Wallace
"It wasn't your fault. He was a monster." His voice was the dark thunder of a landslide caught between valleys, deep and echoing with power. She could almost feel it vibrating within her own chest. The words of comfort from a stranger, from anyone, set her teeth smashed tight and her ears pulled back. She could ignore that little blossom of warmth, a hint of security from his confirmation, as a brief fire lit in her eyes. She didn't need comfort, didn't need coddling. She was fine.
"I didn't come for you," he answered, "I came for..." His voice and his attention fell away as he looked to the horizon behind her. She almost followed that faraway stare, but realized she didn't have to. Nobody lived out there. Nobody important, anyway. Only the nasty boneman who Ashley worked with, probably anger management considering the constant blaze in his eyes. He's not there, she offered blandly, her voice dulling, face blanking. His child is gone too. Maybe they left, she shrugged, indifferent. Good riddance.
"It doesn't matter why I came. I heard your thoughts while on the beach so I sought you out." She didn't like the sound of that, didn't like thinking that if he could hear her so clearly then how much could the boy hear, how much could Ashley hear? How much of her secret suffering was she yelling to them when she wanted to bury it so deeply within herself where they could never find it? Where she could never feel it.
"I'm not sure why. I don't normally care about people's problems."
Good. Don't, she said shortly with an abrupt nod. She didn't need anyone's pity, anyone's words of comfort as though she were a child with a nightmare. Her thoughts shifted back to her new worry, a worry he'd formed in her.
Can I block you out somehow? Can I keep my secrets from them. She glanced behind her, where in the far distance the young twins would be, where even further out might be a magician she dearly wished not to see just then. Or maybe ever. Humiliation flushed her face as she pinned her brown eyes back to him.
Why do you bleed? Wasn't he a mage? Couldn't he just heal it away? She'd never seen Ashley bleed, why would he? Why did this man bother to either.
