Nineteenth little lie ♰ And I'm so tired of treading water

[beingdifferent]

[Backdated to this morning/beginning of event]

[Voice, private to Dark Heart]
[The loudest noise is the sound of water lapping, the occasional splash, until Esther growls. She is not in as bad a mood when they first met, but she’d opened her door to the hallway only to be hit with a deluge of water that reaches up to her chest, filled with hundreds of irritating fish – only a few of which bit her before she climbed onto the bookshelf where she’s still perched – but still, she is angry. Who wouldn’t be? The water itself is bad enough (she has not been submerged since her fatal encounter with Kate), but it’s being trapped, relatively helpless, and worst of all, dependent on someone else that upsets her the most.]

Come get me now or I’ll find a way to kill you later.

Comments

[beingdifferent]

No, what book?

[She trudges after him with her arms wrapped around herself, uncomfortably damp.]

[a_favor_now]

Doesn't matter. It's dead now.

[He on the other hand, feels fine. The perks of not being human.

He's not really interested in talking about that spell book. No reason to. It's not like it matters. It failed to destroy the Care Bears. The end. He's more currently interested in eyeing one of the games that supposedly gives a prize every time, and requires one to throw baseballs at stacked milk bottles.]

[beingdifferent]

You mean this book used to be alive.

[Wherever he's from, it has to have been very strange. Almost like a fairy tale, if his name and forms are anything to go by.]

Have you ever played that before?

[a_favor_now]

Mm-hmm.

[He picks up a baseball eyeing it critically.]

No. I don't usually play games.

[beingdifferent]

What does a living book do?

Not even with people?

[a_favor_now]

Possesses people.

[He smirks at her now.]

Well, yes. But only when I'm going to win them.

[beingdifferent]

What does that mean? Could they only recite the book's text?

[Esther raises her eyebrows incredulously.]

You don't know how to win this.

[a_favor_now]

No, of course not. She talked.

[He raises a brow at her.]

Is that a challenge?

[beingdifferent]

I don't understand what you mean.

[Esther just holds her expression, that same disbelieving look on her face.]

[a_favor_now]

[He frowns at her sourly.]

You just said I couldn't win this.

[beingdifferent]

About your book.

You don't know how to play, do you.

[a_favor_now]

She wasn't my book. And maybe you should be clearer in your meanings.

[With that he threw the ball hard at one if the stacks, knocking it all apart.]

[beingdifferent]

Well pardon me.

[She rolls her eyes, hands on her hips.]

Lucky guess.

[a_favor_now]

[And for his efforts, a prize ends up on the counter. He picks it up and examines it. It's a pretty little switch blade.]

Good enough to win something. You want it?

[beingdifferent]

[She cranes her head to glimpse at it, admiringly--knives are comfortable, and save in the kitchen she's not been allowed one in a long time.]

That depends what you expect in return.

[a_favor_now]

Something now for something later. Of equal value of course.

[It's just a knife. He's not asking the moon.]

[beingdifferent]

You realize I don't have anything.

[Still, she holds out her open palm.]

[a_favor_now]

[He puts the knife in her palm, closing her fingers around it.]

We'll worry about that when I want something.

[beingdifferent]

[She smiles, a little ruefully.]

And what do you think that might be?

[a_favor_now]

I don't know. We'll see when we see.

[He looks around vaguely. Everything was pretty much the same. Games, a ride. Not much else.]

Anything else you wanna do?

[beingdifferent]

Is there somewhere warm we can go? [She is, after all, still drenched.]

[a_favor_now]

Hell if I know. We can go back down and look.

[beingdifferent]

That won't be necessary.

[She looks over the midway, glancing at some of the games: ring-toss, the shooting gallery. She gestures toward it.] Have you ever shot?