Surreal Ecstasy (27 page)

He wore a semi-exasperated
expression and watched TV absentmindedly. I said nothing, giving him a minute
to collect his thoughts. Just when I became so impatient that I wanted to
scream out, "Well?!" he started speaking again.

"More is expected of LGAs
because of the fact that they are angels,
Guardian
Angels, to be
precise. Our main purpose is to inspire and protect our charges. Obviously, a
big part of that is to help lead our charges back to The Light if they have a
crisis of faith, and anytime we can, we help
anybody
come back to The
Light. Case in point:  The LGA current objectives. We are expected to try to
convert the Slates"—here he glanced at Dess briefly—"to our side. We
are expected to be more loyal to The Light than almost anyone else. An LGA
fading is a big deal. More specifically, it is considered a great
disappointment and failure. Imagine being cradled by the power of The Light,
then absurdly turning your back on it,
after
having experienced the
happiness and purity it brings." He paused and sighed. "The whole
point of being an ordinary human, in our view, is to choose what side to be on,
where you would like to spend Eternity. If you were an angel who felt the kiss
of The Light and have since refused it, you have obviously chosen your side."

"Wait just a fucking minute,"
Dess interjected, turning her body to face Ree, "You insinuated a minute
ago that a fading LGA's energy is
similar
to that of the Melted. But
what you're telling us now is that a faded Worthy will actually
become
a
demon?"

He faced me, a near-apologetic look
in his eyes. "It's happened before," he said somberly.

"Really? Tell us about it,
Ree." I leaned forward with interest.

"It's not important."

"The hell it isn't," Dess
said without missing a beat.

He remained silent and looked at
the TV, his eyes searching, as if the fellow introducing the new, improved quilted
toilet paper would somehow help Ree find the right words.

"So, you're not gonna tell us,
Rios? Gonna keep it all to yourself, as usual, right?" Dess challenged,
her tone changing and mood getting heated.

"No, no. That's not it. It's
just that it would require a lot more discussion and would lead to all sorts of
things, and this is not the right time for that. We have other things to
consider at this moment, and we need to remain focused. Later, when we have
more free time, I'll tell the both of you anything and everything you could
ever hope to know. Do we have ourselves a deal?"

I considered for a moment, and then
nodded. "Sure, Ree. Sounds fair."

Dess only grunted and continued
watching TV. Ree and I moved around a little on the couch to get comfortable,
and we sat there, his arm around my shoulders while he and I observed the
reality show without really watching. Suddenly, I felt his body stiffen a
little, as if he thought of something he wanted to say to me.

I was right. "Morgan, I need
to talk to you about something."

"Sure." I kept watching
TV.

"We need to discuss your
suicide attempt. I want to be sure that you're happy with your life now and
where it's going, and most importantly, I want to make sure you're feeling good
about yourself, because you have every reason to be inspired and excited."

My head snapped to face him. He was
watching me closely.

I looked in his eyes and saw
something there that I have so rarely seen in anyone:  Genuine love and concern
for me and my emotional health. I smiled upon seeing this, watching the ripple
effect hit him as he smiled as well.

"I think it's safe to say that
I see my life very differently than I did about a week ago."

Ree didn't react immediately but
continued to search my eyes. "Are you positive about this?"

My smile grew. "Yes, I am.
Thanks, Ree." I gave him a huge bear hug and kissed him lightly.

After the show was over, Dess got
up and left the room without saying a word.

Doing
anything
without
speaking was unusual for her.

"She's a little emotional right
now," Ree said quietly. "Dess actually
can
get sentimental
sometimes. Tomorrow, or the day after—I forget which—is her ex-girlfriend's
birthday. She's still recovering from their breakup."

I was stunned for a moment,
realizing that I never really thought of Dess' love life and whether or not she
had someone, or missed anyone. I'd been so caught up in my own drama. After all
the trouble she went through for me last week, I couldn't even trouble myself
to ask her about her own personal life.

Some best friend I turned out to
be.

