by Simone Elise
I kept running, until finally, I could identify the noise. I smiled broadly when I picked up the beat.
“Ethan, I love this song!” I shouted over my shoulder. I didn’t really wonder why a car was parked in the middle of the forest or really question the fact that music was blaring. I did what I would normally do in this situation.
I danced.
“You look like a dying octopus.” Ethan snorted, his arms crossed.
I danced toward him, now singing the lyrics. I was spinning and slowly swaying my way toward Ethan. He looked horrified.
“Don’t come near me.” He took a step back, hands raised, trying to keep me at a distance. “Stop that. You’re going to take an eye out.”
“Come on, Ethan, dance with me.”
“I’ll do no such thing!”
I placed a hand on each of his shoulders and, with a lot of force, I got them to move from side to side.
“Come on, Ethan, don’t be so tight, let loose!” I moved back, popping it like I owned the joint. Grinning wildly, I got the best idea. “Want to see me do the worm?” I wiggled my eyebrows up and down.
“Why on earth would I want to see you pretend to be a worm?!” Ethan shook his head, most likely wondering about my sanity.
“Okay, if you don’t dance, I’m going to…” I chewed my bottom lip, thinking of something to blackmail him with.
“What?” Ethan smirked.
I had nothing.
“I’ll strip.” I shrugged my shoulders. What a great idea. Ethan would be scarred for life if he saw that. “Yeah, I’ll strip. So, what will it be, pretty boy, a dance show or a strip show?”
“You won’t.”
“Want to dare me?” I smiled smugly.
“I don’t know how to dance.” Ethan looked quickly in the other direction, embarrassed.
It was so tempting to make fun of him right now, but I’m not that mean. Smiling, I walked toward him, pulling his arms out of the tight cross he was holding them in.
“Okay, first loosen up.” I placed my hands in Ethan’s. If I didn’t know him better, I’d have thought I saw a blush. “All right, now just follow my lead.”
I lifted our arms up, swaying and singing. He wasn’t moving, so I pulled on his arms, forcing him to move. I let go of his hands after he managed to get some sort of rhythm going and, to my surprise, he actually danced with me.
“I guess it’s good no one can see us. We would look kind of weird, dancing in the forest.” I grinned at Ethan then did a double-take when I saw it. Could it be? No, it couldn’t be. Ethan was smiling?
“You’re smiling! I didn’t know it was possible!” I cheered and jumped.
“Real mature, Addy.”
Addy? He’d given me a nickname? Well, who knew a little bit of dancing could perform miracles!
The music stopped, and I stopped dancing, glancing at the car. Well, I supposed the song was coming to an end, but did they really have to kill the music? We were just getting into it.
“Shit, we are late!” Ethan cursed and then quickly walked around me and jogged down to the car.
“Late for…?” I jogged behind him: “Is it a dinner date? Because then we would have something in common with a rabbit. Have you seen Alice in Wonderland? ”
Ethan didn’t reply. Okay, maybe it was a lame joke. But it deserved a snigger.
I came to a stop next to Ethan, who was staring into the car with a hard expression on his face. I looked into the cab to see what he was staring at and screamed.
Chapter 6
“It’s bright pink!” I pushed Ethan out of the way for a closer look.
“What in heaven’s name would make him wear a pink t-shirt?” I gasped, leaning into the car, staring at the man inside. “That’s bright pink, too.”
“You’re noticing the t-shirt but you have failed to notice the pills in his hand.” Ethan shook his head. “You really suck at this.”
“You really suck at this,” I mimicked him, pulling my head out and leaning against the car. “Hey, how come I could put my head through the window?”
“You’re just special.” Ethan rolled his eyes.
“I already knew that,” I agreed. “Didn’t know you shared the opinion though.”
“Enough games, Addison. Are you going to help save this guy or not?” Ethan stomped a foot and it took all my self-control not to burst into laughter.
“Sure, what do I do again? That mind thingy?”
Ethan was not amused. “You seriously don’t remember? The only thing you are meant to remember and you don’t!”
