The Blessed and the Pure┃🖋

Chapter Δ

Hallie stared at the ceiling. It stared back.

It's not that simple.

Of course, it wasn't. Nothing ever was, least of all the love-hate relationship between Sómata and Taktikoí. Mostly hate. Actually, scratch "love" out completely.

Hallie rolled over to stare at the wall. It stared back.

It was insulting how she never figured it out herself. She of all people knew an advantage could lead to a disadvantage, to put it lightly.

Hallie closed her eyes and sighed. She could still feel the ceiling and wall staring at her.

"Figures." She arched her back and stood up. "Typical me."

An itch fought its way up in her stomach. Hallie scratched it, but a bubble of curiosity took its place. Who, Sómata or Taktikoí, objectively had the upper hand in society?

Hallie reached down, pulled her clothes off the floor, and threw them on. She walked out of her room and sought to find the stairway like she did yesterday and the day before that. After she traversed the stairs, she found her way outside.

The cold morning air clung to Hallie's skin, and a light wind blew through her hair. The sun was still rising, painting the sky with pinks, blues, and purples.

She took a step forward, hesitated, and stepped back.

Was it too early to wake up Nikas? And not just from sleep, but from a friendship perspective as well.

The sleep part was easy. No. What mortal, in their right mind, would want to get up while the sun was rising? Maybe before so you could watch the sunrise, but never during.

The friendship part took a little thought. Were they close enough friends that she could wake Nikas up at this ungodly hour? No, definitely not. They met the day before. If this were happening four and three-sixteenths years from now, it would be a different story. At least then she would know for certain if Nikas was a fan of horror movies. She had yet to work up the courage to ask him that. No, she'll wait until they get off from work.

Speaking of work, what was Hallie supposed to do until it was socially acceptable to go to work? Stare at the wall? Hallie snorted. As if. She was going to stare at the ceiling.

---

"I'll see you tomorrow, Hallie."

Hallie stared at Nikas. Staring at the ceiling prepared her for this. Not asking them to help her with her hypothesis - no, no, no - rather staring at them. Staring at them and procrastinating.

"Um, Hallie, are you okay? You've stood there for about a minute now. You're getting kind of pale."

The familiar wave of dread enveloped her system. It roared from within her gut, fighting to take down her curiosity. Who would win? Her curiosity or her overwhelming aversion to asking Nikas for help?

It was a battle to the death. Dread started strong, beating back curiosity like a lion in a cage. But curiosity wasn't giving up that easily. It struck like a viper, sinking its teeth into dread and refusing to let go. Dread wriggled out of curiosity's grasp and tackled it to the ground. It was a mess of punches, kicks, and bites. Dread was winning, and it would keep winning unless curiosity made her open her mouth and voice her question. Dread flung itself onto curiosity and pinned it to the floor. It placed its foot on top of curiosity's head and-

"Hallie? You're scaring me. Are you okay?"

Hallie jumped, eyes wide and continuing to stare at a perplexed Nikas.