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“No!” she gasps. “No!”
“Then I suggest you stop screaming,” I snarl as I hold up my hand once more to keep Samuil at bay for the time being. “You had the opportunity to speak to me like a human and you wasted it on belligerence. Now, I’m annoyed. Things will go poorly for you if I stay that way.”
“I-I’m not scared of you.”
“Then you must not be very smart.”
“I’m—Fuck.” This time, her voice finally breaks. If it weren’t for Nikifor and Meric holding her, she’d have collapsed to her knees right now. “I just want to see my sister. I just… I just want to make sure she’s okay.”
Her eyes are closed as if she’s praying. I wait for one long beat to pass, then I shrug. “Very well.”
She recoils and looks at me in alarm, then around the courtyard, like this is all the setup to some prank show. “Seriously?” she asks. “You’re just… letting me see her. Just like that?”
“If you’ve changed your mind, I could—”
“No! I mean, yes. Please, I want to see her.”
I nod. “Follow me.”
Nikifor and Meric let go of the woman’s arms. The two of them and Samuil remain in the courtyard, eyes tracking us warily, as she and I mount the stairs. June’s sister strokes at her hair nervously with trembling fingers. I hold the door open for her and escort her in.
As she passes me, I tuck a recording device into the back pocket of her Levi’s.
I lead the way down the hall, up a floor, around a corner. I don’t glance behind me, but I observe her from every hallway mirror and reflective surface we pass. She doesn’t have any of June’s grace. Even her footsteps are clunky and loud.
Finally, we get to June’s door. When I open it, we see June sprawled on the bed, staring at the ceiling. For a moment, it seems like she’s talking to someone.
“What are you doing here?” she demands, getting out of the bed as the blush rises hot on her cheeks. “I told you I—” She stops short when her sister walks in behind me. “Oh my God… Genny?”
“Juju!” she crows back. She makes a big show of brushing past me, running towards June, and sweeping her up into athank-God-you’re-safekind of hug more fit for the movies than for real life. Like down in the courtyard, I’m not convinced by the display of emotion. Even June looks a little confused.
When the sisters finally break apart, June stares at her older sister as though she’s seeing a ghost. “Wh… what are you doing here, Geneva?”
“I came to see you!”
“How did you even know I was here?” June asks.
Excellent question, but Geneva is in no mood to answer it in my presence. She keeps a hand tightly clasped on June’s wrist, even as she turns to face me.
Standing next to one another makes their differences all the more obvious. Geneva is the taller one, more slender, but she has no shape. Just a bunch of straight lines that lack character.
“I’d like to speak to my sister alone,” she declares haughtily.
Her snotty tone makes me want to drag her out of here by her mousy brown hair. But I suppress the urge—for June’s sake, if nothing else.
“You have an hour.”
I glance at June. We haven’t had any interaction since our little encounter in the shower. I’ve tried hard to erase those moments from my memory, but the more I try to forget them, the deeper they take root.
I finally gave up the effort early last night. Instead, I’d stayed in bed, reliving the whole damn thing, minute by minute, breath by breath, touch by touch by searing touch.
Her eyes are trained on me, as green as ever. She looks like she wants to say something, but she bites her bottom lip at the last moment and swallows the words back down.
I walk back towards her door, but I stop at the threshold and turn to face the two sisters. One is looking at me with scorn and disgust. The other just looks lost. Like she’s not sure if she wants me to stay or go.
I know what I’d prefer.
Which is why I make myself do the opposite.
