Sera Ch. 09

"Kitten."

"Kitten," I confirmed, again wishing I had a drink as I crossed my legs. "Gina was running around with the door to her head left wide open."

She smiled a bit and said, "I'm sorry, it's just so weird to hear Mum's old expressions along with new ones from you and your mother. As you can imagine, I have my own."

"More appropriate ones, I'm assuming," I replied with subtle sarcasm, glancing about the circular room.

"Enough that I'm quite impressed at your abilities for your age. How proficient are you with entry and instruction?"

"I take it you mean the Jedi spell, or 'nudge', as Mum calls it."

"Yes."

"Nowhere near as good as Mum, but I can get the job done."

"How good is she?"

"Fucking good. I figured you could tell."

"Yes and no. I can see and feel her raw ability, but I've never seen her spell an average person and there's a certain subtlety... almost an art form to doing it that's very telling in its own way."

"Yeah, well I'd say mum's got it. Now she's kick-started Kitten and Kitten's been messing with Gina."

"So you gained entry to Gina's head."

"It seemed like the thing to do at the time, yeah, I wasn't gonna let her run around like that. Don't worry, I fixed her so she'd be none the wiser. I like her too, and I don't like the idea of Kitten doing that to someone who's supposed to be her friend."

"It's not your business."

"I made it my business."

"What if it was Sheila who did it?"

"I doubt that and it wouldn't change anything even if it was."

"What makes you think she can't do it? I wouldn't make that assumption."

"When I looked into her eyes, I didn't see... it."

"Uh huh. Did you see 'it' in Kitten's?"

" ... No."

"I understand why you did what you did, but you should probably leave Gina alone if you see her spelled from here on. Mind you, thanks for telling me, but I'm keeping a close eye on the Gina situation myself. You just worry about easing kitten into the know."

Ashleigh, I'm telling you that Gina was spelled and she'd just come from Kitten. The facts here point to the strong likelihood that-"

"When's the last time you even saw kitten?"

"Wh- yesterday."

"Yesterday. What the fuck, Steven? Why are you sitting here telling me what you suspect based on likelihoods? She's right here in the house, for god's sake, go and interact with her like you're supposed to be doing, and find out what's going on first hand."

"If you're in charge, then you have a responsibility to make sure Gina's safe. I've seen people get used by... I just don't want to see any more nice people fucked up on account of us."

"Don't worry, sweetie pie. Like I said, I'm keeping an eye on the situation. You just concentrate on making up with Kitten. She obviously knew you were supposed to visit Sheila tonight."

"Wh- How in hell am I supposed to be all warm and fuzzy with her while you encourage me to remain friends with Sheila? To say nothing of how Mum feels about that. Christ, you don't ask for much, do you?"

"Stop bitching, if I didn't think you could help, I wouldn't have asked."

"Yeah, well I'd like to know what you plan to actually do about all this."

She made no reply, rather only looked at me thoughtfully with a funny little smile.

"You are going to do something, right? It'd be nice to have all this knowledge put to use," I said a trifle irritably, gesturing around me with a hand that should have been holding a drink. "If you could bring yourself to support me just a little bit here?"

"Of course I'm going to do something," she assured with the same expression.

"Ya think I could be let in on this someth-?"

"You'll find out with the others, there's no need for you to know any more."

I dumped my face in my hands and moaned.