Rooming with the Devil

Chapter 9: Annie's Tall Problem

After failing to meet Kaelan at the agreed upon time, and then promptly ignoring the text messages she received from an unknown number, she returned to her dorm room to find it completely trashed. Books, kitchenware, and pieces of furniture were thrown around the living room. Every possible hiding place had been upturned in search of something. Upstairs, Annie's bedroom was somehow an even greater mess.

Clutching her forehead, she knocked urgently at the door adjacent to her room. The bored and tired face of her roommate popped out from behind it. "I think we got robbed," Lila said.

"Are you okay?" Annie asked her, panicked. Despite her concern, Lila remained disinterested.

"I have no enemies — or friends, for that matter. This is your problem." With that said, Annie's roommate slammed the door in her face.

Despite the outrageous mess, Annie was a little relieved. She had predicted that something like this might happen, so she hid Kaelan's conduit elsewhere. However, this wasn't going to be easy to clean. With a sigh, Annie set down her backpack and went to work.

She started with the common area, sweeping up every bit of glass and righting every upturned chair. She took a break around 10PM to eat some instant noodles and then started on her room. It was about 1AM when Lila popped out again and told Annie not to forget her bedroom. Finding little will or room to argue with her, Annie cleaned up Lila's bedroom as well. She found it hard to tell whether the mess was from the break-in or if it was just Lila's ordinary living habits. Either way, she cleaned it all until everything was spick and span. It was 3AM when Annie finally was able to pass out on her bed.

Unfortunately, the sweet release of sleep was short-lived because at precisely 6AM Annie felt something wet on her face. Her eyelids fluttered open as the first drop of water hit her brow and slid down the corner of her eye. She frowned as she looked up. There was an almost imperceptible mark on her pale blue ceiling, which looked eerily like a sigil.

And then it started to rain.

Annie sprang up from her bed as her clothes and bedsheets became soaked beyond belief. Water poured relentlessly from her ceiling, and Annie found herself trying and failing to find shelter under her bed. She vaguely heard Lila's shriek of alarm and Annie guessed that the unexpected downpour had graced her bedroom, as well.

Annie slid out from under her bed and escaped to the stairs outside her room, but nowhere in her dormitory was safe. Forced to leave the dorm room and wait outside with Lila, Annie almost immediately regretted not wearing something warmer to bed. She had stripped down to her t-shirt and underwear before she went to sleep, and now she was standing there shivering in a drafty corridor on a chilly September morning. To make matters worse, the other students weren't hiding their stares. Annie suddenly felt self-conscious about her unusually small and bony figure.

It was about an hour before she heard the rain finally die down. Annie glanced over at Lila who looked, not expressionless for once, but resentful. "I think it's safe to go in now," Annie said, and went to open the door. She froze.

"It's locked, isn't it?" Lila muttered, not seeming to be surprised by the day's turn of events. "God, Annie, someone must really fucking hate you. But why do I have to suffer for it?"

As Lila stormed off to hopefully get some help, Annie slumped against the door. It hadn't even been 24 hours since she had blown off the agreement with Kaelan, and she was already beyond regretting it. No, she thought with a shake of her head. Giving his conduit back would be worse. She couldn't let this childish bullying weaken her resolve.

But as the days went on with Annie waking up to a daily dose of magical morning rain, listening to Lila scream like a banshee, and finding her belongings scattered about the dorm every time she returned in the afternoon, Annie found her patience wearing thin. After three consecutive days of magical indoor flooding, she leapt out of bed, already wearing her rain boots, marched through her semi-flooded dorm room, and out the door.

She found Kaelan sprawled out on a patch of grass outside. He looked an odd picture: dressed in all black whilst the sun's rays cast a golden light over his pale face and raven hair. His lashes were enviously long, his eyes were closed, and his expression almost... peaceful. As Annie drew closer to him, she could've sworn she almost saw the ghost of a smile. But Kaelan Aphelios smiling? It would be a cold day in hell before that happened.

"What a warm sunny day it is, wouldn't you agree?"

He was mocking her and she hated it. Annie knew that, as she stood before him, she looked like a drowned rat. It was all thanks to his doing, of course. Not that he'd admit it.

"I want you to stop it," Annie told him, and then as an afterthought, added: "Please."

"Stop what?"

"You know what!" she bit back, trying not to sound too annoyed by his lack of cooperation. "If you don't stop this harassment now, I'm going to report you to the Headmistress."

Any ease or pretense of humor faded from his face. His eyes snapped open and he sat up. "And what will you say, hm? When she asks you why I, of all people, chose to torment you, what will be your reply? Will you tell her the true reason? That it's because you stole a part of me and no matter how kindly I asked, you refuse to give it back?"

Annie was at a loss for words. Kaelan stood up, and she fought her instinct to take a step back as she saw him tower over her. He was intimidatingly tall for any man, but for someone of her dwarfish genes, it was even scarier.

"Perhaps you should tell her the truth. I think I'd like to see how that goes. But until my conduit is returned to me..." Kaelan took a step closer, until he was a mere breath away. He lifted his index finger and pressed it against her forehead. She stayed still, not daring to move an inch as he drew something on her forehead. A sigil. "I'm going to make your life miserable."