TEACHING A LESSON

Ebony gasped, placing her hand on the wall beside Rebecca's head. Rebecca's pants synchronised with hers, still trying to steal enough oxygen to gain her breath back. Their kiss had been hot and heated - something neither of them wanted. 

Avoiding Rebecca's eyes, Ebony bent down to collect the jacket from off the floor, handing it over to her blindly. Ebony was glad she had her face turned, otherwise she would have seen the hurt flash across Rebecca's face and her lips curve downwards. 

"Thanks," Rebecca mumbled, shrugging her arms into the sleeves. "I need to go, my brother's going to be furious with me." 

Wordlessly, Ebony nodded, stepping aside. She felt her lips part to ask Rebecca if she wanted to meet up again, but with her frown she felt her courage flee her. Ebony had just kissed her, quite passionately, on their first date, and that's something she had not planned to happen. 

Rebecca stood there, staring at the empty space that would sever their memories for the night. Yes, the kiss hadn't exactly been ideal, and she was extremely disappointed in herself for losing her control so easily, yet she didn't want to leave their relationship on a low note. "I'm so sorry, Ebony. That was inappropriate, and I understand if we don't see each other again. What ever happens, just know that this is one of the nicest first dates I've had in a long time."

Relieved, Ebony released a large breath, her shoulders slumping downwards from their previous stiff position. "This is the first date I've ever been on, so I think you've set the bar pretty high for other people." Rebecca snorted, covering her mouth. "Unless you want to set the bar higher by a second date?" 

"I thought we were already going out again?" Rebecca cheekily smiled, reminding Ebony of their previous deal. "Just because we locked lips doesn't mean I wouldn't want to go out again, I've done worse." 

"Haven't we all?" Ebony questioned lowly, twirling her fingers around a curling strand of hair. Rebecca let out a huff of a laugh, feeling herself again pulling towards Ebony's body. 

"I've gotta get home," Rebecca whined, but her feet still brought her closer to Ebony. Smugly, Ebony took a note of this, raising her free hand to Rebecca's waist. 

"You're already late, what's a few minutes going to hurt?" 

Breathless, Rebecca replied. "Traffic. I'll blame traffic."

Nodding, Ebony brought her lips to Rebecca's once again. It was as beautiful as the first time, and her stomach was as full of butterflies as it had been before. The faint familiarity of her gentle lips sent Ebony into a trance, and having being satisfied with their filling kiss previously, their lips moved in slow unison. It was sweet. It was gentle. It was like Heaven itself. 

"Hey, it's a couple of lesbos!" A voice sounded out, their words slurring. "It's Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve." 

Clenching at Rebecca's forearms tightly, she pulled herself from their embrace. "Are you freaking kidding me? Do you want to repeat that?" 

Behind the abuser, there was a crowd of five, an even mix of men and women. They were all shouting encouraging words to the man, encouraging him to continue. Things like, "teach them a lesson," and "give 'em the Hell they deserve" was thrown at the man, who absorbed the words and spewed insults.

"I said," he crumpled up his beer can, belching. Ebony tried not to take a step back, disgusted. "You're a lesbo. I'm simply stating the sights." His friends behind him collapsed into laughter, leaning on each other for support, amused tears leaking from their eyes. 

Feeling her anger spike, Ebony took a step forward, staring off the man. Rebecca attempted to grab her arm, but Ebony brushed her off, fury sending her beyond a point of retrieval. "So, that's what we've been reduced too? 'Sights'? It's the twenty first century, there are more important things to worry about."

"And what's more important to worry about that this," he stumbled to find something to describe them, until he gasped. He bent forward, his face inches from Ebony's. Eyeing her up and down, he spoke clearly. "This virus."

Ebony sniggered, shaking her head disbelieving. "Unfortunately for you, this 'virus' knows how to hit." 

He opened his arms wide, revealing his beer belly and too tight wife beater. "Hit me with your best shot sweetheart." 

She tightened her fist, preparing herself to throw the punch when Rebecca grasped at her arm. "Is it really worth it? Just because they're a bunch of uneducated imbeciles doesn't mean you have to hit them." Her doe eyes pleaded, the chocolatey depths dampening the fire within Ebony. Ebony's fist loosened. 

"Come on." Rebecca guided, pushing Ebony assertively away from the drunk people. She tossed a quick wave over her shoulder, smiling politely. "Have a nice night." 

"Don't tell me what to do, faggot." 

All hell broke loose.

Ebony shook off Rebecca's begging hands, striding towards the group with a renewed fury. They deserved everything that was coming to them, and so much more, Ebony thought to herself, wondering about how far she should take it. There was no limit to her power, and the only thing barricading them from them being buried six feet under was Ebony's self control. 

They were laughing at her, pointing and making jokes. At this point, Ebony knew that her self control would be non existent, until Death himself got involved in the fight. 

"What are you going to do, hit me?" His posy chortled, gathering around the two immediately. They were like crows circling a dead body. Waiting. Waiting to swoop down and gobble down the decaying flesh. 

Frustration swelled up inside Ebony, at their stupidity, their bigotry and their idiocy. This fuelled her fist to do the action that she'd been itching to do since the group first called them out. Her hand connected with the inflated flesh, shuddering through his nose. Blood rocketed out, streaming down his lips and dripping off of his chin. 

Silence was all to be heard; even the men had stopped belching to gawp upon what happened. Ebony gasped, shaking her split fist. "Do you want to test me again? Because you may have found out that I'm not exactly the dainty little princess you expected me to be. I have fought more battles than you've seen, and I highly doubt that you'd want evidence of that." 

The man spat out blood, and a glob of it landed on Ebony's shoes. "I'm not afraid of a little girl." 

"You shouldn't be," she stood straighter, cracking her knuckles, making them bleed harder. "You should be petrified." 

The man snorted, turning to his friends. "Should I listen to this bull crap?" 

They jeered, screaming. "Teach her a lesson!" 

At this, Ebony could feel her heart rate spike; this was something she wanted. Something she needed. All thoughts about safety and Celeste flew out of her mind, being wiped away by her soul sucking rage. These feelings guided her knee into his stomach, ridding him of his smug smile. He bent over, winded. He grabbed at his stomach, eyes bulging as Ebony drove her elbow into his spine. Collapsing to the ground, he groaned. 

Ruthless, she dragged him up by the scruff of his clingy shirt, bringing her face to his. "I'll teach you a lesson, you uneducated ass." She clutched at his jaw, forcing him to look her in the eyes. "Is it okay to use homophobic language?" 

Rebellious, he kept his gaze on hers. "Yes." 

Slam. His face made impact with the concrete ground. He whimpered. Crouching, she hissed in his ear. "Wrong answer." 

When he tried to lift himself off of the floor, she brought his face back crashing to the ground. "Is it okay to use homophobic language?" 

He mumbled, mouth full of rubble and stones. "Yes." 

Ebony tutted, curling her fingers around his shaggy hair and snapping his head up. He moaned, and she smirked with satisfaction. "Do you want me to repeat the question?" 

He didn't reply, staring behind her with a tug of the lips. His lisp forced clumps of blood to fly. "Think about your question, and it's answer. Is it really worth her life, sweetheart?" 

Ebony spun around, taking in the scene before her: a girl holding a smashed glass bottle to Rebecca's neck. She reined in her cry, and calmly dropped the bleeding and swollen man limp on the floor. As soon as her hand left the man, his group all surrounded him, making sure whether he was okay and wondering what to do. 

Rebecca's lip wobbled, and she bit at it furiously. It began to bleed, but Rebecca paid no notice as her eyes were focused solely on the glass scraping at the fragile skin of her neck. The glass left small cuts on her skin, and the sight of it drove Ebony insane. 

"Drop the glass, and we can all forget this happened." Ebony bargained, putting her hands up in surrender. She observed the girls face, seeing hints of reluctance and fear restricting her from doing the deed. "You seem young, about early twenties?" The girl nodded, hand shaking so much that it littered tiny cuts across Rebecca's neck. "You don't want murder on your record. Trust me." 

The girl nervously tossed a glance at her friends, gathering her courage. "And? At least there's less scum on the planet." 

Tears flowed freely from Rebecca's eyes. She begged. "Please." 

"It'll be okay, I swear." Ebony reassured her, before turning her charm on the girl holding someones fate in their hands. "You don't need to do this." 

"You didn't need to hurt Tommy, but you did." Ebony opened her mouth to defend herself, but the girl silenced her. "No, stop being a hypocrite. I hate hypocrites, you pretend to be all high and mighty when you're just as boring as the rest of us." 

