stellaR (Editing)

Chapter IX

Chapter- IX

It is with our passions as it is with fire and water; they are good servants, but bad masters. -Aesop

 

     “I met someone today.” I said nonchalantly, running my finger up and down his forearm distractedly. We were laying down on the couch together, and I was very much enjoying our lazy day.

     “Oh?” His voice was inquisitive, and I blinked up at him.

     “Yeah,” A sleepy smile crossed my face, “It was during the accident, I guess. It wasn’t in the…” I lowered my voice, “it wasn’t in the real world, but some other realm.”

     He turned my face up towards him, looking me in the eye.

     “And I’m just now hearing about this because…?”

     I shrugged. “I’ve had other things on my mind.” I eyed him speculatively, focusing on keeping my gaze away from his lips.

     Chaud smiled at me, “Well, not anymore you don’t,” He leaned away from me, and I frowned at the sudden distance separating us. “Now, tell me.”

     I folded my arms across my chest defiantly, “Fine. Her name is Ashley Lanx.” I stopped to judge his reaction, but his face was carefully blank.

     “She says she’s the vice president of the Elemene…” I supplied, and saw as recognition lit up his eyes.

     “What did she want with you?” He asked carefully.

     I lifted the key up from underneath my shirt, running it back and forth on its chain. I looked up at Chaud, waiting.

     “Oh,” He said, raising his eyebrows, “Did she say why she wanted the key?”

     I shook my head, “She doesn’t have the clearance to know.”

     “But…” Chaud shook his head, confused, “I thought you said she was the VP of them?”

     I shrugged again, “She is. Apparently even that isn’t enough to know.”

-

     Chaud left sometime that afternoon, before my mother could get home and question why he wasn’t Margie.

It seemed my mother had, in fact, paid more attention to the boy that had visited my in the hospital than I’d thought. For later that night, my mother had tried to ask me about Chaud, but with my one-word answers, she wasn’t getting very far. In the end, she’d given up after I had told her I’d “let her know when it was getting serious.” In all honesty, I wasn’t planning on keeping her “in the know”- no way, no how.

     I thought about Ashley Lanx, as I was climbing into bed that night, and what she said about the key.

     “You can keep it for a bit longer, but just know, we’ll be there to grab it- should you ever take it off.”

     I shivered, fisting my hand around the key, and turned off the light.

-

     I stretched, and rolled over the next morning, with only a faint sense of soreness in my muscles.

     I checked my phone, and then remembered that before the accident Melanie had been calling me. I saw that she had left a voicemail, and I debated just deleting it, but my better-half won out, and I pressed play.