The Red to My Grey Read online

  “I’m gonna shower, just wait here. I won’t be long,” I told her before leaving the room. I washed the dirt, blood and whatever else from that night from my short black hair and changed out of my saturated clothes. When I walked back into my room, I went to lay down on my bed but before I could, I found the girl had thrown her arms around me from behind. She was surprisingly light as she clung to my back. I slid one of my hands between hers and turned my head and her face rubbed against mine.

  “It’s four-thirty in the morning, I’m tired. If you’re gonna kill me or whatever, save it for tomorrow. I’m so out of it, it’s hard to see you as remotely frightening,” I said to her in a frustrated tone. I remember falling asleep shortly after that without much trouble. As far as I recall, that was it for the night. It’s what happened the next day what really kicked off everything.

  I woke up next to her around ten in the morning; she stared at me some more as I tried to shake my hangover. We went to the kitchen where my Dad and Celia were already eating toast. We joined them and sat quietly nibbling on warm smooth buttered bread, until my Dad started asking questions.

  “So, what’s your name, miss, and how’d you bump into my degenerate son?”

  I went to give a vague answer for her to cover for us, but she answered his question before I had the chance speak.

  “My name is Angel, nice to finally meet you,” her voice was charming and confident; it took away my initial impression of her completely. She gave off a vibe of maturity and high self-esteem.

  Wait, finally!? My thoughts turned to paranoia after hearing that.

  “Huh, how long have you two known each other?” My Dad asked curiously; she looked to me and winked with a mischievous smile on her face.

  “I’ve been seeing Wade for several months now Giggle. He was so nervous about introducing me to you.”

  Dad turned to me with a stone-cold stare, while I sat there with my jaw dropped at a loss for words. His stare turned to happy cheers and fit of fluffy laughter. “Where you been hiding her? She’s so adorable and innocent! Why would you be nervous of bringing this one home?”

  That lying little…but before I could finish my thought, she continued her act. She grabbed me around the arm and rested her head against my shoulder. “I hate to impose any further than I have already, but my parents want to move to France. I’d rather stay with Wade; I couldn’t imagine life without him…so is it okay if I stay here for a while?” She asked carelessly while snuggling my arm. He shrugged his shoulders and just like that, from that morning on, she would be living in my room with me. I sat there trying not to be sick at the thought that I’d be living with something from a haunted house. Angel giggled in excitement and dragged me back to my room. She rolled around in my bed while I sat there, stunned.

  “Angel.”

  “Yes darling?”

  “What just happened?” I asked as I looked up the ceiling while lying on the bed.

  “I’ll be living here for a while with you, is that okay?”

  “I got that much but why? What do you want from me?” I asked calmly despite feeling like dropping dead.

  “I don’t know because I feel like it,” she said as she fell in my lap and stared into my eyes. I had no idea what to do but to call Johnson and ask for advice. I told Angel I would be making a phone call and stepped outside the room in the hallway.

  “Hey Johnson, what’s up?”

  “Oh, hello Wade, how are you feeling from last night?” His voice seemed slightly rushed and struggled to follow the conversation.

  “I have a serious problem. You don’t mind coming over here, today, do you?”

  “I’m sorry, I’m pretty caught up right now; I’ll do my best to come over around five o’clock,” he then hung up the phone after I heard a small scuffle in the background.

  “Sigh. He must be with Sabrina today. Alright, just gotta keep Angel happy until then,” I said out loud in an exhausted tone.

  I got some more toast and went back to my room. I handed her some and sat down next to her. I suggested we watch a movie to pass some time. She happily nodded and I chucked on some movie. I honestly can’t even remember what it was about. All I do remember is sitting on my bed with Angel sitting on my lap, her head resting deep into my shoulder. I don’t think either of us even watched the movie; we would stare at each other examining one another’s features until our eyes met, that’s when we would dart our eyes back to the TV.

  “Hey, Wade,” she spoke when neither of us had said anything in over an hour.

  “Yeah, Angel?”

  “I’m going to the bathroom, can you let go of my waist?”

  I looked down to realise I had been holding her as I leant against the wall behind my bed. I felt slightly ashamed as if I was buying into the whole lover’s act. “Oh sorry, I keep thinking you’re a creature or spirit…it’s easy to forget that you’re just a regular girl,” I said anxiously with my hands behind my head. She tensed up slightly but then calmed down within seconds.

  “Well I’m not normal but I’d like it if you would see me as a girl, not a monster,” she replied softly while holding her arm. Rather than walking out the door, she vanished without a trace. She reappeared a moment later, but her head began to bleed again. I held another cloth against the cut above her forehead and did the best I could to prevent any more blood loss.

  “Doesn’t this cut hurt? How’d you even get this?”

  “I don’t know, it doesn’t hurt though.”

  “This is pretty deep and how it hasn’t become infected yet is another question entirely. I’ll have Johnson look at you when he gets here; he’s surprisingly good with this kind of stuff.” She then stared at me with her big red eyes as if I had said something I shouldn’t have.

  “Johnson?” She asked tilting her head slightly with a smile.

