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 Posted: Wed Apr 19, 2017 6:42 pm
Elex never anticipated so much trouble with visiting a park, but now found himself saddled with his older brother in simply visiting the area. His mother claimed that it was for his own good, that it was out of worry more than any interest in punishing him, though Elex doubted this reason grievously. His brother felt similarly punished for all the ways it limited his social life, for how it ruined his chances with a few choice people due to hanging out with his younger brother, so they reached a pleasant compromise: Elex and Erol would do as they would separately, and meet together a few blocks from the house. They would process their stories together and walk home, with his mother none the wiser.
With that comrpomise struck, Elex cut down the first paved paths of the park with a modicum of relief. His mother grew increasingly intolerable with the frequent bruises showing up on his person, and Elex himself felt his patience strained to the point that he needed to get out. Doubts still lingered about the second life he led, and he knew he wanted nothing to do with it tonight; the park, therefore, proved a hospitable sanctuary against both his mother's prying eyes and the looming expectation that he drain the vitality out of strangers. Here, at least, he could focus on someone else's life. He could lose himself in another's affairs.
After ducking beneath the low branches of a vibrant cherry tree, Elex wound through one of the duskier, cedar-laden paths where their warm, wooded scent reached his nose in thick, rich waves. The sunlight cut through new buds and rendered them lurid in their vibrancy, and Elex oft found himself looking toward the upper eschelons of their branches more than the shaded path through which he meandered. Touching their bark along the winding path became a tradition of its own, and he lingered on the moss-stricken bark strips that softened from mold. Some, he found, felt so beseiged by the elements that they might topple over at a vigorous push.
One particular trunk lacked a great majority of branches, having split long ago as life left it. Mischief claimed him then, and in a quick cursory glance about himself, pushed the tree toward the deep basin below. Surely enough, low cracks and snaps sounded as the tree broke from its root restaints and groaned toward its target destination. A deep rumble sounded then and it descended abruptly, landing into the shallow pool with a veritable shower.
Grinning to himself, Elex covered his mouth out of habit. All the education in the world couldn't root out childish glee, it seemed.sweenys_revenge i hope this works for a start! if not, lmk!
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Posted: Wed Apr 19, 2017 7:10 pm
Years in the Dark Mirror Court had taught Rhona how to go unseen. As the young man sauntered down the lane of shady trees, she lifted her eyes from her composition notebook. He was destructive, it would seem. Rhona had a note of that. Childishly so. She made a note of that too. Though that childishness was not without it's charm. Rhona smiled, and then made a note of that as well. What she was going to do with those notes, however, was her business, and she tucked the pen back into the messy bun behind her head, ignoring the maverick strands of hair that had proclaimed their independence from the constraints of the tyrannical scrunchy. As he moved, covering his mouth like a debutante, Rhona smiled all the wider. "That wasn't very nice," she drawled. Honestly, if someone hadn't actively been looking for her, they may not have seen her. The lane of trees was lush, vibrant with life, and densely shaded during the day. At night, darkness crept into the deep pockets of the wooded area, pooling in inky puddles. Rhona lounged in one such puddle, legs stretched languidly out before her bathed in moonlight and smudged with soil from her toes to the very top of her thighs where her flesh met the hem of her shorts. She reclined against the bark of a cedar, grinning like she kept some fantastic little secret and maybe, just maybe, she wanted to share it. The fire-red poppies emblazoned on her damask crop corset stood out like fireworks in the darkness, or perhaps embers from the wildfire of her hair. Lazily, Rhona lifted the bottle of whiskey at her side, and from the looks of it, she'd already dipped into it herself. Not enough to get her wasted but enough to loosen her up. It had been a long day, spent in the soil of the communal gardens in the park. Rich, dark stains still clung to her knees and feet, perfuming her with the musky scent of the earth. No doubt that tomorrow her shoulders would be burnt, and she needed to get sunscreen for tomorrow, but she wouldn't ever have wished for a different way to spend her day. And a perfect evening, if she said so herself.
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Posted: Thu Apr 20, 2017 6:44 pm
Elex froze when he heard the voice out of the woods. Color drained from him somewhat in the ubiquitous guilty fear that he was caught, that he would be punished. But the voice that reached him, the honeyed drawl, was not that of a park ranger's, or a worried mother's, or a disapproving matron's. So he looked to the woods for answer, and found that no one remained beyond its heavy branches at first glance.
