Subject: Bravehearted
Date: 8/12/2382
Location: Kingstown Market,
Kingstown, New Sahara, Mars
“Did you live in Sancta Terra City or somethin’?” asked Helena, a teasing but kind smile spread across her handsome face.
“Yes,” Caroline admitted sheepishly, having to make a concentrated effort not to crane her neck and check on Zoe. “Is it … so obvious?”
Helena laughed, hiding her surprise admirably, but repositioning herself so they could both talk and watch the antics of their children. Caroline noticed the gesture and smiled her relief and gratitude. She could not simply discard the paranoid need to account for her daughter’s whereabouts at all times so quickly. Nor was she entirely sure that she should.
I just … can’t believe that anywhere could be safe enough for her to play out of my or Weston’s sight.
“The kids tend to stick in their big groups and watch out for each other for the most part,” Helena assured her. “And besides … Caleb’s a good boy with new kids. A bit of a feral monkey … oh, yes, there he goes, doing his acrobatics. Bless his heart.”
Caroline smiled as she watched her daughter flutter about and closer and closer to the older boy like a cautious little songbird. Caleb had led her away from the main group of children for some reason, but that had seemed to make Zoe more comfortable, not less, and so Caroline contented herself with watching and enjoying a conversation with a fellow mother for the first time.
“Huh,” Helena was murmuring to herself, and when Caroline looked back to her, the other woman’s eyes had narrowed as she studied whatever had drawn her attention.
Following Helena’s gaze, Caroline saw that a woman had stopped to talk to the biggest band of children, who were still gathered under the tree with the widest canopy. Nothing about her seemed out of the ordinary given the surroundings. There were many flashes of blonde throughout the marketplace, and many here seemed to enjoy wearing bright colours like her coral dress. This wasn’t the drab and morose hive of The City, filtered through shades of grey and brown.
And then one of the children pointed up the gentle hill towards Caleb and Zoe, and Caroline’s heart almost stopped as the woman followed the gesture with her gaze. She stared for a long moment that went beyond mere curiosity.
Caroline flinched at the internal warning from her eyes, which were always alert to the body language of those around her, and were able to cross-reference it with presumed peripheral fields of vision. The End had fine-tuned it to the point where Caroline could now detect unwarranted or inappropriate levels of attention given to either herself or Zoe, as long as the person looking was in her field of vision.
“Do you know her?” asked Caroline, masking her growing unease with polite neutrality.
“No,” Helena said flatly. “I’ve never seen her before. If she … good. She’s moving back to the market.”
Sure enough, the woman had turned from her disturbing assessment of Caleb and Zoe, and was moving easily back towards the market. And then her gaze slid slowly, panning across the busy crowd in front of her, and locked with Caroline’s. Everything inside of Caroline screamed that she shouldn’t react to that calculating stare, but her heart shuddered within her and she felt her breath fail for a moment. An ominous dread settled on Caroline’s shoulders at the look of ecstatic relief flooding the woman’s face, and her tack immediately changed as she made a direct beeline for them.
I … I … what should I do … she’s coming straight towards me! I don’t have time … um … oh! Contact The End!
“Hello!” beamed the blonde, arriving in front of the two women, her face an expression of this being the most joyful moment of her life so far.
“Afternoon,” Helena said shortly, her head cocked to the side as she continued to study the newcomer in a markedly different way to what she had studied Caroline on their first meeting.
“Ah, hello,” Caroline murmured too, her deeply ingrained courtesy winning out over the fear still trying to assert control.
“My name is Misty,” the blonde divulged, gesturing elaborately to herself. “It’s my day off, you see, and I know one of my colleagues lives in the area, so I thought I would have a wander and see if I ran into them.” Her smile broadened, a look of merriment plastered over the fidgeting, coiling, intensity of a predator readying themselves for the final pounce or sprint. “And look! I find his wife strolling about the market! Amazing!”
"I'm Misty!"
AI-rendering of original characters and narrative by T. Sharp
“Yeah?” Helena asked, clearly not convinced. “And what do you do that you just happen to have a day off in a town you’re a stranger in?”
Caroline somehow managed to not gawk at Helena’s effortless dry candour, but Misty laughed musically and winked.
