Page 172 of Godslayer
It’s ludicrous. Absolutely bonkers that we all meet up in the mornings and just pretend that we didn’t lose a fifth friend just four days ago.
I tried to talk to them about her. The next day, after they left me in the tea room, book club unfinished, I went downstairs early. Maelis was waiting, but I tried to engage her about what happened the day before—when Elsha spit her words at me—You’re nothing special. You’re not above us.
And Maelis—quiet, frumpy Maelis—told me the same thing as she did the day before.One day, it will be your turn. Every spark has its purpose, Jasina.
That creepy motto.
Every time I asked her what she was talking about, that’s all she said. “Every spark has its purpose.”
When Elsha and Veyra showed up, I didn’t even get one question out before they started doing it too.
That was power walking day.
What a disaster. The three of them all showed up in the lobby with little ear plug things that played music. Which I didn’t have—because I didn’t even know they existed. So they made a big production about putting them in and… whatever. I don’t even know what they were doing. Listening to the same song, or something. Because all at once, their lips started moving like they were all silently singing the same words.
The next thing I knew, they were power walking out the damn door. And I don’t know how long they’ve been power walking, but for me, this was day two. They were fast. Much faster than last time. I spent the entire session almost running alongside them to keep up.
By the time we made it to the beach, I was sweaty and exhausted, and had forgotten my little backpack with my bathing suit in it. They hadn’t said a single word to me. Nothing. And that’s how it stayed. They kept those little ear plugs in, the tinny sound of music leaking out of them, as I sat there in my walking clothes, ready to pass out.
Which, I did end up doing. Only to wake up and find they’d left me there! Alone! Didn’t even bother to shake me awake! And it was late afternoon. The sun was sitting low on the horizon. I must’ve slept on that beach for hours.
Walking back to the Observation Tower, I was in a daze.
What was happening to me?
What was happening to my perfect new life?
Things were decidedly off that night when Finn came home. He didn’t even look at me. It’s like I wasn’t there. And when I woke up in the morning, he was gone.
That was not normal.
Was that day seven? Or day six of his augmentation?
I can’t tell anymore. I’m losing track of… well, everything.
Again, I went downstairs early to meet the girls for painting. And they were there, no ear plugs, either. They were chatty, laughing. So I was hopeful.
And it was OK for a little bit. On the walk over to the art studio, I listened to their casual conversation about their husbands. Veyra and Elsha, at least. Maelis didn’t say much. But she was a little bit quiet, anyway.
But then, when we walked into the studio to work on our paintings, Lilika’s painting was still there. So I walked over to it, pointing. “Should we take this to her? It’s too pretty to just let it sit here.”
Veyra snickered.
Elsha sneered.
Maelis said, “And where might we find Lilika, that we might return this painting to her?”
I shrugged. “She lives in the tower, right? We take it to her as a pretense to visit and make sure she’s all right.”
Veyra laughed out loud.
Elsha’s eyes narrowed down into slits.
Maelis said, “Every spark has its purpose.”
And that was the last thing any of them said to me that day. Because every time I spoke after that, they would all say, in unison, “Every spark has its purpose.”
When it came time to cover our paintings and go to the movies, I didn’t do it. I didn’t move.