"It was already dead," he answered in self-defense, searching the nets of budding twigs. A bag crinkled, and he spotted the movement beyond the edge of the trees. Whoever she was, she sat far back within the confines of the forest, as if expecting to hide from the world. The nondescript paper bag held informed him well enough of why she sat alone there, though he knew of few who would resort to drinking alone. His father numbered among them. But what else could this chiding girl have in common with a struggling philanthropist and inventor? What did she know of trees long lost to the throes of life? Or of teenagers caught in liminal spaces, where their seldom-held joy came from felling dead husks of trees?
Elex stepped forward toward the trees, mindful of their grasping at his fitted jacket. His mother kept a keen eye for fabric injury, and he knew his ploy stood at risk if he snagged a button on a branch. He peered in from the tree line and spotted the girl more fully, where she laid in her mess of tousled hair, questionable sobriety, and rustled clothes.
And he wanted, in that moment, to be like her. To be free like her. To wear stains on his elbows and knees and set his cares to the wind. He wanted to spend his hours among the woods where no one would call for him, where he wasn't facing the grim choices of men.
With his hand braced against the trunk of a nearby cedar tree, he peered in between the branches. "Is it easier for you to judge strangers when they can't see you?" A faint, wry smile crossed his features. Maybe it's better that they don't. These trails run deep, and a single girl in the woods won't be missed. "It's more interesting to judge them when they can."
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Posted: Thu Apr 20, 2017 7:22 pm
He was careful, Rhona also noted. Too careful. This wasn't a normal person being wary of spider webs and stray branches that would catch on skin. This was something else. Something Rhona could not understand right at this moment. She could see what she was shown, after all. And she was not shown the reason for this young man's discomfort and care. "What if something lived there? Some woodland creature or skittering bug? What if something lived where the tree landed, and now lies dead, crushed to death?" She paused to let the thought sink in, if the young man was so inclined to let it do so, before she spoke again. "But I suppose you have a point," she sighed and sat still for a moment before she heaved herself with no little amount of exertion up onto her feet and sauntered over to the path with the boy. Now, with moonlight spilling more completely over her, she stood before the young man with a sleepy smile. "There you have it then," she muttered, playfulness dancing in her tone. "But just know that I wasn't judging you, only stating what I though. Small difference." She moved away, not bothering to brush the dirt and debris from her legs, and took a sip from her bottle. "For instance," she called over her shoulder, "if I were judging you, there would be derision in my tone. There was none. Thusly, it was an opinion. Walk with me."
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Posted: Fri Apr 21, 2017 5:12 pm
He understood where she went with her statements. Elex's jaw tensed just so. Guilt was a tricky thing, oft obscured by ignorance, but it suffered no weakness in being exposed. Instead, it rose inside the afflicted with force and fettered their being. A clear and simple impulse was now second-guessed, scrutinized, analyzed. Yes, he broke the tree of his own accord. Yes, its dead and rotted body fell into the small pool below. Yes, wildlife churned through a place like this. His action mattered.
And to dismiss it would place a price, a quality of worth, on anything killed by that action.
Elex offered no response outright, but the girl hadn't ceased her sleepy dance. She moved from the woods onto the path, half-awake under the moonlight, perhaps half-teasing too. He hadn't decided yet if her small admonishments were serious. The implications themselves offered a sinister suggestion. How whimsical she was about it, too. An admonishment for tipping a dead tree, and then the topic simply vanished. Gone up in smoke.
Fascinating. "You're sure of yourself," he observed as he fell into step beside her. The smell of drink grew strong from there, though Elex could tell nothing of the type. His father drank enough for both he and his brother to know the scent well. How old was she? Did she do this often? Was this one of those impassioned breaks from the yoke of the family? Another rebellious venture into the woods where she might wind up in the newspapers the following day? Girl Found Dead in Ditch, Murder Suspected. "What if I just told you to go to hell? Would there be derision in your response?" Would there even be a response?sweenys_revenge sorry about the s**t tag, cat won't shut up. will do the rest later!
