Out of the Black - Lee Doty [84]
Instead, she was transported back to another killing time. In the same near-fetal position, holding her mother, desolate with tears. At thirteen, she'd been old enough to understand that "Daddy's gone away for awhile," meant something more sinister than vacation. At least then she didn't know the killer. Today it would be other children's time to weep. Though they couldn't know her, they too would wish her dead.
Alex was being strong for her... holding her, closer when the shaking took her for a while. He waited patiently for her to be ready to talk. Early this morning, after they had all stumbled off to bed, Alex had come to check on her. She'd been unable to hide her tears, so he had held her then, and they had broken one of the major rules of their relationship.
Over a year ago, when she grudgingly admitted they were more than friends, they had set major and minor rules. Even now, in her misery, it brought a smile to think of it.
The minor rules were mostly tongue-in-cheek, one of Rae's was 'no rubbing my head', Alex's big one was 'no consequences for anything I say while I'm working'. The minor rules were often violated out of forgetfulness or playful mischief, but the major rules were serious. The major rules basically boiled down to three:
1. No lies, big or small. If the truth hurts, fine.
2. No hanging out in the bedroom, which was actually just a forerunner to rule 3
3. No sex.
Number one was Rae's, but two and three came from Alex. She didn't understand at first, but as time wore on and she realized he was serious, she began to believe that he might have bigger plans for her. Of course, after she found out about the Loom, she thought those plans might involve virgin sacrifice, but finally it became clear that Alex's big plan was for them to have a chance for a respectable life together with no regrets- it also seemed less likely that Alex was just in gay denial.
Her teary smile broadened even as the sobs wracked her. She held him tighter. She still wanted to punch him sometimes, but she loved him in an encompassing, visceral way. Even now she was more comfortable just being near him.
After they had been together for six months, she had to call Alex on rule number one. This led to a quandary for Alex, a decision, and Rae's introduction to Wonderland. He came clean with the simpler facts about the Underworld, and the strange metaphorical Loom "down there" that was accessible to people like Alex and Ivo. At first she didn't believe him, but there's only so much cup levitation, spoon bending, and hypnotic suggestion you can take before you get at least a little curious. All doubt had been dispelled when Alex had taken her to see Ivo. He'd shown her things that simply have no other explanation. Once he'd Cast some kind of doohickey on her that allowed her to see him working the Loom. It was the strangest combination of glass blowing and silicon etching, with just a little ironmongery and textile manufacture thrown in. It had looked like a factory, a foundry, and a little like an electric butterfly. But to say these things was to ignore the other senses: the feel of electric serpents through the flesh, the taste of carbonation, the smell of... somet blue maybe?
Alex wouldn't say what it was that made him and Ivo different, at least not more than he wasn't born that way. It was a gift given by Ivo based on Ivo's estimation of his natural talents- whatever that meant.
This morning they had broken number two on the big rules list. Alex had held her until they both fell into a troubled sleep. They'd woken in the evening, all rumpled clothes, itchy shoes, stupid grins and morning breath, but the world seemed somehow more right. Looking into his sleep-squinty eyes, laughing at his morning hair, she felt almost human again. At times like that, it was even possible to forget that you're a multiple murderer.
Sure, it was