“Hey, it’s been a busy few hours.”
“You can observe then.” Ethan pushed me out of the way gently. “I have to do everything.”
“You wish!” I scoffed.
Ethan placed a hand on the guy’s temple, leaning into the car slightly. I watched him close his eyes, and his face turned serious and hard.
I supposed now was a good time to remain silent. It wasn’t as if I had an option. I think Ethan’s head would explode if I spoke right now.
Suppressing a grin, I pictured his head exploding into little bits everywhere. Ethan really had an anger-management problem or maybe it was just when it came to me.
“Done.” Ethan pulled away from the guy and turned to face me. “And that is how the pros do it.”
“Do what?”
“You are one frustrating woman!”
“And you are one angry man.” I winked at him, and then looked at the poor guy who was wiping tears from his cheek. “What’s wrong with him anyway? Will he be okay?”
“Yeah, he will be.” Ethan glanced over his shoulder, then turned back to look at me. “Come on; time to go back to Hell.”
“Well, doesn’t that sound like fun!” I tried to keep up with his long stride. “Can we just stay here?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because I have things to do.” Ethan glanced at me. “And I need a break from your mouth.”
“You love my mouth.” I shouldered him lightly. “So what do I do in Hell?”
“Wait for me to take you back out!” Ethan stopped abruptly.
“So, what? I have to wait in that shoe box of a room the whole time?” My eyes widened at the very thought of it. “That’s boring as hell!”
I dropped the humor and playfulness. I couldn’t honestly believe I had to just sit in a room and wait for King Lame to decide when we would go back out.
“Did you forget, Addison, that you’re in Hell? Hell isn’t meant to be fun.” Ethan grabbed my hand tightly, and the forest around us disappeared in a swirl of colors.
Looks like I was going back to Hell, even though I was going to be bored stupid there.
***
When we landed back in Hell, I was on top of Ethan, on the floor. “Dude, you suck at this moving from Hell to Earth thing.” I pulled myself to my feet. “Really.”
Ethan stood up swiftly and didn’t look back at me, unfazed by my remark. “I’ll see ya.” He tried to walk past me.
Twirling around quickly, I grabbed his upper arm. “You can’t leave me!”
“Yes, I can,” Ethan said, jerking his arm away.
“No, don’t go!” I gave him my best attempt at puppy dog eyes. “Please, can I come with you?”
Ethan’s expression slowly softened, and he let out a heavy sigh. “Fine, but no talking.” He pointed at me. “Promise not one word.”
I ran a finger across my lip, gesturing that my lips were sealed. Even though Ethan wasn’t the best companion, he was better than no one. When it came down to it, I only had this grump of a man to talk to.
For the next few hours, I would be good. No talking. Was it even possible to not talk? I couldn’t really think of a time when I hadn’t spoken.
My hand dropped back to my side, and I strolled beside Ethan as we headed… Well, I didn’t know where we were heading.
“Hear that?” Ethan asked. “Silence.” He looked overly happy about me not t
alking. I hope he didn’t think this was going to be a permanent thing.
I was going to make him pay for this. I just wasn’t sure how yet.
Chapter 7
You would think Ethan’s room would be really cool, right? A big flat screen, every gaming console ever made, along with every game. You would expect a fully smart bedroom, seeing as he doesn’t sleep. Well, when I walked in, you could not imagine my surprise.
There was a big old bed in the middle of the room, and an old fancy-looking armchair behind a big old wooden desk. The only other things in the room were his books. Yep, mountains of big fat books.
I investigated for a while, walking around aimlessly. Ethan hadn’t moved from his desk since we walked in. I wondered what he was reading, but every time I got close to him he would snap at me.
I stopped in front of one of the mounds of books, trying to read the titles, but it was as if they were in a different language.
“Get away from them!” Ethan didn’t look up from what he was reading. “Now!”
“What? You scared I’m going to damage your old books?” I gave him a hurt look. “I’ll have you know, Ethan, I am not clumsy.”
