“I am calm, Davien,” I said through gritted teeth. “Now please, will you tell me what’s going on? I’ve been trying to remember all morning, but I only get flashes.”
“Alright. Alright.” He took his time to look into my eyes and study me thoroughly before he started talking. He wanted to be sure that I was ready to hear what he was going to reveal to me. “You’re at the Karmic Asylum in Salem. You’ve been here for the past five months.” I must have gone pale, because he quickly added: “But it’s okay, it’s okay. You’re doing better, I can see it. This is the first time in five months when you’re so clear and focused. We’re finally having a… somewhat normal chat.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
He shook his head. “You had… a breakdown. Back in May. You don’t remember?”
I shrugged.
“Yoli, you… You tried to kill yourself.”
I let go of his hand and jumped to my feet. He crossed his arms over his chest and waited for me to settle down. I couldn’t. I started pacing the room, and I paced until my foot caught into the sheets I’d thrown off the bed, and I stumbled. I lost my balance briefly. He made a move to catch me, but I’d already grabbed the edge of the table.
“I’m fine,” I croaked. I raised my hand to stop him. I didn’t want him to touch me. “I don’t believe you.”
“Yoli…”
“Stop calling me that! Only my family and my friends get to call me that. You’re a liar! I don’t believe you!”
“Why would I lie to you about something like that?”
“Davien, I would never try to kill myself. Never.” I walked back to the bed and sat down, hoping my legs would stop shaking. I looked him in the eyes and repeated: “I would never try to kill myself.” I wanted him to believe me. I was begging him to see me and understand that I wasn’t the kind of person who would do that.
“I know,” he said, to my surprise. “I know! And that’s why it was so… shocking! But you tried to throw yourself into a well, Yolanda. I was there. I saw you with my own eyes. Seth saw you. Professor Wyvern saw you. We were there. And thank God we were there, otherwise… I don’t even want to think about it. I won’t think about it. We got you out of there, but since then… you haven’t been the same.”
I opened my mouth, but nothing came out. I stayed like that for a few minutes as my brain tried to process Davien’s words. It didn’t look like he was lying, and he was giving too many details. Details he shouldn’t have known.
“What well? Where did you find me?”
“Seth and I followed you. We were worried about you. You hadn’t been yourself at least since February, you were skipping classes, your worth score was down to minus two hundred, you weren’t eating… We tried everything. Hayley tried to talk to you, Headmaster Colin called you in for therapy and you never went, and even Seth and I tried to… get something out of you. Anything. You weren’t even angry at us anymore. It was as if you didn’t see us, didn’t see anyone. So, one day, we just… decided to follow you. You seemed to be leaving the Academy quite often, and at first, we thought you were going for walks in the woods, or down to Salem. I personally thought you were seeing someone, maybe a human guy.” He chuckled. “I was so stupid. Thinking only about myself…”
“You followed me…” I needed him back on track, not wallowing in self-pity.
“Yes. You went down to the beach, and then… inside the caves. We stopped there. I don’t know why. We just… decided it was better to wait for you.”
Oh my God! They had no idea what was inside the caves. They didn’t even know what had compelled them to stop. They’d followed me to the mouth of the cavern and let me go in by myself, and they weren’t even aware of how stupid that sounded. Then how…
“You said I was going to jump into a well. How did you stop me if you didn’t go in with me?”
“Professor Wyvern came out of nowhere. He rushed down the cliff, yelled at us, asked us what the hell we were doing staring like idiots into empty space, and when we told him you’d gone inside, he freaked out. He went completely mental. He rushed into the caves, and when we didn’t follow him, he literally came back for us and dragged us in.”
“That must’ve been quite a sight,” I mumbled.
He shook his head. “To this day, I can’t wrap my mind around what happened. We followed this dark, musty tunnel that opened into a wide space, some old cavern with an incredibly tall ceiling and candles everywhere… I mean, who the fuck goes down there to keep those candles lit? And there you were, standing on the edge of the well. You were barefoot, in your nightgown, although it was early afternoon, and you were about to fucking jump. We got you down. And you fought us. Oh God, you fought us so hard. You kicked Seth in the stomach, almost broke my ribs… How the hell were you so fucking strong?! Not for a woman… for a human! You hit me so hard that I lost my breath. Thank God Professor Wyvern was calm, because if it had been just me and Seth, you would’ve probably escaped.”
“I’m not… strong.” I felt like my head was about to explode. “You’re an incubus. Seth is a sphinx. I really can’t hurt you. Not even if I tried.”
“Well, you did. It was like you were possessed. We even asked Professor Wyvern if you were, and he said no. And okay, I can see that now. You couldn’t have been possessed. You’re normal, you’re fine. But I swear to God, when you were biting and scratching and yelling that you had to jump, I thought that wasn’t you, and a demon must’ve taken over your body.”
He fell silent. I sat with my hands folded in my lap, looking down at my boots. I knew he was watching me, waiting for me to say something. Waiting for me to explain myself. I wasn’t going to. He knew so little, and it was actually for the best. From what I could tell, Adrian hadn’t told him and Seth about the monster in the well. I understood everything now, and yet… I understood too little.
“Yolanda, if you didn’t try to kill yourself, then… what were you doing standing on the edge of that well, looking down into the abyss? What happened back there?”
“I need to be alone.”
“What? No! I’m not leaving until you give me something. Anything. I need to know that you’re alright. I need to know what was going through your head when we found you.”
“Davien, it’s time for you to leave.”
“No. Listen to me,” he leaned over and grabbed my chin between his fingers. “Year two at Grim Reaper Academy is about to start. You’ve been hospitalized for too long. The Karmic Asylum is… horrible. It’s not for you, okay? It’s for mad supernaturals who are a danger to themselves and to others, especially to humans. You’re actually the only human who’s ever been locked up in this godforsaken place. It’s like a prison! And I want to get you out, but I need your help, okay? I need you to tell me the truth. I need to understand.”