Eerie (17 page)

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.”

Chapter Twenty

The Breakfast

“Believe nothing you hear, and only one half that you see.”

- Edgar Allan Poe, The System of Dr. Tarr and Prof. Fether

Still smiling at the thought of Asher kissing her again, Hailey groggily rolled out of bed and into the shower. She returned to her room after making some effort to look halfway decent, which, given her lack of supplies or a change of clothes, was a challenge. At least she had Tomas.

Somewhere around 6:00 a.m., Giselle floated down from the ceiling and landed on her bed with a barely audible crush. Then she grabbed her morning reading material, reclined with her legs outstretched, feet crossed, and ignored Hailey completely.

Returning students were still arriving, steadily filing in and out of the dorm, carrying big boxes, bins, and suitcases. Hailey regretfully watched through her window as student after student trudged inside with towels and robes and clothes and blankets and sheets and everything else under the sun that she wished she'd known she could bring but didn't thanks to some cranky poltergeist.

All that paled in comparison to what she was really missing—Holly.

And what if Holly is still out there?

Sighing heavily, she shook her head. She needed to stop this. Dental records didn't lie. Right? Holly was dead, and she wouldn't want her little sister frowning and ruminating her university days away. She closed the blinds to sulk as Giselle sat silent and motionless behind the same beauty magazine.

Biting her lip as she paced the room, Hailey stole a glance in the mirror. Tomas had done a grand job with her hair that morning, twisting and teasing small locks that he'd secured with shiny gold pins in a relaxed half-up do.

Hailey was waiting for Fin, though she wasn't sure if he would show up and if he did, she wasn't sure he'd be alone. If he weren't the only person on campus that would speak to her, she would have fled her room already and avoided the awkwardness of seeing him for the rest of forever.

Finally, there was a knock at the door.

“Morning, Hailey,” Fin sang, metal coffee cup in hand. Of course he was happy this morning. “Good morning, Medusa,” he called into the room, and Giselle gave him the finger again. “She hates me,” he told Hailey with a mischievous grin as they walked down the hall.

Hailey nodded.

“What's up with you?” Fin said, eying her suspiciously.

“Nothing.” That was a lie. She couldn't get the image of Fin and his girlfriend out of her head, but she had no intention of even hinting that she'd seen him grope her in the hallway the night before. He might think she was jealous. And of course she totally wasn't . . .

“You're a horrible liar.” He sipped his coffee as they made their way to Chinook Hall and through the breakfast buffet. “And you're very distracted today—usually means you're up to something.”

He took her tray for her and led her to a corner table. “So, tell me about these German words. Where'd you come across them?” he asked, pulling Hailey's chair out.

“My phantom hair dresser frosted them across my mirror?” She shrugged with a slight cringe, and Fin choked on his coffee.

“What?” Screwing up his face, he surveyed her hair.

She turned her head for him. “Nice, huh.”

“It is actually. But, you shouldn't encourage a poltergeist. They feed on attention.”

“This one seems helpful. And I'm pretty sure someone from DOPPLER kidnapped him from our house, but he must have escaped, because he's here now. And he says DOPPLER is dangerous.” Hailey looked to Fin for his assessment of all this.

“This is troubling, Hailey,” he said with a thoughtful expression. “Only an Envoy can catch a poltergeist. You'll see—the ghost traps don't work very well. Anyway, DOPPLER funds a lot of research here. If they're monitoring you without the university's permission, Woodfork and Asher need to know. It sounds like there's another Envoy involved in this.”

Hailey sighed. “I need to find Asher anyway.” He had her picture of Holly and answers to a thousand questions . . .and maybe another kiss... “Do you know where I can find him?”

“Asher?” he said bitterly. “Asher can't be found, Hailey. If he wants to see you, he'll find you.”

“You don't like him, do you?”

“He's a monster,” Fin said almost angrily, and Hailey bit her lip, trying to remember anything monster-like about his kiss. Fin slapped his hand on the table. “What are you all moony-eyed about?” he asked with a definite note of jealousy, and Hailey startled out of her daydream.

Lately, Fin was sending a whole lot of mixed signals.

Biting her lips together, Hailey almost blurted a thought she'd regret, but the perfect Pre-Med student from the night before saved her the trouble by interrupting them at the breakfast table.

“Hi Pádraig,” she cooed as she danced over to him, and he looked up at her as if he'd never seen her before.

“Hello?” he said through a mouthful of sausage gravy.

“Last night was fun,” she told him, twirling a strand of hair as she sat down next to him.

“Was it?” he asked, looking like he was ready to duck and cover, but she threw her head back and giggled.

Hailey grabbed her handbook and flipped through it, moving her eyes as if she were reading, but she was way too distracted by the show in front of her to comprehend the words.

“Yes,” she chastised him. “It was fun three times,” she whispered loudly in his ear, and Hailey peeked over her book in time to see him scowl and lean away from her.

Shrinking into her seat, Hailey pulled her handbook over her face. She didn't want to hear this.

“Don't act like you don't remember, Pádraig,” she said, and Hailey detected a shrill note of warning.

“This is no act.” Fin was using his irritated voice, and she matched it. Then she brought it up a level.

“You're such an asshole!” It sounded like she slapped his face pretty hard, scooted her chair out, and stormed away.

Very cautiously, Hailey lowered her handbook. “Who was that?” she asked once the cafeteria resumed its normal hum of activity.

“Uh . . .Joanne,” he said, looking bewildered. “I caught up with her last night at the LOED meeting.” He looked at Hailey, still blinking rapidly from the slap. “I honestly have no idea what the hell that was all about,” he said, lobbing a pointed finger in the direction of Joanne's retreat.

Hailey looked at him sideways. “Really?”

“Really,” he repeated.

“Maybe she's pissed off because she was naked in your room last night, and now you're acting like nothing happened.” She took a thoughtful bite of toast.

Fin dropped his spoon and fumbled with his napkin. Clearing his throat, he sat up in his seat, and Hailey stool a glance at him.

“That—” He sat back, licked his teeth and continued. “No,” he said definitively, and he looked her dead in the eyes. “I don't know what you think you saw, but don't believe it. I don't do that.”

“Maybe you were drunk or something?” She knew what she saw.

“Yeah . . .or
something
,” he said emphatically.

“Anyway, what's a ‘load' meeting?” she said, letting him off the hook. At the end of the day, she didn't care what he did as long as he didn't leave her again.

“It's actually pronounced LO-ed, like co-ed. It's a club—the Legion of Earth Dwellers,” he said dismissively. “Come on,” he said checking his watch. “You're gonna be late for your tour.”

Fin hurried her out of her chair, grabbed her tray, and pushed her out the door even as she was itching to ask him about LOED, about her roommate from Hell, about DOPPLER, what the heck ParaScience was, and what, if anything, he knew about Asher and the other Envoys.

“Don't forget your flail-beat,” he said, straightening her shirt like a parent putting his child on the school bus for the first time. “And don't talk to strangers,” he added with a smile.

Hailey turned her back on him and walked toward a gaggle of freshmen who stood in front of a girl holding up a Bear Towne flag.

“ParaFreak!” Fin called after her.

Running with her hands over her ears, she caught up with her campus tour just in time to see her orientation leader step back, fold in half, and disappear.