“I could tell you … oh, no, that joke is too old. I work for Sancta Terra Security, like Caroline’s husband. We were assigned together in The City.” Her eyelids drooped slyly and, above her sincerely joyful lips, her eyes shone with something a bit more unhinged. “We worked very closely with each other. But then … that’s just part of the job. You trust each other, watch out for each other … spend utterly ungodly amounts of time together …”
“Oh … of … of course,” Caroline nodded, even as a sick feeling coiled in her gut.
“You’re not being very subtle,” Helena snorted disparagingly. “Maybe her husband took an assignment out in the sticks to get away from you.”
Misty’s eyes twitched with a near-unbridled rage, made all the more disturbing because the cheerful smile never left her lips. With a little shiver, her eyes twinkled once again and her grin broadened like a mask stretched over a stone.
“I’m sure I don’t know what you’re talking about!” she protested. “If I’ve said anything inappropriate, I’m so sorry!”
Caroline was lost. The woman was a mixed bag of emotions and expressions. On the one hand, she seemed to be exceptional at acting in certain ways, but on the other hand, it was always just that little bit over the top and fake. Her mouth seemed completely disassociated from her eyes; always locked in that forced sincere smile, while her eyes flickered between the various emotions she truly felt.
The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.
Misty smiled apologetically at Caroline, her face towards her, but her wide, innocent, eyes staring with an unhinged irritation at Helena. And then Caroline’s gaze dropped to Misty’s hands, and saw her knuckles whitening as her fists tightened on themselves.
Who is this woman? What is she trying …
Immediately, Caroline felt the foreign presence, like a shadow peering over her shoulder, or a thought on the edge of memory. As her attention was pulled in all directions at once, Misty took a slow step towards her, as if she couldn’t help herself.
The End hissed in Caroline’s mind.
Permission granted, Caroline thought desperately, taking a faltering step back herself as Misty closed on her. Who is she?!
“Well?” Misty smiled innocently, stepping past Helena and reaching out for Caroline’s hands. “You’ll forgive me, won’t you?”
Her hands moved on their own, and Caroline watched with a stunned awe on her face as she pulled smoothly away from Misty in such a controlled and easy manner that it had almost felt like dancing. She came to a stop a few paces away, having moved in a loose semi-circle around Misty and ended up besides Helena.
What was …
The End gave a mental sniff and Caroline could practically see her miffed expression.
Thank you, thought Caroline sincerely.
And then Caroline went on the attack. After all … I am not alone.
“Of course I forgive you,” she smiled, despite knowing her smile was strained with the irritation of another woman talking so carelessly about her husband. “Are you busy now? My husband is on his way here, and I am sure he would be eager to see someone from his assignment in Sancta Terra City.”
Misty’s eyes flickered at the implied challenge to her story, and this time even her smile tensed a little.
“Did he say how long he would take?” she asked with apparent time-consciousness.
“I’m afraid not,” Caroline said politely. “Only that he was on his way.”
“How awkward,” Helena said smugly.
“Yes,” snapped Misty, her eyes flashing their annoyance. “Very awkward. I should have liked to see him again, but I only have the afternoon, most of which I spent looking about the marketplace. So, no … sadly I am out of time today. Please tell him Miranda sends her regards.”
“But … you’re not Miranda,” Caroline pointed out, remembering the smug and domineering woman with ashen hair who had kept Weston up until one in the morning with pointless administration queries. “Who can I say wished to see him?”
Misty’s eyes hardened and her lips flattened into a simmering line, at last running out of whatever reserves where required to sustain the disturbing cheerfulness.
“Jezebel,” she whispered, a distant light flickering in her eyes; as if a part of her was elated to be set loose and honest about its intentions. She leered with absolute scorn down at the shorter woman. “You can tell him Jezebel called, and will be sure to call again. Please warn him to be on his guard. If something were to happen out here … we wouldn’t know about it for days.”
“Your thoughtfulness is appreciated,” Caroline smiled, barely able to cover over the apprehension that wanted to take her by the shoulders and shake her. Jezebel … even her name makes me uneasy. What does Weston have to do with this woman? I hate that just a few words from her lips can make me imagine such horrible …
“Trust me,” Helena said drily, folding her arms and looking down her nose at Misty, “if something happens in this town, everyone knows it pretty quickly.”
Misty’s face emptied of expression, and she looked blankly from Caroline to Helena and back again. “But if it’s so small that everyone knows what happens … then it is small enough to be wiped off the map completely … if the wrong people were to take an interest. You see … I can’t help but worry that you are not taking my earnest warnings to heart.”
“I have taken them to heart,” Caroline assured the unstable woman. “I will give my husband your message.”