I wanted to ask him more about it,
but felt that doing so would be more like gossiping behind her back, which I
didn't want to do. I owed her more than that.

I grabbed the TV remote and handed
it to Ree, walking down the hall to her bedroom. Dess' door was partially open,
so I approached it and tapped it lightly with my knuckle.

"Hey. You wanna talk about it?"
No point in pretending Ree didn't just tell me about her ex-girlfriend.

Dess, sitting on her bed and
looking at the floor, looked up suddenly and attempted to smile. She actually
had a box and frame, unlike me, so she was able to sit on her bed and stretch
her legs out while resting her feet on the floor, a mundane thing that seemed
so luxurious to me.

"Come sit down," she invited,
motioning to an armchair by the bed. As I came in and sat, she continued
talking. "I just…I miss her. Whatever." She paused and chuckled, as
if the notion of missing
anyone
was just plain idiotic. Dess smiled at
me, looking a lot like her old self. "I go back and forth from not missing
her to thinking about her everyday. You know how that is."

I did know. Not too long ago I had
thought that way about Adim. I didn't want to mention that to her, however,
because Dess' ex was probably very different from Adim, and I didn't want her
to think I compared the two. I nodded, leaned forward and put my hand on hers,
silently letting her know that I understood, and that she could talk to me if
she needed to. She gave me a small, grateful smile and nodded back. "Hey,
I got something interesting to tell you, Morgue. I was thinking about it last
night and then forgot about it—what with all the excitement and all."

"Yeah? What is it?"

"I think that bitch who posted
the fake picture of you on Facebook is same bitch who photoshopped it."

My breath caught, both from the
random revelation and because I haven't thought about that stupid fake picture
in what seemed like lifetimes.

"What did you –? How? How did
you get to that conclusion?"

Dess took a breath and sat back. I
let go of her hand and did the same, sitting back and waiting anxiously for
details.

She got up and started pacing
around her bedroom. Briefly I had a flashback of her doing the same thing in my
hospital room. "I dunno, Morgue. I can't really explain it. I was half
awake and lying in bed and thinking about all this shit's that's happened to
us, and as I lingered over the details regarding that picture, out of nowhere a
thought popped in my mind that this bitch who posted the picture is not only
the same one who changed it so it would look like you, but I considered the
possibility that she's connected to Adim, and that he might have told her to do
it."

It was a good thing I was sitting.
I was starting to feel a tad dizzy. "Nailah? I mean, we were never close,
but…" My mind whirled, trying to piece this information together with
everything else I knew.

I put my head in my hands for a
moment, then sighed and shook my head. "How many people are working for
Adim? This is insanity. Does this mean Nailah's Melted too?"

Dess stopped pacing and stood by my
chair. "Morgue, we don't know this for a fact yet. But at the very least,
we should keep it in mind."

I nodded. "We should probably
start keeping a list of the Melted we know about and a list of potential
Melted." I brightened with a new thought. "You were probably
beginning to tap into your Lachesis powers last night. Do you remember more of
her—your—memories?"

Dess' face lit up a little. "I
think so. If I just get the chance to rest, I'm sure it'll come back, bit by
bit."

"That's great, Dess! You're
even scarier than you were before, which is really saying something." We
both laughed and I hugged her before heading out her bedroom door.

Happy with what I conquered with
Dess, I wandered back outside to sit next to my yummy man on the couch. He gave
me the most beautiful smile known to mankind and kissed my cheek.

"I missed you," he said.

"Not even close to how much I
missed you."

"So what happened with Crazy
Twin Sis?"

I laughed and briefly related my
conversation with Dess. He listened with a slight frown on his face.

"I don't know if Nailah's
damned," Ree commented after I'd finished. "I don't think she was
prominent in your life enough for me to ascertain that without actually seeing
her in person. But from what it sounds like, I would say she's either Melted,
like the nurse, or another choop
working
for the Melted, like Ethan is.
I think we should really start coming up with defense strategies for Adim's
quirky attacks. He does not accomplish much from them, but we should still be
prepared."

