02-23-2020, 08:24 PM
Nina thought: is he for real?
And a second thought, like a stutter. My reaction is as fixed as his action. And thinking that annoyed her.
It’d be so easy to run. Pretty little tattoo’d thing, all scared to death. For a moment Nina was going to turn around and run away, with her hand up in front of her mouth...
When she first found out about Rena’s powers she ran. She freaked. She went down into the stairwell, closed the door, and just cried. For a few hours. She couldn’t stop. While she was crying, she thought about lots of things. One of the things by the way was her own reaction.
Look, when you come up against your beliefs like that, when you learn the world was round, discover monsters really exist, when you find out your father was right after all, or, when you look at your little sister Rena and see something, like that—man you’ve to have some sort of reaction: laugh, cry, something. She’d just hate for Rena to think she’s not as brave as everybody supposed she was. I guess I’ll have to think of something, she’d thought at the time—when she was done crying she took a nap. When she woke up, she was big sister Nina again.
But what would she get by telling him that? Because she liked Soren, she wanted him to trust her a little. If she could show him she understood something about him, perhaps he would…
No, Rena’s secret wasn’t hers to tell.
She took a breath. Then another. For the fear. You know you can control things like that, with breathing exercises. And it worked. A little.
“Well.” This a considered sentence. Measured. She wondered what to say. She tried, “thank you.”
“You really scared me. I guess a lot of people would have been. I keep thinking of all the terrible things you could have done to me. But if it’s any of them, there isn’t anything I can do to stop you.”
She stepped over closer to Soren, curious. Did he really kill anybody? Maybe this was the sort of thing he was asking about her tattoos earlier. Even if he said so in a jokingly way. Perhaps it’s the sort of thing that should only be told to one person. But now that she knew, maybe he could talk about Morven. She’ll just listen in that case.
“I’m just glad I don’t have a heart condition. To protect your secret, I suspect you’ve done some things that haven’t made you all that happy. My interest in you just about exploded, by the way, the research, the tests… yeah, I’d just hate to leave you alone, because that’s the kind of person I am—just a nuisance. I’ve occasionally been known to pick up a stray or two from the street and get them treatment. Nothing political, mind you. But they still frown on that sort of thing.”
“Ah, ha!” Nina drew back, ineptly mocking something theatrical since he was touchy about questions. “Just for argument’s sake now: suppose I do know something about the snakes, and about you, how do you know I won’t use it against you?”
And a second thought, like a stutter. My reaction is as fixed as his action. And thinking that annoyed her.
It’d be so easy to run. Pretty little tattoo’d thing, all scared to death. For a moment Nina was going to turn around and run away, with her hand up in front of her mouth...
When she first found out about Rena’s powers she ran. She freaked. She went down into the stairwell, closed the door, and just cried. For a few hours. She couldn’t stop. While she was crying, she thought about lots of things. One of the things by the way was her own reaction.
Look, when you come up against your beliefs like that, when you learn the world was round, discover monsters really exist, when you find out your father was right after all, or, when you look at your little sister Rena and see something, like that—man you’ve to have some sort of reaction: laugh, cry, something. She’d just hate for Rena to think she’s not as brave as everybody supposed she was. I guess I’ll have to think of something, she’d thought at the time—when she was done crying she took a nap. When she woke up, she was big sister Nina again.
But what would she get by telling him that? Because she liked Soren, she wanted him to trust her a little. If she could show him she understood something about him, perhaps he would…
No, Rena’s secret wasn’t hers to tell.
She took a breath. Then another. For the fear. You know you can control things like that, with breathing exercises. And it worked. A little.
“Well.” This a considered sentence. Measured. She wondered what to say. She tried, “thank you.”
“You really scared me. I guess a lot of people would have been. I keep thinking of all the terrible things you could have done to me. But if it’s any of them, there isn’t anything I can do to stop you.”
She stepped over closer to Soren, curious. Did he really kill anybody? Maybe this was the sort of thing he was asking about her tattoos earlier. Even if he said so in a jokingly way. Perhaps it’s the sort of thing that should only be told to one person. But now that she knew, maybe he could talk about Morven. She’ll just listen in that case.
“I’m just glad I don’t have a heart condition. To protect your secret, I suspect you’ve done some things that haven’t made you all that happy. My interest in you just about exploded, by the way, the research, the tests… yeah, I’d just hate to leave you alone, because that’s the kind of person I am—just a nuisance. I’ve occasionally been known to pick up a stray or two from the street and get them treatment. Nothing political, mind you. But they still frown on that sort of thing.”
“Ah, ha!” Nina drew back, ineptly mocking something theatrical since he was touchy about questions. “Just for argument’s sake now: suppose I do know something about the snakes, and about you, how do you know I won’t use it against you?”
Nina