Chapter 19 The Roommate from Hell #2
Disgusted by her own jealousy, Hailey shook her head and collected her wet clothes. She’d just hang them in her closet to dry and not think about Fin. Nothing else was in her closet, and Fin didn’t matter to her anyway. Her shoes might even be dry before morning, and Fin was…was…
Hailey threw open her room door and barged in, forcing Fin out of her mind by wondering if Giselle would ever speak to her again. More than that, she wondered if Giselle was even human—sharp teeth…probably not.
In stocking feet, she stepped in front of her closet, when something sloshed.
“What the…?”
Hopping on one foot, she followed a trail of little puddles leading all the way from the door to Giselle’s bed, which lay curiously empty. Someone inside the room was snoring softly. Somewhere…
Crouching down, Hailey peeked under Giselle’s bed then lifted her gaze higher. Pressed against the ceiling above her bed and sound asleep, Giselle snored and moaned, her long, kinked gray hair hanging down like a gossamer web.
Definitely not human, Hailey thought, and she stepped in another small puddle of water with her other socked foot. Giselle must’ve skipped the whole drying-off part of her shower. Now she knew how Holly had felt. This was annoying.
Unable to take her eyes off her roommate from Hell, Hailey fell asleep worrying about Giselle and whether she would get in trouble for telling her Asher was a murderer. She hoped not. Giselle might hail from Hell, but she was Hailey’s only friend, and that was a slice of heaven.
That night, Hailey sat on a mossy boulder in the Aether and wept. Asher approached her cautiously.
“Hailey,” he called softly, “why are you crying?”
She looked up at him through slow-motion raindrops, iridescent flecks of light that shimmered when they graced her face, mixing with her tears before tumbling away.
“I’m afraid for my roommate,” she said with pleading eyes. “Is she in trouble?”
Asher tilted his head. “Why do you ask me this?”
Maybe he didn’t know what Giselle had said.
Or maybe he was testing her. Or had Giselle been testing her?
Had she just betrayed her roommate? Hailey shook her head.
All this business with Fin—she was definitely projecting her mistrust onto Asher, onto Giselle…
plus all that talk of murder had her head swimming…
She trusted Asher. Since childhood, she’d trusted him. She couldn’t bear to think he’d hurt anyone, and she didn’t want him angry at Giselle. She had to tell him the truth.
“Giselle told me you killed a student, and she’s afraid you’ll…kill her, too…for telling me.”
Raindrops landed steadily on the rocky landscape in gentle plops exploding in tiny bursts of squiggly flashes as Asher considered her, and Hailey continued her plea.
“I feel so alone here, and Giselle’s the only student that’s talked to me. I feel awful, Asher, I just… I don’t want her to get in trouble for talking to me.”
“You ask a lot of me, Hailey. There is much you don’t understand.”
“Then explain it to me.”
Asher closed his eyes, and a peal of thunder, sounding more like breaking glass rang out.
“Giselle disobeyed me. If I don’t punish her, I’ll quickly lose control of the other Earth dwellers, and you will not be safe here.”
Hailey shook her head.
“Nobody will know what she told me. Nobody talks to her. They all avoid her like they avoid me. I need a friend, Asher. Please.”
“Giselle is an abomination, and if she threatens you, I will kill her. But I will overlook this one instance of defiance because you wish it.”
Smiling her relief, Hailey wiped her face.
“I think she’s warming up to me.” She tried to touch Asher’s hand through the sheer light surrounding him, but of course, there was no hand, and Hailey sighed with frustration.
“There’s so much I want to ask you, but I won’t remember any of this, will I?”
“Ask me, Hailey. Ask me anything and I’ll answer. But we are in the Aether, so you may forget all this when you wake.”
“Is it true, then? Did you kill a student?”
“I’ve killed several.”
Hailey’s lungs failed, and for what seemed like too long, she stared at him, heart hammering until she finally breathed her worst fear. “You’re a… a murderer…?”
“It is not murder to dispose of a wretch,” said Asher quickly, reaching out to her.
She side-eyed him, and he dropped his arm.
“I’ve never ended a human life before its time. Where I come from, such an act is unthinkable.”
“What about the Envoy that killed Holly? What about Cobon?”
“He did not kill her before her time. He influenced a few wretched humans to injure her until it was her time.”
“That’s splitting hairs, don’t you think?”
“Many of the Envoys no longer follow our laws,” said Asher forcefully, and he turned away.
“Are you alright?” Hailey asked.
“Not at all,” he said without facing her. “I’m sorry I—I’m sorry I could not help Holly,” he said with shame in his voice. “And… I’m afraid. I fear that you will hate me. I fear that I’ll lose you,” he whispered.
Still the rain tinkled, teeny crystals shattering against the rocks, and Hailey drew a deep breath.
“Uncle Pix taught us that all things can be forgiven,” she said, her voice wavering, and Asher turned his head slightly.
Hailey stared straight ahead, eyes wide to hold in her tears, unable to actually say, “I forgive you” because she didn’t. She didn’t forgive him. Or herself.
“I don’t blame you for what Cobon did.” Her tone was flat, and that was the best she could do. “Asher, I understand why you didn’t save her, but I wish you had. I’m angry and sad, and I wish he had killed me instead, I—”
“Don’t say such things.”
But it was the truth. She’d trade places with Holly in a heartbeat. She searched Asher’s eyes, trying to convey her anguish, but seeing his own anguish broke her heart. It wasn’t Asher’s fault that Cobon was a monster.
Her throat went tight and she pressed her arms to her belly.
Asher watched her closely.
“I’m not going anywhere,” she resolved, and she wiped her eyes. “You’re not going to lose me. But I still have so many questions, Asher. They can’t wait.”
“What would you like to know?”
“For starters, what is a wretched human? And…wha…” Hailey shook her head, befuddled, but she wanted to know exactly what killed Holly.
“A Being living on Earth without a soul is a wretch,” Asher explained.
“Anyone who seeks redemption will find it. However, those who live a wicked life slowly kill their soul. To save itself, such a soul will abandon its body here on Earth, leaving behind its life energy. The body lives on as a wretch, and a wretch is fair game for any Earth dweller to dispose of.”
“You can live without a soul?”
“Not very well.”
“But why don’t they die? Who decides when it’s someone’s time to die?”
Asher shook his head. “I don’t know. Any Envoy can see it, though. It’s as obvious as a flickering light bulb.”
“Giselle said you killed a student to make an example…to warn the others to stay away from me. Was he… flickering…?” she prodded as she sat on the soft grass, beckoning him to join her.
“He was a wretch, Hailey,” said Asher, his voice rising even as he sat next to her. He seemed angry, but not with her. “And I killed him to remove him from the Earth. He not only disturbed you, he brought the spoils of his wickedness onto my campus.”
“The boy with the rainbow hair? What did he bring?”
“A severed human head.”
“What?” Hailey breathed. “I tried to befriend a murderer?”
“And a cannibal.”
“Oh my God.”
Bringing her hand to her head, Hailey stared at a beautiful waterfall, shocked. There was no easy way to wrap her mind around her first day at Bear Towne. She wanted Asher to say that everything would be alright. She wanted Asher to touch her.
“Asher?” she asked when she felt the pull of morning.
“Yes, Hailey?”
“Will you ever kiss me again?”
Asher closed his violet eyes and smiled. “Yes, Hailey.”