“So, how’d you kill the man?” Thalia’s eyes twinkled.

Daniel shook his head. “I’m not telling you.”

We all looked at him, stunned.

“What?” he questioned as he reached over to try and steal some of my bread. I slapped his hand away.

“No one can resist my charm.” The shock was visible on Thalia’s face.

“You know, I heard that Pixie’s can’t control their future husbands or wives.” I teased. I was telling the truth, I had no idea where that information came from though.

“I Know. But you’re, what, 17 years old?” Thalia leaned towards Daniel and inspected his face. “I must admit, you are handsome.”

Daniel blushed. “Do I get a say in this?”

“Well yeah, I won’t marry you out of your will. We’ll fall in love someday but it may be years until then.” She suddenly looked really shy.

“Wait, are you guys being serious?” Daniel blushed even more. I watched him as his pupils dilated, he was staring at Thalia of course.

“I thought you liked Arihart?” Wild asked him.

“Yeah, we dated for a year but it didn’t end up working out.” Daniel frowned.

“You a virgin?” Thalia asked him.

“N… No. I remember I had a girlfriend out in the real world and we were pretty serious, although she didn’t know I’m an alien so that probably would have ruined things.”

“I’m destined to marry an alien. I mean, it could be worse. I could have been marrying a lobster man.” She said as she finished her food.

“A lobster man?” I questioned.

“They’re real you know.” She said.

Thalia continued that conversation with Daniel who somehow knew a lot about lobster men.

“Are you okay?” Wild asked me. He looked down at my plate, I had barely taken a bite.

“I’m not hungry.” I didn’t feel like eating, even though I was starving.

“Just eat something.” His voice was caring. “You need energy or you’re going to collapse.”

“Fine.” I gave in and took a bite of bread. I forced myself to eat the whole meal.

Jugs of water appeared in front of each of us. Thalia picked hers up and started chugging.

“Hurry up, this is the only water you get all day.” She said as she began chugging again.

I raised mine up to my mouth and drank half of it in seconds. I hadn’t realised I was so thirsty. The jug disappeared from my hands and a bell rang.

“Come on.” Thalia said to Wild and I. “Goodbye.” She said to Daniel.

Wild and I followed her as she led us back to the cell. Joker was waiting there for us. We stepped in and he locked the door.

“So, you guys got a crush on anyone?” Thalia asked once she was lying down on her bed.

I was sitting on the bottom bunk with Wild. In the corner of my eye I saw Wild’s cheeks grow warm and he turned his head away from me. My cheeks were growing warm too, I watched Wild as he grew embarrassed.

“Well? You going to tell me who?” she nagged.

“No.” I told her.

“Me neither.” Wild picked at the ratty old blanket.

“Are they people I know?” she asked.

My blush deepened.

“They are! But I never met any of your friends who are girls.” A look of realisation took over her face. “Lazarus, do you like a boy?” she asked.

“Okay, that’s enough questions, let’s just all go to sleep!” I panicked as I jumped out of the bed and climbed up to mine. I got under the covers and turned my back to Thalia.

“You know, it’s okay if you do right? You’re in hell, nobody cares about that here.”

“Fine, I like a boy. I am gay. There you go.” I said. I felt tears pushing their way out even though there was nothing to cry about, like she said, no one down here cares. My hands started to shake.

“Do you like Daniel? Because if you do, back off, that’s my man.” Thalia told me.

“Don’t worry. Jeez, even if I did like him he’s not into guys.” I told her. “The person I like likes girls so…” I closed my eyes, hoping they didn’t figure out who I was talking about, especially Wild.

“You’ll find your man one day.” Thalia yawned.

I had no idea what Wild was thinking right now. Was he okay with this? Did I just ruin everything?

I squeezed my eyes shut as I curled into a ball. Something that I learnt about hell was that it was freezing, not hot like you’d imagine. I was shivering, it was hard to get to sleep when my teeth wouldn’t stop chattering.

Not to soon after closing my eyes, my imagination went mad. The ghosts were back, they were even worse when they were accompanied by the cold.

The night went by slowly. As far as I could tell, I only slept a few hours.

Joker came and started hitting the bars. “Rise and shine. Time to train for six hours straight!”

I opened my eyes and slowly sat up. I slapped my face a couple times to try and wake myself; It did not work.

I got off the bed and exited the cell behind Thalia and Wild.

The day went slowly, it was basically the same as yesterday.