Chapter 11: Melissa

  It was a freezing night in The Garden, the kind of night where you could see your own breath and watch it dance in front of you for a long while before it would disappear. Most people didn't dare to be outside when it was cold, but most people also had homes they could escape to.

  Melissa Tiwary was not most people; she walked through the leaf-covered streets of The Garden with a bundle of crumbled-up papers in her right hand. Each paper read 'Wanted: Melissa Tiwary' with a picture of her face and big, bold letters to make sure that no one could miss it even if they really wanted to.

  Melissa had grown quite used to seeing herself by now; news stations would blurt out her name and flash the picture for everyone to see. She had to don a pair of eye contacts that made her brown eyes green and cut off her once backlength hair to her shoulders just to have the hope of not being recognized.

  Under the picture was a reward for anyone who could give information on her location. 'Anything that would allow that Earl in New Paris to hunt me down, like he did to my niece,' thought Melissa.

  Even with her exile and the looming wrath of the Earl on the horizon, Melissa could hardly dwell on her thoughts about her situation. It has been three weeks into her hiding, and bigger problems have arisen. These problems came and went, but there was always a problem.

  For one, her stomach grumbled, and she was a long way from the wealth of her home. By her count, she may have had maybe a few dollars left, and far too little to buy food worth eating.

  And another problem, a much more dangerous one; there was the beeping of a walkie-talkie. The hushed tones of a man speaking. A man who had spotted her clearly was questioning why she was out in the cold at night. Melissa lowered her head and pushed the lower part of her face into her coat. She dropped the papers; she knew she couldn't be seen with them if she was being watched.

  Her footsteps quickened, and the beeping followed. She heard the voice get louder, and then she heard a command.

  "Halt!" said the man.

  The man revealed himself; he was a teenager but still an officer of the law. A rookie that had been given a graveyard shift perhaps. A tall man with a chubby face and wide eyes. He walked towards Melissa carefully, as if she were a deer, and he did not want to alarm her.

  "Ma'am. I couldn't help but notice you were destroying government property back there. There is, of course, a fine for destruction of a wanted poster." The young policeman held up the poster; it had grown wet from laying on the ground and dripped water as he held it. "I can let you off with a warning, but it is my duty to stop you."

  Melissa turned around and smiled faintly. "Thank you, officer. May I get going?"

  The officer shook his head. "As I'm sure you know, it's very late and very cold out. Do you have a place you can stay and be warm?"

  "Yes. I'm going there right now." Melissa quickly turned around and began to walk away the policeman with hurried steps.

  "Wait, hold on," said the policeman.

  Melissa continued to walk; there was no time to chat with the law and risk herself being discovered.

  The policeman shook his head. He watched Melissa as she walked off, and with his eyes still on her, he taped the poster in his hand onto a nearby wall. The officer looked at the poster for a moment, and his jaw dropped. The officer began to sprint in the direction of Melissa, causing her to sprint as well.

  "You are under arrest! By the power invested in me by the government of The Garden of Eden, I command you to stop!" Yelled the officer, huffing and puffing as he spoke.

  Melissa's feet were not as quick as the officer, but she hoped that her mind was. She looked at the area she was in; it was urban. Well, as urban as The Garden could ever hope to be. It was a town where flora and fauna all lived together in harmony. Wintertime at night was the only time you could hope for this town to be empty. She knew she couldn't hide in a group with others, and she knew most of the buildings would be closed at this time at night, so while she ran, she forced herself to come up with a plan in her head.

  The beeping was heard again; the officer called in for reinforcements, and wherever she went, the officer followed. She had a considerable head start, but the officer was closing distance in a hurry. Melissa felt a sliver of hope when she saw a tall gate in the distance and ran towards it with all her speed. Behind the gate was a group of cathedrals and soup kitchens that made up The Garden's aptly named Faith District. It hung far in the distance past the gate, yet it had nary a streetlamp to illuminate her figure. Thus, Melissa believed it would be her best bet. She went to climb the gate, but it was too late; the officer snatched her off of the gate and threw her down to the ground.

  "You are under arrest!" The man barked, attempting to pin her down.

  Melissa wrestled with the officer; her hands moved lower, and she placed her left hand on his firearm and gripped it with all her might. Her fingers crept down slowly, and they lay right at the edge of the pistol's trigger. The policeman tried to pull her fingers off of the weapon, but she would not budge in the slightest. A struggle continued until the man screamed in pain and rolled off of her.

