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ridtom19

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ridtom19
Oct 11th, 2025
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  1. She took in the room and she could see it as a space painted in monocolored life and death, instead of a space of multicolored light and dark. She had idly wondered, once, if she saw the microbial life, and if that indicated the life of a space, letting her see where the textures of the wall were, the cracks where moisture and mold settled in.
  2.  
  3. *
  4.  
  5. Venturing closer to the residential area where Matthew and Edith lived meant there were more trees, which meant more birds and small wildlife. There were mice near trash cans, spiders, and there were more humans. Compared to the lesser creatures, the humans boomed with vibrant life.
  6.  
  7. They stayed out of the way, crossing the street before anyone could get too close. It was nice, in the dark and with a breeze blowing. Hot, but the heat reached to the core of her and made her feel less cold and dark inside.
  8.  
  9. Getting out of the city was important, because they weren’t like Lis, Cig, or Ken. They couldn’t blend in, and they couldn’t use their best talents in the middle of the city.
  10.  
  11. They strayed out toward the highway, then the trees, walking north toward Bowdler.
  12.  
  13. In amid the trees were a number of cabins, and some were occupied. There was a couple in a screened-in porch, booming with life in a very rhythmic way. She smiled, and drew closer to Nibble.
  14.  
  15. *
  16.  
  17. Venturing closer to the residential area where Matthew and Edith lived meant there were more trees, which meant more birds and small wildlife. There were mice near trash cans, spiders, and there were more humans. Compared to the lesser creatures, the humans boomed with vibrant life.
  18.  
  19. They stayed out of the way, crossing the street before anyone could get too close. It was nice, in the dark and with a breeze blowing. Hot, but the heat reached to the core of her and made her feel less cold and dark inside.
  20.  
  21. Getting out of the city was important, because they weren’t like Lis, Cig, or Ken. They couldn’t blend in, and they couldn’t use their best talents in the middle of the city.
  22.  
  23. They strayed out toward the highway, then the trees, walking north toward Bowdler.
  24.  
  25. In amid the trees were a number of cabins, and some were occupied. There was a couple in a screened-in porch, booming with life in a very rhythmic way. She smiled, and drew closer to Nibble.
  26.  
  27. *
  28.  
  29. A man approached on the path, and Nibble led the two of them on a different course, so they wouldn’t walk too close to him. He didn’t look like a guy out for a hike, but to Chloe, he didn’t look like much. He didn’t boom with Life, and what Life he did have was dark gray against the evening backdrop. He drew on a cigarette, and a thread of blackness snaked its way in through his lower face and upper chest.
  30.  
  31. Nothing too unusual. Some people weren’t vibrant.
  32.  
  33. *
  34.  
  35. Nibble ignored the guy. Chloe gripped his arm, and they stepped off the path.
  36.  
  37. From a crouching position, she and Nibble watched, to be safe. The clothing was one oddity, too nice for a hike in tall grass at the base of the hill. The high-pressure request was another weirdness. So they studied the man, tracking him as he carried on down the path.
  38.  
  39. “Your Life-sight is better than mine,” Nibble said. “He carrying anything?”
  40.  
  41. “Bag,” she noted. But there was nothing at the belt or in the pockets that had even a stir of Life or will of its own. Practitioners tended to carry a lot of that stuff.
  42.  
  43. *
  44.  
  45. The man with the map and cigarette stopped some other people, got directions, and began walking with more purpose.
  46.  
  47. She tracked him with her life-senses as he walked away, then tracked the people he’d stopped. Nothing suspicious.
  48.  
  49. *
  50.  
  51. She searched out with her life-sense, reached past small animals, birds, and insect life, past amphibians, reptiles, and the dull glow of the plants around them, of weeds and grass.
  52.  
  53. She pressed, hard, drawing on reserves she wasn’t sure she had, to sense further. On a good day, following a good hunt for a deer or something, she could carry that strength forward, using it to hunt more, hunt better, sense further.
  54.  
  55. She sensed as far as she could. Past the point where that hiking man should have walked to.
  56.  
  57. And animals were fleeing something that gave off nothing to her senses.
  58.  
  59. The salt line broke, inconsistent where an overhanging log blocked the pour.
  60.  
  61. *
  62.  
  63. He was Lifeless to her eyes. Something about him or something on him was blocking that sense. But he didn’t give off the impression of a practitioner.
  64.  
  65. *
  66.  
  67. Her eyes scanned the trees, because she could see the man with regular eyes, even if the Life-sight didn’t work, and she could see well in the dark.
  68.  
  69. - One After Another 10.c
  70.  
  71. ________
  72.  
  73. The wind stirred. Bells began tinkling, and at the first sound, there was another gunshot.
  74.  
  75. But they picked up, and soon, all across the clearing, bells were chiming, each with a high, sweet sound that carried in a way that would let it be heard from a mile away. Grass blew and trees swayed.
  76.  
  77. "Go!" John shouted. "He's there!"
  78.  
  79. "Fuck!" Nibble cried out. "I don't see him."
  80.  
  81. "He's there!"
  82.  
  83. - One After Another 10.2
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