down beside Jesse and Apple.

“I don’t know Jesse; she looks more like she is ready to kill both of us.”

“Either that or she has already peered into our souls and knows us. Children are like that you know; able to see things with their innocence and purity. Things adults have callused over after years of surviving and just living.”

“I ain’t innocent and I ain’t pure you bastards!” Apple forced the words from her mouth with such ferocity only a scream would have been louder.

“Now, now little one. There’s no need for attitude. You’re safe with us and besides, what choice do you have? If you go out there, the Klan will kill you, and what you have seen in here will probably pale in comparison to what is happening in our Greenwood tonight.”

“Come on Jesse, with talk like that, you will scare the child.”

“Scare her? You think maybe your running your hand through Mr. Child Attacker wasn’t scary?”

“I can’t believe you would say that. Hell, your little decapitation was enough to scare me. I have told you before, no showing off.”

Apple watched and listened while the two, well dressed saviors or killers or whatever they were, debated nonsense. Jesse, still kneeling and looking into her eyes, continued to debate his partner. Bobby produced a candle from somewhere and lit it. The illumination created was brighter than anything Apple had ever seen from one candle. The light allowed her to see the blood dripping from Bobby’s hand and his blood soaked sleeves.