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Time goes by. Trouble keeps right on bringing desserts (and once a quiche and once a loaf of bread with nuts in it). The Swans are uncomplaining. On Christmas Eve he brings two kinds of cookies and an astonishingly edible fruitcake and stays overnight on the couch. (Andi, self-servingly, got him a little box of assorted Genuine Maple Products. Bella got him an inexpensive yet adorable miniature sewing machine.) Robin comes over too, Christmas day (Andi gives her a packet of guitar strings and sheet music for assorted Green Day songs. Bella gets her a tiny tape recorder.)
School is back in session in January, after New Year's. (The twins set off small fireworks in the driveway - well, Andi does. Robin is invited to this event; Trouble is not, it somehow does not seem wise.)
Now it is the first weekend after the resumption of school.
Robin's supposed to be over any minute for practice for Nameless Band Which Kind Of Needs A Third Person But Bella Doesn't Want To. Andi taps out beats on her drums. Taptaptap. Taptaptap-kish. Taptaptap. Taptaptapkish.
pandion
palmofyourhand
"Robin's going to be late," says Ethan. "She's only just getting out of bed."
pandion
"Oh. Thanks for letting me know. How come she slept so late?"
palmofyourhand
"She had an—interesting night. You'll be hearing all about it in an hour."
pandion
Andi tap-taps a little more, then goes and writes algebra flashcards, and then plays Tetris till she loses, and then tries to duplicate the Tetris theme song on the drums recognizably.
hold-infinity
Robin is standing there, huddled against Ethan, looking like absolute hell. Her right elbow and the palms of her hands bear nasty scrapes; there are dark circles under her eyes, and her face has a kind of hollow, shaken expression.
"It's all right that I brought him, isn't it? I just - didn't want to come alone."
"It's all right that I brought him, isn't it? I just - didn't want to come alone."
pandion
"Holy hell what happened to you? Yeah it's fine come in come in what happened?"
hold-infinity
She comes in, trailing Ethan.
"I don't even know where to start," she says helplessly.
"I don't even know where to start," she says helplessly.
palmofyourhand
He steers her to a couch, sits her down, and tucks himself in beside her.
"The beginning," he advises.
"The beginning," he advises.
pandion
"Beginning sounds good yeah - do you need me to call the police?"
hold-infinity
Robin sighs and shakes her head. "I don't think it'll help. Ethan thinks it'll make things worse. I - right, yes, the beginning."
She takes a deep breath, lets it out, takes another.
"I couldn't sleep last night. Went for a walk. I heard a strange noise and turned around and this man came bursting out of a closed shop I'd just walked past, going like the hounds of Hell were after him—I nipped around the corner in case he came at me, but he turned the other way. He was almost to the end of the block when - " She shivers. " - Something came out of the shop after him. Went through the door without bothering to open it first, there was glass flying everywhere, and stood right under the streetlight. It was like something out of a nightmare. Big green fellow, three feet of neck with a head like a beaky dinosaur, and all over spikes and things... a tail, too, great big long tail with more spikes on the end, it was whipping around like mad before he settled down. He sort of leaned toward where the running man was, and then there was this flash of light and an awful sound, and for a second I could just see where the running man had been, this glowing orange silhouette—then nothing. Gone."
She shivers again.
She takes a deep breath, lets it out, takes another.
"I couldn't sleep last night. Went for a walk. I heard a strange noise and turned around and this man came bursting out of a closed shop I'd just walked past, going like the hounds of Hell were after him—I nipped around the corner in case he came at me, but he turned the other way. He was almost to the end of the block when - " She shivers. " - Something came out of the shop after him. Went through the door without bothering to open it first, there was glass flying everywhere, and stood right under the streetlight. It was like something out of a nightmare. Big green fellow, three feet of neck with a head like a beaky dinosaur, and all over spikes and things... a tail, too, great big long tail with more spikes on the end, it was whipping around like mad before he settled down. He sort of leaned toward where the running man was, and then there was this flash of light and an awful sound, and for a second I could just see where the running man had been, this glowing orange silhouette—then nothing. Gone."
She shivers again.
hold-infinity
"I know exactly how it sounds," she nearly growls. "It sounds that way to me and I was bloody there. But it happened, all right?"
hold-infinity
"There were no cameras," she says. "You couldn't have faked that - creature, anyway, he wasn't a man in a bloody rubber suit, he was the real thing. You'd understand if you'd seen the way he moved. Anyway, I froze up and he turned around and looked right at me, but I was just barely peering around the corner and I guess he didn't see me there. He had something in his hand. Whatever he flashed the running man with, I guess. Then he went back in the shop and I bolted. That's where I got the scrapes - I fell down on the way home. Nothing chasing me, I just..." She shrugs helplessly.
pandion
"I have," says Andi, "no idea, at all, what to do about that."