CLOSED | prompt eight | RUIN

[dondarrion]

prompt eight | R U I N dressing-room style. closed to rog.

 

Comments

[held]

WE KNOW HE IS MISSED. WE KNOW HE FORMS A LACK.

[ The Strangler widens her eyes to an unnatural size and then stares not only at Gavin but right through him — though what she sees and what she comprehends is most likely anathema to him. ]

WE KNOW YOU CRIED TO WATCH US TAKE ROOT. WOULD YOU CARE FOR US MORE, GAVIN KING. IF WE HAD EMBRACED HIM THE WAY WE EMBRACE THIS ONE?

[grooms]

You might have won, if you had, [ he offers, though the words seem to grate at him to speak at all.

No, he would not have cared for the Strangler more than he does now, but his hate might have consumed him instead of being held at bay as it is now. (It is a tall order, to ask a father to kill his own son, but there is nothing uglier than the Strangler in this manifestation, and no one for whom he feels more pity than Sara Connington.) ]