He said it in a sarcastic tone.
I opened the required page of the graph book and slid it under the door. As usual, I sat down under the huge leaves of the banana tree and began to skim through my novel. After sometime, I felt a tap on my shoulder, which usually was a hard slap by Lily on the back of my skull. I turned back to see Shawn standing with a concerned look on his face.
"Why are you sitting so far from the Scroid?", he asked.
"Why? What happened?"
"Your sisters are vigorously knocking at the door for a long time now calling you".
I rushed to the wooden door and slightly pushed it. It made a sharp, cranky noise and I got into the abandoned warehouse. Logs of wood lay on the floor, and the room was completely invaded by generations of spiders with spiderwebs occupying more space than air itself. The ground was covered with black powdery dirt and some rodents' excreta.
I saw Lily and Rose standing behind a stack of boxes and upon going nearer, I would know that their bodies were biologically joined to each other. Their faces were connected to one neck and a hybridised dual body.
"YOU ASSHOLE, WHAT DID YOU DO?!!", Lily screamed.
"My ears are hurting, can't you speak a bit softer?", Rose said. I was completely appalled to say anything at all. It was as if I saw my parents making out vigorously.
"Will you say something?", Rose asked.
"I don't know what to say".
I took the book from Lily's hand and looked at the page. I suddenly closed my eyes tight as soon as I realised my mistake
"What happened?", Lily asked.
"I accidentally opened a page where it had 'thereafter' as a word. Hence, this happened".
"Couldn't you be more careful?!", Rose exclaimed.
"It just slipped my mind as I was talking to... Ya, it just slipped my mind".
I stood there as if I didn't utter anything strange and incomplete and the inner me pinched at my buttocks very hard for 'guiltoxins' to kick in.
"Who were you talking to?", Lily asked.
"No-one", I quipped.
"My head is bleeding heavily with anger. So don't be a fucking pussycat and tell me", Lily peacefully requested.
I took a moment for a quick breath in and out.
"Shawn."
"Who Shawn?", Lily asked.
I looked at Rose and raised my eyebrows and she immediately realised who I was talking about.
"What the hell was he doing here?", Rose asked.
"Wait! Who the hell are you two talking about?"
"The boy yesterday", I answered.
"Why is he here?!"
"His father and uncle also get converted into words... But leave that. What about your condition now?"
"We have no freaking idea".
Suddenly, there was a soft knock on the wooden door and Shawn partially slipped into the room. The girls slided back to hide from him, mostly Rose's decision for their joint body. He was a bit nervous himself, just intruding into a conversation like this.
"Maybe Mr. Lucifer can help", he said in a high pitched voice, maybe intended for Lily and Rose.
I didn't who Mr. Lucifer was, but my sisters seemed to know him. As soon as they heard his name, a little bit of calm washed over their faces and they did a mini uncoordinated hi-five, which to normal bodies is a clap.
"Who's this guy?", I asked.
"No-one knows, but he can surely help us. After all, he helped us during our initial years of word conversion", Lily answered.
"So, you are telling that he can help us?", I asked Shawn.
"I can take you to him", he said grumpily, very conscious of Lily and Rose listening to him. Or maybe he was just weirded out by the body itself.
"Should I go?", I asked the girls.
They nodded.
"Thank you", Rose said it aloud, intended for Shawn.
Shawn smiled faintly but I could see the inner him exploding in sheer exultation. We got out of the warehouse.
"So, where do we meet Lucifer?", I asked, as we swiftly hiked downward to get out of the hill.
"To be honest, I am not even sure if we can meet him", he said with his face down, watching out for the rocks and the digs and dips along the way.
"What?! Then how? Do you have his contact number or something?"
"He gave me a number when my father had converted into a 3D object, which was a pyramid, and I had gone to him for help".
"So, you have his number, then", I asked.
He still looked down and his face reeked of uncertainty.
I stood outside the public telephone glass box with my hands folded. Shawn spent five bucks calling him but was only greeted with the monotonous ringing of the telephone. He came out and looked at me with a dejected face.
"So, what do we do now?", I asked.
He stroked his thin, faint moustache and began to think. Millions of possibilities must have crossed his mind, with one of them being running away from this mess, but he came at the conclusion that we have to go meet him.
"Where does he live?", I asked.
"Not in Zuschter. Gotta take a train to Sisyphilli".
"And how much time will it take?"
"Six to seven hours", he answered.
"And the train tickets?"
"We can book it online".
"No, I mean, I don't have cash on me. So you are paying, right?", I asked.
Immense physical activity of his face muscles suggested an emotional change, mostly to the state of being confused and bewildered.
"What do you mean? I don't have much money either. You have to pay me back!".
"I am a goddamn school student. How will I have so much money?".
"I haven't even told you the ticket price".
"I don't think having ten bucks will help much listening to the price".
He looked at me emotionless.
"Thousand bucks. Otherwise there's no point", he said.
I looked at his ripped apart soul, selfishness overflowing out of the cracks.
"I will help you get back with Rose", I presented him a deal.
"It's her decision anyways. Not like you are close enough to her, for her to change her decisions".
"But I am your only shot, ain't I?"
He looked away, breathing heavily. After sometime, he began punching the keys of his smartphone.