on this side of the grave — eden & eurydice ;

Eden gets one good punch in before the stage lights go out. He's halfway through the crowd and his fist cracks across a jaw, his feet aren't on the ground anymore but it doesn't matter. Two days ago he had been sparring with Alycia and now she holds him by the back of the neck and kicks his knee out.

He knows he can't run, but he tries anyway.

He watches Echo make an aborted sort of movement over the sea of faces and then he's blinking and it's dark and there's a set of heavy metal bars across from him, the floor is freezing.

It's weird. Eden should feel guilty, but he doesn't. He should regret destroying his relationship with the family that took him in, but he doesn't. All he's done is break a contract that he never signed. He feels a little bit like the string of a kite that some poor kid let go of.

His thumb runs across his knuckles but he doesn't feel any more grounded.

He paces instead, he can't stay still, his veins are on fire and he didn't think to plan this far ahead - it all just happened. He needs to get out of here because he needs to finish what he started. There's an institution in the underbelly that needs dismantling. There's a boy in Nine he needs to see again. He wants the chance to just be before the rest of his life catches up to him.