Lonely Monsters

thirty-three

The door opened and someone shuffled in.

I turned to see Jared, dressed in a similar gown to my own.Similar to my own clothes, but his were thicker, and the stitchinglooked better. Hemmed and fitted to his muscular form, where minewere light and rather flowy. He had metal cuffs about his wrists, andhis once pristine hair was messy. The guy had a slight haunted lookto his eyes, and when they saw me they were bright. Then theconfusion set in.

And I had to laugh. He was up shit creek without a paddle. Ilooked down at the table, Etoile, Jared, then the area 'door' he hadwalked through. From the shadows of the doorway, there was a set oftwins, somewhat leering at us.

"What are you doing here?"

Before I could answer, I arms were invisibly coaxed behind my backand bound. Not like before, where I chose the position and the knotsformed accordingly, but like the way any normal person were slaphandcuffs on one's wrists. Lower to my hips, forcing my shouldersback at a tightness that strained my neck a bit.

"Oh fuck you!" I barked at whoever hovered the doorway.One twin, who wore his hair a bit pushed back away his face, smirkedat me. He waved his hand and the door closed.

"I was caught." I said evenly. I used my foot to pullout my chair and sat down.

Jared pulled out his own chair and looked across the table at me."I would have thought you would stay as far away from Remine aspossible."

"Where?" The word sounded familiar. "So we're inthe Academy, Academy. Neat."

And he let out an exasperated noise. "Are you really thatclueless?"

I turned my head to look at him. This would only be a few minutesbefore someone would come in a lock everything up again. "Wenever spoke much during our last tete-a-tete."

He made a face, "That was summer, was it not?"

"It was." And everything from our first meeting feltlike so long ago. Decades as compared to the months it actually was."You asked me a bunch of stuff. And I'd like to ask you a bit ofstuff."

"Go ahead sw-- Meela." he adjusted his hands in hislap.

"You and Ravis always spoke how they could lock me up inthe academy. With the other broken Dusks." I looked at him,squaring my soldiers and leveling my head.

"...It was a possibility. We didn't know what else to dowith you." Jared moved and brought his hands to rest on thetable. "The claws were something we've seen before, but not theAtramento up your arms, legs and... in your mouth."

He held out his fingers for me to see. Nails were black and had abit of a point, but tame compared to me. Around where his cuticleswere was a bit of silver-tinge to his skin. Decorating the backs ofhis hands was a pattern similar to henna or runes. His cuffs obscureda bit of it, so the difference between binding circles was hidden.

"....How many Dusks, specifically women, are out and aboutoutside the Academy's watch." I said, looking him in the face.He frowned and shook his head.

"There wouldn't be any." he said carefully, "Theywould cloister themselves off, but would keep in contact with theAcademy."

I shook my head, "And how many of them would be your--what's the word." My mouth was starting to betray me again. Evenwith how much had happened, how many people I had pissed off, thebacktalk and smartassery wasn't always me. "Your covenant."