Prisoner Thirty-One

Joe: Twelve Seconds

I knew that Fe's story was going to end like that from the start, I think we all did. I could see it in her face the day we met. The shame of being Curst followed some people like a plague and she was definitely one of them. It doesn't matter how prepared you are for the ending, things like that are always going to hurt and watching Alec and Kimba hear it's ending was equally as heart breaking.

As Fe's story drew to a close, I could see Alec's arms shaking so quickly that to a normal person he would appear perfectly still. I found myself drawn to his flexor carpi radialis as he carefully clenched and unclenched his fist. At the same time, I noticed Kimba's temperature and how it had increased by 11° since Fe's story had started. Generally not good signs.

On the other hand, Fe had seemingly started to relax a lot more showing less signs of nerves. Thank god for that, her constant movements were starting to get annoying. Luckily for me, Kimba started talking so I didn't have to try and fill the gaping silence myself. Her voice was much tenser then normal but considering her outward dislike for Feather, I took this as a positive sign.

My view of Alec's bicep was cut off by his sudden and soundless disappearance from the circle. Neither Fe or Kimba noticed and continued with their conversation. He was gone for around 4.23 seconds giving me plenty of time to return to considering Fe's second vision.

My guess was that it was pretty similar to what I could do; everything I looked at provided me with a huge amount of details that my brain chose to provide as words for me to read about. I've worked out that it's not really my ability more like the way my brain had adapted to sort all the information it holds. So, Fe's 'second sight' was probably what her curse was really like. The way she thought was normal was probably just the way her brain had processed her dislike for her curse.

Upon Alec's return I noticed the weird position he held his hand and the purple colouring that was already starting to fade. I had never liked this coping method, getting his anger out on inanimate objects was not helpful to anyone.

"Don't you ever think that again Fe." Alec's voice was menacing and shocked me back to the conversation. If she had said something bad enough to make him this angry, I was going to have to be prepared to stop him from hitting her.

"Alec, I cannot change the way I think, all I can do is remember not to say it out loud next time." She was blunt, but for some reason, had a small smile in her voice. Moments like this reminded me why I was so drawn to this girl: she was only ever scared by the wrong thing; there was never a way to predict when she would start smiling and even without that, her curse went beyond interesting. Overall if I was in the labs at Torrents I would so have wanted to experiment on her too. In a nice, she is my friend way, obviously.

"Fe I am serious." Alec had started leaning forwards. I tensed; all of his motions were echoing the pre-fight stance I had seen him perform way too often.

"As am I." She stayed still and remained calm. "I am who I am and a few weeks being friends with you guys is not going to change that." They had both started glaring at each other, eyes narrowing more with each word.

"No, I was thinking more the mounds of abuse and torture would." Okay now I was starting to get confused and that's not very common. For a smart guy, you'd have thought I'd have started paying more attention. Alec was meant to be the one that wanted Fe around but now it looked more like he wanted her gone.

"Alec, I think you are forgetting that that's why I'm like this in the first place." The two of them shared a silent conversation that I didn't quite understand. Both faces sharing a series of micro-expressions like they could read each other's minds.