Elysia: Ignite [Elysia Trilogy Book 1] (EDITING) ✔

CH2: The Inn Room

Jessica

It wasn't the neatest nor the safest place to stay the night, to say the least. The ceiling was slumping down and water trickled down the poorly painted wall, leaving forked trails of the ugliest shade of brown I had ever seen. Obviously, something was leaking. The faint stench emanating from the thin wall said something. But what was the point of assessing the quality of a temporary stay in this world which was already wrecked beyond repair? I had seen many things, witnessed the most appalling of crimes, and done some on my part. After all, that was how I survived in this heartless, breathless piece of endless land called Wasteworld. My methods hardly ever failed. They kept me alive to this day.

I threw myself on the bed, clothes and shoes on. Hands were clasped behind my head and eyes were shut. The mattress was of course cheap stuff; the kind that would inevitably make my back hurt like a bitch once I opened my eyes in the morning. As of the moment, though, I could call this a decent bed. It was far better than having to sleep under bridges, in abandoned department stores, and inside stolen cars. Those were my dark days, my bygone past and pathetic times.

"You...," Erik started. I could tell just by his voice that he was still shaky from the incident that had happened downstairs. "You just shot someone. And you can just lay down like that?"

"What? The bitch wouldn't let us in. And don't worry about it, she won't bleed to death. It's a tiny graze, hon," I murmured as a response.

"Still," he countered. "You know how rare it is for us commoners to have a gun. And to use it? You're a freaking terrorizer."

Annoyance got the best of me. I snapped open my eyes and abruptly sat up on the bed, pointing my finger at the golden-haired dumbass. Erik jumped at the sudden movement.

"Listen up, pretty boy. This is the Wasteworld There is no such thing as this petty morality you seem to be damn fond of. The world is falling apart, and to ignore that means death. To survive, you gotta do what you gotta do. If you stick to the weak side of yourself, you will lose yourself and lose to the world. You got that?"

Erik merely stared at me with a scowl. No response.

"You ran away from home. I'm assuming you were pretty wealthy because no commoners these days drive a real Cadillac. And now, you're headed to Elysia. The place everyone calls a fairytale simply because it's impossible to get inside. Trust me, you have no sense of what kind of place you're in."

"I know damn well what kind of place I'm—"

"No, you don't, you idiot. Getting whisked in a bar fight proved that you're an idiot in the first place. So for a while, just shut up and watch me. Watch what I do to survive and get my way. Because if you don't, you won't even make it a quarter of the way to Elysia." I tossed my hair, shooting him a final sharp glance before standing up.

"Fine," Erik growled after pondering for some time. "I'll watch you and play along to your grand schemes for a while. But don't think for one moment that you're in the position to order me around because as far as I know, this... this relationship we share is based on a mutual agreement. We're here for each other's benefits and no one is the leader." He turned around to see me fixing my hair while looking into the dirt-speckled mirror.

Dumb blond, I thought to myself, smirking. You're bound to listen to me under any circumstance. But I kept that thought to myself and looked back at the furrowed eyebrows of Erik. "Sure, whatever you say, darling."

"And stop calling me 'darling.' I have a name." He grumbled, gently washing away the blood stuck on his skin with a cloth.

"Which one? Jackass? Bastard? Or was it Pretty Boy?" I laughed as I toed off my worn black high heels and plopped down beside the man struggling to treat his own injuries.