Lost Creek Hollow only suffering can teach

indra had dragged her feet every step of the way to merrick -- and merrick had done well to make the distance between them significant. in some ways indra was relieved to have to seek him. it gave her a little more time to make her explanation more believable, and less shitty.

but she was being shitty, wasn't she? going off to look for children who may not even be alive, while forgetting the surviving ones? god -- she sucked, she sucked, she sucked. she was doing to merrick exactly what her stupid mother had done to her, what her witless father had done to her, and here she was, too weak and too spineless to break the cycle.

when she came across merrick buried in the outermost fringes of the territory, she hated herself. a wash of acrid loathing overcame her, and she knew this would not be easy.