  A gunshot was heard; it rang throughout the entire garden. Melissa couldn't believe her luck; while she could see people turn on their lights in their homes and investigate the source of the noise, it was too dark out for her to be seen.

  The officer was bleeding from his thigh; the gun was still in its holster, but a bullet was fired, and it had struck him directly in the leg.

  She put her hand over the policeman's mouth and used her other hand to grab his gun. She picked it up and eyed it intently, before pointing it at the man. Adrenaline flowed, thoughts rushed but she did not have it in her to take his life. She instead dropped the gun, and then grabbed the man's walkie talkie.

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  She dropped the walkie talkie on the ground and then stomped on it a good few times until it was nothing but scrap metal and wires. She picked up the gun again placed in her bag. She then climbed up the gate again, this time successfully. She ran fast away from the scene of her crime with tears running down her face.

  She made it to where the churches and soup kitchens were, so far from the riches of the rest of The Garden. Melissa wondered if the kitchens were only this far so the wealthy could avoid to see the poor during their days. She looked around, everything was closed and there was a limited selection of options. She worried if she slept outside the cold would kill her assuming that the policeman's reinforcements didn't get to her first. She wondered where she could even hope to hide the gun.

  There was no time to waste, so Melissa ran. It was only when a priest smoking a cigarette outside of the many kitchens spotted her and called out for her that she stopped in her steps.

  "Who goes there?" The priest asked. It was an old man with a thin yet long gray beard.

  Melissa was too tired to speak and provide a proper answer, but the priest walked towards her nonetheless. Melissa's legs had grown weary; she felt to the ground, and the priest offered her a hand so that she might get up.

  "A gunshot fired and a woman running away like her life depends on it. I may be mistaken but I believe you have a story to tell me." Said the priest.

  Melissa shook her head. "I need to get going."

  The beeping returned. The sounds were faint, but it was clear that in the distance the policeman's reinforcements had arrived and his body had been discovered.

  "You can either come with me or go with them." Said the priest, pointing at the officers in the distance his golden rings on his fingers shining as he did so.

  Melissa felt a pit in her stomach, but she knew what was the better option of the two. She followed the priest into the kitchen and was greeted by a great deal of warmth. The heat provided by cooked broth, boiling stews and carefully grilled meats made her much warmer than the winter outside.

  The room in front of her appeared to only be a kitchen, one where food was in abundance. Her stomach couldn't help but to roar.

  The priest handed her a blanket and then handed her a bowl that was filled with a hearty soup of chicken and potatoes.

  "Come, there is a better place than here. The rooms are downstairs." He said.

  The priest guided her past the kitchen with its pots, pans and plates and then to a stairwell.

  There was an empty room on the far left waiting for her. There the two of them went and the priest smiled. The walls were adorned by the symbol of the Rivers Bank, a golden goose swimming in the bank of a river.

  "Get yourself warm and comfortable. You look gaunt. Your room will be next to Sasha's, if you need anything she as helpful as I can be." Said the priest.

  Melissa sat in the blanket and eyed the priest curiously, she wondered what was his motive for helping her and narrowed her eyes at the man.

  "Do you usually hide people from the police?" She asked.

  The priest shrugged from within his black robes. "I do not ask people if they're running from the police. You just made it obvious. Regardless I am under oath from the Rivers Bank and God to take in every needy person who comes by. You seem to be in need so I took you in."

  Melissa stood up immediately. "You work for a bank and God? That seems conflicting, why should I trust you?"

  The priest yawned; raising his arms and revealing black veins from under his sleeves. "You don't have to trust me or my employers. If you want to take your chances with the officers outside that is on you, but if you want to stay here I ask for your trust and I ask that I can ask you a few questions. "

  Melissa sat back down. "Okay."

  The priest took a seat next to her, reached into his pocket and retrieved a cigarette.

  "First question, you smoke?" Asked the man.

  "Not often but-"

  The priest interrupted Melissa and handed her the cigarette. "Great, I need a smoke too."

  Another cigarette was retrieved, lit and put between the priest's lips.

  "So, what brings you to The Garden? I'm assuming you didn't come all this way just to shoot somebody." Said the priest.

  Melissa face went beet red and her eyes darted around. "I-I'm here on business."

  "Clearly. Woman outside in the middle of the night in the dead of winter, looking half starved and gone in the head. A businesswoman." The priest laughed and flashed a yellow toothed smile. "Don't tell me. It's alright. I just wanted to know if you had a story to tell."

