Re: hannah and david: woods
Her lost smile felt far away, even to him, even here. "'Staunch contacts break and recoil in the altering light,'" he said. "You saw him new. He failed you."
He didn't know she thirsted for information about her sister, the life she'd led. He could have poured out the details, but for how long? How long could he stand to speak about them? "Some people love mystery," he said, with a small smile, imagining those people and their lives, the fire of not knowing, of wondering. "And some people want to devour their partners and know everything. It's a way of getting closer in itself." He took a short breath. "I don't know if I know everything about Molly. I wanted to. She might have had reasons to withhold things. Good reasons." He was typically so placid but the topic had him slightly muddled. He was clenching his hands without noticing. "Perhaps I should never know everything. Keep me in the dark." He flashed a smile at her. It was peculiar.
He laughed, sucked in breath. He could still breathe as he liked, and talk, and pretend his heart beat enough to relish dancing. He didn't like the dulling of her smile. He might have left Mars alone, but he felt a strange drive to get at the heart of Hannah, and know her better. It seemed she deserved to be known, if she was amenable to it.
"Not her," he repeated. Had he known that? "You mean it more than you are different than you were," he said. In the shade of the trees, his eyes were shadowed. "When we met again, I knew." He had seen her kill a man, in a vision, a memory taking from her skin. "But you are really her." He looked at her. "You are her. You're her soul." He still had a knack for speaking on the metaphysical with self-assurance. It was true, and she was. It was a belief unshakable. "And Mars can think what she likes. And she'll come around. But you are. There is a light inside you that is hers. I know that to be true." He smiled, crookedly. "Did she see that light?" Rey, he meant, too many people in the story. Maybe so, though. He thought he did.