“You are. Now get away from them.”
“I am not!” I stomped my foot, huffing.
“Just get away from them before—”
As if on cue, I knocked the bottom book with my ankle. The stack of books, which was larger than me, began to wobble. Stepping back, I put my hands out, cringing as I watched them tumble to the side and then into the next stack and the next. There was a loud bang, followed by a cloud of dust.
Turning around, I looked guiltily at Ethan. His jaw dropped, and he was looking at the mess I had made. To be fair, he had stacked them very poorly, but I didn’t think now was the time to remind him of that.
“Umm, oops?” I said.
His eyes narrowed. “Bed, now!” He pointed to the bed.
Quickly, I skittered over to the bed, jumping through the air and landing in the middle. The bed made a very unhealthy cracking noise. But lucky for me, Ethan was too upset about his books to hear it.
He was now standing over the damage, muttering curse words under his breath about how stupid I was. I just rolled my eyes. Really, it was just a stack of books. Clearly, Ethan didn’t have much to worry about.
“It has taken me centuries to organize these, and it took you a minute to destroy them.” He gave me a dirty look and began to restack them.
“Come on, Ethan. It’s just a stack of books. But I am sorry.”
“No talking,” Ethan snapped.
Please, we weren’t back to that, were we?
“But I was silent for ages,” I whined, dropping my bottom lip. “I’m sorry, okay?”
“You don’t mean it.”
“You know, it is unhealthy to be this in love with books! Didn’t take you as a bookworm.” I dropped the puppy dog eyes and the pity face.
“I’m ignoring you.” Ethan got up from the floor, giving up on restacking the books already, and walked back to his desk. Oh no, not again. Like hell was he just going to go back to reading. I was bored senseless!
“Ethan?”
He ignored me.
“Ethan….?” I dragged out his name.
He flicked the page of his book, not looking up at me. He would regret that. Didn’t he know I could be very annoying? I thought he had learned that by now. Sniggering to myself, an evil grin spread on my face.
“I’ll start singing.”
No reply. Clearing my throat, I was about to let the first note roar, when he broke his silence.
“Can’t you go annoy someone else?” Ethan grunted. “Go for a walk or something.”
“Around Hell?” I shook my head. “I think not!” I fell back on his bed and stared up at the black ceiling. “Hey, if you don’t sleep, why do you have a bed?”
Ethan let out a grunt of amusement. “Why do you think?”
“To lie on.” I gave him a smile of fake understanding before looking the other way, snickering. Ethan rattled off about how stupid I was. Clearly, I knew what he was hinting at, but hey, it was more fun to annoy him than to brush his ego.
“So, can we go?” I asked. “Back out to Earth and save some lives? Stop crime and, you know, all that jazz?”
“You don’t stop crime, you cause it.” Ethan glanced at me with a small smirk. “But seeing you asked nicely, I guess we can.”
“Score!” I fist-pumped the sky and quickly climbed off the bed.
“You look like an adult but you don’t act like one.” Ethan shook his head at me, before opening his bedroom door and holding it open for me.
“Dad always said I would never grow up.”
Ethan closed the door and we walked down the narrow corridor together. My shoulder kept brushing his arm.
“I suppose in a way he was right.” I slowed down a bit so I could follow Ethan rather than walking beside him. Let’s face it, it was awkward that I kept accidentally touching him. And mentioning my dad brought some feelings to the surface.
“Your dad also thought you would never learn to swim,” Ethan replied softly. Maybe he picked up on the low tone in my voice.
“Yeah.” I smiled. “I sure did show him about that.” Dad said I would never learn to swim because I wouldn’t stick to anything, but I went to every swimming lesson. Looking back, I think he did it on purpose. I could never turn down a challenge.
Hold on a sec. Slowly, I began to frown. “How did you know that?” I looked at Ethan’s broad back, which stiffened. “I didn’t tell you that.”
Ethan didn’t answer and when we reached the end of the corridor and stepped into the hall, I reached out and grabbed his arm, pulling him to a stop.
