To Heaven and Hell

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Phoenix

I try to make my face as unreadable as possible, but I dont know how well it is actually working because the girl is still laughing at me. She takes a final drag on her cigarette and puts the butt into a half empty water bottle. She exhales with a chuckle, smoke drifting into the air. She stands up and walks over to me. "The name is Mila, but I have a feeling that you already know that."

I swallow not knowing how to respond. I stare up at the girl. I saw her face in the news enough, everyone did. Mila and Milo, the twin serial killers. Her and her brother killed twenty four people before Milo gunned down and Mila shot herself in the head. Not a person in the United States didn't know about these two in their infamy.

She has her hair tied back into a bun on her head. Traces of leftover makeup linger around her eyes. Judging by her tight fitting clothes, bags under her eyes, and stilettos kicked off by the bed I assume she just got up after a party last night. I have seen it plenty of times before from my older sister.

The girl laughs again. She holds out her hand to me. I stare at it. Her hands are calloused, her fingernails painted black. If I could flinch away I would have, but I am still paralyzed. "I'm not gonna bite you. I promise." I look back up at her eyes. They seem inviting and kind, but how? I know what she has done, how can anyone seem remotely nice after killing someone.

"I'm not going to kill you. You can let me help you up off the ground."

I take a deep breath and grab her hand. She pulls me up off the ground and then goes back to her perch on the bed. I shuffle across the room and sit at a chair by a desk. "I--I'm Phoenix," I force the words from my mouth. "You can call me Nix."

Mila reaches into her bag, and this time I do flinch. "Jesus, calm down, I'm not going to hurt you. You are wound up like one of those toys that kids play with." She pulls a cigarette from her bag along with a match. She looks over at me, her face twisted in disgust. "That was a horrible metaphor. I'm actually sorry that I said that." She lays back on the bed inhaling the smoke into her lungs. "But anyway, if I did want to kill you, I wouldn't be alone. I have accomplices." She shoots me a sideways glance.

"Yo--your brother?" I mutter.

Her smile stretches ear to ear. "The one and only." She sits in silence finishing off her smoke, the smile never leaving her face. After she puts her smoke out in her makeshift- ashtray water bottle, she turns to me. "Sometimes I can still smell the blood." I am not even sure if the comment was directed towards me. It seems like she is reminiscing on her awful acts while she was living. "So how did you end up here Nix?"

"I--I'm not sure."

Mila rolls her eyes. "Leave it to Satan to stick me with a roommate that doesn't have a good story." A mischievous looks glows in her green eyes as she stares at me. "Want me to tell you what I did? I mean, I know that you heard it on the news, but I did have a motive." She laughs like she just told the funniest joke in history. "Your face is priceless!" she exclaims. "Just chill, I won't burden you wit all of my demented details just yet."

I lean back in the chair. "So...uh, don't you guys have like classes here?"

She nods. "Yeah, your schedule is on the desk. I'm ditching. Too hungover from last night." She rubs her eyes with her hands. "Good sex though."

I can't stop my mouth from falling open. Appalled. What the hell is wrong with this school? Sex? Drugs? Drinking? Smoking? I guess this really is a school in hell cause it sure isn't good enough to be anyplace else.

Mila scoffs at my reaction. "Leave it to Satan to also stick with a prude. Are you sure you don't remember what you did to get here? It's becoming quite obvious that you didn't sleep with every married man in the neighborhood." She goes silent, covering her eyes with her arm. After a while I hear her breathing even out. She's asleep.