THE 33 KEYS: Key 2 - ANSWER THE CALL "Listen for that Perfect Beat"

CHAPTER 38: VISITS FROM ANGELS

Friday morning brings with it more rejection, this time from the museum. Apparently, I'm not fit enough to be anyone's assistant. And here I was thinking myself to be overqualified for the position. But there's something else that's strange about this morning. Hazel's butt isn't glued to its usual spot.

I enter the ground floor of her building – the front one that's beneath our standard; that is, us on the elite top floor. Yet, no answer comes from door fifty-one. Is Hazel dead? Please God, don't make Hazel be dead. I swear to you, I'll mount that rooftop and jump over if you take my Hazel away too.

God doesn't respond either. Could it be a case of him being unimpressed? Maybe I should resort to begging instead. Zero. There's no way I'm going down on my knees in this lowly corridor to plead for Hazel's life. Besides, her God never sends anyone back. A half-naked girl peeps out, her lower body stained red by the sea.

"Looking for Hazel?"

"Er, yes," I say, avoiding her light yellow eyes. "She's not in her usual spot."

"No one's there." The girl holds a towel against herself now. "She left just after nine."

"Did she say where she was going?"

"Something about an angel paying a visit. Oh, and that she was going to heaven with him."

I race out before the girl sees my thoughts burst into flames.

So Hazel really is going to leave me after all. That means I'll be the only one owing rent. My feet pace back and forth between a short distance; then they dump me in Matron Caine's herb garden. I'm about to let out my loudest scream when the front gate opens. It's my Hazel, walking in wearing her biggest smile. This yanks a smile out from me as well, my first in a while. Relief pushes my feet towards her.

"Where the hell have you been? I thought you were dead."

"Dead!" she shrieks. "Why on earth would I be dead?"

"That girl, your neighbour; she said you left with an angel to go to heaven."

"Oh, that! And you translated a trip to heaven to mean death? Still on a reading high, I see."

"Come on, Hazel. You know the saying. Everybody wants to go to heaven."

"But nobody wants to die," she finishes it. "Yeah, I left with an angel but not to die."

"Where the hell did you go, then?"

"I got two letters. Made the calls. Had the interviews and now I'm back."

"What?"

"I got a job, Mary." She clutches my arms. "Pays five thousand. I start training on Monday."

Her words knock the last breath from my body. How can Hazel go from dying one minute to coming back to life and bringing news that might become the death of me? I feel so betrayed. I was this close to getting down on my knees and begging her God to let her ride back to me on one of his angel's wings, and now she's stabbing me in my back? What a bitch! What a treacherous, low down, disgusting witch!

"Are you okay, Mary?" Her hands move from my arms to face. "Mary? What's wrong, honey?"

How can Hazel get a job before me? I brush her hands away and become a walking dead.

This is good. At least now I know for sure what to do when I mount that roof again. Now I know for sure that it's time to follow Ebony and Lily over the edge.

"I need space," I finally mutter as I walk away. "Just leave me alone. And don't follow me either. I need air."

"Mary," she calls after me. "Mary, you can't keep talking in riddles and leaving me like this."

"Don't worry," I say beneath my breath. "You won't have to put up with me much longer."