Purgatory

Chapter 6

Anastasia threw down her bags onto the nearest bed. "I'm finally here," she thought.  It was a quaint little room, no bigger than her old bedroom.  "My bedroom I had before the accident" she thought sadly.  Chernobyl.  The nuclear mistake that killed thousands of people.  Anastasia smiled as she set up her fish tank.  The only thing she carried with her were some clothes, her fighting fish, Victor, and books.  She was a librarian.  Books were her passion.  In fact, Anastasia had a coloration of books written by the children of the library, and these books were cherished higher than even the rare, expensive, antique books.  Each book was lovingly wrapped in bubble wrap and foam.  As Anastasia took out one of her particular favorites, she began to read, at least until her roommate came in, more like barged in.

Ella was a tall girl wearing combat boots, jeans, and a "Superneutural" hoodie, whatever that was.  She had huge headphones over her long blonde ponytail, and all she carried with her was a backpack.  Ella threw down her bag and pulled her massive headphones down onto her neck.  Anastasia could faintly hear classic rock music playing.  Ella, chewing her gum, smiled and said "Hey, I'm Ella, you must be Anastasia, right?". Anastasia nodded.  She was slightly awkward around this tall, blonde, combat boots wearing girl.  Ella straightened up, and Anastasia saw the symbol on her hoodie.  It was a pentagram.  Anastasia gulped.  ".....Are you......satanic?" She asked, pointing at the symbol.  Ella just laughed.  She didn't stop laughing after about 15 seconds, and Anastasia got defiant.  "It was a reasonable question!" she defended.  Ella stopped laughing, but she still was smiling.  "Hey, Anastasia, I'm sorry if you got the wrong idea, I just get that a lot.  Its the symbol for a TV show I watch, Superneutural."  Ella was still smiling.  Anastasia was still a bit apprehensive, but she felt better knowing that she wasn't going to be sacrificed to any dark lords in her sleep.

"Well crap," Ella thought.  My new roomie thinks I worship dark lords and pagan gods.  She looked down at her hoodie.  Ella frowned.  She loved her Superneutural hoodie.  "Jeez you have a lot of books," Ella remarked after looking around.  Anastasia smiled kindly.  "I was a librarian in Russia." She said.  Ella looked at the books on the shelves.  She smiled as she saw the Warriors books.  "I haven't read these in forever" Ella murmured as she ran her fingers along the spines of the books.  Anastasia looked so happy that Ella appreciated books.  She ran over to one of the shelves on the opposite side of the room and pulled a book off the shelf.  Anastasia whirled around, excited.  She held out a battered copy of Lewis Carroll's Alice In Wonderland.  

"This is my favorite book," Anastasia admitted.  Ella took the book, smiling, and began to skim through it.  There were beautiful hand drawn pictures for every chapter.  Ella closed the book, smiling, and looked at her roommate again.  She was a short woman with orange hair, green eyes, and large earrings.  Anastasia was wearing a cerulean sweater with jeans and bronze flats.  She seemed nice enough.  Ella's phone began vibrating, so she checked the time.  It was 4:45.  "Do you want to go?" Ella asked.  "Its 4:45 already.". Anastasia frowned, and pulled a pocket watch out of her front pocket.  She whistled and the smiled.  "Sorry," Anastasia stated.  "I really lost track of time, thats just what happens when I read". Ella grinned.  "No problem," she said, as the two girls walked out the door.