I sighed and nodded, thinking of
all the work we had ahead of us.

We went to bed after then, and
after a wonderful, hour-long expression of love, fell asleep. Being with Ree
was pure heaven, but as soon as I fell asleep, I began dreaming of hell, and
the funny thing was, I
knew
I was dreaming as I was doing it.

I watched myself as if I were at a
movie theater, and had no control over what "Movie-Me" was doing. It
was as if I were nothing but a spirit, lurking around and observing.

I (I'll just say 'I' instead of "Movie-Me")
was at the bottom of a series of steps. They looked like the kind of steps you'd
see in a haunted house—rickety, dark gray, made of rotting wood—but they were
outdoors. There was a red sky above, which was all I could see, other than the
steps.

I climbed the rickety steps a lot
faster than I should have. The benefits of being in a dream, I suppose. To my
surprise, a big, heavy, wooden door stood at the top; not something you'd
expect to see after seeing those old steps.

I opened the door and let myself
in, seeing a sort of eye-shaped room that was split up into sections with
sitting furniture and bookshelves.

Closing the door behind me, I
stepped to the right where two comfortable-looking couches sat. There was a man
sitting in one. He stood up when I entered the room, and though he was dressed
very nice—he was in some type of suit that Ree would probably kill for—something
about this stranger threw me off.

He watched me with an
other-worldly, almost reptilian fascination.

Who was he?

"Oh. I do apologize," he
purred. "You don't recognize me." He laughed and changed his form.
Before I knew it, he had taken on the shape of a creature—a creature with thick
pig skin that was blood red as well. His eyes had no pupils and were completely
red in color. Two curling horns stood on top of his head. When he smiled, blood
dripped out of his mouth.

I trembled inside, because there
was no doubting who this was. But I showed him no fear, and looked at him dead
in his eye.

Chapter 18

Evil, personified.

"You're the devil." I
forced myself to be strong and look directly at this bastard.

"Morgan, we have much to
discuss, you and I." In this form, his voice was very different—'loud'
didn't even begin to describe him. It was more like a voice the size of the
Earth, a booming sound seeming to originate from the very core of the planet. I
had a feeling that if I had heard this voice while awake, I wouldn't have
survived the experience.

"Yeah? Somehow, I doubt that."
Oh, the movie-me was much braver and confident. I daresay she was pretty damned
impressive.

"You believe that the Worthy
discriminates against the Melted. You are right. Good and evil need to work
together to eliminate the freaks of nature, the Slates."

You see them all as being
damned? Isn't that a little unfair?

That was my voice coming from an
unknown source; it was almost like a recording of what I had said to Ree
earlier about the Melted. I rolled my eyes. "Yes, I said that. So what?"

"
Why
did you say this,
Morgan?"

I was getting impatient. "I
don't like it when people judge others, no matter who they are or who they're
judging." I paused and shifted gears. "Ree should be included here.
Out of respect for him, I'm not continuing this discussion without him."

"You are not going to call
upon the Worthy known as Tiberius. This is
our
conversation."

"Do
not
tell me what I
am or am not doing," I ordered.

Damn. Snap.

He simpered with mild amusement. "You
don't seem to understand, my dear. We both know he is unable to enter your
dreams. You and I need to have our own intimate conversation."

I decided to ignore the statement
about Ree, although part of me wondered how much he actually knew about us, and
how much he was bluffing. "Funny, all
I
have to say is 'fuck you.' 
If Adim is an example of one of the Melted, you can keep it and shove it right
up your stinking, foul ass." Nice. While in this dream state, I was even
more impressive than Dess.

"They are all my children, and
for the actions of my child, I apologize to you, Morgan," he said, taking
a formal bow. "He's a little misdirected. And insane, I'll readily admit.
But do not judge the rest of us based on one experience. That would not be
fair." He sat back and watched me with those terrorizing eyes, apparently
satisfied with himself.