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Posted: Fri Apr 21, 2017 6:43 pm
Sure of herself. Rhona almost rolled her eyes at the idea. She must have been one hell of an actress then, because this drinking was a coping mechanism and she was using it to hide from something. The worst part was that she didn't know what that something was. Or rather, she did. But she didn't want to breathe life into it by giving it a name, so instead she filled her mouth with whiskey so there was no room for the word. Speaking of which. Taking another swig of her bottle, Rhona nodded at the young man's question, as though he had posed some deep and probing inquiry into who she was or the nature of the universe was. She passed the bottle over to the young man and sighed deeply before answering. "If you told me to go to hell, I would simply say that I had already been. Someone offered me a timeshare, actually, but I refused. And that's the way I am the way that I am." She lightened her step as she spoke, spinning to face Elex as she walked backward, arms outstretched to offer a more complete image of herself, as though that would showcase the boils and blisters that riddled her soul. But she gave no hint to that and giggled, turned her back to the young man once more, slowing her pace to match his and felling back in step with him. "And then" she continued, pinning back the loose curls which bounced into her face, "I would ask you why you followed me on my walk if your only inclination was to hurt my feelings." Again, she allowed for the pregnant pause, watching Elex with surprisingly lucid eyes. She smiled again, warm and inviting, after that long, silent moment where the only sound was the nature around them. She liked the young man, honestly, she did. She liked that he acted without thinking. Maybe she saw a glimmer of her former self in him. That wild-haired, golden eyed girl with the whole cosmos at her feet and the power of a god at her fingertips. Unaware of the consequences, uncaring. So was her whole reason for revealing herself to him to bask in her former glory? Was it to guide him to a less disastrous end? "Finally," she muttered, returning from her musings back to the moment at hand, "I would intriduce myself as Rhona Lee. And ask what your name was."
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Posted: Sat Apr 22, 2017 5:27 pm
Eex accepted the bottle as he watched her, and his mild consternation seeped through with a furrow of the brow. He looked to the bottle first, then to her, then settled on watching her and pretending that he knew what to do with the offered item. Was he to drink from it? He shied from such a thought, knowing its implications. But to do otherwise… So peer pressure matters now? A laugh boiled, sharp in its stinging burn, but he swallowed it down. Rhona was speaking.
He watched her still, taking in her turns of phrase, the lack of animosity in her voice. She spoke of hell so lightly, yet in a well-acquainted manner. Where had he heard such tone of voice before? Was it from his father, when speaking of another brushed-off encounter? Elex couldn't remember. It didn't matter, for she next splayed out her arms, her pallor a fine glow in the moon's catching eye, and he caught the shadowed trail of scars. Like burn marks, they were. The touch of a mistake a second too slow lingered there, begging for notice on those sleeveless arms. "Your arms. Byproduct of your little venture into hell?" He raised his gaze to her then, taking in the green, searching for an answer before answers. An answer around answers, even — That's not the real story here. Something's missing.
No one cuts into a park to drink alone and dance whimsical under the moon. That's fairytale folly. What's she really after?
He lifted from thought back into conversation shortly, his sights on her adjusting only slightly as he refocused into reality. "You would've answered your own question. I'd follow you to keep hurting you."
'That wasn't very nice,' she said before. She'd say it again.
Elex swallowed thickly. Realization drew away all sensation, leaving him hollow and numb in its wake. His jaw prickled in the manner it often did shortly before he vomited. Sour saliva flooded his mouth. No, it's worse than peer pressure. As he continued following her, he scented the bottle lightly and found it revolting. His nose scrunched his smooth features into a rare snarl, but he chanced a taste regardless. Immediately he regretted it, and coughed lightly to dislodge the heady burning as it traveled his throat. The bitter, vile aftertaste haunted him vehemently. "Elex Yorke," he returned roughly. Afterward he held the bottle out to her in a soundless bid. "What were you doing out here?" Do you always drink piss in the woods?sweenys_revenge one day i'll have interwebs again
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Posted: Sat Apr 22, 2017 8:28 pm
"One of them," she answered lightly, looking down to her own hands as the events from the night in the park weeks ago filtered into her mind. She would have to make peace with them some day but... today was not that day. She snatched the bottle from Elex, ignoring his wincing. "And I promise you, there is nothing you can say to me that I haven't already said to myself." This time the playfulness was gone from her voice and a shadow fell over her face. Everything out her fell, her face, her shoulders, her voice. It was as if a huge weight had suddenly been sagged off onto her shoulders and she was trying to best not to be crushed by it. And her best wasn't good enough. Look at what you did, Little BirdRhona growled long and low into her bottle, loosing her footing for just an instant as she did so. The liquor did it's job to drown out her brother's voice, and she recovered, whisking the shadow from her face like a stray curl with a flick of her hand. She smiled again, with a little more effort this time, and ignored the heat welling behind her eyes. Some other time. Some time when she was alone. When it was just her and her thoughts and she could cry and rage and panic all by herself with no one else to worry about her. "Why does anyone drink alone," she asked finally, "to escape. I am escaping." No one could find her in the woods. Not unless she wanted to be found. Which, of course, begged the question why did she make herself known to this young man? She didn't have an answer. Maybe she wanted someone to talk to. Maybe she needed more distraction. She thought for a moment about slowing down, even stopping and taking a seat again. But she'd have to get up eventually. And if she was moving while the alcohol took hold, then she'd have a better handle on when she'd had enough and had to go home.
