The quiet around them soon took over as Gretel stayed silent to avoid embarrassing herself further while trying to figure out how her question had caused so much laughter.
It did not make any sense to her at all how her exclamation of anger at how Yolanda was insulting her and selling her out was something so hilarious and worthy of Yolanda's reaction.
Silver did not look like the type to begin speaking first and making the first move, and Gretel guessed that, under ordinary circumstances, he would be very stoic and direct without much of an appetite to instigate conversations about leisure or particularly engage with others on a personal level.
And Yolanda was even worse.
She sat there with her eyes closed completely serenely as if she didn't have a single care in the world, waiting for either Gretel or Silver to make a move, as if she were a schoolteacher waiting for two toddlers to make up after a petty argument or something other.
She sat there
Everything about Yolanda seemed subtly wrong and there was something uncomfortable about how she constantly flickered between emotions and personalities as if she was simply substituting the people that she had simply met previously in her life in front of her actual person as it fit the situation and rise and fall in conversation.Gretel knew that Yolanda was borderline sociopathic and probably a psychopath with her master manipulation and use and control of herself, tugging Gretel and Silver in all sorts of directions, pulling answers out of them and having them dance to a tune that she alone was orchestrating, the two of them simply puppets on strings for her, but at the same time, what she was doing to them, how she was using them felt inexplicably kind.Gretel felt, deep down, that Yolanda, despite how uncomfortable that she was making Gretel and Silver feel with her flirting, her touching, and her general quickly changing attitude, she was preparing them somehow.
Gretel felt her face turn downwards, her eyes looking down at the grey of her trousers as she tried to work through the guilt of her reaction and attitude about Yolanda, after hearing about the circumstances of her life.No wonder she was so good at flitting between all her personalities, moulding and fitting herself for each and every situation that she was forced to deal with, either by her own hands, or again her will.A finger reached to Gretel's jaw and tilted her head upwards to face the other woman in question."Don't you dare pity me. I read your article, even if that one guy you met didn't. I don't need your pity. I need you to grow up and accept that there are bad things in the world and that all you can do is stick to your principles and do what you can to get through them, and that even if you abandoned your morals, at least your still alive," Yolanda called out, her voice demanding and strong.She brought her face closer to Gretel's own again
“So, what does she want us to make for her?” Emmet asked Jasper, leaning over the table to read the page full of notes.Almost immediately, his eyes fell back onto Jasper’s face, the other man holding an expression of deep concentration and a fervent passion that filled Emmet’s heart up with warmth and his stomach tingle.None of the notes were in any language that Emmet could read. He wanted to swoon at his multilingual and cultured partner.“She wants us to find a way to intercept the path of the time machine and alter the final destination. That first page that she gave us, here, is a transcript of a conversation that she’s allegedly had with someone in a more senior position about time machines in general. This next one is full of information about another device that can apparently communicate with the time machine that we both used to travel and alter its course, and the last sheet is just general information of her exac
Lila walked down the street, away from Jasper and Emmet’s new home, locking the door behind her.She knew that they probably didn’t notice. She didn’t want to think about what her actions were currently leading to on that kitchen island table.Bringing her hands to her head, she clutched at her and suppressed the urge to scream her lungs out. She felt sick. She felt like she was going to vomit up the lunch that she hadn’t eaten.Wandering about around town wasn’t fun unless you had money, and Lila had shoved all her money under the kitchen sink when Jasper and Emmet hadn’t been watching.Kai would have called her, using the shop phone, if his interview had been finished already.Lila wanted to scream again, as she turned down onto the main road to go down the town centre, untangling her fingers out of the long, dark brown strands as she ambled her way down to a more populated area.The closer she got to th
Kai hugged Lila as soon as she opened the door of the café.Looking over his shoulder, Lila noticed that the social worker had left, making sure to peer through the cracks between the different folding screens for the dark suit that she wore.“I’m happy for you, Kai. I’m so happy for you,” Lila assured him, wrapping her arms around him to keep him close and safe, even if for a little bit.“The social worker says that I can stay here. She’s going to interview you, so I can stay here with you. We can actually live together for real without any problems now. Just like you wanted!” Kai continued to shout over her head, a bright, big smile over his face.Lila held him tighter to herself, not saying a single word.“We can finally live together and keep each other safe and be each other’s family. I’ll be your proper brother and you’ll be my proper sister, and we’l
