Page 54 of Tempest’s Torment

"Anywhere."

A smile tugs at the corner of her mouth. "She was chaos. Everything with her was loud, loud music, loud opinions, and a loud laugh." She shakes her head. "She couldn't whisper, oh, she'd try, but somehow it'd still sound like she was announcing something to the whole room."

"You were different," I surmise.

"So different." She laughs softly. "She used to tell people she got all the personality in the womb and left me whatever was left."

"Did you believe her?"

"When we were kids?" She smiles into her mug. "Sometimes."

"And when you grew up?"

"I realized she was just... Lucy." She falls quiet again. "She couldn't cook," she says after a moment. "Honestly, she was a danger to herself in a kitchen."

I grin. "That bad?"

"Worse." She laughs. "She once called me because she'd somehow burnt soup."

"Soup?"

"Tinned soup."

I shake my head. "I don't know how anyone burns soup."

"Neither do I." She smiles. "She blamed me."

I stare at her. "For what?"

"Telling her she should stop ordering takeaway and learn to cook."

"Seems fair."

"It really wasn't." She laughs again, and I find myself smiling with her.

"She'd get mad for about five minutes," Lilah says. "Then she'd realize she was being ridiculous and start laughing at herself." She looks down at her mug. "She had a mug that said I'm Not Arguing, I'm Just Explaining Why I'm Right." Lilah smiles. "She bought it for me because she said I always had to have the last word."

"Did you?"

She presses her lips together. "Probably."

"Probably?"

She laughs. "Definitely." Silence settles around us, and I don't rush to fill it. After a while, she speaks again. "Everyone always asks me what happened to her." She traces her thumb around the rim of the mug. "They never ask who she was."

I hold her gaze. "I wanted to know."

Lilah smiles into her mug. "She would've liked you."

I don't know what to say to that, so we sit for a while longer, the television filling the silence neither of us seems interested in breaking.

Eventually, she sets her empty mug on the coffee table and stands. "I'm heading to bed."

I nod. "Night, Lilah."

"Night, Tempest."

I give her a minute before I start my rounds. I check the front door, the fire escape, and then the hallway camera. I can hear Lilah in her room, moving around. Satisfied everything's where it should be, I lower myself onto the couch.