Glade gets back just before dawn and doesn't tell anyone. Fulmine knows, and tells Rachel, but wonders why Glade didn't call her. F: "Usually he calls to make sure I'm ok."
R: "Maybe he's busy unpacking or something."
"He never takes anything with him so there's nothing to unpack when he gets home. Raine keeps a box of clothes for him. I hope he's not upset again. He gets awkward when he's upset."
"How?"
"He won't hunt. He just stays in trance all the time."
"How would that help anything?"
"It doesn't. He just throws a tantrum sometimes. Like a child."
"I hope he's ok."
"I have a key but it's a bit far for me to walk and I don't know the busses."
"So I'll go. I want to help."
"Ok. I'll try to find that key. If he is throwing a tantrum you can't really do anything to help. He'd just ignore you."
"Cheers."
"Sorry, I didn't mean it like that. It's just that you're human, and he can ignore you. You'd have to threaten to harm him and mean it or he'd just ignore you."
"I don't think I could hurt him."
"No. I don't think I could either unless he's getting weak."
"What if he doesn't hunt for a long time?"
"If he goes too long he'll just call for someone to help him. But then he just goes back to how he was. He can stay like it for three months if he likes before he needs to hunt so he could be there for a while."
"How long did he stay like that last time?"
"I don't know. He was living somewhere else last time. Our company wanted to make a central place where those who would choose to stay in trance could do so where they are safe but not enough wanted to use it."
"Wouldn't it be better to be safe?"
"Not if we're all in the same place. If someone wanted to attack us they would be able to go to one place and kill off loads in one go. Plus we usually want to be somewhere we know when we wake up."
"Yeah. I understand that. I don't like the first morning of waking up somewhere new. I know I don't really have much choice right now because of Dylan."
"I hope he leaves you alone now."
"So do I, but I have a feeling he's going to do something else. I'll go see Glade."
Fulmine was right about Glade throwing a tantrum. Rachel knocks on the door twice and calls him, but he doesn't answer. She goes in, and calls again, and he still doesn't answer. She listens at the bedroom door and can't hear anything, so he looks in. He's laying on top of the covers on the bed with his coat and boots still on. "Glade? Can you hear me?" He doesn't answer. She can't see him breathing so she stand right next to him to try to see if his chest is moving or not. She can see him breathing, but only just enough to see. "What happened that was so bad that you had to do this?" No answer. "Fulmine said I would have to hurt you to get you to wake up. If you don't wake up soon then I'll have to hurt you. In the meantime I can at least take your boots off and put a blanket over you." She does, and she opens the window too and gets an idea of how he could hurt him if she needed to. She could open the curtains and let the sun in. "I don't want to hurt you but if you don't wake up I will. I'll open the curtains and let the sun burn you." He doesn't seem to have heard her at all so she goes home. Fulmine visits him later on and tries to speak to him but he's gone too deep so she leaves him. Rachel goes back the next day and puts flowers in his room to try to get him to feel better but the room is so dark that they closed. She goes back to work and comes back that evening. He doesn't have his coat on, but he doesn't look like he's moved. It's folded up on the chair, so it must have been Fulmine because he hangs up all his clothes, including coats.
They keep visiting till Rachel thinks it's time for him to wake up. She goes after work, so that when he wakes up he can go out soon. R: "Fulmine said you can hear us, so you know what I'm going to do. If you wake up now I won't have to do it." He doesn't move so she pulls the curtain across just enough to let the light touch his arm. He doesn't move for a few seconds, then he sits up and pulls the blanket over himself in one movement. Rachel drops the curtain and stays still. He wanders out after a minute and goes to the bathroom to put his arm in cold water. Rachel goes to the front room and sits down to wait for him. He comes back out with a bandage around the burn. R: "Sorry."
"You had to."
"No I didn't, I could have just left you there."
"I was being selfish."
"Are you going to be ok?"
"Yes. Aloe is good for all types of burns. It should be healed by Saturday."
"What happened?"
"I do not want to talk about it."
"Ok."
"I should call Lily" He wanders over to the phone and doesn't seem to care that Rachel can hear him. "Do you know if Sage got to Briar and Rowan safely? -Thank you. -Yes, I did have to leave early. -No, I would rather not talk. -Did you speak to Marlin? -Then did you hear from another? -Did anyone try speaking through trance? -Maybe he is gone. -I do not know where Raine is going to move to. -I will try to visit some time this decade. -Goodbye." Rachel sat silent while he was talking. "Who's Sage?"
"The reason I returned. It is not her fault. She was only looking for her brothers."
"I'll go if you want."
"I was being childish."
"Everyone gets upset sometimes and everyone shows it in their own way."
"Did anything happen while I was gone?"
"Yeah but it doesn't matter."
"It seems to matter to you."
"Dylan broke in and took back the necklace he gave me. I didn't feel safe at home so I went looking for Fulmine. Thank god she found me before those men caught me."
"Stay here for as long as you need to. It would be nice to have some life here for a while."
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