Corners of Hell

ZAYDA

I took Xythor’s hand and put his arm around me so I could help him to bed.

Just that morning, he’d denied my help.

He insisted that he could move alone, clean himself alone, cook alone.

But now, he was too sick to protest.

And that made the whole situation so much worse.

Fear boiled in my chest.

Whatever sickness Xythor had, it was progressing quickly. If I was scared before, now I was terrified.

The apartment, which used to represent love, freedom, and discovery to me, now felt haunted by the specter of his mysterious sickness.

“Xythor, where did the blood come from?” I asked, trying to keep my voice even.

If I freaked out, I knew it would only make him feel worse.

“I threw it up,” he admitted in a cracked voice.

My breath shuddered. Xythor’s head hung, as if he was ashamed, or he couldn’t bear his own weight.

“Hey,” I whispered, reaching for his chin.

I angled his head up and cradled his face in my arms.

His bleary eyes focused on me for a moment before they closed. They were yellow and bloodshot.

It pained me to look at my love. He was once the very vision of power and strength. His bursting vitality was one of the reasons I fell in love with him.

The man before me was nothing like that. His eyes were sunken, and his sallow cheeks hung from his skull.

He was covered in a sheen of clammy sweat. I touched his forehead, which was so hot in nearly scorched my fingers.

“Baby,” I paused, waiting for him to open his eyes. “I ~need~ to take you to the hospital.”

“No,” he replied immediately, shaking his head wearily.

“Why not, Xythor?” I couldn’t keep the panic from my voice.

“Zayda.” Even in the midst of this hellish situation, Xythor’s voice calmed me. “I’m sorry to put you in this situation. I know you’re scared. But I’m not going to the hospital. I’m going to get better. I promise.”

I bit my lip, feeling my eyes brim with tears.

His words were a salve to my anxious, quivering heart.

But could I trust him?

“I just can’t go to the hospital, Z. The doctors will find out what I am. They won’t help me, they’ll put me in a lab for tests.”

“Hey,” he whispered, touching my cheek. “What I need the most right now is for you to lay with me. Let’s just go to bed like this is any other night.”

“But there’s blood and vomit all over the floor,” I wept.

“I’ll throw some baking soda on it and clean after I rest. Please, Zayda.”

He implored me with those big, perfect eyes.

My head swam. I wanted to feel safe. I wanted to know the right thing to do.

But most of all, I wanted my boyfriend back. I wanted to be anxious about normal things, like his ex liking his Instagram posts.

Not this shit. I wasn’t built for this.

I sighed, the air flowing slowly through my nose, calming me slightly.

“Okay,” I replied.

Xythor smiled. For a moment, he looked like himself again.

He lay on his side and patted the bed beside him.

I didn’t mention that he hadn’t dealt with the vomit. I promised myself I’d get up when he fell asleep and clean it myself.

I curled up behind his back and locked my arms around his body.

“I love you, Zayda,” he whispered.

“I love you, too,” I replied.

I listened to his breathing become even and felt his body go slack.

Sleep had come for him.

Tears leaked down my cheeks as I held him in my arms. I cried for Xythor and his pain.

I cried for myself. I was growing up before I was ready.

Suddenly, Xythor thrashed in his sleep, kicking and flailing his arms. I froze, not knowing how to react.

It ended as soon as it began, and Xythor went silent, falling back to peaceful sleep.

I was still attached to him, still holding on.

It was a ghost moment. One that he was a part of, but only I knew about.

He did it, but it was my own little terror.

I embraced him tighter, hoping to calm him from whatever nightmare he’d had.

As I moved my fingers up his abdomen, I felt something warm and wet, and instantly, my brain went blank with fear.

~Blood.~

It was all I could think of.

I quickly pulled away from him and turned on the bedside lamp.

To my horror, as I lifted his shirt, I found that Xythor’s chest was covered in fresh, bleeding sores…

MADDIE

I stood at the edge of the Quarter and kicked a stone down the alley.

In the midday light, the place looked different. Slightly less fucked up.

Of course, I hadn’t forgotten the events of the night before. And I didn’t have a death wish either.

I was here to turn over a new leaf.

When Hael and I got back to the penthouse the night before, it was almost dawn. His broken nose healed before my eyes.

If it was possible for a beautiful, immortal dragon to look older, Hael did.

As he held me in bed, he didn’t say anything. But I knew what both of us were thinking.

“Alright, I’ll quit,” I said into the silence.

Hael kissed my head. “‘It’s about time, rat.”

I would quit selling overhead. But I couldn’t quit alone.

Thus, there I was, a few hours later, standing at the edge of my old haunt. The Skeleton Quarter.

“Maddie, I still don’t know about this,” Harry said from behind me.

He’d forgiven me for ditching him at Club Emerald, but I was testing our friendship all over again.

“You’d sell without your partner?” I asked, turning to narrow my eyes at him.

“I dunno, Mads! I like the money!” Harry admired his designer sneakers.

I rolled my eyes. Sure, I could sympathize with Harry. It was nice to have nice things.

But it wasn’t worth selling our souls.

“Once we find Dane and Aneurin, you’ll understand my change of heart,” I said.

I was waiting by the twins’ usual spot.

I craned my neck, but I couldn’t see anything.

“Hey, Dane!” I called optimistically.