  "I'm not one for stories, really." Said Melissa

  "That's a shame. Every priest loves stories, you may not fit in here." The priest said with a wink. "You know my favorite story? I love the one about the rich man and the needle."

  Melissa's eyebrow raised and she tilted her head at the man. "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God? Bit ironic ain't it?"

  "Oh so you know it. I didn't know you were a lady of faith, a traveling nun perhaps?" The man smirked. "I jest, tell me what is so ironic about it?"

  "Your soup kitchen is ran by the richest bank in the galaxy. You are the rich man." Melissa said, taking a sip of her soup.

  "May god forgive me for my wealth and grant me refuge in his soup kitchen when I eventually die." Said the priest. "If a bank comes a knocking offering you the funds to help others you would be a fool to not take it. A helping hand is a helping hand regardless of where it comes from."

  A knocking was heard, the doors upstairs were being banged upon from the outside.

  "I believe you have brought visitors." Said the priest. "I will greet them." The man then rose to his feet and climbed up the very same stairs that they had gone down before.

  Melissa followed but was careful to sit at the edge of the stairwell, close enough to hear what was being said but not so close that she could be seen.

  The doors opened revealing a duo of police officers, a policemen and a policewoman holding up the poster that showed Melissa and her bounty. Scowls were on each of their faces. The priest gave them nothing except a blank expression.

  "How may I help you tonight?" Said the priest.

  "Have you seen this woman?" Said the policeman.

  The priest squinted at the poster. "Nope. Never see her." He said, before attempting to close the door.

  A boot from the policewoman stopped the door in its tracks, quickly pushing it back open.

  "May we check inside?" Asked the policewoman.

  The priest shook his head. "Not without a warrant."

  "We do not need a warrant we have orders from the Earl of New Paris." Said the male officer. "If Melissa Tiwary is here we have every right to look for her."

  Something under the priest's robes began to glow. "The orders of man have no place in a house of god. I ask that you leave immediately."

  The two officers of the law scoffed and pushed the priest to the side. When pushed the priest's eyes turned black and he placed his hand on the shoulder of the policeman. A second passed and the officer's eyes turned black too. Another second passed and the officer's eyes were back to normal, although they looked around at the kitchen clearly befuddled.

  "Wait, where am I?" The officer said.

  Soon the priest grabbed the policewoman, causing her eyes to go black as well. The priest let out a hoarse cough and shook his head.

  "I think you two got a bit lost. You were looking for that Melissa lady right?" Said the priest.

  "Uh, yes. I think so." The policewoman answered

  "She ran off, was never here." The priest said.

  "She ran off, was never here." The two officers said in unison.

  "Okay I'm glad we agree, bye now!" The priest led the two police officers out of the soup kitchen, and took a moment to stretch out his limbs before returning downstairs and joining Melissa to sit next to her on new bed.

  Melissa was in awe, she had heard everything.

  "I owe you my life. What is your name priest?" Said Melissa.

  "I'll give you my name if you give me your story Melissa, forgive me for being so... personal but that is your name yes? Your face does match the one on that poster after all." Said the priest.

  "It is my name." Confirmed Melissa.

  "The Exile. The one who dreams of saving her niece from the Earl's crypts." The priest laughed. "Oh ho ho, you definitely have a story that I want to hear. Perhaps even one that I would help progress if possible."

  Footsteps were heard, but the priest did not flinch. Form the stairwell was the arrival of a bespectacled teenaged girl with red hair and wide eyes.

  "Hold on, who's that?" Asked Melissa.

  "My name is Sasha." Said the girl.

  "Did you hear everything that we said?" Questioned Melissa.

  "Even if she did. She is employed by me. Sworn by secrecy to remain quiet." Said the priest.

  Sasha laughed with glee. "I overheard we have an exile in our midst and just knew I couldn't miss out on the fun. I want to hear your story too. He is right I am sworn by secrecy."

  "I'll tell it to you." Melissa patted the bed she sat on and made room for the priest and Sasha to sit which they did. "You say you can help me progress sir?"

  "Look at us becoming fast friends." The priest said, guffawing. "For a friend I can provide all sorts of help. Anything to aid progress. You know what if you're going to be friends, you can have my name."

  "Your name?" Asked Melissa.

  "Yes my name, you see most people call me Ulysses but you can call me The Incubus of Eden."

  A grin fell upon Melissa's face. For the first time in weeks she knew the tides may finally be in her favor.