house wasn’t quiet. There were sounds from the office.Lila couldn’t sleep.She sat on the stairs and listened.She heard the shuffling of random, aimless, rambling steps of bare feet on carpet. She heard the exhausted and frequent sighs. And she heard little bangs every now and again, followed by muffled curses.It was two in the morning and Lila couldn’t sleep.She gave a strangled scream before shouting down the stairs,” Kai! Get the fuck up here!”An owl hooted outside.“And shut the fuck up you useless bird before I put you in a cage inside the café!”Standing up and marching to the kitchen, Lila rolled up her sleeves and opened the fridge, looking over what was there before nodding to herself.Kai appeared in the doorway, rubbing his eyes and wearing a t shirt and a pair of shorts,” You can’t sleep too.”“No, I can’t sleep too. I
“Thank you, Miss Nimeni. The council will get back to you. I believe that Mr Hei is an adult now, but there are still the child abuse allegations to take into account. You’ll be called to testify later, considering that Mr Hei has younger siblings who are still under the custody of his parents,” the social worker stated, tapping on her tablet and not looking up towards Lila.Thumbing the hems of her black blazer, feeling uncomfortably hot underneath the extra layer in the empty conference room, Lila remained silent, staring at the lady, seeing no reason to reply to her.“That’s all I need you for today,” the lady then spoke, finally facing Lila and bringing her hand up.Lila shook her hand, replying politely,” You’re welcome,” before she stood up, walked around the other woman and left the room.She crossed the corridor to get to the bathroom, locking herself in one of the stalls. Gasping, she put down
“I’ve been compiling this folder for a while. It’s got pictures of bruises and marks, from when I could take them with my phone, and I’ve marked the date and time that the pictures were taken on the back. There are also transcripts with conversations between us and there’s also a CD with all the tapes and digital images, if my physical record keeping isn’t enough,” Lila outlined, pushing the folder towards the tablet lady.She sat back in her chair afterwards, crossing her legs and placing her hands over her knees, forcing her face to go completely blank.For the first time ever, Lila got her reaction from the lady. She paused and put down her device, laying it down just so that Lila could get herself a view of what was on the screen.It was as dull and straightforward as Lila expected, with blunt questions and equally blunt answers matching them without a single word or letter out of place.Lila supposed that aft
“Why’re you sleeping on the floor like that? Come on, get up. You’ll hurt your back doing that,” Doctor Marigold chided, dragging all her bits of heavy machinery around the office space to prepare for her demonstration.Behind her, Lila remained still.“I know that you’re not dead. Come, get up already,” she called out, stepping over a few sheets of paper that she had laid out to grab Lila by the shoulder and heave her up into sitting.The stubborn girl just flopped down again, not opening her eyes.“If you get the fuck up, we can move the flight a week forward so you can stop worrying about it,” Lucy Marigold shouted across the room.Like a rubber band, Lila snapped back up and finally opened her eyes.It had been harder to see the bags below them when they had been closed and Doctor Marigold wondered if she should buy the girl some sleep tablets.“I’m awake,” Li
Yolanda seemed to understand that she needed to back off and stop teasing Gretel, when the other woman's eyes suddenly misted over, and it was if she was no longer a part of this world.She kept the bubbling annoyance within her away from her face, putting on instead a mask of concern as she reached out and poked Gretel's arms, trying to maybe prod her out of her stupor and bring her back from the recesses of her mind.Yolanda had never actually seen somebody collapse inwards to a catatonic state over her own actions.It was interesting to see it all happen and fold out in front of her.She poked Gretel again, touching her in the face lightly to see if that would possibly work to pull the other woman out of her mind and back into the world where she was needed proper.It wouldn't reflect well on her if Gretel didn't wake up within the hour.It didn't feel as
When she awoke, she was sat ready to eat and was dressed just like her mother, in a pastel blouse and a lungi down to the floor.Lila looked down at herself and jumped when she heard rattling, noticing the ten, or so, bangles on each arm and the lines of mehndi that ran down all the way to the hems of her sleeves, resting halfway between her shoulders and elbows. A pin held her blouse shut at the top and a quick once over of her hair, with one of her hands, revealed that it had been styled in a simple bun and adorned with flowers.“This is weirdly romantic,” Lila commented, staring at the lit candles nestled in the variously sized candelabrums set around the circular room.There was no door, but a giant window which led to a balcony outside. There was no ceiling but the walls reaching upwards, all the way up, until they formed a dome in the same shade of dull brown that coated the floor and the giant, round table in the centre.The only dishes
