I'd always been too comfortable with holding onto people, never giving them the chance to hold on to me. I'd always be afraid that if they had held me, they'd leave just as soon. If they were in my arms, though, where could they run off to? How coul...
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I've stalled for too long.
It's a surprise that the others hadn't come looking for me, given the current state of events. The world had, quite literally, gone to shit. When we're closer to the fork, I'll need to slow down just enough to talk to her, but not enough for her to feel comfortable with jumping off. It's a worry of mine. I fear she'll jump at any second and eat at concrete.
Human bodies are so fragile and breakable. They bleed so easily that there isn't ever any fun in it. I think that's why Azazel has been working for the Academy, he's grown tired of this human nonsense and frailty. I'd hate to have to kill her for shooting at my men just because she'd been scared seeing them at the fork, so I debate ways to broach the topic while trying to ignore the feeling of her death grip. The bullets flying would be her way of showing that she wasn't scared; it'd be a grand lie, a cover for the scared thing that's clinging onto my back. She's like a koala with the claws of one of those ancient sloths. On that note, fuck those things. There's no good reason for some of the shit on this planet.
Sea cucumbers, for example. What... the fuck... were those?
And sloths? What even was that? That was when I suggested we kindly get the fuck out of this dimension, but no, not yet. We had to do this. Be this.
"Are you insane!?" She shouts at my back in response to the slowing, voice as sharp as one of those pretty little knives she liked to wave around. It's too dark for her comfort zone, I could tell, and there are no lights to provide any source of comfort. Just the vague tracks to follow the road, and even those have faded over time. What was she doing out here all alone? How long had she been walking? None of my brothers saw her?
"Are you... into that sort of thing?" I ask, and on one hand it was just a teasing response, but on the other hand... I kind of wondered if she was. This woman was crazy to the nines. "I know a few fun places we can put that gun of yours." In the trash, preferably.
"Yeah, sure, let me just empty the clip really fast." She doesn't let go to grab her gun, but her fingers loosened enough for me to speed up just a tad. She holds on tighter, and I feel my chances of her not jumping off increase exponentially.
"You're going to need more bullets for that."
"I only need the one," her hand unclenches from my jacket and rises up, brazen for someone who's terrified of falling off and considering jumping off - what a paradox, this one. She taps my forehead with a single finger, "Right about here."
It's kind of cute the way she thinks that would be enough. Humans think their issues can be solved with those primitive toys and the paper in their wallets, as if bullets could do anything, as if money was of interest. It would hit my skin and bounce off like a pebble. It's probably a good thing I had the helmet on. If she would've seen that, then... yeah, maybe I would've had to kill her. Still might have to, but at least I'd do it swiftly and dispose of her properly. The Watchers, they wouldn't be so courteous, and they were not that far away. We'd been doing rounds trying to pinpoint what exactly they're doing so close to our town, near our people. Nobody, not even the Vanirian's, come into our territory.