  “Yeah, he was with me when you and I met in that house.” Her expression changed as she recalled who he was. She nudged my hand away from her head. As if I had blinked, she vanished and reappeared this time holding one of my sister’s dresses.

  “I’m getting changed and then we’re going out. So, unless you want to help me squeeze into this thing, get out.” She shoved me into the hallway and locked the door.

  Wait, going out? Where are we going? I thought to myself until she suddenly flung open the door to have me tie a ribbon around her waist for her dress. After that she led me by the hand out of the house and dragged me across the street to Johnson’s house.

  “How did you know he lived here?”

  “I followed you home remember?” she said cheerily. She walked up to the front door and rang the doorbell. We could hear some shuffling inside and about ten minutes later, Johnson answered the door. His eyes shot open as he saw Angel’s bright red eyes staring at him. He glanced at me unsure of what to say, expecting me to break the ice.

  “She followed me home ha-ha,” I said casually trying not to be as serious.

  “Come in, you do however owe me an apology. I said I was busy today, but I’ll make an exception for this.” His tone was still as serious as ever. We entered his home and we went to the living room; he parked us on the couch. Sabrina sat on one opposite of us separated by a glass coffee table. She looked at us as if we were intruding on her and Johnson, which we probably were. She looked at Angel with a serious gaze for a moment until she clung to her and hugged up to her without warning after leaping the coffee table.

  Huh? She doesn’t recognise her from last night? I screamed inside my head. “You’re so cute and that dress, it’s way too mature for you. How old are you, sixteen? Seventeen?” She adored her while basically feeling her up.

  “Uh Sabrina?” I tried to stop her, but she wouldn’t listen.

  “Shame on you, Wade, you shouldn’t be dating students just because you can’t get any girls your own age.”

  Angel leant over to me and buried her face in mine and gave me a kiss on the cheek; her lips were cold. As flustered as I was, I felt somewhat o
n edge and my shoulders tensed up to my neck. “I’m eighteen and Wade treats me just fine; I don’t care if he’s a little older,” she replied assertively.

  Johnson walked into the room with a tray of coffee and a jug of juice. He pulled me aside to the kitchen before doing anything else. “Explain,” he said bluntly. I told him that she had infiltrated my family and had seemed to convince everyone she meets that she and I were a couple. He bonked me on the head and stared at me in disappointment. “You must stand up for yourself, Wade, or these things will happen more often than you think.”

  “Yeah, sorry,” I replied rubbing the back of my head.

  “The only one you should be apologising to is yourself. Now what do you want to do? I can’t decide in how you handle these situations,” I told him about her injuries and how I wanted him to at least know what exactly she was. He brought her into another room, and I was left with Sabrina. She teased me saying things like that Angel was almost too good to be true to be with a guy like me. I chuckled to myself, trying not to burst into laughter. I guess the thought that the Angel she saw in the house was unrecognisable to her from nothing but a change of clothes and a shower; well it was pretty funny to me.

  “What’s so funny?” she asked in a frustrated tone.

  “Nothing, so how are you and Johnny doing? Enjoy yourself last night?”

  “Butt out of it. It’s complicated, okay?” She looked away from me and pouted.

  “Still? You two have been running with that since high school. Nobody will be upset if you guys come out with it.”

  “It’s bad enough you know about us…” she mumbled to herself, I pretended not to hear her.

  After an awkward silence between Sabrina and me, Johnson and Angel walked back into the room. The girls sat down together while I discussed what Johnson found. He delivered surprising information that changed my perspective of her.

  “As far as the cut above her forehead goes, it’s already healing quite nicely but what she is, is another question entirely. Her skin is cold, her eyes as you can see are an unnatural red. However, her heart is beating and her behaviour although strange, mirrors a girl of her age. She’s human but with some rather unusual traits.”

  It was a lot of information to take on at once, but I tried to plan on what to do next. “Any suggestions? I’m kind of at a loss for how to act on this.”

  “Talk to her, ask her what she wants and come to an understanding with one another.”

  “Yeah, alright. Thanks man, I can always count on you for when things get crazy like this,” I replied gratefully.

  “No problem, I’m going through a similar thing myself,” he laughed anxiously while looking at Sabrina.

  Things were about to spiral out of control when Angel opened her mouth. “Your boyfriend’s really nice, Sabrina. I really appreciate the effort the two of you are going through to help us out,” she said with another mischievous smile. Sabrina froze up and then her face melted under the red that consumed it within seconds. Johnson tried to back out of the room, but things were already set into motion.

  “Now she’s did it,” I complained as Sabrina threw her hands on Angel’s shoulders.

  “Angel he’s just a friend okay? I-I’m not his girlfriend or anything like that…we just hangout sometimes, that’s all.”

  Angel turned to me and winked before speaking again, which had me even more worried. “Oh, he’s not? I didn’t know friends had sex on their days off together…are we friends, Wade, or am I more than that?” She pinned the conversation back onto me.

  Everyone in the room went quiet until Sabrina burst into a panic of confusion. “What? We weren’t—”

  “You’re not wearing panties and his shirt’s inside out,” she cut her off midsentence. Sabrina looked down at herself and tears started to well in her eyes as she looked back at Angel with a smile on her face. “Don’t worry I’m not wearing any either,” she said as she went to lift up her dress. I quickly rushed to her to stop her and ran outside with her, leading her by the hand.

