"Hey, bro, what's wrong?"
Gabe's voice startles me out of my pissed-off haze. I'm curled up in a ball on the futon, still feeling like absolute donkey shit.
"Don't ask," I say. "It's really sad. And embarrassing, actually."
"I'm sure I've experienced worse," says Gabe.
"I'm not in the mood to talk."
"I can see that," Gabe says, putting his overnight bag away. "Maybe after you take a shower? It's free now."
Oh yeah. That's what I was waiting for before Fionna came to me. Wordlessly, I carry my stuff upstairs, trying to hide my face from everyone I pass. I see no sign of Fionna, not even in the living room, which really troubles me. Is she trying to hide from me?
I spend fifteen minutes in the shower, ten of which are just me standing under the water, staring into space. After I'm done, I return to the basement, where Gabe's sitting on the chair, twiddling his thumbs.
"Now are you ready to talk?" he asks.
"God, no," I grumble, flopping facedown on the futon. I grab the pillow and bury my face into it before yelling, "What the bloody hell is wrong with me?"
"I'd kinda like to know too," Gabe says, turning the chair towards me - I didn't even know that chair could do that.
I roll over onto my side, facing away from Gabe. "This cabin hates my guts, I swear. I've only been here, what, 48 hours and change, and already my first halfway-meaningful relationship is on the rocks. How wrong is that?"
"So you're having problems with Fionna now?" Gabe asks. "You want help? You know, it's funny how you're so much better at taking people's pain than giving 'em any."
"I take it that's not a compliment."
"Can you please look at me, at least? Maybe that'll help."
I sigh before turning over again to face Gabe. He's leaning forward in the chair to try and minimize the space between us.
"Fionna asked me if I loved her," I say.
Gabe nods once. "And what did you tell her?"
"The truth. That I've not even known her long enough to really fall in love with her."
"Oh. And she was really hoping you would say you already had."
"Why?" I ask. "Don't tell me she believes in insta-love at first sight or some shit like that?"
"No, of course not," Gabe says. "I can only imagine how awkward that must have been for you guys."
"Hella awkward," I say. "And then she went off to bed. Maybe she just wants to see if I change my mind after sleeping on it? I mean, I don't...I just don't wanna spend tonight hating myself. I've...I've never done this before. God, I'm such a bloody dumbass," I groan. "I know I shouldn't expect this to go perfectly smooth, but still, it sucks."
Gabe nods. "Tell me about it. But when you two talk again, you'll feel so much better. I can guarantee that."
"I hope so."
Gabe leans back and kicks up the recliner, then spins the chair around again. "Good night, bro." He gets up and flicks out the lights.
"'Night, dude."
Once again, Elijah appears in my dreams - this time with a foreboding, sobering twist. Tonight, I see not Gabe, but Fionna dying on the ground, bleeding from her neck, while Elijah stands over her, sneering horribly.
I wake up with a half-strangled cry, and Gabe, who's not nearly as heavy a sleeper as Luca, jerks awake.
"Wha...what was that?" he whispers. "Alex, was that you?"
I lie there, motionless and quiet. Gabe's right - I've always preferred hearing other people's problems over telling them my own. This isn't the first time I've feigned sleep to avoid Gabe's line of questioning. It's a lame attempt at deflection - even lamer than the one I tried with Fionna earlier - and we both know it.
True to form, Gabe wakes up not long after I do, early in the morning - Saturday morning - and sits perched on the reclining chair waiting for me to finally give up the charade.
"It's nothing," I say when I finally turn towards him and open my eyes. "Just a bad dream."
Elijah's face appears briefly in the forefront of my mind, and I'm not quick enough to bury it before Gabe notices. "Who's that?" he asks.
I don't respond.
"Is it Elijah?"
Again, I don't respond.
"Alex, are you all right?"
"I said it's nothing," I grumble, rolling over and looking away from Gabe. That's all it is, nothing, I think. Just my brain vomiting up shit.
Gabe gives up trying to get anything out of me and walks upstairs. I'm about to follow him when I see the souls come in.
"Okay, Grace, we get it already!" Penny yells over her shoulder as she shuts the Terminal door.
Freddie shakes his head, snorting. "That woman...she needs to get laid."
"Volunteering for the job?" I mutter.
"Top of the morning to you too, laddie," Freddie says in a fake Scottish accent, tipping an imaginary hat before scarfing down a cookie. Chocolate with peanut butter chips.
