Don't ask me when Duncan became a comforting presence. I hadn't expected that, myself. But he seemed to have a better grasp of what I was going through since the Quickening happened...as if he knew what it was like to be losing oneself. He didn't tell me to snap out of it, he only checked in on me, which I appreciated, becaused I knew I made him as uncomfortable as hell.
But today was going to be different.
"Sorry," I said, trying to compose myself. "I'm, um, setting the flat on fire..." I mustered a smile, still holding the candle in one hand while holding my slipper (which I had used to slap out the flames) in the other.
"Tell me what you make of this," he said, and put a newspaper in front of me. No "hello" or anything.
I gave him a quizzical look. "Little paper hats?"
"No, look at the article," and then he pointed.
I read, my heart thudding sickly in my chest. There was an outbreak of what they were calling "ebola" in North Korea. Not a very likely place for that to break out. There was mass hysteria, and they had begun shooting people in the affected village, and burning the bodies. The photo was of people in decontamination suits, and flames in the background.
"Duncan, I know what this...could be. But I'm out of it. There is nothing that can be done if it's mine. It's out of my hands."
He put his hand on my shoulder, and I looked up into his eyes. "Do you really believe that? Can you really think that it's over?"
I had to look away. He was right. It was my business, after all. At the very least, I could take an interest. (But in my mind, I'm re-living the dream, the one where Kronos tells me this is my legacy, and I must simply let the world burn. And I halfway believe this is how it should be.)
"You've talked to Joe?"
"He thinks it's something bigger than renegade Watchers."
"But they're involved?" I ask, remembering Richardson, the only other case I had ever seen of this being used on people.
"I'll explain in the car."
And so, after so many weeks of living in a dream, I was back to the nightmare.
Posted on Jul 27, 1999, 7:38 PM from IP address 216.164.251.122