12-30-2020, 03:43 AM
He really did want to be fine. It would have been much better, to have been fine.
Jude had never run away before, not like this, but on a few occasions he had become separated from his sister, or his sister had become separated from him. He didn't need to know where she was, but it had occurred to him to ask, to seek, and he had peered out from his own mind into a world made of shadows, shadows layered on shadows, filled with voices that emanated in languages not human. He had whispered into the darkness, Where is she?, and his call had reverberated out into the space between time and matter, and come back to him. I'm here. He felt her now, calling out, listening for him as if knocking on a wall, searching for a hollow spot.
He opened his mouth to speak, as a shadow passed over the room. It was as if the room dimmed, as if darkness came down, a blanket, then lifted. It could have been a time-lapsed blink. Jude's mouth remained opened, silent, the pose of a drunk trying to come up with a believable explanation.
Unrelated to the shadow, a book fell off the shelf, its cause of death pedestrian, but much more dramatic-seeming due to the event prior.
"I'm not very good with history." He was trying to speak while also trying to... hold very still. In his mind. He was also trying to look like he wasn't doing anything, but being generally unconvincing he was mostly staring at Near with undue fixation. Jude wanted to drink more, and silently bemoaned that this was a worse idea on top of a bad one.
Jude had never run away before, not like this, but on a few occasions he had become separated from his sister, or his sister had become separated from him. He didn't need to know where she was, but it had occurred to him to ask, to seek, and he had peered out from his own mind into a world made of shadows, shadows layered on shadows, filled with voices that emanated in languages not human. He had whispered into the darkness, Where is she?, and his call had reverberated out into the space between time and matter, and come back to him. I'm here. He felt her now, calling out, listening for him as if knocking on a wall, searching for a hollow spot.
He opened his mouth to speak, as a shadow passed over the room. It was as if the room dimmed, as if darkness came down, a blanket, then lifted. It could have been a time-lapsed blink. Jude's mouth remained opened, silent, the pose of a drunk trying to come up with a believable explanation.
Unrelated to the shadow, a book fell off the shelf, its cause of death pedestrian, but much more dramatic-seeming due to the event prior.
"I'm not very good with history." He was trying to speak while also trying to... hold very still. In his mind. He was also trying to look like he wasn't doing anything, but being generally unconvincing he was mostly staring at Near with undue fixation. Jude wanted to drink more, and silently bemoaned that this was a worse idea on top of a bad one.