The Longer the Fall by Inanna Arthen

Author:Inanna Arthen
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction:Fantasy, Fiction:Vampires, Fiction:Maine, Fiction:1950s
Publisher: By Light Unseen Media
Published: 2016-03-01T00:00:00+00:00

13

Thomas was far more amused than annoyed by Diana’s over-indulgence. “The best way to prevent a hangover is to stay awake,” he said, and he found ways to keep her that way until it was time for their working. As soon as they finished the working, Diana collapsed into a sleep almost as deep as her partner’s. She awoke late the following afternoon with a doleful headache and a severe case of self-consciousness about her conversation with Moira. It took several days for Diana to get back to a conventional schedule, and she spent most of that time in the house where her alchemical workshop was set up. When she fell asleep there, she tended to jolt awake from nightmares of which she could recall nothing but a sense of bone-chilling dread, and that was disturbing for a number of reasons. She told herself that she needed to talk to Moira, and that it was idiotic to avoid her, but somehow she just couldn’t bring herself to go into town and initiate that discussion.

But she was avoiding Thomas, as well, and he’d noticed. The following weekend, he coaxed her into bed with him after the working—which itself was unusual. Never before had she required coaxing. Her mood dissolved in their post-coital laxness, and when Thomas finally asked her what her remark about her evening out had meant, she told him the whole story.

When she finished, he was silent for a while. Diana couldn’t see his expression clearly in the room’s dim light, but she finally said, “Are you mad at me for blabbing so much?”

“Mad at you?” He sounded puzzled, and it struck her that he’d been thinking about something completely different than she’d assumed. “Oh. Of course not. Who you choose to confide in about yourself, and to what degree, is entirely your prerogative. You didn’t tell Moira about our working.”

“I told her that there is one.”

“I imagine she already knew that. You might be surprised how much is already known, or at least guessed, about what we’re doing here. It’s a small town, I knew from the start that there would be talk.”

She had to concede this, recalling several things Moira had said the other night. “It’s funny, though—no one has ever said a word to me, let alone asked a question.”

“Well, they wouldn’t.”

“As long as we pay our taxes and don’t cause any trouble...”

“Exactly. The only resentment I’ve ever felt here was from those who can’t forgive me for not enlisting in the armed forces in 1942.”

“But you served, stateside, up in Bangor—”

“Yes, but that doesn’t really count, for some people. It earned me a few defenders, like the Wilkinsons, and I’m very appreciative of their support. But claiming you don’t want to kill human beings doesn’t make you popular in war time.”

They’d talked about this before, and as always, Diana fidgeted under a sense that she was morally lacking compared to Thomas. There had been times during the war when she had fervently felt that she

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