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Posted: Wed Apr 26, 2017 10:33 am
Elex smirked widely at her proclamation, intrigued by the boldness of her statement. "Isn't that something." I'm sure you've recounted to yourself every single fault that the world could breathe. Miseries became mercies while you tried to harden yourself against them. Maybe you thought, if you repeated them enough, they would lose their meaning, and thus their power. That you might conquer all the naysayers the world over if you just memories their every word and swallow them down as parts of yourself.
Maybe it's petty of me to want to be contrary. Maybe I'm not doing it for the right reasons. But in this darkened space between the woods, where no one but themselves disturbed the early brush, he felt the raw excitement of such a liminal space. The moon stood high in the sky, bidding the deepening of the night. They were alone here, and that wide breadth of privacy offered to each of them the freedom to be at their boldest. And why would he deny that? She obviously didn't, as she gave herself away to all the unbridled emotions that continued to storm her mind. Under the cold light of the moon, her shoulders slumped and her back bent and her head hung heavy under an unsightly load. All the words piled onto her back for him to see, for him to pick through every last insult he could bid to her.
"I could call you beautiful," he pointed out temptingly, "but you don't look like you remember what that word means."
With the bottle pried from his hands, Elex was free to walk with his fingers laced behind his back. His stroll remained careful, steady when compared to Rhona's erratic changes in her pace. But she was drunk, and wild, and honest with herself. "What's chasing you?"
What damaged Rhona Lee? Was it a broken household, a broken promise, a few too many dips into the drink to forget specters that were never really there? Does she herself know, I wonder? Given the darkness I've seen in a city like this, the possibilities are endless.
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Posted: Wed Apr 26, 2017 12:28 pm
Did she remember what beautiful meant? Semantically, of course, she did. But when she applied it to herself? How long had it been since someone called her that? She said it to herself when she was in better places, and she believed it then. When her skin fit correctly and she was alone in her reflection. Without the whispering in her ears. Black wings folded around her shoulders and bloody talons sunk into her shoulders telling her that if anyone were to call her beautiful at this moment, then she would call them a liar. She saw the dirt on her knees, her bare feet like she didn't care, the tangles in her hair and she knew what she looked like. She knew that she staggered and weaved, losing her balance along the way, like the slob she had become in recent days. What's chasing you?Now there was a question. How did she say that a monster from her past that she watched die had suddenly shown back up in her dreams? On the good nights, he only snapped his neck. On the bad nights he handed her the rope and made her chase him, so that her brother was left to hang. He made her watch as he struggled and died. That sounded insane... but then again... Rhona was drinking alone in the dark of the park covered in soil waiting for something to happen. Happen around or perhaps to her. She was running from shadows and sleep. It seemed like insane might have been a fitting middle name for her. "What's chasing me," she parotted thoughtfully, tapping the rim of the bottle to her lips before taking a healthy drink. "I am chased by a crow," she said finally. "A crow in the shape of a man, who strung me up and murdered my brother." Would he be proud of her, she wondered? Would this riddle suit him? Why did she care? She ran to the mirror to become something other than what he was twisting her into... why now was she so concerned with his approval? Was it approval that she sought? Perhaps it is that I have given up, she finally thought. Perhaps this is my final flaming glory, throwing my arms out to him in a last broken cry of look at me now, demon. Look upon your works and watch me fall. Night did strange things to Rhona. Without the light to brighten the dark corners of the world, the darkness enveloped her. Protected her even. Without the garish light of day she could hide, and in so doing be honest. Madness had broke open that wound so long ignored. Yellow puss rolled from the gash, infection spreading fro the sight of penetration like spider webs of toxicity. He had won. She had known that. The White Moon turned it's back on her and she ahd fled. She just hadn't known how complete his victory had been, she supposed. He laughed in her ear then, the sudden sound causing her to stumble and whirl, searching for the source of the sound that she realized too late only she could hear. "I am chased by a crow in the shape of a man," she muttered again, as though the idea puzzled even her.
