“You look awful,” he observed. “I hate to say I told you so.”
“I don’t want to see you,” I said dully.
“I thought you’d understand by now that there are far worse things in this place than seeing me. Come on now, you can’t blame me for what you’ve seen. I didn’t create this place even though I may have some jurisdiction over it.”
“Do you enjoy inflicting pain and torture?” I asked in a hollow voice, looking up to meet his eyes. “Do you get off on it?”
“Steady on,” Jake sounded offended. “I personally don’t torture anyone. I have more important things to do.”
“But you know it’s happening,” I insisted. “And you do nothing about it.”
Jake shared a bemused look with Tucker, who was frowning at me as if he thought I were an idiot.
“And why on earth would I try to stop it?” he asked.
“Because they’re people,” I said weakly. It was always so exhausting talking to Jake. It left me feeling as if I were running in circles and getting nowhere.
“No, actually they’re souls of people who were very bad in life,” he explained patiently.
“Nobody deserves this — no matter what their crime.”
“Oh, really?” Jake folded his arms. “Then you have no idea what mankind is capable of. Besides, they all had the choice to repent and they chose not to. That’s how the system works.”
“Yeah, well, your system stinks. It turns good people into monsters.”
“And that,” Jake said, wagging a finger thoughtfully, “is the difference between you and me. You insist on seeing man as inherently noble even when all evidence suggests otherwise. Humans — urghh!” Jake shuddered. “What’s noble about them? They eat, they breed, they sleep, they fight — they’re nothing but basic organisms. Look what billions of them have done to the planet; their very existence is polluting the earth and you blame us for it. If humans are God’s greatest achievement, he seriously needs to review his design. Take Tucker, for instance. Why do you think I keep him around? It’s to remind me of God’s fallibility.” Tucker’s face flushed crimson but Jake seemed not to notice.
“People are much more than that,” I replied, partly to cover up Tucker’s humiliation. “They can dream and hope and love. Doesn’t that count for anything?”
“Those are usually worse off because they’re so delusional. Empty yourself of compassion, Bethany, it won’t serve you well here.”
“I’ll die before I become like you,” I said.
“I’m afraid that’s not possible,” said Jake breezily. “You can’t die here. Only the earth entertains such ridiculous notions as life and death. Another one of your father’s little quirks.”
I was spared the effort of challenging Jake further when we heard voices in the hall and a woman sailed into the room with all the aplomb of a celebrity.
“This is supposed to be my room,” I muttered. “Why do people think they can just barge in and …”
I stopped short when I gave the woman a closer look and remembered her instantly as the tattooed barmaid from Pride. It would have been hard to forget the annihilating look she’d given me then. She gave me a fleeting glance this time as if my presence were too immaterial to take up any more of her time. She was riled. I could see that in the fixed line of her mouth and the way she brusquely pushed past Tucker.
“So this is where you’ve been hiding,” she chided Jake.
“I wondered how long it’d be before you’d show up,” Jake said lazily. “You know you’re getting yourself a reputation as a stalker.”
“Shame a bad reputation don’t mean jack here,” the woman replied.
There was a derisive tone in the way he addressed her, but she seemed only amused by it. “Beth, meet Asia, my … very personal … personal assistant. She gets stressed if she doesn’t know exactly where I am at any given time.”
I sat up to get a better look at her. Asia was tall and striking like an Amazon. She was dressed provocatively in a gold halter top and a leather miniskirt. Her jet-black hair with the texture of spun wool surrounded her feline features. Her lips were exaggeratedly full, sticky with gloss, and permanently parted. The way she stood with her shoulders thrust back reminded me of a boxer, and her coffee-colored skin had a slight sheen as if it had been oiled. Her shoes were extraordinary, like works of art; fawn-colored, open-toed lace-up ankle boots with heels like ice picks.
“Jimmy Choo,” she said reading my mind. “Divine, aren’t they? Jake has them specially made for me every season.”
There was a look in her smoldering eyes I was familiar with. I’d seen girls give it to one another at school when they wanted to issue a clear warning that said, “Hands off!” Asia didn’t need to say anything to me; her look spoke volumes. As Jake’s lover she was sending me a clear message that said he was off-limits to me if I valued my life. In order to make the status of her relationship patently clear, Asia slithered around Jake like an asp at his throat, rubbing up and pressing her bare flesh against him. Jake’s hand traveled up her polished thigh, but in his eyes I was sure I could see boredom. Asia surveyed me from head to foot, decidedly unimpressed. “So, this is the little bitch everyone’s talking about? Small, isn’t she?” Jake made a clicking sound with his tongue.
“Asia — play nice.”
“I can’t see what all the fuss is about,” she said, circling me now with a panther-like grace. “If you ask me, baby, I think you’re downgradin’.”
“Well, nobody asked you.” Jake gave her a warning look. “And we talked about this; Beth is special.”
“Are you saying I’m not?” Asia put her hands on her hips and arched her eyebrows flirtatiously.
“Oh, no, you’re very special,” Jake chuckled. “But in a different way. Don’t think your talents haven’t been appreciated.”
“So what’s with the Mary Sue outfit?” Asia asked, plucking at the frilly sleeve of my dress. “You got some fetish for Southern belles? It’s very pure. That’s what this is all about, right? But did you really have to dress her like she’s twelve?”
“No one dressed me,” I snapped.
“Oh, how cute!” Asia threw me a scathing look. “It talks.”
“I was just explaining to our guest how things work down here,” Jake said, steering the conversation in a safer direction. “I was trying to explain to her how life and death have no meaning here. Would you mind assisting me in a brief demonstration?”
“With pleasure,” Asia agreed. She came to stand right in front of him and threw back her head, seductively sliding off her halter top until she stood only in a black bra, revealing the smooth milk chocolate skin of her torso. Jake’s eyes traveled appreciatively over her body for a moment, before he spun around and seized a fire poker from its hook beside the grate. I realized his intention too late and the scream caught in my throat as he plunged the thick tip into her chest. I expected howls of pain or spurting blood, anything but what I saw. Asia only gasped then shuddered with pleasure and closed her eyes in ecstasy. When she opened them and caught sight of my horror-stricken face she dissolved into laughter. The poker was buried inches deep in her chest without the slightest hint of a wound of any kind. It looked as if it had molded to her body, as if it had always been a part of her. When she grasped it with both hands and wrenched it free of her flesh, it made a gruesome sucking sound. Seconds later the smooth skin closed over the puncture the poker had created.