“So, is she finally asleep?” Emmet asked the boy stood behind the counter. He was exceedingly slim for someone surrounded by sugar all day and Emmet could make out the outlines of his spindly elbows through his shirt. His face held a no nonsense, blunt, and almost bored expression. “Yeah, she is. She’s been knocked out on the sofa since I sent her back there,” Kai answered the long haired man in front of him, his hair pulled back by a ribbon matching his eyes before being pulled over his shoulder once more. He looked vain. “Oh good. Don’t tell her that I was involved,” the man asked, putting both his palms up to face Kai. “I’m telling her that you’re a fucking weirdo for that,” was the scowled answer. “No. Seriously, don’t tell her. She doesn’t like me and I don’t like her. She’s known my partner for longer that I’ve known him. She doesn’t trust me with him. Why’re you making that face?” Emmet tried to justify himself before giving up
“Are you sure that you’re getting enough sleep?” Kai asked Lila, watching her sway on her feet and clutching the front counter.“Yes,” she gasped, dropping her head into her hands, elbows on the table.“Go and lie down on the sofa. Go to sleep for a bit. I’ll wake you up when I have to leave for college,” Kai instructed her, tapping her on the shoulders and shepherding her towards the office.“… fine,” she conceded, letting Kai move her along towards the back.“You know that this just proves my point,” Kai pointed out, pushing her through the boundary of the door and closing it behind her.“Fine,” she whispered back to him, talking into the silence of the office.She let herself fall over the sofa, draping her upper body over the arm rest and letting her head be cushioned by the pillows. Shuffling a bit over to put her body entirely on the sofa, Lila f
“One! Two! Three! Four! Five!Now again!One! Two! Three! Four! Five!Now keep on going!”Lila landed each punch, timing her breaths to the count as she moved her fists, dodging underneath the swing that came towards her head, before blocking the second hit that came to her and moving along with the force of the fist that hit her arm.The swinging punching bag forced distance between Lila and Tweedle Dum, and she stepped back to where she was stood before, within the path of the moving bad, to put more distance between him and her.“One! Two! Three! Four! Five!One! Two! Three! Four! Five!”Lila punched the bag once more, landing all of her hits.“Okay, time for a break,” Tweedle Dum announced, grabbing the punching bag and pulling it back to him as Lila moved away from the centre of the room, sitting down on one of the rickety plastic chairs at the side of the room.She took of
“Bitch! Why’d you run off and abandon me like that!?” Lila shouted from behind the counter when Kai finally walked back into the store.She was waving her hands about and wore an apron covered in flour as the single customer in the store, an old man precariously balancing on his cane, slept whilst leaning on the radiator.“I thought that you wanted some bonding time with your family so I left you to do that it private!” Kai answered her, tiptoeing past their unconscious patron, in a combination of whispering and shouting.“They’re hardly my family and you left us in the middle of a public café!” Lila cried, not modulating her voice at all.In the background, the old man began to snore.“But you still talk to them a lot like you do to me, so I let you, and besides, I got about fifty more pages of Good Omens done in Waterstones,” Kai appealed, finally at the counter and opening up the
Gretel and Silver had their fun as he continued to teach her how the interface worked and how he had managed to figure out that the system was an older model from the lack of integration between the screen and the touch pad, and explaining how easily it would potentially be to do so once the technology, as displayed in this device, had been demonstrated and established to work in a functional product."We were working on something like this as well, back in the workshops back home for the company that I was in the research and development department for. We were trying to get our motion sensors to be as small as possible for more commercial and personal use of technology that we could sell to the public and those who couldn't afford the contact computers.We had no idea on how their tech worked, because of trade and company secrets and all, but we managed to piece together a few things by looking at the patents and when we bought a few and m
“Alright, the shop’s free. Why are you actually here?” Lila questioned, crossing her arms and staring down at the tablecloth of Jasper and Emmet’s table.“I’ve got lesson now. I’ll be back in a few hours,” the teenage boy behind Lila announced, picking up a bag that had been hidden behind the counter the entire time and rushing outside.Lila continued to stand there, waiting for a reply.Jasper couldn’t help but notice that she wasn’t meeting either his or Emmet’s eyes.“Are you planning to leave us?” he asked her back.Lila’s fingers dug into the creases of her shirt,” I’m going to be leaving for a trip soon, and I’ll be back as soon as I can. Kai’ll be running the shop and will be looking after things, broadly. He lives here now and I scheduled my leave for when his school term ends so he can take care of things.”“On thi