Chapter four: The devil and his bleeding Angel.

Chapter four: The devil and his bleeding Angel.

Breathe.

"Breathe. Breathe. Breathe. Eden, come on!"

Eden tried to but her body screamed in protest, she tried to open her eyes...too fucking bright.

What is happening...too bright. What was happening?

She could hear her mother's voice.

"Eden, can you hear me, honey?"

She blinked and opened her eyes. At first slowly because of the blinding light but then she adjusted.

"Honey, are you okay?" Savannah asked her daughter.

Eden heard a bell ring...no two bells, they were ringing nonstop in her ears...no, it was like a buzz, a loud bee buzz that won't give her a moment to rest. She was tired, her eyes were closed and she was wet.

Why was she wet?

She looked around and nothing made sense. Again with the buzzing in her ears, in her nostrils and in her throat. She was choking and it stung.

"Eden!" Her mother's voice yelled again.

Okay, mom...I am awake, no need to yell. She wanted to tell her mother but her mouth felt dry.

"Eden, open your eyes baby. Keep your eyes open"

Eden opened them.

"Mom, the...the world is upside down" Eden observed as she looked around.

"Eden, try not to panic. I am sorry but the world is not upside down...we are" Savannah was breathing too fast like it was a coping mechanism. Bouts of pain ripped through her like firecrackers. She tried to ignore it and talk to her daughter. She needed Eden not to panic or they would tumble over to their death.

"Eden, be still please…."

"Where is Dad?" Eden asked her.

Savannah's lips trembled a little bit.

"He is gone, Eden. He's...dead" Savannah answered.

"My head is wet, Mom. I am sweating"

"I think it's blood. We've been in a crash. I need you to slowly climb out through the window"

Everything started to make sense. The roof of the car was coming to her, trying to smash into Eden's face.

"Mom!" She screamed in panic.

"Eden, climb out now! The tree branch is breaking off. I love you, baby. Please go"

"I am not leaving you behind, mom. I can't!"

"Eden-"

Savannah was interrupted when she heard a voice. Thank God! Fire and rescue was at the scene of the accident.

Someone was coming to their rescue but they were hanging over a cliff. It would take a miracle to extract them.

"Is someone there?" The voice yelled.

"Yes. Help! We are trapped" Savannah yelled on top of her voice. "Is fire and rescue here?"

"No, just me" The voice answered.

Savannah looked away and tried to suppress the sob and panic.

"What is your name?" She asked the voice.

"My name is Damon…"

"Do me a favor, Damon. Grab my daughter from the backseat and drag her to safety. She is dazed and bleeding" Savannah told him.

"If I do that, the car will fall. You daughter's position is holdi-"

"I know! Just do it already!" Savannah heard another sound as the branch kept snapping "Do it now! The branch is…"

The man didn't wait for Savannah to finish talking. He yanked the door open and grabbed Eden.

"I am not leaving my mother...let me go! I said let me go!"

He ignored her. He was stronger and he yanked her with all his strength. She was barely out of the car when the tree branch snapped and the car disappeared into the cliff.

"No!! No!! Mom!" Eden tried to jump after her mother but he lifted her up and carried her back to his car.

Damon heard when her screams stopped and she was unconscious.

When Eden woke up again, she was in the hospital. She could hear beeping sounds in the empty hospital room.

A nurse came inside to check on her.

"My fiancé...Liam Barrington, is he here yet" Eden asked her

"Mr. Barrington came around. He paid your hospital bills before he left" the nurse answered.

"Is he coming back?" Eden asked the nurse.

"I am sorry but it's all over the news. Liam Barrington broke off the engagement with you, Ms Powells. If you ask me, he is an ass!" The nurse was angry on her behalf.

Eden was simply asking questions, her brain wasn't able to process yet.

"The man that brought me here… Where is he?"

"It's quite strange, actually. One second he was there watching you through the window and the next he was gone. His name is even stranger" the nurse checked her drip.

"Tell...m-me" Eden wanted to remember the name of the man that caused her mother's death. She needed to know it.

"He called himself, Damon….Damon Hellfire"

Eden looked away.

"The devil killed my mother"

****

Asher looked away so she couldn't see the dark shadows that had appeared in his eyes when she told him that story.

"It sounds like this Damon guy saved your life"

"You would think so, wouldn't you? But I know deep down in my heart that if I had stayed in that car just a little bit longer…just for a few seconds more for the fire and rescue to arrive I wouldn't be standing on this ledge…because I would have a mother that loves me and is willing to fight this death sentence hanging over me but I got no one, Mr. Mafia boss. I am all by my lonesome self in this whole wide world. And it's time to leave it behind"

Asher took a step closer.

"You have me" he murmured to her.

Eden laughed softly. "I wish someone would have said that to me six years ago when I was abandoned by your monster little brother and his family…your family took everything I owned including my dignity"

Eden took a step down and sat on the rails which seemed even more dangerous.

"After my mother was murdered and I was abandoned by the boy I was supposed to marry, I went home…to the Powell mansion. It was a few days after the accident and my brain wasn't quite right yet" Eden looked at him and she smiled sadly before she continued talking.

"Do you know how long it took a brain damaged girl like me to understand what my gateman was saying to me when he told me over and over and over again that I wasn't welcome in my father's house. He told me that I didn't live there anymore and the fact that in each sentence he referred to me as Ms. Powell's didn't help matters. My father was dead…my mother was dead! Still he wouldn't let me inside, Asher. Who the hell doesn't let a grieving orphan into her parents' Mansion?"

"I am sorry…I am so sorry, I had no idea. I kept an eye on you but from a distance. I am sorry you got hurt, Eden. If you come with me, I will protect you" Asher extended his hand to her.

"There is nothing to live for. Let's face it, I was never going to find Mr Hellfire or get my family's inheritance away from the Barringtons who stole it from me or punish my uncle Keller from kicking me out" Eden smiled. "I wish we had met sooner, when you were the boy with the red cap and I was the girl on the swing, just maybe we would have had an epic love story, Asher"

"We still can"

"No…I could never love a killer…a Mafia boss like you but that fifteen year old innocent boy who was way too chatty and shy, I would have loved to meet him.…don't look so sad, I would have been dead in six months anyway. Sayonara, Mr mafia boss"

Asher watched in horror as she went over the bridge still to her death.

"No! Eden! Eden!" He yelled.

He turned around to race down to his car to drive to a point where he could jump in and save her. He hadn't even heard the truck coming. Asher barely felt the impact as he was thrown in the air and even before his skull hit the ground, he knew he was a dead man. Nobody ever survived that kind of trauma.

As he bled out by the side of the road, he wished for a do over. Just like Eden, he wished he was the boy in the red hat and she was the girl on the swing.

"It..i-it would…have been an e-epic love story"

It was the last time that went through his mind as he slowly slipped into the darkness that seemed to stretch out till eternity.