Page 30 of Hell Hath No Fury

She keeps some distance between them but takes one of his hands in hers as he looks her up and down. “Nice shirt.”

She smiles, a breathless laugh escaping, but then it’s cut off as she looks down where her hand is gripping his. Tentatively, he tugs her closer, and then, ever so slowly, the distance between them closes. Her arms wrap around his back, and he hunches over, his arms wrapping around her shoulders, his face hidden in her neck.

She’s whispering apologies, and he’s shaking his head as he does the same. I look away, my eyes going back to Lilith as I motion toward the door, but she shakes her head. “Just give them a minute.”

All of us turn away, and I can see from the expressions around me that no one will be leaving the room unaffected by their reunion. No one even attempts to hide the glassiness of their own eyes. Tony and Matt briefly squeeze each other’s handsbefore they both lean back in their seats with sighs that sound like they’ve been holding for years.

Soon, the quiet murmurings cease, and I turn back just as Antoinette motions for Darius to sit. He shifts around, urging her to join him, but she waves him off and, instead of sitting in his lap, sinks to sit on the floor between his legs.

She gets comfortable sitting cross-legged. Darius’s hands rest on her shoulders, and Lilith asks, “Do you want to tell us what happened?”

Antoinette nods and then says quietly, “It all started with a dream.”

15

A Well-Travelled Path

Antoinette

“Wakeup,babygirl.”

A rough whisper pulls me from sleep, an oddly familiar echo in my brain as I squeeze my eyes shut. Shaking my head, I press my palms against my face, those roughly whispered words taking hold, squeezing, stabbing.

Slowly, I lower my hands, pressing them into my middle as I work to control my breathing. The ache in my head sharpens, and those words, for a moment, a fading memory, suddenly reverberate like thunder.

I open my eyes to the darkness, squinting as a familiar unfamiliarity washes over me.

I’ve been here before, but I have never been here.

I am me, but I am no one.

I am here, but I am gone.

My lip curls, and my skin crawls, a sudden itchiness in my brain exacerbated by a slow inhalation through my nose that peaks my awareness.

I’m not alone.

A wisp of fear whips through me.

Fear of what I know and fear of what I do not.

Fear of who I was and who I am now.

And beneath this fear is that deep pool of cold detachment I yearn for. I slide down, watching with my mind’s eye as I slowly sink, sink, sink beneath its comforting surface.

I count the seconds, holding my breath, waiting.

“Are you okay, Lila?”

I don’t answer. I remain settled in that calming dark pool, that sliver of space and time where nothing else exists. Where I am safe.

A warm hand presses against my shoulder, the mattress moving subtly as the heat of a body moves closer. I turn my head slightly toward the movement, and then the voice speaks again, “What’s wrong?”

I immediately shake my head and then laugh lightly, my voice an alien intrusion amidst the cold. “Nothing.”

He moves again, this time away from me, and with a click, I’m suddenly blinking away the light. I squint at first and then cover my eyes with my hands, muttering, “What the hell?”

He chuckles quietly, and I feel him moving closer before settling near me as I continue to hide behind my hands. “When did you get back?”

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