Page 6 of The Fall
Throwing herself against the door, Kerr tumbled and trained her sights on the intruder. A gasp, a lamp toppling over and the electric whine of the pistol finding targets before her Opti adjusted to the low-light conditions.
“What the fuck?” Chalice’s head popped from between Manifold’s thighs.
“Pure hell, Chalice!” Mercutio fell with a heavy thud. “Again?”
Chalice wiped her mouth. “I never promised I wouldn’t.” She turned to the half-naked woman on the bed, gathering her clothes.
“The fuck, Chalice? You told me you were over.” Manifold briefly made eye contact with Chalice before hastily donning her underclothes. She didn’t bother looking at Kerr, but she muttered “Sorry. Cheating isn’t my kink.”
“You didn’t use your safe word, though.” Chalice raised an eyebrow suggestively.
“My safe word is fuck you. That’s not how scenes work and you know it.”
Kerr’s eyes bored into the woman refusing to look at her. “Wait, what?”
“You didn’t know she does scenes either?” Manifold finally gathered the courage to look at Kerr. “You’re pure shite, Chalice. Don’t call me again.” She fastened her belt and shoved past the door.
Kerr stared at the depression on the bed for a few moments before deciding to sit on the floor, back against the wall. She couldn’t sleep here anymore. Piston was right.
Chalice ran her tongue across her molars before she said anything. “Going to cry about it again.”
Once that might have worked. Kerr might have burst into tears. She did last time. For some stupid reason, she believed that she was a hero for staying when Chalice kept trying to push her away. Love being enough, and all that. But now, she just felt numb. “You need to tell me something, yeah?”
Chalice seemed taken aback by Kerr’s response. She waffled for a moment before sitting on the bed. “What?” Acid still dripped from her voice, as if this was all Kerr’s fault.
Kerr reached over and gathered Mercutio. It looked ridiculous in her small hands. “Why string me along? Why not break up with me?” She rested her wrists against her knee, waving the barrel of the pistol around the room as she talked. “What do you gain out of all this?”
Chalice frowned and then squinted. For a moment, Kerr thought she might actually get a real answer this time. “It’s just sex. It has nothing to do with you.”
Kerr wanted to stand up. Wanted to cross the space between them, grab Chalice by the collar of her shirt and shake the answers she needed out of her. But deep down, she knew she wouldn’t get them. Knew that Chalice likely didn’t have any answers to give her. Likely that Piston was right. Likely that she was hurting and blindly lashing out. But she didn’t have to be here for it.
Kerr fished the keycard out of her pocket and scanned it before sending the address to Chalice’s Opti. “When your dad gets in, tell him thanks. Then send my things to that address.”
Chalice went pale, hastily getting up from the bed.
Kerr held up her hand before she could speak. “You can call when you fix yourself, but I won’t promise that I’ll pick up.”
Rich Gifts Wax Poor
She’d never been so relieved to see the trees. Being stuck in a transport while Pinga and Uncle Sparx yammered on about boys – strictly above the belt, of course, irked her. Mentally, she understood that this was normal, but through the fog of teenaged angst, she felt excluded. Suddenly, everyone but her had become obsessed with men.
Once the safety latch retracted, Lusa jumped out and made a bee-line for her new MobilePod. Having her own space would be a welcome relief. But a splotch of muscled tan and glaring red at the edge of the wood caught her eye. “Mom, Minuschok brought you something again.”
Callie shoved past Sesi and Talia. Minuschok’s ears pricked and the mountain lion bounded across the field. Standing on two hind legs with the pads of her paws spread apart, absurd and terrifying in equal measure. All sixty kilos of her collapsed into Callie’s arms, bunting blood-stained fur against her forehead.
“What are you going to do with those?” Sesi nudged Talia with her shoulder.
Talia re-sheathed her knives. “Sorry. Habit.”
Lusa snickered. Despite Talia’s initial apprehension, the local mountain lions had enough deer and rabbit to hunt that they steered clear of the Lake. The exception being Minuschok, a cub Callie had found, fed and grown attached to before anyone with sense found out and stopped her. Now, the ridiculous beast would occasionally show up with a carcass, have a quick snuggle, and then disappear for another month or two. That she now weighed as much as Callie didn’t seem to bother her.
Callie insisted that mountain lions have friends and they share carcasses, even if they live alone most of the time. Lusa wasn’t sure about that, but Talia and Sesi never argued the point, so it might as well be fact.
Siku arrived with a metal box. “I’ve got news. And a present.”
Sesi and Talia exchanged glances. “Leave Callie,” Talia said. “She’s busy playing with her cat.”
Sesi smirked. Talia grinned. Lusa bit her tongue. It was a silly pun, one she probably wasn’t meant to understand. She straightened her face and resumed her trek to her MobilePod before her parents caught her snickering.