  “Sorry man!” I yelled to Johnson as I legged it. He rubbed Sabrina on the head as she steamed up more and more from the tears that fell from her eyes.

  When we arrived back home, we spent the rest of the evening until dinner just lying in bed with each other, making no real serious conversation, just talking about anything, really. After a while, things did get serious as if we had just been putting it off.

  “So, Angel, what do you want from me? This charade has been fun and you’re one of the most interesting people I’ve ever had the chance of meeting but tell me why are you doing all of this.”

  “Because you haven’t run away, and you have no intention of doing so; it’s been a very long time since I’ve had someone look me in the eyes and smile. It’s been so long since I’ve laughed, so long since I’ve felt like someone has cared about me,” her voice softened, and I could tell she was really baring her soul.

  “And the lover’s act?”

  “I like it…it means I can show I care about you too. I don’t see it as an act,” her words really moved me and under my blushing face at the time, I felt guilty that I thought that she was out to hurt me. I hugged her and less than a minute later, we called to the table for dinner.

  “Heh, with her you actually come off as a decent guy, Wade.” Dad taunted as we entered the kitchen.

  “Hey! Is that my dress? At least tell me if your girlfriend’s going to borrow my clothes,” Celia scolded me while munching down on a steak.

  “I’m sorry I just didn’t bring any clothes with me before I moved in,” she apologised for herself while looking down at herself. Dad looked at me expectantly with his dinner untouched.

  “We’ll have to go clothes shopping on my next day off ha-ha,” I said trying to cover for the both of us.

  “Day off?” she whispered in my ear.

  “Well yeah I have to work; it’s how I earn my keep,” I whispered back.

  “When’s your next day off?” she asked curiously.

  “A week from now…” I watched her heart sink at my words. She picked at her plate for a little while and we went back to my room shortly afterwards. I rested in my bed but wide awake until midnight. Angel fell asleep beside me long before I did. As I laid there unsure of how our future together was going to pan out, I received a phone call from Johnson.

  “Hello Wade? Sorry if I woke you but I forgot to mention something important.”

  “Don’t worry I wasn’t asleep, thanks for calling man, if it’s important I’m all ears.” He then told me that from when he examined Angel that her pale skin would burn in the harsh sunlight of the approaching summer. He explained she would probably be fine on the regular spring days though. “Alright thanks for letting me know, see you tomorrow morning.”

  “No problem, see you then.”

  I got up early that morning and walked to work under the sunrise. I was one of the last to arrive. Everyone else was already in their offices. I passed Johnson in his office beside mine and I got straight to work. At the time, I guess I was relieved to be in my office. It gave me a reason to forget or at least distract myself from Angel. Around lunch break in the afternoon, Mr Smith called me to his office. I sat down in front of his desk which was covered in files and coffee stains. “Yes, sir?” I asked politely.

  “Wade, call me Rex. I’m not really into the whole suit and tie act.”

  “Yeah okay. So, what did you want to see me about?”

  “Well it’s about Saturday night and that creepy ass house. I wanted to ask if you’re okay. You’re not too shaken up or anything like that?”

  “Thanks for the concern, but I’m fine. Don’t worry, it didn’t get me freaking out or whatever.” I honestly just wanted to forget about it, but I knew I couldn’t even if I tried.

  “Alright, well, tell me if you have anything come up, okay? I like to look after my employees.”

  I left his office and went back to mine. It was around ten pm when I walked hom
e with Johnson. We talked about nothing really all that important until I got home. He gave me some parting advice and went home. “Be careful how you act with her, the two of you still aren’t sure where you stand with each other.”

  When I got home, I quickly had a shower and went up to my room. Angel looked at me with her big red eyes, expectantly. She was sitting on my bed wearing one of my old t-shirts. I sat down on my bed beside her and then fell back against my bed. “Ahh that’s better. How was your day? You find a way to keep entertained?”

  She shook her head and tugged her shirt over her knees, resting her face in between them and her arms. I sat up and rested my arm around her shoulder. I brought my face closer to hers as she darted her eyes away from mine. “Don’t tell me the girl that stalked me home gets this down when she’s lonely,” I teased her a little hoping I could get her to bite at what was eating away at her, but it was for nothing. I got up and grabbed an apple from the fridge in the kitchen for the both of us. She nibbled at it while I chomped down on mine after a long day at work.

  “Seriously, what’s wrong?” I asked as I brushed her hair away from her eyes. My hand was covered in long strands of brittle pitch-black hair as I moved it from her face; they fell to the carpet and blood dripped down her face. She turned to me and with a dead, tired gaze as she spoke.

  “Wade?” she said softly.

  “What is it?” I responded, trying not to panic as if I had pushed some unknown boundary.

  “What am I to you?” She brought her head from her knees and moved herself closer to me. I slowly began to freeze up as she rested her head on my shoulder, utterly depressed, so much so to the point where it was discouraging for me. I wasn’t sure how to comfort her, but I held her close; her skin was cold and sent chills down my spine.