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“I don’t want to run into anyone from Mellara.”
“I see.”
We fall back into silence, and I turn my head away when we walk past a group of three women talking, just in case they recognize me and decide to make a scene.
“I feel so bad for his mom,” one of the girls says. I can’t help but listen in.
“Me, too. I wish there was something we could do for her.”
“Aleron didn’t deserve this,” another one says.
I stop, grabbing Rukh’s arm.
“They’re burying what was left of him tonight, at the Mellara cemetery.”
My blood runs cold. What was left of him? I know exactly what that means. I whip my head towards Rukh, narrowing my eyes at his too-normal face.
Aleron is the name of the boy who lived across the street from me for years. He’s the only person I’ve ever heard go by that name, so it has to be him. I think I vaguely recall that he moved to this town a few years ago.
“What?” Rukh asks.
“That boy they were just talking about? I knew him. He was nice to me. In fact, Aleron was nice to everyone. So would you like to tell me what evil he did to have warranted this?”
“What are you talking about?”
“When did you even do it? You must’ve snuck out last night while I was sleeping. And what, you thought it’d be fun to parade through town and bask in the sadness of the people mourning him?”
I feel betrayed, and I can’t even explain why. It was silly of me to trust a demon, to invent that there was goodness inside of him, to justify his bloodlust as righteousness. But I had started to believe it was true. Something inside of me is bubbling furiously to think I was so thoroughly misled.
“Lower your voice,” he whisper-shouts at me. “You’re mistaken. I did not leave the cave last night, and I definitely did not kill anyone in this town.”
“You’re lying. And I refuse to believe that Aleron did anything to deserve a death like that. Have you ever stopped to think that maybe your judgment of what’s evil and what’s not is flawed? See, this is the problem with you –”
I stop talking as he pulls me aggressively into the alley next to us and places a hand over my mouth.
“Stop. You are wrong, okay? Now stop this nonsense.”
“How can you say that?” I whisper once he removes his hand. “This is someone’s life we’re talking about.”
He sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose and closing his eyes. It’s weird to see him make such a human gesture, let alone in a human skin.
“I. Did not. Kill him.”
I stare at him, boring holes into his freakishly green eyes.
“Would you lie to me?”
“No. I have no reason to.”
He says it so quickly and so surely, that I have no choice but to think that he’s actually telling the truth.
“Fine,” I say, crossing my arms.
“That’s it? No apology for wrongly accusing me of murder?”
I narrow my eyes at him once more.
“You want an apology? You’re not getting one. Why? Because of all the murders you have committed,” I state.