"She wants to go to the Grand Canyon." Ebony said, staring at Rebecca. "She said that she thought it'd be pretty cool to stand there, and witness the literal crack in the earth. She said that it reminds her about the fact that nothing is indestructible, and it tells her not to make reckless decisions. Her true passion is special effects make up, mainly because she takes great satisfaction in having the ability to not only create beautiful things, but ugly things too. She has a crazy obsession over milkshakes and she loves the word 'thicket'. Why, well I have no clue," Ebony huffed a laugh, taking her eyes off of Rebecca for a second. 

"Why are you telling me this?" The girl was baffled, her grip loosening. 

"So you know that if you do this, you're killing a human being. A human being with interests, hobbies, memories and dreams. Kill her, and not only do you destroy her physical body but all of that too."  

Sighing, the girl let Rebecca go. She fell to the ground with a sharp intake of air, tears falling even quicker down her face. "Thank you," Rebecca managed to squeeze out of her hitched breathing. 

Ebony went to Rebecca's side, putting an hand on her cheek and caressing it. "Run," she whispered, "They all aren't going to be so forgiving." 

Rebecca attempted to protest, saying that Ebony should go with her too. Ebony would've agreed to, if she didn't have unfinished business with them.  

Begrudgingly, Rebecca picked herself up off of the ground and ran to her car, throwing open the door and diving in. She took a second to kick herself for having a cigarette, because if she hadn't been weak enough to succumb to her addiction none of it would've happened. Rebecca fumbled to find her cigarettes, and when she found them she glared at the packet. "Stupid things." 

Rebecca turned down her window, sticking the hand with the box in out of it, preparing to drop the box. Her fingers never did relax enough. Defeated, she pulled her arm back in and turned up the window. 

Whilst doing this, movement in the wing mirror caught her eye. Ebony was fighting the group of people, dodging hits and delivering blows. Her stealth and ability made Rebecca question if she was as innocent as she had first assumed. She felt a rush of pride seeing Ebony there like that: powerful. It lessened her worry. 

With guilt laying heavy on her chest, she turned the key in the ignition and drove off. 

* 

Ebony was fending off the elbow of a gangly man when she heard the car engine. She lost her concentration, searching for the car that it came from. She hoped it was Rebecca. She told herself that it was Rebecca, to ease her worry. 

A sharp pain erupted up in her chin. She stumbled, finding the gangly man standing before her with his elbow high. He smirked, then nodded. Brows crunching together, she felt a pair of arms grab her from behind, restraining her. The gangly man laughed, grabbing the broken glass bottle as though it was the Olympic Torch from the girl who failed to wield it. 

"Is it okay to hit someone?" He asked. Stubborn, she kept her mouth shut, forbidding herself to show any emotion at seeing the weapon. He shook his head, driving his hand forward so quickly she had no time to process it. The bottle lodged itself in her abdomen, and even with all of her will power telling her not too, she released a cry. He pushed the bottle further, bringing his body closer to her. 

"Is it okay to hit someone?" He repeated, reaching up with his free hand to touch her neck. A chill crept her spine, and she cringed away from his cold hand. "Is it?" 

Again, she didn't answer. "Would you like me to reveal the answer?" 

The pain was unbearable. The pure agony made her hold her breath. It was like nothing she'd ever experienced. It made her question if God existed. Oh God. 

The gangly man moved his lips to her ear, nibbling slightly at the corner. She allowed herself to grunt a colourful swear word at him. He only grinned, showcasing his rotten teeth. His breath was hot on her neck, and she began to hate him being near more than her wound. After an awkward minute, he whispered in her ear. "If you have good enough reason, then yes." 

Merciless, he bent back and yanked the bottle out. If the pain had been indescribable before, it was nothing compared to that. Blood pumped continuously, and impulsively she grabbed at the wound. Her hands turned crimson within seconds. With a twisted smile decorating his face, he pushed her back. She landed with a thud. She couldn't find the energy to get up. She couldn't find the energy to speak. 

The only thing she could do was glare. 

"That looks painful," the gangly man sarcastically spoke. He tossed the bottle aside, the shards exploding all over and a few pinching at Ebony's skin. "I hope you learnt your lesson." 

His group sauntered off, two of them letting the man she'd beaten up earlier lean on them. She was alone, in the parking lot of an diner, and suddenly she knew how Celeste felt when she died.