Fall From Grace(81)

Ethan noticed my apprehension to the Bone Room and placed his arms around my shoulders.  “Don’t worry; you can sleep anywhere you want if you feel weird about being in there.”  He handed me a towel from a closet in the hall.  “But, you do have to take a shower right now, because you smell like hell.”  With that, he shoved me in the bathroom.  “Use whatever soap stuff you like,” he said as he closed the door.

I looked around the small bathroom.  It was clean, I mean really clean.  The toilet paper roll was even on its little roller on the wall and not just sitting on the sink because no one could insert it.

I opened the shower curtain, turned on the water, and stuck my hand under the stream to gage the right temperature.  Ah, scalding!  That’s the perfect temperature.

I peeled out of my smoke scorched clothes and stepped under the jets, letting the water wash away the evidence of my almost death by fire incident.  I used some sort of herbal flowery smelling soap and scrubbed the black ashes off my body.

Inhaling the warm steam made my already burning throat worse, but it made me focus on what I really needed to think through.  Why would someone be trying to hurt me?  Someone like Azazel?  Was it just jealously?  He didn’t want Shamsiel to be with me because he couldn’t be with whomever he was with?  Or was it more?  After all these years, how did he find me?  Was he roaming the earth?  I thought they were all sent somewhere...Was he like me and could only possess a dying body?

The door to the bathroom opened, putting a halt to the inner dialogue I was having.  “That better be Lea,” I snapped.

I heard Shane’s raspy low chuckle, “No, sorry.  Just me.  But, if you want me to get Lea to come into the shower, that’s a really entertaining thought.”

“Shane, get out of here!”

“Relax, Grace, I’m not going to jump in with you.  I just came in to give you some of my clothes to wear.  Unless you want to traipse through the apartment with just a towel on in search of clothes, because that’s just...Hey, you know you are absolutely right, that’s a much better idea than me giving you something to wear...I mean, I clearly remember the first time I saw that at your place. That image is definitely burned into my skull. I wonder if it would have the same effect on everyone else here.”

“Okay!” I yelped, poking my head out through the shower curtain.  “Thank you!  Please just leave the clothes and go!”

Shane stood leaning against the sink with his arms folded.  The expression on his face didn’t match his teasing; he looked worried and exhausted.  “Are you okay, Gray?”   His using Lea’s nickname for me made my belly do a flip-flop.  What am I, twelve again?

I stuck my face back in the shower and reluctantly turned off the water. There were a lot more tears that needed to be washed away.  I held my hand out to him, “May I have the towel, please?”

He placed the towel in my hands and I dried myself behind the curtain.  I wrapped the damp towel around myself and stepped onto the cold tile floor.  “You’re still in here.”

“Yeah.  I’m having trouble moving,” he whispered.

“Did you get hurt before?”

“No,” he murmured.  He took the shirt he had brought in for me and smoothly pulled it over my damp hair.  I lifted one arm at a time into the sleeves, strategically keeping the towel wrapped around my body.  When the shirt fell to my knees, covering me fully, I let the towel drop.  “Well, that’s something I’ve never done before,” he sighed.