UNHEEDED: Undone Realms Book 2

Ch. 16 - Unblinking

Marcella shows Avie article after article; from the papers that get delivered early in the morning; from the news-feeds she subscribes to on the net.

"It's not just the authorities anymore. People are getting scared. They're starting to organize." 

Marcella shoves her tablet in front of Avie's face so she's forced to look at the image of angry protesters in front of the state capital waving signs that read "Keep Our Realm Pure" and "Kill the Kontaminants."  Avie winces at that last one.  It's always irritated her when people spell C words with Ks just because they think it's kute.

"People have a right to protest." She hands the tablet back to her stepmother.  The more neutral she can stay about this subject, the better.

"Do you think they're just waving around their homemade signs and marching in front of government buildings, Avie?"  Marcella taps her fingers against the surface of the reception desk.  The other hand clutches the tablet to her chest as though she can keep what's happening around them contained within it.  "The arrests the authorities are making aren't enough for them.  No.  They're starting to take matters into their own hands.  She pulls the tablet away from her and scrolls down the page, then turns it so that Avie can see another photograph.

A house burns in the background as two people wrestle a middle-aged man to the ground.  The man stares with wild eyes at the camera as though he's begging whoever's on the other side of the lens to stop what's happening to him. 

"Was he doing realm work?"  Avie's voice is barely a whisper.  She can't look away from the man's terrified face.

"Who knows?  The people responsible for this atrocity claim he was from another realm.  They said he talked funny and wouldn't let them into his home.  The poor man was probably just a terrified immigrant without the proper papers.  For them, though, his behavior was all the cause they needed to justify burning his house and beating him senseless.  That man nearly died, and-" Marcella's voice catches.  She places the tablet on the counter and then, quite unexpectedly, folds Avie into an embrace.  "It could have been us, Avie.  It could have been us."

Avie grips the back of Marcella's shirt, afraid that if she speaks it will be to confess to her everything she's done.  It could be us still, she thinks. 

It could be Oliver.

The man's eyes follow her the rest of the day.  They refuse to blink.

***

The humming is getting louder.  Oliver spends as much time as he can in the pool where the water will filter it as much as possible.  This is only a stopgap measure, though.  Someday he believes it will become so loud, he simply won't be able to hear anything else.

Oliver has been living in Avie's realm for over two months.  When she lays her head against his chest, her touch is as restorative as the pool.  Everything fades aside from her.  Unlike the rest of her realm, Avie isn't made from not-so-right matter.  She is always right.  He wishes they could combine their energy fields and create a new world where they'd both be happy.

This isn't possible of course, and Oliver cannot be with Avie or in the pool all of the time.  Besides, he knows it isn't a good thing to rely on someone else for one's own sanity.  He will drown or he will drown her or they will drown each other if he isn't careful.

And so he is careful.  He acts as normal as he can, especially when he's around Marcella and Avie.  He does his job meticulously.  He is polite to hotel guests and jokes around with the other employees.

Being careful is exhausting, however.  Pretty soon, the humming, the not-so-right feeling of this realm, will make Oliver forget to be careful.  He knows that this is inevitable.  The worst thing about going crazy is watching it happen with full awareness.

Oliver should ask Avie to bring him back home.  He doesn't miss his world, doesn't even miss his family as much as he thought he would.  But he knows if he returns to his own realm, his sanity might return with him.  Today, Oliver tries to imagine what it would be like to listen to the completely right-sounding sounds of his home realm, and for the first time, he can't.  There is nothing but the drone of Avie's realm now, just as he had predicted.  The thrum is pressing in upon him, showing him how empty he has been without it. 

Oliver realizes now what Marcella meant when she said other realm contaminants leaking into the world isn't the danger of realm journeying.  The danger is actually when the energy of one realm forces its way into a person who is from another.  

In this case, that person is Oliver.

He needs to leave here now if he wants to stop what's happening to him from growing to the point where there will be no way to reverse it.  Yet he doesn't leave.  He doesn't tell Avie what's going on, either.

He lets the humming in and it fills him.  He can barely stand to eat anymore, a fact which should concern him but doesn't.  The hum has become just as satisfying as food—more so, even.  It gives him purpose and his purpose is here. 

His head throbs as thoughts press in on him.  He must remain careful.  He must!  If Marcella or Avie find out about the droning sound, Avie will leave him in the other realm and he is certain he will never see her again. 

He needs to go, but he also needs to stay.

The thrum consumes him. Completely.  He is the harsh concrete outline of a pool, once empty, now full.  Whatever is wrong about this world, it's better than the hollowness of the other.

He makes his decision.  Or the hum makes it for him—he can't tell for sure.  Regardless of who or what is responsible, as soon as the decision is made, the result is that going home no longer matters.

This is when Oliver finally forgets to be careful.  

A/N: This was a difficult chapter to write—not so much Avie's POV...but Oliver's? Wow!  It's challenging to get into someone's head like that, even if it happens to be the head of a character I created. It's also challenging to write in a way that will make sense to readers when the subject is largely the internal thoughts of someone who is not necessarily thinking clearly.  What do you think of Oliver's decision to stay in Avie's realm?  And as for Avie, has Marcella given her the wake-up call we've all been waiting for?

Today's dedication is for @Mararenas, a fun commentator and unabashed fangirl. If you're looking for Divergent fan fiction, step right up, folks. Head over to Marcia's profile, and check out Convergent!