Epilogue

Epilogue 3.04

---Em---

     A sharp wind picks up, cutting off our path back to the others. The girl isn't phased—she seems to have been expecting the freakish weather. We veer off to the left, following her out of the cloud-tree forest to a rocky slope where the ground has begun to crumble. With the wind no longer buffeting us, we're able to make the climb halfway down, where the girl slips into a thin crevice. I worm my way in after her, and Comma follows behind me.

     Once inside the crevice, the girl whispers something in the dark. Flames roar to life in a little fire pit, illuminating the cavernous shelter. There's just about enough room in here to accommodate the three of us, though it is a little cramped. The girl sits down on a bed of leaves and draws back her hood.

     "You can wait out the storm—and the golems—here," she says, unzipping and removing her hoodie. Comma catches me eyeing the girl's cleavage—unintentionally, of course—and elbows me in the arm. The girl ignores us and uses her hoodie to fan the flame. "After that, I want you gone."

     That's the second time she's mentioned golems now. I want to ask about that, but something tells me I'd rather not know the gory details.

     "You been here a while?" Comma asks, glancing around. The flicker of the flames casts light on a number of crooked carvings on the ceiling. The symbols aren't anything I recognize—not that I know much about that sort of thing. Aside from the fire place and the bed of leaves, the place is cluttered with stones, twigs, acid fruits, bottles, pouches, knives, and other small trinkets.

     The girl glances up at the symbols. "Long enough."

     The flames carry the scent of grease, and I start to salivate. My stomach grumbles again—at this rate even those acid fruits look appetizing. And hey, it's not like I'd be the first person in our group to take a face-full of acid.

     "You hungry?" The girl asks.

     I nod, my voice catching in my throat. Kind of hard to speak to a girl like her. I catch sight of Comma's eye rolling in the peripherals of my vision.

     The girl sifts through the clutter for a rusty flask and tosses it to me.

     "Um..." I shake the flask. Empty, as far as I can tell. "Am I supposed to eat the flask? Because I'm not a big fan of the whole rusted metal taste."

     The girl just stares. I go to unscrew it and she grabs my hand. My face gets all red and burning. "Wait," she says. She takes the flask from me, holds it up to my lips, and then unscrews the cap. I drink from it—or at least I try to. "Inhale."

     I breathe in through my nostrils.

     The girl narrows her eyes. "Through your mouth, stupid."

     I suck air out of the flask and taste something sweet. The girl draws back the bottle and quickly screws the cap back on.

     "Better?" she asks, eying me expectantly.

     "Oddly enough, yeah." My hunger has vanished, somehow.

     The girl offers Comma the flask, but she turns it down. "And be in your debt more than I already am? Fat chance." Comma turns to look at me. "You better hope she didn't just poison you."

     "There's no way she'd do that," I say, staring into the girl's heterochromatic eyes. "Right?"

     She grins devilishly. "Well, actually..."