I didn’t know how, but I somehow ended up getting dragged out to Jenny’s silly party on Saturday.

It probably had something to do with her incessant, annoying begging.

After running inside to avoid the pouring rain, I bitterly sat in the corner of the booming and eclectic house with my legs crossed. I didn’t know how rich Jenny’s friend, George, was, but he certainly managed to dress his house up like it were a full-blown club.

There were lights flashing wildly from the disco ball hanging over head along with obnoxious music blaring from a nearby boom box.

I counted the beats of the mopey song because I was so bored.

One-two-three-four, one-two-three-four, one—

Pong.

The ball flew from my hands.

One-two--

Pong.

Asher caught it.

Pong.

My arms were outstretched as I plummeted downwards.

Time seemed to stand still.

My eyes zeroed in on a shadowy figure lurking within a corner of the makeshift club.

My eyes widened. Freezing sweat drenched my forehead.

There was no mistaking spiral shape hidden in the shadows.

It began shimmying out of the corner.

Shhk, shhk, shhk.

I leaned back in my chair with a horrified grimace.

I could see its gleaming eyes glinting at me from within the shadows.

My mind whited out with terror at the piles of skin rustling from the middle spiral.

I shrieked at the top of my lungs until I had no air left.

“Robin! Robin! What’s wrong? Robin…” Jenny’s voice was loud at first, and then gentle and concerned.

Everyone at the party was looking at me.

“I’m sorry, I have to go.” I stood up—straightening the dangerously short dress Jenny had picked out for me and heading toward the door.

Jenny caught me by the arm. “Robin, wait. This is good for you. Please stay… At least for one dance.”

With frightened tears in my eyes I shook my head and sniffled. “I can’t, I’m sorry!”

I ran for the door and accidentally bumped into someone on the way out. “I’m sorry, I…”

I saw that his arm was missing, and I knew precisely who he was when my eyes met his.

I could do nothing but stare at him slack-jawed. “Asher…?”

He stared back at me, equally as stunned. He murmured breathlessly, “Robin…?”

I couldn’t explain why, but I was terrified to see him—almost as terrified as I was of the monster.

The door was close by.

I nearly sped past Asher, but he stopped me by grabbing one of my shoulders with a strong arm.

“Stay. Please.” He begged me.

My eyes stayed glued to the door.

I secretly wanted to stay; I wanted to have a relationship with him and talk to him about old times, but I was so very scared to.

A solid minute seemed to pass, but I slowly agreed, “let’s talk.”

We found a somewhat secluded corner in the booming living room—walking past Jenny who had an astonished look on her face—and sat down together.

Asher gave me his cutest and most familiar bright smile with his undeniably kissable cheeks being made prominent. In a moment he asked, “so, you didn’t want to go to college, huh? You little liar!”

I shrugged. “Well… You were practically daring me and calling me a loser if I didn’t go and… And then Mom was saying that I couldn’t do it, and you know how stubborn I am.”

He gave me a look that made me blush as his eyes roamed over my very visible legs and then flicked back up to my eyes. “I suppose so. So, how have you been doing? I hope college is treating you well.”

I twiddled my fingers nervously. “I don’t really like it. I’m sick of it. I’ve been seriously thinking about just dropping out and concentrating on my job. It’s exhausting having to waitress and go to school at the same time.”

Asher had a disapproving look on his face but decided not to antagonize me because he knew it could lead to nothing good. “But you’ve done so much work… You must be so close to a degree…”

I nodded half-heartedly. “I know, but…” I chuckled awkwardly. “I’m so burnt out, and my grades just aren’t what they should be…”

Asher raised an eyebrow. “You know, I can tutor you again if you want. Remember how much of a turn around you had when I tutored you before?”

I was defensive as I always was when it came to him shoving that in my face. “Right. I’ve been nothing but a failure since we separated and you took your amazing tutoring skills with you. Clearly I just don’t have the intelligence to do this.”

Asher looked wounded and he shifted in his seat. “Robin, you know that’s not what I was saying. You started getting good grades back then because you were willing to study day and night with me! Besides, maybe I could have used my ‘amazing tutoring skills’ to help you if you hadn’t just run away one day without saying goodbye!” Asher tried not to cry as he added, “I haven’t seen you for eight years…’

“I don’t owe you an explanation! You would have—you would have abandoned me eventually, anyway!” I said tersely.

He looked into my eyes unblinkingly and I nearly shriveled under his judgmental gaze. “Not every man is going to abandon you like your dad did.”

My eyes widened and I answered with low anger, “what? How dare you…”

Asher sighed deeply and tapped his shoe on the rug.

