"You've always sat there, why change it now?" he said, frustration mingling with the confusion in his tone. He did not want this to change, did not want her to change even for a moment in case All Eyes fell upon her and noticed that she'd always been there.
She opened her mouth as if to sigh and every window gently shook in the breeze that wasn't there. Her crackled wallpaper skin creaked as she shifted, it was a dangerous move. There had been too many close calls as of late and she was the cause of them all. At times he was tempted to forgo his family's promise and leave her behind in favour of a safer house.
It wasn't his fault All Eyes wanted her dead, they'd been after the mostly-departed ever since the first ones came back from beyond the grave. There were just so few of them left now, every one a living history book that had to be protected whether they wanted to be or not. After all, how can we know where we are going if we don't know where we're from?
That's how they sold it to you, a house with one of the mostly-departed hiding out inside like a scowling rug just waiting for you to forget to lock the door so they can bolt into the great wide world and be torn to shreds by All Eyes before they could say "Oops."
He'd seen it happen before to the people who'd lived across the street, they'd thrown their guy out after they caught him eating their Sunday clothes again. She had tried to peer through the curtains to see how he was dying but they'd convinced her to sit still and quiet enough that All Eyes wouldn't know she was there.
It had been too risky to work in the first place, keeping the mostly-dead so close together and hope that neither would be spotted. Unless they planned for this, using it as a way to get rid of the irritating and potentially dangerous, leaving behind docile little textbooks that will happily talk about every minute aspect of their past life.
She wasn't like that, never had been either. Right from the day his family had moved in she'd told them in no uncertain tones that she didn't want to be there but she'd keep herself quiet and still until the children were fully grown. Some sense of right and wrong had come back with her at least.
And now in the present when he and his sisters were all adults, him inheriting the house and her while his sisters lived their own lives, she was growing fed up. It had started with twitching, complaining about her old bones aching and now she wanted to move to another chair, one closer to the front door.
If he said yes she'd be in prime position to make a dash to the front door and be seen by All Eyes in a split second. If he said no she'd keep trying and twitching and fidgeting until he caved and he knew he would cave. He was just as tired of this as she was and he knew All Eyes wouldn't harm him. It didn't like fresh meat.
She opened her mouth as if to sigh and every window gently shook in the breeze that wasn't there. Her crackled wallpaper skin creaked as she shifted, it was a dangerous move. There had been too many close calls as of late and she was the cause of them all. At times he was tempted to forgo his family's promise and leave her behind in favour of a safer house.
It wasn't his fault All Eyes wanted her dead, they'd been after the mostly-departed ever since the first ones came back from beyond the grave. There were just so few of them left now, every one a living history book that had to be protected whether they wanted to be or not. After all, how can we know where we are going if we don't know where we're from?
That's how they sold it to you, a house with one of the mostly-departed hiding out inside like a scowling rug just waiting for you to forget to lock the door so they can bolt into the great wide world and be torn to shreds by All Eyes before they could say "Oops."
He'd seen it happen before to the people who'd lived across the street, they'd thrown their guy out after they caught him eating their Sunday clothes again. She had tried to peer through the curtains to see how he was dying but they'd convinced her to sit still and quiet enough that All Eyes wouldn't know she was there.
It had been too risky to work in the first place, keeping the mostly-dead so close together and hope that neither would be spotted. Unless they planned for this, using it as a way to get rid of the irritating and potentially dangerous, leaving behind docile little textbooks that will happily talk about every minute aspect of their past life.
She wasn't like that, never had been either. Right from the day his family had moved in she'd told them in no uncertain tones that she didn't want to be there but she'd keep herself quiet and still until the children were fully grown. Some sense of right and wrong had come back with her at least.
And now in the present when he and his sisters were all adults, him inheriting the house and her while his sisters lived their own lives, she was growing fed up. It had started with twitching, complaining about her old bones aching and now she wanted to move to another chair, one closer to the front door.
If he said yes she'd be in prime position to make a dash to the front door and be seen by All Eyes in a split second. If he said no she'd keep trying and twitching and fidgeting until he caved and he knew he would cave. He was just as tired of this as she was and he knew All Eyes wouldn't harm him. It didn't like fresh meat.
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