Azazel:Key West:9/9/25
Fortifications are holding and the atmosphere feels like a whore on the corner, watching headlights rush by, knowing one pair will stop and be her doom.
Iahel interrupts me: It’s sex worker, not whore.
I growl at her: You can’t police my mind.
Iahel again. She never quits: Someone should, you’re a beast with archaic thoughts.
I decide to test her: You reading my mind without consent is rape.
She’s Iahel, so of course: Your mind is loud, I can’t help it.
Me: So you’re victim blaming?
The defeated wrinkles her nose: Asshole. -She storms out of the room. A storm departing in bell sleeves and braids.
Mal looks at me from behind the actual physical newspaper, which I thought they didn’t print anymore, “She likes you.”
“She flirts like a fifth grader. How does someone with access to so many minds manage to remain so naive?”
“She doesn’t try to understand much of what she hears. Just in one astral ear and out the other. It’s protective, but she’ll have to grow a spine soon. Or she’ll die.”
I chose not to respond. He didn’t look particularly upset, but he’s not easy to read. Nor is the newspaper, by the way, I got inky fingers and it smelled like elderly humans. Plus trying to figure out how to fold it so I could read what I wanted in compact package ended up in the paper bursting into flames and Iahel screaming that I was going to set the sofa on fire.
I only set fire to the things I want to burn.
The sofa is comfortable.
I hate waiting.
Rebecca:Deadwater:9/9/25
The dinner table was tense tonight. Ted really doesn’t want me to take Miriam to Florida. He seems to sense the stakes: something there is going to change everything here. He wasn’t his usual good humored self. Matthew was quiet, too, as a result. Miriam spoke at length about hurricanes and hardly ate anything. At the end of her speech she asked if we wanted to see a magic trick. Ted actually perked up a little.
“Sure, honey, what’cha got?”
Miriam held up a fist. I felt a strange tightness in my chest. Miriam’s index finger popped out from her fist. Flame flickered from the tip, like a flesh candle. She tucked her finger back in with the rest and grinned. I felt a little lightheaded.
“Cool yeah?”
“Whoa! You have to teach me that!” Matthew, sweet naive, Matthew stood and grabbed her now proffered hand from across the table. “I don’t even see any tubes or anything. Where did the flame come from? That was so rad!”
“A magician never reveals her tricks,” Miriam smiled as she swallowed her magic canary.
“Oh c’mon! I’m your brother!”
Miriam just shook her head.
“Mir, that’s- I mean, how?” Ted grabbed her hand next. “That was unbelievable.”
“Sweetie?”
Miriam looked at me.
“That was very impressive, but no more tricks at the dinner table ok, especially when you haven’t actually eaten any dinner. Also, no more fire, you’ll hurt yourself or burn the place down.”
I caught the hint of annoyance that flashed in her eyes, followed by something that looked like clarity.
“Sorry, mom,” she smirked and shoveled a fork-full of cold mashed potatoes into her mouth. I looked up at Ted, his mouth hung open, pure confusion clouded his eyes. I shrugged.
“It’s neat, but dangerous.”
“Yeah, dangerous,” he echoed. He poured another glass of wine. I asked Matthew who his next game was against and the men were suitably distracted from then on. Miriam cleaned her plate. And now I see why she had fevers, and why they disappeared…
August:Heaven:Corrupted
We’ve just had a lovely time at croquette. I drained the energy out of everyone and set all the balls aflame. While they lay in their stupor, Evelyn and I set the croquette course on fire. We destroyed everything. I was particularly fond of a metal table, the porcelain tea set atop it cracked and melted in pastel ribbons of glass running to the grass beneath. I wore only trousers and suspenders. Even my feet were bare. That was Evelyn’s idea. That I feel grass between my toes. She’s very tactile, she says everything has a soul and you can tease out the edges of a soul with your fingertips. I let melted glass run through my fingers and burn away my flesh down to the bone, Evelyn licked the bones clean and we walked home hand in hand.
I wish I had appreciated her more when we were alive.
