When Demons Are Redeemed: The Dominant's Muse

Seventy-Four - The World in a Warped Ballroom. All of Life in One Weekend.

SEVENTY-FOUR

The World in a Warped Ballroom. All of Life in One Weekend.

“There’s more to see here, this weekend,” Laura tells Catherine, after a moment of silence in the tunnel. “And I can tell that you see beyond.”

“I’m not in appraising mode,” Catherine replies, rather automatically.

“I want to add to what I know that you’ve already felt,” Laura insists. “To help you understand. To help you.”

“The whole world is here, this weekend, Catherine,” Vivian repeats. “And older women, or younger experienced ones, they get inspired to compose for young women, in order to warn them and to keep them safe. Ignorance is bliss has too harsh of a price. You have to know the bad, to find the good.”

“Please don’t,” Catherine finds herself replying. She has never told a wounded woman not to get something off her chest, however, and quickly scolds herself for trying to bar this woman from being allowed the same opportunity. Vivian, that is. “I’ve been around many experienced women who had to pour their hearts out to me. I mean, who wanted to,” Catherine therefore then agrees.

“We compose as best we can and hope that we’re trusted,” Vivian continues. “It’s sort of stronger than some of us, and to keep it in is impossible: it hurts. We know, however, that vomit and verbal diarrhea are a turnoff, sickening, but there’s just such truth to be had, in purging.”

My bad luck. Bad, bad, bad. I know that it’s stronger than you, Vivian. You want to leave, but still you . . . Just like non-refundables can see why they are where they are, but still they . . .  

“Teen girls and women leaving it all behind them, to go out on the streets, there’s often more to that decision that the women aren’t sharing, because other women go through similar situations, but don’t turn to the streets. For example, because of a lost court case over the kids, leave it all and become a streetwalker? There’s something else in that picture,” Catherine recalls her writer-friend telling her.

So, Vivian, why are you procrastinating?

When Laura yawns, Catherine realizes that she herself has not yawned since she was joined by Vivian.

See, I knew that it was the women and what happens when they . . . If I were to submit, would that stop all the voices, all the files from ever opening up again? All those autobiographies? I’ve heard so many chapters, from so many lives. “We won’t tell. Just go,” Catherine repeats to Vivian.

“’We?’ If you were to turn on me, Catherine, after I’d already told my master that I didn’t see Vivian, I would be punished severely, and my master would no longer trust me,” Laura points out.

“Why would I turn on you?” Catherine snaps at her.