86 Unease in Her Heart
"Shes dead" Asrael held her by the wrists.
"No, I can still-" Chrysa struggled feebly, but was unable to break away.
"I killed her."
There was a short silence as Chrysa stopped moving. She looked at Asrael with worry in her eyes. They conveyed what she already knew, yet refused to believe. Her voice trembled. "No! You wouldn't do that!"
"You sure?" Asrael gazed at her with a scrutinizing expression. "Don't lie to me."
Nothing. She couldn't say a thing.
He took her silence as an answer. "That's what I thought." He released her and stood up, leaving her on the floor.
Asrael was quick to avoid the sight of her body hunched over. He walked away with slow, heavy steps.
Before he exited, he heard a quivering voice escape from her. "Don't leave me..."
At the door he paused, but Asrael wasn't given time to think before Little Red tried to move past him into the room. He held her back by the shoulder. "Leave her."
Little Red glanced at him. She wanted to ask if he wanted to think it through, but the strength with which he held her back made it clear.
She scanned the room for evidence of what he had done, and only when she had formed a sort of understanding did she back off.
As they left the compound, Little Red watched as Asrael progressively got angrier.
Crickets chirped outside, and the further from the music they got, the louder the bugs were. In time, it worked to irritate Asrael even move. His eye brows were furrowed, and his jaw was clenched.
Suddenly, he hit a breaking point.
"What the hell!?" He whipped his head in her direction.
Little Red didn't flinch. Void of sympathy, she waited for a few breaths before responding. "I share the sentiment. Why didn't you kill her?"
The more Asrael thought about it, the worse the situation was. "It's none of your business. Why did you interfere?"
"I didn't want it to go on much longer." Turning away, she rolled her eyes in the direction that she pivoted. "Gee, I really can't stand your methods."
"No, it was different this time." Asrael forced out the words, willing them to somehow make her understand.
Little Red's tone was full of humility as she rebuked him. "It couldn't have been too different. In the end, you've still affected her negatively."
"Because of you!"
She didn't argue back, or rather, she couldn't. The mistake she had made was assuming that nothing about him had changed. The old Asrael that would turn cold and distant when provoked, where was he?
"Alright, I know when to yield. I'm sorry, 'kay?" She was wrong, but her pride turned her words into something only spoken to pacify him.
Asrael was different than how he was 20 years ago. The same old cruel game was different. He cared now. The only one that remained the same was her.
That cut on her cheek, too, stayed the same since earlier. Only, it no longer bled. A testimony to her humanity, yet it was taken for weakness by the opposition.
"How did you kill her?" Little Red looked at him, and as they locked gazes, she continued. "The mark on her neck was strange."
He smiled. Suddenly he was back, the old Asrael. He took a step toward her. "Want me to show you?"
He reached out his hand, closing the distance between them. She felt Asrael's cold fingers on her skin as his hand wrapped around her neck.
There was an unsettled feeling in the pit of her stomach. She paid attention to his touch, focused on his demonstration. She forcibly suppressed the unease in her heart.
He positioned his thumb on the laryngeal prominence. His index finger reached the other side of the spin and hooked it, pressing into her skin. His ring finger pressed against the opposite side, so that her spin was pinched between.
His lips were curled, "It's a little game of push and pull. With enough strength, you might hear a snap." He wasn't going to do it, but Little Red felt the intention. He wasn't just showing her where he placed his fingers, he positioned his hand as if he would really do it.
Little Red reached up and grabbed his arm. "Paws off." She tried to be nonchalant, ignoring the impulse to struggle.
