The Only Story (Threads of Wyrd Book 2) by Camille Duplessis

Author:Camille Duplessis [Duplessis, Camille]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Oliver Heber Books
Published: 2023-05-15T16:00:00+00:00

13

Paul’s first response to Lennie’s stories of various manipulations and abuses was calm and precise. “Your stepfather won’t hurt you here.”

They weren’t used to anyone paying them such marked attention in a respectful way. It wasn’t that it had never been supplied; Mum had. It was just lacking in their life now. Lennie cleared their throat and waited for Paul to reply to all they’d just explained. They recognized what they’d said was a little dramatic, and most of Ralph’s qualities did make him sound a little like a penny dreadful villain. He wasn’t quite that, but he was undeniably unpleasant.

They’d left out the part where they were to blame for Ralph’s machinations. It wasn’t something they could bear to describe.

Wanly, Lennie said, “He… it’s not exactly that he hurts me, Mr. Apollyon.” Ralph had never raised a hand against them, but he didn’t need to. They glanced briefly at David, who sat rather stiffly to their right on a barstool.

Tom, standing against the front of the bar and next to where his uncle sat, said, “He holds some sway over you?”

Lennie still had not made up their mind as to whether or not they liked him, and had to admit some of the ambivalence stemmed from jealousy. They wanted to ask David more about the relationship he’d had with him; it was clear that unrest and unresolved tension was present for both men. However, they did appreciate what seemed to be Tom’s family trait of perceptive equanimity, and couldn’t deny that he was astute. Watching as he took a short sip of something in a flask present on his person, they said simply, “Yes.”

“Remember, we’re friends, or we’d like to be,” said Theo, who was easier to like than Tom, but roused the same jealousy over David.

“I’m not very good at having them,” said Lennie with a chuckle.

“You’re not going to find any judgement, either,” said Tom.

Lennie sighed and tried not to be too frustrated. They understood that each of those present thought they were an unspeakable of a fairly common variety if one knew where and how to look. They weren’t keen on discussing their more private details, yet could see no way around disclosing them. Ralph was no criminal genius and he was not particularly special: his capacities and beliefs were, so far as Lennie had seen in their experience, average.

If this conversation continued, they harbored a slight fear that the Apollyons, Mr. Harper, and David would all want to side with Ralph. They might have taken the chance of being seen and known to sleep with David, but they didn’t think they could bear it if all four decided to regard them with disbelief, pity, or worse.

Nonetheless, they didn’t think they could avoid the risk. There was no way they could blame only the preternatural for their stepfather’s abuses; they’d just explained how Ralph had leveraged first their mother’s preternatural abilities, then their own, for material gain. Ralph was not against the uncanny or the occult so long as it gave him something.

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