Scattering Lilac Ashes

Chapter Ninety

The sun's rays were far too weak to be of much use after only a metre or so. Instinctively, Lila turned on her phone's torch. Asher again led the way, his torch casting beams of light across the walls of the narrow hallway they found themselves in. With another groan, the door shut behind Lila, panic settling in her chest as the darkness appeared to swallow them whole.

After a moment, she saw Asher's torchlight settle on an old-style light switch.

"What's the bet it still works?" he whispered, stretching a hand out to touch it.

"If someone's been living here, I reckon it works," Lila replied, also in a whisper. Asher seemed to accept this before stopping himself from inching closer to the switch.

"Hang on, who pays the electricity bill?"

"A resourceful homeless person?"

Asher still seemed bothered by the idea, but didn't say anything further. He flicked the switch, flooding the dark hallway with an amber glow. Lila could see a number of closed connecting doors, all in various states of disrepair. The walls were filthy, the carpeted floor even more so. The end of the hallway seemed to open up into a larger room, but from this distance, Lila couldn't see what was in that room. A couple of framed paintings were haphazardly hung here and there, with one having collapsed entirely onto the ground, bursting out of its wooden frame.

The lightbulbs, it seemed, were hardly brighter than their phone torches. Asher disdainfully looked up at the nearest one, which dimmed and brightened every few seconds.

"I'm impressed they work," he hissed quietly. "But they may as well not work."

"At least we've got semi-consistent light," Lila replied in an optimistic whisper.

"... Well, you're not wrong there."

"I try not to be," Lila grinned. "Doesn't work all the time, though."

"When hasn't it?" Asher asked conversationally, his voice still hushed as he looked around the hallway.

"When I thought you didn't like me back."

He froze before turning his head towards her. "Y-Yeah. Guess you were wrong about that."

"I don't normally like being wrong, but I'm glad I was."

Asher mumbled something under his breath that she didn't quite catch. Tilting her head, she asked him to repeat himself.

"... Just... trying to process," he said eventually, lightly moving through the hallway to the closest door. "When you say stuff like that, it feels like my brain short circuits." He cleared his throat before adding in a stifled voice, "The effect you have on me... it's unfair."

Lila bit back the smile threatening to spread across her face. Hearing him say that set the dormant butterflies in her stomach into flight.

"At least... we're even," Lila managed to say softly. The butterflies were leaving her breathless, but she kept her eyes on Asher.

His eyes were as wide and round as golf balls as he faced her, his hand missing the doorknob he was trying to turn. "E-Even?" he stammered.

"Yeah. Even."

Lila couldn't find words beyond the two she expressed. Under the horrid glow of the lights above, Lila could see that Asher's face was at least somewhat flushed. She heard him gulp audibly and his hand finally connected with the doorknob.

This one opened with a rusty squeak. With a backwards glance at Lila, he raised his phone, casting his torchlight around this room before entering. Lila followed with bated breath, her own torchlight lighting her way.