“How did you know that?” I frowned up at him. His face was painted with annoyance.
“You must have mentioned it.” Ethan wouldn’t look me in the eye. I let go of his arm, not wanting to touch him right now. Clearly, he was lying.
“Right.” I pursed my lips tightly. “You know what? I think I will just go back to my room. Let you have that break you wanted from me after all.” I hated being lied to, and I knew he was lying. The question was why?
For a split second, disappointment flickered across Ethan’s face before he quickly regained control of his emotions. “Fine, whatever! I’ll show you back to your room.”
“No, don’t bother.” I gave him a disgusted look before walking away. His attitude was really rubbing me the wrong way now. Being grumpy was one thing but lying to me was another. After all, the only person I knew in Hell was him, and if I couldn’t trust him, I had no one.
“Addy, you don’t know where you are going!”
I ignored the fact that he was right, and I overlooked that he’d actually called me by a nickname. But the thing I was trying to ignore the most as I walked away was the soft and concerned tone in his voice. Because hearing that Ethan was actually concerned about me stirred feelings I didn’t want to have for him.
Chapter 8
I went back to my bedroom, which I found on my own. I couldn’t stop glaring at the door. Why? well….
“Addison, open the door!”
I glared at the closed door, which was a barrier between that dipstick Ethan and me. He could knock as long as he wanted. I was not opening it for anyone! Especially not for him. I did wonder why he hadn’t just broken in already. It’s not like it was locked or anything. He could just twist the doorknob.
Who knew Ethan was a gentleman at heart?
“Addison, you can ignore me all you want, I know you’re in there.”
I wished there was some sort of window I could escape from just to prove him wrong. But sadly, I was locked in here. It wasn’t like I had anywhere else to go.
Finally giving in, I reached out and twisted the doorknob, letting the door swing open. I looked Ethan up and down briefly before meeting his eyes with an expressionless face.
“Finally,” he muttered hotly under his breath, leani
ng against the doorframe. “I was beginning to look pathetic.”
“We all know you crossed pathetic about an hour ago.” I stared blankly at the wall, rather than at him. If I didn’t know Ethan better, I would actually think he cared about me not talking to him. Then silence fell between us.
Now that he was finally speaking to me, it was as if he didn’t know what to say.
“About before,” Ethan began, then paused for a moment. “I just knew; it wasn’t a big deal.”
“How did you just know?” Don’t look at him, Addy, just keep staring at the wall.
“I… Well…” Ethan stuttered. “Does it really matter? It’s nothing.”
“Fine, where are we going now then?” I got up from the bed, managing to maintain my former lack of expression. If he wasn’t going to tell me, I wasn’t going to push. Rather, I would give him the cold shoulder.
Ethan looked at me, taken aback by my attitude. “Addy.”
“It’s ‘Addison,’” I corrected, standing in front of him. “Are you going to move and let me out?”
He stepped back into the hallway, and I swear I saw a hurt expression flash across his face. I closed the small door, locking it, and putting that stupid key in my pocket. “Lead the way.” I gestured for him to start walking.
Grinding his teeth and huffing, he walked past me and stormed up the hallway. Why he was angry, I didn’t know. It wasn’t as if he was being lied to. I glared holes into the back of Ethan’s head. Why wouldn’t he just tell me?
Sure, it was a little thing, but a lot of little things add up to big things. Didn’t Ethan trust me? Why would he feel the need to keep it from me?
Finally, we made it to the room with the map. I wondered briefly why I still hadn’t seen anyone besides Ethan here since the day I arrived. Ethan reached out for my hand and, not having any other choice, I took his.
“Let’s get started then.” I stared him in the eye, making sure to not let him think just because I was holding his hand he was forgiven.
I wasn’t letting this drop, and if he thought he’d heard the last of this, he was sadly mistaken.
***
Taking my fingers from the young girl’s temple, my nerves subsided. I opened my eyes and watched her. Had I done it right?