Steve chortles. "What's up with you, Snow? You sound like the singer from The National."
Freddie starts singing a dull, dreary dirge of a song, which I can only assume must be from The National - I've never heard of them before, so I wouldn't know.
"Just in a mood," I say, planting my ass in the reclining chair.
"Wanna play some pool?" Steve asks, picking up a cue. "Get your mind off whatever it is?"
"At least you don't ask to know everything like my brother," I say, taking another cue and laying out the balls.
I should've known better than to accept Steve's challenge - he wipes the floor with me ten times over and then some. I'm not the best pool player most days, but feeling like I do right now doesn't help me at all.
I'm just about to give up for good after maybe twenty rounds when the phone rings. I take a look at the caller ID on the cordless receiver's screen, just out of curiosity, and see Jack Darknell's name and number flashing up. Maybe he's calling Paul's dad to let him know it's time to capture Elijah.
It's now around nine-thirty, so I finally go upstairs. I'm about to get in line for the toaster when I catch Fionna's eye. I step outside, and she follows me onto the deck as I watch Mr. Smythe pull his Acadia out of the driveway and leave.
"Hey, Alex," she says as she pulls her beanie on. Her eyes dart around a bit, never keeping contact with mine for more than a couple of seconds.
I look over the edge of the deck. "Hey, Fionna. Wanna talk?"
Fionna sighs before leaning against the rail to my left. "I'm not gonna play the blame game here. It's no more your fault than mine, what happened last night."
"I sense a 'but' in there somewhere. Or maybe a 'however.'"
"It's just..." Fionna sighs again. I look her way long enough to see her breath form a cloud in front of her face. "I really wish you could've said you loved me."
"Why? 'Cause that's how you feel about me?"
Fionna laughs, then sighs. "Alex...you know, remember when we were on our first date and I asked why you were dating a demon girl instead of an angel girl?"
I clench my fists around the wooden railing. "Yeah, I remember. I never did answer that, did I?"
"Do you have an answer now?"
I look away from her again. "I dunno. Honestly, I don't think too much about it. A girl is a girl, right? Does race even matter?"
"Anything better to add to that?"
I'm starting to really wonder where Fionna's going with this. "Hey, Gabe just kept doing me a solid...or, at least, something he thought was a solid." I take a breath. "The first thing I want in a girl is common interests. I was happy to find we had a lot of those. The fact that you're a demon doesn't figure in quite so strongly. Personality, compatibility, an all-around good companion - that's what's important to me."
"And my looks have nothing to do with it?"
"I'll admit they actually do. You're so pretty it hurts."
"Spare me the bullshit," Fionna says with another chuckle, this one shorter than usual. She then walks around me, heading towards the back of the house. As I follow her, she asks, "Alex, you know why Gabe's always been setting you up with so many Castledown girls over the years?"
"Again, he thought he was doing me a solid...right?"
Fionna and I round the corner, then pass the back door leading to the laundry room. "Sort of. But...here's the thing. You're really popular at Castledown. I think it's just 'cause you're an angel, and by demon standards, that makes you smoking hot. I'm talking Tom Hiddleston hot."
"Funny," I laugh. "And I thought I was more of a Benedict Cumberbatch."
"I actually think your spirit Brit is Aaron Johnson, but that's not the point," Fionna says as we once again move around a corner. Now we're on the side of the house facing away from the road. "What I'm trying to say, Alex, is that the girls Gabe set you up with before, they just knew you were a good-looking boy, and they wanted to try you on for size."
"But until you came along, I didn't fit any of them," I say. "You, I'm compatible with, but those other girls, and Tanner? Not so much."
Fionna laughs out loud at this point. "Oh my God, I totally forgot Gabe tried to use Tanner to see if you were into guys too."
"Believe me, I've tried to forget that one too," I say. "Until last night, I think that was the most embarrassing moment of my life."
Fionna edges closer to me, the top of her head level with my ears. I didn't really notice before, but she's actually taller than I previously thought. But then I look down and see she's wearing boots with inch-high heels. I've never liked seeing girls wear heels - doesn't that hurt after a while? Even with heels that aren't stiletto height.
"So..." I say, nudging her foot with mine. "What are you trying to tell me? That you were just another one of those girls interested in me for my body, and you grew to like my personality after we met?"
"No," Fionna says. "God, no. Didn't I tell you it was all Gabe's idea that we should get together?"
"Uh..." I sort of remember her saying something to that effect, but I can't be certain.
