vengefulamethystrose

From:

The local news eats it up. It's on the front page of at least two newspapers the next day, and the increase in Bigelow's traffic--web and foot--is enough that they need new security and can manage to afford it.

I know that the new security wouldn't actually stop Eva Blue and company, but honestly, there's very little that would unless we gave the guards machine guns.

That, "and company," grew one smaller. Apparently our guards had managed to do something, though they'd died. That's four dead, two more injured. Ours get their names circulated hardly at at, and when they do they're quick as a breath. More often it's just one dead or two dead, depending on who they feel like counting.

I force my smile for the networks, and I let it look forced. My eyes get bright, too. I cry exactly once, the first interview, before Julio is even out of the hospital, when we're still not sure if Cathy will make it. That clip gets a lot of airtime. It shouldn't surprise me.

Eva gets called "crazed" and "psychotic" more than I would like, and, despite my best judgment, I read and listen to the responses that non-journalists have. Some of them say that if someone should have died, it should have been Julio, for masked or baldly racist reasons.

I crack my knuckles. The posts are up, and I might as well use them. Time for some spin.

I mention Cynthia's name, Cathy's name, Julio's name, and find the dead guy's name--Pyetro. I resolutely avoid writing or saying Eva Blue's name in anything recorded. She shouldn't be the point. She will be, anyway, but I don't have to help.