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The Fallen Chapter 4

Chapter 4
My heart sank lower in my chest as I walked through the door of House of Breakfast. Which I guessed was supposed to be funny since it served all three meals of the day. Haha for them. Did they really think that they could make me happy? How could anybody be happy dead?
It was like they were mocking me…
I walked blindly to the table where Quinn was going. There were three people there - two girls and a boy - just like he said. They all appeared a few years older than me - deep inside their own conversation.
They all looked up simultaneously as we approached. Their attention aimed directly at guess who? thats right, me.
I didn’t care.
“Everyone, this is Alex. Alex this is Zoe” He gestured to a girl with long, red fiery hair that curled around her ashen face. She wore a giant smile that made me want to punch her. Intuition told me that she was going to be annoying because of her seemingly excessive happiness. Ugh.
“Kimi” he pointed to a tough looking girl. Her arms crossed against her chest and eyes narrowed. The roots of her hair were dark brown, but as they layered out, they became lighter and lighter until they hit blonde. Her dark brown eyes surveyed the wreck before her. This girl seemed like the complete opposite of Zoe.
“and Phil,” the guy had shaggy, brown hair with kind, hazel eyes. He wore a welcoming smile that touched his eyes. I didn’t buy it. Did I ever?
Everyone said hi. Well…except me: it always starts with one word. That word becomes a conversation and that conversation eventually evolves into a bond and that bond…well…you know what happens after that.
I took a seat before they were finishing with there hi’s. Then it was silent - the kind of awkward silence where you feel like whispering “akwaaaard…”
But I was stubbornly determined not to break it first.
“You don’t talk much do you?” Zoe asked seriously. Just to make a point to her I said nothing - just looked at her like I wanted to kill her.
Well, crap.
I couldn’t even make that threat.
“huh…” she said in amazement.
“Give her a break, O’Hara” I thought Kimi was going to say more, but the waitress came by at that moment. She must be dead too I figured.
“Hello,” she looked directly at me, “My name is Ruth. Do you want anything, dear?”
Ahh, my sweet, temporary escape. Did they card the undead? It wasn’t like they could kill people. Time to find out.
“Beer.”
Her face frowned with disapproval. “Honey, I think you should let it sink in a little bit more.”
“Beer, please.” I repeated, this time a little bit more forceful.
She sighed a sigh of defeat and asked what kind of beer I would like. I told her and she walked away. It struck me as odd that she didn’t ask the others what they would like….
“Hey! You talked!” she said brightly. “How’d you know that we can drink?”
“Yeah, because they’re just going to build a restaurant in the middle of a city if no one eats.” I said my voice dripping with sarcasm. She looked taken aback.
Phil laughed. “This is going to be amusing.” Zoe shot him a look while he just smiled back at her.
My heart throbbed in my chest, longing for salvation. Why did it seem so utterly possible yet I couldn’t even begin to reach for it?
“We meet here every morning,” Quinn interrupted my thoughts, “to get our reaping assignments. So make sure you’re here on time.”
“Ok.” I didn’t know what ’on time’ meant - what was the time part of on time? - but I didn’t care. For now, all I wanted was a way out. Out of everything - pain, life, death, feelings, this wretched, evil place with its looks so deceiving.
I felt exhausted to the point of falling over and curling up into the fetal position, but of course I kept on my feet. Trying to outwit the temptation of curiosity. It was a job easier said than done, if you can imagine.
“Why me?” I asked abruptly. Going by the looks of all the people around me I’m positive I almost gave them all heart attacks. It scared me to realize that I wished I had.
Zoe leaned forward like she was going to tell me something vitally important. “It’s a destiny thing. Didn’t Quinn tell you not to question it?”
I sighed heavily. When was my beer going to get here?
Just like that, out of nowhere, the waitress (what was her name? Ruth?) came by carrying my wonderful escape. Thank freakin’ god.
Suddenly, I found myself caring what the four people sitting at this normal appearing, cedar table thought of me. And like pretty much everything else in my undead life, I found it fucking weird. I wasn’t exactly feeling self-conscious or anything shit-stupid like that, but it was the reason I didn’t just chug the bottle of beer as soon as I got it. The way I so desired too.
Damn...
“So, Kimi,” Zoe launched into her own conversation, “I was thinking that Alex could room with you. Please… you know how I need my personal space and I don’t really work well with newcomers. Is that okay with you?” Her clear, blue eyes were pleading.
Kimi snorted in disbelief. “The only reason your shoving her into my apartment is because you don’t want her to mess with your precious make-up collection.”
“That you stole from an old lady.” Quinn and Phil said at the exact same time. Then looked at each other and laughed self-consciously.
“It’s not like she was using it anymore.” Zoe grumbled, unhappy that they were talking about her make-up negatively. “and it wasn’t just one lady. There was this nice African girl that had the lipstick. She was wearing it, too, when that metal beam fell on her.”
I got a sick feeling in my stomach. They talked about killing like it was a good thing. Well I guess it is in some cases, but that isn’t really the point here.
“I think your freaking Alex out.” Quinn pointed out.
Zoe gave me an apologetic smile.
“Is that moral? To steal from the dead, I mean.”
She made a face. “It doesn’t matter if its moral. It just m -”
“Don’t listen to Zoe, Alex, ” Kimi interrupted, “You can either make a living or steal from the dead. It’s as simple as that and since I’m not a thief I have a job. It’s not like I’m going to let myself starve just because I cant physically die from it.”
“So, I’m guessing we don’t get paid to kill people.” I said as I took a sip of beer.
“We don’t kill we take their souls and sadly, no, we don’t get paid.” Zoey responded with mock sadness in her voice.
Wonderful. Now on top of trying to deal with all this I had to get a job. And knowing my luck it was going to be a suck-ass one too.
“All you would do with the money is buy shoes and shit,” Quinn told Zoe.
She didn’t say anything.
We all took it as confirmation.
_________
We are all running from what haunts us.

Posted by xmidnightxwingsx on 2008-07-20 18:13:11 | Rating: