http://clampfix.fanworks.net/re-fix/bf16.txt </head><body><pre> Between Friends Part 16 Eagle smiled happily, bad dreams the furthest thing from his mind as he finished re-editing his paper on ancient Autozam deities from the Corolla continent, satisfying even Lantis' critical eye. Done. Both of their reports were finished, ready to turn in. "Finished!" Eagle ecstatically proclaimed as he carefully saved the report, then saved it again into a different file, for good measure. He leaned his head back against Lantis' knee, who sat on the sofa behind him, watching over his shoulder. Eagle stretched his arms over his head and wriggled, aware that he'd been sitting very nearly completely still for the better part of two hours. He looked upside-down at Lantis and smiled. "Satisfied, professor?" "Very," Lantis replied, smiling gently. "And in time for dinner, too." "Can't stay," Eagle replied. "Now that my sister's back, my parents are having this thing about Family Dinners." He pronounced it so that Lantis couldn't fail to miss the capitalization. "I see," Lantis murmured, lacing his fingers together and resting his chin on them, looking down at Eagle. "I must meet this sister of yours sometime, if she has this effect on your parents." "You'll like her. Everyone likes Corona. Well, except her ex-husband," Eagle said, his smile darkening to a frown as he remembered walking in on his former brother-in-law hitting Corona one day. Ford had departed quickly, and Corona had rather calmly gone to treat her wounds. He couldn't understand why his sister had put up with that, why she had let her husband hit her, why he had hit her in the first place. "I have my reasons," she had replied quietly, gently washing away the blood that trickled down one side of her face. She had winced, and Eagle had moved to take over the job while she sat still. When he was still a kid, she, not their mother, had always been the one to take care of him when he skinned his knee or fell out of a tree. For once, the roles had reversed and he was helping his older sister. "What reasons could be worth this?" he'd asked. Corona's violet eyes had hardened, then softened again, as if she was instinctively protecting an old wound. "Nothing that you need to know about," she'd answered softly. Eagle had thought for a few minutes before speaking aloud again. He was fifteen, and Corona was twenty-five, but she had never once denied him anything he wanted. "Leave him," he had said quietly. Corona had brushed her red hair back and not looked at him. "I'll think about it," she had answered vaugely. Eagle quietly keyed open the door of his home and entered, listening to the door softly "shush" closed behind him. For some reason his euphoria over finishing the project had faded, and he felt merely "existant." Just content to walk and listen, speak and do. No great happinesses, no overwhelming tragedies. He just felt _normal_. Eagle smiled at the thought of feeling normal being so weird, and hung up his cloak in the closet, starting towards the main part of the house. "We have to tell him," he heard Corona's voice. Eagle stopped, wondering what she was referring to. Tell him? Tell him what? "Absolutely not." That was his father's voice. The "official" one he used for politics, no less. The one that made him sound like Senator Eagle Talon, not giving an inch on any issue, near-ruler of all he surveyed. "It's out of the question," his mother agreed. "We've managed to move past that disastrous incident, and have forgotten it, dear. It's in the past; let it stay there." "Correction," Corona challenged, sounding every bit her father's imperious daughter, "YOU have managed to deal with it and move past it. Eagle hasn't. It's emerging from where he buried it in his subconcious. He's having nightmares about it, and sooner or later his memory will fully re-awaken. You know how much Mental Energy he can control; you picture the consequences." "He hasn't said a word about that to US," their father retorted, with the unsaid erroneous belief that Eagle would more likely confide in his parents than his sister evident. "He doesn't seem to tell you much, then, does he?" Corona shot back, beginning to lose her cool a little. "You don't even know who he's dating!" <Oh, no, Corona, don't tell them that, please don't tell them that,> Eagle silently prayed. <They'll kill me for it. Please don't tell them that I'm in love with Lantis....> "Tell me what?" he asked, stepping around the corner and into the living room before either of his parents had a chance to demand of Corona what she meant. "Eagle!" his mother said. "Tell me _what_," he reiterated, stepping closer, watching his parents and Corona closely. "Nothing," his father said, dark eyes challenging Eagle, as much as daring him to say he was lying. Eagle knew his father too well to be fooled by the intimidation technique. "Mother?" he asked, taking a step closer and shifting his gaze to the petite black-haired creature who sat beside his father, across from Corona. To his surprise, she paled slightly. "Don't ask me, Eagle," she said softly, her faint lilting accent stronger in her distress. "I can't tell you." "Can't or won't?" Eagle asked rhetorically, turning to his sister as the last person in the room. "Corona, will you tell me?" "Eagle, I--" she started, with a look at their parents. "You were the one arguing to tell me," he said, not taking his eyes off of her. "Don't tell me you're going to betray your own argument, Corona." She closed her eyes for a second, and Eagle watched the expressions flicker across her face. Then she opened them again and stood, walking to the other side of the room. "Sit," she said softly. "I don't--" "*Sit*," she commanded, and there was a note of control in her voice that Eagle did not want to disobey. He quickly took her abandoned chair. "You want the truth, so I will give it to you, as I have given to you everything you truly wanted since you were a child," Corona said quietly, her back to him as she leaned forward against the mantel. "When you were three, Eagle...." She turned and looked directly at him, her amethyst eyes holding a dozen tumbling emotions. Her voice was both soft and rough, and held tears shed and unshed. "When you were three, you were molested." The dreams--nightmares--came tumbling into Eagle's head with abrupt clarity, then expanded. Hands caressing him--make it stop--it felt wrong-- Corona where are you--Mother--Father-- Oh Gods. Pain as those hands did things to him that he protested. This was wrong. Stop it Cadillac. Make it stop. Stop it. Please. Stop it!! Then the hands were coming from behind him and he screamed as he was torn apart. And a low voice mumbled softly into his ear, obscene words of love and trust and pretty petty compliments. MAKE IT STOP Eagle screamed with his mind. His sister felt him and it wasn't soon enough make it stop now oh please make it stop i'll die if that'll make it stop oh please make it stop corona where are you stop it stopit stopitstopitstopit.... Corona fell to her knees clutching at her head as a keening shriek went through her mind. A nearby vase filled with water and flowers shattered at the psychic note that only she could hear. Their parents had no talent whatsoever, and were deaf to such powers as she had in a small measure and Eagle possessed in ridiculously large quantities. Thank the Gods that no one else would know. Thank the Gods that their parents had had the house electronically sealed against such psychic vibrations getting in or out, else half the city, at least, would be feeling Eagle's pain. And it stopped. Corona opened her eyes, ignoring her raw headache, looking to see her brother. </pre><p><a href="./">Back</a></p><p><a href=http://www.dreamhost.com/donate.cgi?id=216><img border=0 alt="Donate towards our web hosting bill!" src=https://secure.newdream.net/donate1.gif></a></p></body></html>