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Posted: Thu Apr 27, 2017 3:39 pm
A crow in the shape of a man. What's that supposed to mean? A harbinger of death? A youma? A man who acts like an animal?
She isn't even making sense to herself. Maybe too lost to drink to find her way in the dark. Maybe she's seeing him now, that crow in the shape of a man, peering out of all the deeper shadows in the forest. I'm not sure she ever left hell. Maybe it's better to live with a lie then see the truth of where she stands. Elex continued to walk with her regardless. With hands folded behind his back, he maintained his usual composure, with broken bark and gravel crunching underfoot. The night sounds of the forest blanketed them, their sights unknown save for the moths that beat themselves relentlessly against the sodium globes of the park lights. Not even the mosquitos stirred anymore. Is someone going to string you up and murder you now?
"There's nobody here but us. And if that wasn't true, what could you do about it?" He scanned her features, then looked to the path winding ahead of them. On and on it went, ducking in and out behind the forest's denser patches. "It's only a chase if you turn and run." He imagined that, if she could comment that this crow-man strung her up and murdered her brother, then she tried to face him down once before. That time proved unsuccessful.
But what about the magical offerings in this city? Had she any of those? Or was that how the business with the crow-man got started?
"Fear is pretty for how seldom people can hide it. When someone acts despite their fear, they become someone to fear. Isn't that fascinating?" But am I any better, running from these Negaverse obligations? Hiding away from myself whenever Umber forces another star down my throat? Elex snorted softly to himself. No. Refusing to face the facts is more passive than that. More insidious. If I faced someone - something - like she did, would I be able to run with that same conviction? She's broken, but she knows it. Perhaps that's her strength.
But me, I think I'm well put-together. The irony was not lost on him.
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Posted: Thu Apr 27, 2017 6:26 pm
"You would turn and run if you had been there." Rhona was certain of it. Anyone would turn tail and flee if they saw that monster. Well, anyone with half a brain, which also explained why Rhona hadn't run from him when she had the chance. She had been prideful. He had known that. He had used that to lead her willingly to her downfall. "I tried to fight. I fought with everything that I was." Though sobriety crept toward her, the lingering inebriation made the memories into a dull ache rather than a sharp sting. "I bit and I clawed and I threw dust in his eyes, but nothing mattered. I had thought, at the time, that I could win but... well... hindsight is always 20/20, isn't it?" Rhona didn't offer that she had all but become something to be feared. She was no longer drunk enough to divulge that precious secret. Instead, she took to fighting the slowing of the world around her. Even with her constant intake, she was metabolizing the alcohol too quickly. She wouldn't be sober for several hours, maybe not even until late into the dark tomorrow but things were slowly growing sharper. "Like I said, it doesn't matter; he's long dead now. Any fear that I have is completely irrational, but that doesn't make it any less... painful." He walked like he knew something. Like he may had owned the earth they walked on. Under normal circumstances it would have annoyed Rhona but here, in the sublime embrace of night, moonlight made him... deeply interesting. The way he moved... Elex could have been the crow from her past. His posture, his line of questioning... even the manner in which he spoke. All he was missing was the hissing accent that colored all of those vile words. Fear gripped Rhona again for a moment while her logical mind went to war with her deeply feeling heart because I watched you die.
I saw you fall in flames and glory. He couldn't possibly be here. For just a moment the flutter of inky wings drew her attention back to Elex and she swore that they had been his. Rhona needed to go home. She needed to lie down and sober up. She needed to be anywhere but here in this moment before he turned around and realized that Rhona knew his terrible secret. But just as fast as the vision descended upon her, it was gone. Elex was himself again, moving with the surety of someone who had been handed everything in life. She was being toyed with again, Rhona was growing sure of it. She hadn't bothered to hide her wounds from anyone, and now someone had come along to push their fingers into the pus and find out what it made her do. The next question in Rhona's mind came upon her slow as the dawn. It made her half in her tracks, focusing all of her possible attention on the young man before her. She cocked her head at him, trying to make her mouth form the next words with the least amount of slur to her speech. "Why did you chose to walk with me?" She was certain that the reason wouldn't be with the express purpose of hurting her. The kid was arrogant, for sure, but he wasn't malicious.
