Wapun Meadow grind to a halt

Some words exchanged between the pair of them. To her question, he laughed and he said that he had killed Indra. Laurel felt a flash of anger, but worse yet, by the way he had said it --

-- she is dead. forever. --

-- so pointedly, so harshly, she knew that he was like her. She knew that he must hear her voice in his head. Except his wasn't an abuser, but his was her sweet sister, her sweet Indra, her--

mom!

She turned her head sharply to see one of her children there. Surprise overtook her for a moment as she lay eyes on her, one of her sweet babies, one of the children who had left her -- like they all had --

Riley!

But then when surprise was gone she snapped her head back towards Merrick and said: No. She's not gone. She's right there. Everything about her is Indra. She's standing next to you and she's with you every breath you take and she... she SHOUTS in your head -- Her voice was erratic and uneven now; if there was ever a time to fear Laurel, it was now, -- you could kill her again, this version of her, but she will never die. She's with you, always, that's what's forever, you can't get the voice out of your head, you can't get her out of your system, ever! The last shouted exclamation was paired with a mad burst of laughter.

And then, as if Riley's words suddenly burst through to whatever sanity she had remaining, if there was still time for it before they might turn on her, she turned around and ran -- not all the way back to Easthollow, but just a little bit before turning around. Just to keep a safe distance between herself and them should they follow. If she was followed then perhaps she would run further, but if they would turn on Riley or if they would simply talk back to her rather than follow her with violence -- we haven't forgotten last time, dearest -- then maybe she would do something else, talk more, laugh; who knew.

That's right. She's just like me, my pet. And you... You are just like him.

i left a lot of "what ifs" in the last paragraph based on what others do, I'll just write the next post based on what y'all's characters do (like if any would attack during laurels speech or such)