Saving Me

Chapter 11: I Was In Too Deep

Despite common sense telling me not to turn around, I did. And there she was, standing by the hotel gym entrance still in her burgundy uniform, the smile nowhere in sight but her beauty still there. The bangs of her short black hair rested on a smooth and white-as-milk forehead, almost to her gorgeous green eyes. Similar to Cole's eyes, only hers were brighter.

And they were freaking me the heck out.

"Come here a sec. I wanna talk to you."

"No thanks," I said, and turned quickly on my heel.

Her dress shoes clicked on the tile as she sped up to lightly grab my arm. Her nails were red, and I found myself wondering if she did them herself. She had to have painted them up here, there's no way they would look so good if she'd done them down in Hell with not much light. Unless she practiced a lot.

Her laugh, seemingly casual but still scary, broke my irrelevant-to-the-situation thoughts. "What's the matter? I just wanted to ask if I could help with anything. Point you to the kitchen for some breakfast, maybe give you directions to somewhere in town?"

"No thanks."

"Well in that case, I might ask for your assistance. One of the machines in the gym is out of order and Dave is helping that lovely woman out over there. Do you mind?"

"No tha-"

"Oh it'll only be a minute, c'mon. I'll cut back the cost of your room for your kindness."

She pulled the arm she was holding in the direction from which she came, and I reluctantly followed. I didn't want her to know I was afraid of her, that I knew what she was. Trying to keep quiet, I filled my lungs with deep and slow breaths to try and calm my racing heart. Through the long gym window I could see the machine she was talking about. It had a Do Not Use sign taped onto it. That made me feel a little better. People would be able to see us.

After we walked into the large room, Jezebeth shut the door behind us, which didn't help the panic rising in my chest.

"Over here," she said, and I followed her to the stationary bike. There was a tool box on the seat of the one next to it. "I have to get down underneath it so I was hoping you could hand me what I need. It'll make this go a lot quicker. You know your tools?"

"Um."

"That's okay, I'll help you out. You don't talk very much, do you?"

I try to avoid conversing with the helpers of Satan, I had told Michael when we met. Funny how well that was working out lately.

"You got a name?"

"Eden."

That had been Cole's neighbor's name. Sadly it was the first that came to mind.

"Like the garden. Where're you from, Eden?"

Okay, she was being friendly, like Michael had always been towards me. So why was I completely not believing in her kindness like I had kinda grown to believe in his?

Oh yeah, I thought. Because it was stupid of me to believe in his in the first place.

"Chicago."

"Where're you headed?" She positioned herself under the machine and asked for a screwdriver.

I handed her one. "Um..." Let's see, Michael and I had been heading south. What was south of Chicago?

"Mexico."

It was a dumb answer, but being next to an evil demon asking you questions doesn't exactly do much for your quick thinking skills.