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⁰⁶ ENTREATY
❝ Breathe, keep breathing. Don't lose your nerve. ❞
―Radiohead, Exit Music
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AMY,I'M SORRY for not ever being there. I always thought there would be more time. I'm here now, Amy. I'm here. I love you.
The words ran over and over inside Harlene's mind. The bullet echo was an itch in her ears. The dust of the burial ground clung under her boots, sobs of people hiddenly reflected in her own heart. Amy had shone on them brighter than the sun, and it was so much darker when her light went out than it would have been if she had never lit their days.
Andrea had shot her. After a miserable time, they had gone through funerals. The blonde woman was now on a lawn chair, asleep under blankets; Harley wasn't ashamed to admit she had stolen Dale's method and diffused a sleeping pill into her water. Andrea needed rest for what was to come. They all sat down in a circle to decide exactly that.
Harlene clutched onto Carl's waist. His tears had dried against his freckles, round eyes observing the silence. The grieved tenseness made the boy step closer to her as her hand threaded into his hair. He had finally calmed down. After all, the world's brand-new design was traumatizing for his age. Twelve was not the extent to be witnessing aberrations eating people alive. The experience was not to be lived by anyone, but their future had decided differently.
Carl was never going to grow up innocently. In the thinking, Harlene was ravaged, making her hold him even tighter.
"Were you named after Harley Quinn?"
She abandoned her thoughts at the childish question, "Who?"
"Harley Quinn. Joker's girlfriend. From DC comics." Carl's shorter fingers toyed with her black nail-polished ones. "Were you named after her?"
With his admiring eyes on her, she chuckled, "Harley is my nickname. My full name is Harlene, and it means hare's meadow. My mother thought it was cute, and my father was a Harley Davidson lover. He was the first to call me Harley. It has stuck with me ever since."
