Huh. Giselle actually did bear a striking resemblance to Frankenstein’s bride. Really. She was only a couple of black hair streaks and some stitches away from moaning, “Fire—Bad.”
Giselle glared at him for a beat before spinning on her heel and gliding out of the room. “I’m bringing the first aid kit,” she grumbled over her shoulder.
“Why are you so mean to her?” Hailey asked him.
“Because,” he said as he drew one from her scalp, “she deserves it.”
“I wish you’d be a little—ouch!—nicer. I think it hurts her feelings that everyone’s so mean.”
“Clearly you don’t know your roommate.” He made a third attempt at a staple that’d embedded itself near Hailey’s underarm. “Come ‘ere,” he said under his breath as he tried to grab it again.
Hailey looked over her shoulder to see how things were going, and that was a mistake. Among the sea of bloodied staples strewn across the table, one still had a chunk of flesh attached.
“Uh-oh,” Hailey said, woozy. Darkness crept into her periphery and her ears felt like they were full of water. The whole room tipped like a canoe, and she fell forward.
“Whoa!” Fin lunged to catch her before she hit the floor. The tweezers clanged against the table, and Fin grabbed her by the shirt, ripping at least twenty staples out at once.
That was enough to put her the rest of the way out.
When Hailey came to, she was sprawled, belly-down, shirtless, braless, and mostly skinless on Fin’s bed— she recognized the cologne. A soft and peacefulMoonlight Sonatavibrated through Fin’s guitar. His humming joined it in perfect pitch as she stirred.
“Giselle dressed your wounds. Your clothes were ruined, but on a brighter note, I found you a new roommate.” He tossed her one of his t-shirts.
“What?” She groaned as even the slightest movement stretched the raw skin on her back. “I don’t want a new roommate.”
“You’re still out of it.”
“No, I’m not. I like my roommate.” Hailey turned away from him as she sat, painfully lifting the t-shirt over her head.
“Nobodylikes your roommate,” he told her. “She’s a raging bitch.”
“She’s not…” Hailey heaved an aggravated sigh. “She’s not…raging.”
“Yeah, she is.”
“Well, I like her,” she said decisively, and Fin cocked his head, studying her for a moment.
“How come you came here instead of waiting for Asher?”
“I would have waited—Ididwait…long enough anyway, outside the observatory,” she told him, and he looked away. “It was weird,” she continued. “I called his name, and he never showed. I mean, the other day, I tripped going up the stairs in the Trinity Center, and he caught me before I fell—he got to me instantly, coming all the way from Olde Main,” she told him forlornly. “Guess he must be pretty busy tonight, huh.”
“Maybe he’s bored with you,” Fin said with an edge. “…or maybe he’s dead,” he added in a way too hopeful tone.
Hailey rolled her eyes, but inside she worried. She’d just lost half her skin in his lab. She’d cried out for him, and he’d ignored her. Maybe Fin was right. Maybe Asher changed his mind again and now wanted her dead. She felt guilty for thinking it, but maybe he was off conspiring with Cobon.
“Can I just sleep here?” she sighed, falling forward onto Fin’s pillow.
“Sure,” he said. When she turned her head to him he was smiling. He pulled a blanket from his cupboard, curled up on his recliner, and stared lovingly at her until she fell asleep.
“To what do I owe the pleasure?” Cobon asked rather anxiously as Asher appeared in his home uninvited.
“I cannot help but imagine your interest in my girl,” he answered coldly. “Do you wish to kill her?”
“Straight to the point, as usual,” Cobon observed as he gazed out his window at his home near Pittsburgh.
“I should return the favor, but I enjoy your conversation too much to skip the pleasantries. I’ve grown quite fond of this place,” he said, sounding more content than he had in decades. “See here, Asher,” Cobon said, pointing out a tall window. “One can hardly see civilization through the autumn leaves. Is it not beautiful here?”
“There is much beauty in this world.”
