Another drabble request! Maybe an outside perspective of Amber, perhaps from Gregas when she’s returning from the run with Tobias’s echo and screaming? Or any other moment/character you think would be interesting! Or anything Hive Mind, to be honest
I would have stayed in the apartment, if I hadn't heard her screaming. And I wouldn't've known, she wouldn't have told me, I—
I ran—I ran, of course I ran, she was screaming and she never screamed and she was my sister—and who cared that they had said stay put when—she was my sister.
Curled up and closed-eyed and carried, and people—Lucas, her boyfriend—speaking softly. I ran—I ran. When she looked at me, her face was twisted tight and pinched. She looked like—
Rafael caught up. He dragged me away.
Amber didn't scream anymore.
Isn't it sung in the Hive-songs we give for schoolchildren to sing? Everyone has a job to do.
I wonder, sometimes, when my hands stray for my violin; my ears to half a tune left humming. I wonder…
Understand me. I don't want to be a telepath. They have their duties, and so do I. We all have our lots in life. Mine are heavy: I carry them well.
Still, I wonder, sometimes, when Amber's words wander. It isn't that I want to be a telepath: not at all.
But—once. Just once, I'd like to hear the Hive-mind sing.
The snow was thick; the air bitter ice. It was no place for wonder. A snowstorm was no place for a telepath.
Still Amber ran out, face uplifted, hair running wild and whited. Adika took her by the arm.
"You need to go straight back inside, Amber." She pulled away.
Words were tossed with that chill wind: all watched, all watched. A slip of a girl, buried in the snowfall; shedding off ghosts like a silver skin. She sat. The snow made angel's wings.
The Carnival world was full of light. All watched: all watched.
Her Outside smile was luminous.