No one replied.

I sighed. I ~really~ didn’t want to go look for them, so I was hoping they would come to me. But maybe I wouldn’t get so lucky.

A girl emerged from behind a corner. As she walked guardedly toward us, I recognized her as the girl I had met last night...before the Dirty Girty shitstorm.

She was coming down from an overhead high, that much was clear. She looked like absolute hell.

“Looking for the twins?” she asked in a shaky voice.

“Yeah,” I replied. She stared at me for a moment, as if remembering me, too, and set off down another alley.

A minute later, she returned with Dane and Aneurin. My tall friends pulled me into a tight hug.

“What’s up, Maddie?” Aneurin asked.

“I was hoping you’d come for a walk with me and Harry,” I replied.

As Aneurin pulled away, I met the girl’s eyes.

“Thanks,” I said.

“How about a little payment for the favor?” she managed. Her eyes darted around anxiously.

“I’m sorry, but I’m not selling anymore.”

I really was sorry. Not because I wouldn’t give her overhead, but because I couldn’t help her. I dug around in my bag and pulled out the muffin I was going to eat for breakfast.

She took it from my hand and eyed it disappointedly. She turned and retreated into the shadows of the Quarter.

I took a deep breath.

~Now, let’s get the fuck out of here.~

I led the way to Requiem Park and down a path that wound around the pond.

Dane and Aneurin were joking with one another, but Harry looked miserable.

“What made you want to stop hustling?” Aneurin asked, punching my arm.

“I realized it actually was as dangerous as everyone was saying,” I admitted with a wince. “Overhead is ~so~ fucked.”

Dane scoffed. “You can say ~that~ again.”

“Yeah,” Aneurin added, looking pensively at the trees. “The week after we quit was the worst of my life by ~far.~ But now that it’s out of my system, I feel...free.”

My heart soared. I was so thankful that Dane and Aneurin were off the drug. They could finally realize their full potential. As ~dragons!~

I glanced back at Harry as he kicked at a root with his hands in his pockets.

“Alright, here we are!” I cried as we entered a pine grove. My companions stopped. “What are we doing here?” Aneurin asked.

“I led us here for a ~ritual,”~ I began. “To represent ~all of us~ quitting overhead.”

“Hear, hear!” Dane cried.

Harry studied his sneakers.

“Fuck yeah,” Aneurin added. “Let me just say that I ~finally~ quit because I don’t want to be numb anymore.”

He shared a meaningful glance with his brother.

“Overhead took away our pain,” Dane elaborated. “But we didn’t realize it took everything else from us, too.”

I beamed at them as Aneurin slapped Dane’s back supportively.

“I quit because,” I began, taking my turn, “I want to make the Skeleton Quarter a ~better~ place. Not worse.”

The twins smiled at me meaningfully, and then we all shifted our gaze to Harry.

“Aw, fuck it,” he sighed. “I admit I like the cash. But it does feel wrong to sell this shit. I just ignored it.”

He rolled his eyes.

“And Darshan said he needs a sous chef…”

With that, I tackled Harry in a hug.

He was one of my oldest friends. Just as we had started our dealing career together, it felt right to end it together.

“Alright, Harry,” I said, pulling the remaining canisters from my bag and removing their tiny caps. “Ready?”

He did the same, passing some to Dane and Aneurin.

“Go!” I cried.

Together, we tipped the poison out onto the ground. It steamed as it fell, and wherever it touched, the grass instantly died.

“Fuck!” Harry exclaimed.

My friends and I smiled at one another.

“Onto bigger and better things,” Aneurin said.

I nodded.

Bigger and better things, indeed.

ZAYDA

I lay in the bathtub, letting the hot water surround me. Praying it could take me from the hell my life had become.

As badly as I wanted to leave Xythor’s apartment, I also couldn’t bear to leave him alone.

My head was a mess. My heart was worse.

The sleepless night left me weary, and as I rested against the porcelain, I felt a dream come over me.

No, not a dream.

A nightmare.

~I was trapped. I tried to cry out, but my mouth was covered in duct tape.~

~I was in a car. The trunk of a car, claustrophobic and hot.~

~I could hear only the road humming beneath the wheels.~

~We were moving well over the speed limit. Whoever was driving was on the run.~

~With a jolt, the pavement turned to loose stones.~

~The car bounced, sending my body banging off of the low roof.~

~I screamed, but I knew no one could hear me.~

~As I sped along, a sickening feeling told me I was being taken far away.~

~I closed my eyes, trying to shut out the motion sickness.~

~The road was long and rough. And I was helpless.~

~My body jumped in the dark as the car careened over a ledge.~

~In one bone-chilling moment, I suddenly knew...~

~This wasn’t a nightmare—it was a vision of the future!~

~The vision abruptly transformed to a new scene, just as disturbing as the last.~

~I was lying alone in a field. My skin crawled and my head pounded… I felt like I was about to burst at the seams.~

~Suddenly, two creatures flew into the air above me.~

~Two winged creatures blasted me with streams of fire, filling my vision with flames...~

I came to, splashing my hands down into the water, struggling to catch my breath.

The water was cold, and my heart pounded in my chest.

Gripping the side of the bathtub, I accepted the frightening truth…

Xythor’s sickness was only the beginning.