“Do you know something, Robin? I realized while you were gone that you were right when we were kids. My mom was abusive. There was no reason why she couldn’t have let me out of the house more. But it wasn’t just that.” Asher murmured with his face becoming pale--his hand looked cold and clammy. “She had been poisoning me the whole time. It’s true I was sick to begin with, but she had been slipping a small amount of poison into my meals to keep me that way. If I hadn’t listened to you, I never would have suspected… I would still be back in that town, letting her abuse me. She wanted to keep me in that house because she was alone otherwise—she would have killed me to keep me there. Will you please listen to me now?” He was practically begging me as he leaned forward in his chair.

I crossed my arms protectively and stayed silent, allowing him to continue if he wished.

“You have scars that still haven’t gone away from living with your mother…” He began slowly.

I touched my scarred cheek in embarrassment but said nothing.

“I remember what you told me so long ago; you told me that if your dad had just stuck around, maybe he could have gotten you out of that house. You practically admitted to me that you were being abused. You never said it, but I knew that you hadn’t trusted a man since. You… You did everything you could to be as female as possible. I’ve never seen you wear a pair of pants in your life.” Asher said slowly.

I impatiently wiggled my foot and kept my face stony. “Very astute of you. What do you plan to do about it? Are you going to sweep me off my feet? Are you going to convince me that not all men are that way? Are you going to be my one-armed prince and show me…”

There was a clear and awkward silence between us as we both remembered the day he had lost his arm and the subsequent arguments and therapy sessions that had followed it after we were fished out of the well.

“Damn straight I’m going to sweep you off your feet.” He made quite a show of it as he hauled me to my feet and wrapped me in his one arm.

I looked up at him with a sour expression which he countered with a compassionate one.

I rolled my eyes with a little smile. “Alright then, get me out of here.”

__

As it turned out, Asher had been going to a different college nearby the whole time, and he told me all about it on the way to his apartment.

I nearly turned my nose up at his chosen major as we rode on the back of a bus together to his apartment.

“I’m going into the arts. I’m taking some creative writing classes and art classes.” Asher said as he stuffed his face with a bag of chips. “How about you?”

I remembered all the one-hundreds he had gotten on his math tests and wondered why he would ever pursue something that was such a shot in the dark.

“I’m taking a lot of math and other annoying classes to become a nurse.” I replied.

He nodded in response—half-listening--and stretched cheerfully. “I can’t wait to go home!”

__

His apartment was absurdly clean, and I expected no less from him. His old room in his mom’s house was always that clean, too. He was a neat-freak and would get incredibly distressed when I left any food packages lying around his house as kids.

I leaned on his front door with a smile. “I expected no less from you.”

He tossed his empty bag of chips out and sat cross-legged on his bed. “What?”

“Your apartment, I mean. It’s absurdly clean.” I said as I pushed myself off the door and sat down next to him.

He chuckled a little. “Yeah, I suppose it is. Hey, have you seen the… The bodies on TV? From… Melancholia?”

I stared forward uncomfortably. “I don’t want to talk about that, Asher. It always ends in an argument.”

“I know it was real. I couldn’t have lost my arm just by falling.” Asher continued despite my wishes. “I’m sure these bodies and the monsters must be—"

“Asher. Stop.” I replied firmly.

I wrapped my arms around him. “I don’t want to talk about monsters right now.”

I grabbed the button on the top of his shirt and undid it shakily. “I want you to make love to me.”

He put his one hand on my cheek with a smile he could not contain, and I delighted in how soft it was. He stated, “I love your hair short. Why did you finally cut it?”

“Because my mom hated it short.” I answered.

After a bright smile, he wasted no time at all.

He playfully pushed me down—eliciting a giggle out of me. I shivered as he ran his one hand up my thigh and under my dress.

He cleared his throat nervously and asked, “are you a virgin?”

I nodded silently.

“Thank god. Me too.”

We both laughed.

__

“Do you know what happened to your father, Robin?” Mother asked as she roughly dragged a wooden brush through my hair as a punishment for my cutting it hours before.

I shook my head.

There was no talking in mom’s house unless she gave me permission; that was something I learned the hard way.

“He got obsessed with that old well in the middle of town…” Mom said as she dragged the comb through my hair with such force that it ripped a clump of hair. I whimpered. “And then one day, he just up and left. He told me he was going out to get something at the store, and he never came back. I suspect he was secretly going out to see some whore…”

Mom put one of her hands on my shoulder and dug her nails into it until it bled.

“He kept telling me over and over about his family’s duty to fight the monsters, but I knew the truth. Men are worthless and unreliable. They cause all the suffering and cruelties in the world; they are demons in the flesh! That’s why I saved you and made you an angel with the rest of us women when your father could have made you into a man with the way you were born.”

I stared forward and my mind could not turn away from the well.

With every heartbeat, the well appeared in my mind and beckoned me in. I closed my eyes for a minute, and I felt wind brushing my face as I thundered down the well.