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Posted: Thu Apr 27, 2017 7:27 pm
Elex wasn't certain that he would readily side with her on that proclamation. He never ran from the dripping creature on the warehouse roof, though he kept his distance in a measure of avoidance. The other, more capable, fighters there closed in for their attacks. His interventions grew extraneous in short order, and Umber himself informed him that Faustite lacked the skill to be effective. A creature hewn of crow and malice sounded more like a concoction of the Negaverse than anything else. Perhaps one of those youma that Arsenopyrite mentioned.
Monsters made of men. But can we make men of monsters?
She wove through her story and so much more, now, he framed it in the light of the magical war. He knew not of her stance in sobriety, but the explanation sounded too real, too literal, dismiss as metaphor. She threw dust in his eyes. That doesn't mean anything in the metaphorical world. She was trying to blind someone. Was she trying to rob him of his sight so she could kill him more easily, or so he couldn't see her weaknesses? Strange how you can always cast yourself a shade darker. I wonder if it does her well to mold herself into a broken doll. Where does that get you, Rhona? What does that earn you, besides walks in the woods with strangers? Or is that all you ever hoped to find in the bottom of that bottle?
Respite is the word you're looking for, but all you'll find is spite.
The way she looked to him then was not lost to him, and for so long as she stared, he froze in his step. A wildness haunted her eyes, dressed in hurt and hate, while she searched his form. He knew nothing of what she was thinking, what she saw, what she was looking for. He stared in return, transfixed both by the danger of it and the propensity for something new, something he'd never seen before. His hands fell from their seat behind his back and he waited, then, half-convinced that she would try to hit him.
But no strike came. He resumed his walk with her next question, the sonance breaking the spell that hung the still world on their shoulders. "You asked me to," he offered simply. "And I wanted the company. Sometimes, when you meet someone new, your problems don't seem much like problems anymore." And they didn't, not now - he had her to thank for at least that.
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Posted: Tue May 02, 2017 1:35 pm
Strickenized Prep-period wrap. Sorry about the shortness! Well, Rhona supposed that made sense. It had been silly of her to suspect anything, after all. She had watched him die. She had been there when madness and monsters consumed him. Everything from the voice to the wings had been a figment of his own imagination. But that didn't mean the talons in her shoulders stung any less. But at least she had helped in some perverted way. Whatever problems Elex was facing suddenly seemed to diminish in the face of Rhona's own torment. Well, at least she had been good for something. Finally. These days all she seemed to be good at was drinking to excess and disappointment. "I'm glad I could be of assistance," she chirped, forcing a smile that looked more like a grimace. "Or at least I hope I was..." The world pitched sickeningly to the left, or rather had she herself pitched in such a way? Whatever had happened, it send Rhona's stomach roiling. She could taste the bile that threatened to erupt from her lips. If there was ever a sign that she needed to go home, Rhona supposed that this was it. For a second, she forgot that she was in the company of someone else, and reached for the henshin pen in her pocket. It was that little sliver of her brain that had not been drowned in whiskey that wailed for her to stop before she made a terrible mistake and instructed her to cover by shoving her other hand into her pocket like she had meant to look nonchalant. "I ought to call it a night," she muttered, trying to keep whatever was in her stomach where it belonged. At least until she got home. Once Elex was out of sight and out of mind, she would power up and take the shortcut home... "Yeah... it's about that time. Take care of yourself, Elex. Maybe next time we meet I'll only be seeing one of you."
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Posted: Wed May 03, 2017 10:26 am
She lurched and pitched and looked greener than the leaves surrounding them. Elex wondered if drink finally caught up with her. It must have, he supposed, because she suddenly developed a hurried need to leave - maybe to make her own contribution to the forest's compost.
"Goodnight, Rhona." He wondered if they would meet again, knowing that his family watched him so closely now. He hoped so, if only to hear more of her tales about hell's deepest reaches.
Dead as they are, your crows aren't leaving. Maybe they never died. Elex watched her retreating form for some time, mulling over her talk of the chase. She sounded hunted, haunted, in need of help she wouldn't ask for and he couldn't give. He wondered if all the magic in the world could save her from that, and if it could, what would it mean to do so? Would it mean anything at all? Might she regret such a choice, knowing that her passport back into hell had been so suddenly revoked?
Everybody wants to feel better. So why don't they make an effort for it? Maybe that's just what they want to say, not what they want to do. Without pain and anguish, would Rhona still visit the woods? Would she be anything at all?
Or would she be running toward her next chance at hell? Finally Elex turned from the scene and faced the long road back to the sidewalks. She gave him something to think about, and a slow pace would make it last.
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