Awakening - The Last Science #1

Chapter 16 - Angels and Devils - III

  "Wait," Alden said, his eyes fluttering open.

  The doctor was gone, and it was suddenly night-time. The room was mostly dark, though there was a faint artificial light shining through the edges of the door into the hallway.

  "—hwat?" came a mumble to his side. Hailey was there, having nodded off in a chair he hadn't seen before, next to the window. She looked up bleary-eyed, noticing he was awake. "Hey."

  "Hi." Alden looked around, but saw no sign of Doctor Smith or anyone else. "How long was I out?"

  "Hours." Hailey stifled a yawn. "You feeling better?"

  He moved his arm experimentally. It felt numb and stiff, but mostly okay. "Yeah, a bit... You stayed here this whole time?"

  "Well you're new here and you don't really have anyone else. I wasn't going to leave you alone in a strange place," she said matter-of-factly.

  "Thank you."

  "You sound surprised," Hailey noted.

  "Rika described this town so much worse than what I'm seeing."

  She shrugged. "Rika's never been well-liked around here, before or after all this stuff with magic. I think her perspective's pretty skewed."

  "She can't be totally wrong though. Plenty of people are lying and scheming."

  Hailey laughed. "Lying and scheming? What are you two doing anyway?"

  "Well, we were going to steal something, but I guess that's not a thing anymore."

  "I'm sorry your elaborate heist didn't go as planned." She grinned.

  Alden liked her already. Hailey was kind, and she'd stuck around with him when she hadn't needed to. "I just feel guilty about not helping her."

  "What do you mean?"

  "When we first showed up at your place, and Rika was fighting with Jessica."

  "You're really lucky you didn't actually hurt her," Hailey said threateningly.

  Alden raised a hand in apologetic surrender, then winced from the pain and let it drop again. Concern flashed in her eyes. "I'm okay. But what I meant wasn't that I wanted to hurt Jessica. I mean, Rika was in trouble and I didn't do a thing to help."

  "Do you think you should have?"

  "Well, Jessica did start throwing fireballs first," Alden said petulantly.

  "You guys dove into our apartment uninvited, and it's not like she can call the police," Hailey protested.

  "And Rika always looks like trouble, yeah, I know. But still, I could have done something. Even if I'd just helped get her out of the way, or helped distract Jessica or something. I just stood as far away as I could and watched."

  Hailey frowned. "Not everyone's meant to fight, you know."

  "You did pretty good, I think."

  She shook her head. "No way, I just panicked and hit you guys with anything I could think of. I threw my phone at you, man. How is that a good weapon at all?"

  "Well, it hurt."

  She laughed. "Thanks. But seriously, I was just grasping at straws. I'm no fighter either."