“Good,” Misty purred, affecting relief before her predatory gaze drifted back to the pair of children still sitting on the hill. “She seems like a charming child,” she murmured, seeming to suddenly become unaware of Caroline and Helena’s presence, her entire attention focused on Zoe. With a jarring abruptness, her eyes darted back to Caroline’s and a winsome smile spread across her lips. “The City-girl in me can’t help but be alarmed at the distance between you and your daughter. I truly hope this place is trustworthy enough that you can give her this freedom.”
“I really must be going now,” Misty laughed cheerily. “It’s been a pleasure! Be sure I will drop in again if I am in the area.”
“O-Of course,” Caroline nodded, dipping her head politely. “Safe travels …”
“What a nice girl,” Misty whispered suddenly, her lips dropping into a disgusted grimace seconds before she could turn away. And then she walked briskly off, disappearing quickly into the crowd, fists clenched, never looking back.
Caroline let out a long breath along with the tension in her shoulders that she had not realised had settled there. Her hands began to shake as the need for calm dissipated in the wake of the confrontation, and the breath in her throat began to catch. Sobs followed, and Helena, despite being a near-stranger, gathered Caroline into her arms and held her fiercely. She had a few choice words to describe the woman and what had just happened that would have made Caroline’s ears burn if she had been paying attention enough to hear.
Thank you, Caroline managed, somehow even struggling to get the words out mentally. I think … I was only able to keep my head because I knew you were there.
Surrounded by Helena’s strong arms and comforted mentally by The End’s uncharacteristically reassuring words, Caroline felt the shaking slowly ebb, and her sobs and tears finally settled. By the time Weston pulled up nearby in the wheeled utility vehicle they had bought when they moved to Kingstown, Caroline felt as if she could stand on her own again and not embarrass herself.
Thank you, Caroline said again, from the bottom of her heart. The presence in her mind disappeared as The End severed the connection, and she was alone in her mind once more. Weston practically leaped out of the truck, slamming the door behind him and – having taken in the situation at a glance – chose to restrain himself to a brisk walk over to her. His face was hard, and only because she knew what to look for did Caroline understand he was shaken by this. He’d had the same look on his face when she found him staring at the wall when she came to him in the wake of the home invasion in their apartment on Merchant Level, Sancta Terra City.
“What happened?” he demanded hoarsely, a dark anger in his voice that she had never heard before.
Before she could answer, she had gone from being wrapped in Helena’s arms to being gently shoved into Weston’s. Where Helena’s arms had been calm and comforting in an understanding and soothing sort of way, the strength and rigidity of Weston’s arms around her and his body against hers felt more as if she were safe within the walls of a castle. Where Helena’s embrace had comforted her in her need, Weston’s embrace drove the need far away. She melted into him in a way that she could not have done with Helena. She was home.
"What happened?"
AI-rendering of original characters and narrative by T. Sharp
“A woman who said she knew you,” Helena was saying, seemingly far away, as Caroline just basked in the security and almost couldn’t even remember Weston’s question.
“Please tell me what you can,” Weston said, now directing his questions at Helena as he evidently realised that Caroline just needed to be held for a moment. “I don’t know anyone in these parts.”
“She said she was from The City,” Helena said darkly. “She introduced herself as Misty … and said to give you regards from Miranda and Jezebel.”
Only because Caroline was pressed into Weston’s chest did she feel exactly the process of Weston’s reaction to that information. She felt the ripple in his muscles as he tensed up and, just as quickly, forced himself to relax. His heartbeat thundered in Caroline’s ears, and she felt the procedural tightening and loosening of various muscle groups in his arms as he did his best to contain whatever he was feeling within. His breath hissed out between his teeth, long and slow.
This is far worse than I thought, Caroline realised.
“I’m sorry,” Weston said over her head, still addressing Helena, “I got caught up in the moment. We haven’t met. I’m Caroline’s husband, Weston.”
“Helena Westgarth,” replied the other woman. “We just got talking when Carol was at my stall. Your girl’s on the hill there with my boy.”
Caroline felt the short movement that indicated Weston making a quick, personal check to verify the information before his body seemed to relax somewhat as his family was accounted for. She sighed her relief, further easing into the comfort of his body.
“I’m sorry,” she murmured, “I didn’t know what to do.”
“Don’t you apologise,” Weston muttered over her head. “You have nothing to apologise for. Come on, let’s head home.”