Fionna waits until we round the third corner of the house before continuing. "I'm not kidding - if Gabe hadn't suggested it, we probably wouldn't have had that date at Three Guys, and then we wouldn't have gone to see Cinder with him and Kyle. But...but I really wanted to ask Gabe myself if he could set you up with me. You don't come around to Castledown very often, so most of what I know about you, Gabe's told me. He talks about you a lot, and from what I'd heard of you, you sounded, well, super-cool."
Silence falls until we come back to the front of the house, having made a complete circuit of the deck. "That's really flattering," I say, reaching out to stroke Fionna's hair.
"I think that's why I was hoping you would...you know...say you loved me," Fionna says. "Because I think I fell in love with you before we even met, all because of the way Gabe would describe you. I felt like my heart was on some kind of wild-goose chase...and then I finally got to know you for real, and it was a dream come true."
I'm tempted to crack a joke right now, maybe tease Fionna for displaying this unexpected romantic side. But said temptation quickly vanishes when I see a tear dripping down her cheek.
Without a word, I pull her close to me, my arms tightly wrapped around her waist as I kiss that tear away. In my head, I'm struggling to keep my thoughts under control. Namely, the thought about how awful it is that Fionna's just confessed this deep, personal feeling to me, and I still can't bring myself to reciprocate in all honesty. Now I hate myself even more.
Inside, I hear the phone ring again, but I pay it no attention after the first ring. I just want to concentrate on me and Fionna right now. "Wow," I say, hearing myself sniff and realizing I'm tearing up too. "Jesus. I'm so sorry, Fi."
"What do you gotta be sorry for?"
"If I'd have known-"
Unfortunately, I don't get to finish my sentence, because I'm interrupted by two loud noises. One is the squeal of tires on the driveway below. The other is a loud cry of "WHAT THE HELL?!" from inside.
It's Jeanne's voice.
Fionna and I exchange glances, then cringe a bit as we hear Paul (who's leaning out the upstairs window) bark, "HEY! WHO ARE YOU?"
Fionna and I look down at the driveway. I hear her thoughts, and they're pretty much the same as mine, because neither of us can believe what we're seeing.
Mr. Smythe opens the door of his SUV and practically falls out onto the driveway, stirring weakly and touching a bleeding nose. Then Elijah Emery emerges from the passenger door, comes around the SUV's front end, and punches Mr. Smythe in the side of the head.
Paul lets out a roar of mingled shock and anger. Then he jumps down from the upper floor, flies down to the driveway, and grabs Elijah's ankles, trying to trip him up. Unfortunately, Elijah manages to kick Paul's face and knock him away. Like his dad, he lies there on the concrete, barely even moving.
Ignoring the protests that erupt around me as everyone else begins crowding onto the deck behind Fionna, I jump over the railing and fly down to Elijah myself, delivering a kick straight to his head. He falls over for a moment, stunned.
But then Elijah disappears into a cloud of vapor and floats around me before solidifying again on my other side.
Jesus Christ, I think. This guy's like a water version of Electro.
I remember that Elijah has no telepathy, so how does one explain the way he twitches and looks down at me in sheer disgust, as if he heard my thought?
"I told you," Elijah says, raising his left hand. "You're not the one I want. Don't get involved."
"Dude, what's got you so steamed, huh?"
Elijah clearly doesn't have a sense of humor - his next move is to turn his hand into vapor, then send it flying towards me. It reforms around my wrist and turns to ice, then pushes me backwards until I'm pinned to the side of a tree.
The rest of Elijah's body turns into vapor once again, then floats up to the deck. He swirls around one person, and one person only, before grabbing hold of her hands and dragging her down the steps to the driveway.
"Fionna! No!" I struggle to break free from the ice binding me to the tree, but to no avail. Likewise, Fionna is unable to escape Elijah's grasp. Her first instinct is to use her elemental on him. In response, he freezes her hands just like he's frozen mine.
I lock eyes with Fionna, and I see nothing but fear in there.
"You wanna take one of us?" I yell at my favorite monster. "Take me! Let her go!"
Elijah looks at me once, rolls his eyes, then presses on. His left ice-hand unfreezes me only when he's reached Mr. Smythe's Acadia - the engine of which has been running the whole time - so he can open the rear driver-side door and push Fionna inside. He then gets into the driver's seat, pulls the SUV out, and drives away.
I try running after him, but Elijah hits the gas as quickly as he can. Within seconds, he's out of my range, and not long after that, he and Fionna are out of sight.