Way Down We Go

Chapter 4

Asa sat on top of the truck, lazily swinging his leg in a circle, watching below as the girl attempted to focus on her book. She'd finally decided to get her car fixed and was waiting in the reception area. Asa had to admit watching her had been frustrating if a bit boring. At first, it had been slightly funny. She kept checking the windows whenever something too loud came by, but that had calmed down after two days. Then she'd just kept quiet. She read. She cooked. She left once to get groceries. Each time he saw her face looked paler and paler. It almost made him feel guilty.

Almost.

He still thought she was being senselessly stubborn.

The fact of it was he knew, partially, that it was his fault, but that still didn't mean she had to go and do something as stupid as to hold on to the mana, effectively weakening her to the point where it would be useless anyway. Besides, as much as she didn't want to admit it, it had been his in the first place. Sure, an argument could be construed that the boy had 'chosen' Rory, though it had been done completely subconsciously. There was no way he'd realized what he'd been doing. The fact remained that those people had been his prey. He knew they were going to die.

On the other hand, said a small voice in his head, if he hadn't been so careless as to wait until he was on the point of starvation to go searching in the first place, he might not have made the blunder of letting himself be seen. He'd been so eager, so hungry, so desperate, he'd attacked too soon. The boy had panicked, forcing his father to act, leading to the resulting crash into Rory's car, the toppling of the van, the fire, the boy in Rory's arms....if he'd just waited, none of that might've happened.

Though if he hadn't waited, that stupid girl might've tried to save them, and then what would he have done? She would've been involved anyways. The father and son wouldn't have survived. Asa knew that. The events just might have played out differently. The girl might've died too, and that thought, for whatever reason, made him feel uncomfortable.

He sighed, resting his chin on his first and watching the shop. Rory's light brown hair, long and straight, was pushed back behind her slightly too big ears. Her round face was bent over the book, her hazel eyes focused intensely on the page. He could tell she'd tried to make herself look better than she was feeling. The way she was sitting, however-- slightly hunched, arm wrapped around her stomach-- indicated that she was still in pain.

He watched as Rory was given a set of keys from an older man, and directed to a different car on the lot. She walked to it, and he saw her stumble, and collapse into the front seat, taking deep, heaving breaths. She was clutching at her chest, as though wanting to rip it out.

He gritted his teeth.

Stupid, pathetic, worthless human.

He turned away from her, trying not to think about it.

*

Rory started going back to work three days after Asa had appeared. By that point, she'd given up on the pain in her chest going away, although she'd lied to Carl and sworn she'd been to the doctor. She told him it was acid reflux, and she might have to sit down from time to time. He chalked it up to the stress of the accident and didn't say anything more.

She was grateful for the distraction. Spending time in the empty house had just made her more and more paranoid. She'd even looked into getting a better security system for the place, but knew that the landlord would never go for it. It was far too expensive and unless she wanted to admit there had been a break-in, and scare Rachel and Morgan, and figure out a way to explain what had happened during said break-in...