for nothing tender about it [ isaac & izzy ]

for nothing tender about it [ isaac & izzy ] Mar 4, 2022 7:52:56 GMT -5

Quote

Post by heather - d2 [mylee] on Mar 4, 2022 7:52:56 GMT -5

I S A B E L L A

When I took Isaac’s hand, I expected he’d lift me to my feet and point me in the direction he thought we’d need to go, which would end up being the way I had originally tried to run in the moment my feet touched ground not platform and metal and then gave way. So maybe we could say this was all my idea to begin with, all far, far into the future and still somehow accurate.

If you guess at something, there’s a strong chance that at some point down the line, even if you’re not alive or around to see it, it will come to pass.

[ But Izzy hadn't run anywhere of her own accord. Instead, after lifting her to her feet, Isaac saw that she was stuck hard and scared, her body nearly as stilled as the girl whose neck he had just snapped. He was smart enough to know there was nothing left for them, that there might be someone willing and keen on making Izzy look like the girl at their feet, and so after prodding Izzy and then prodding Izzy again, both to no response, he scooped her up in both arms and took off, away from the bodies swarming primal around them. As he ran, the impact of each foot against the hard earth made Izzy’s stomach turn, her last civilized meal threatening to make its way out into the wild world. She keeps her face buried in the crook of Isaac’s shoulder until he whispers in her ear, sets her slowly on both feet so that she’s standing, shakily, beside him, one hand gripping tight to his shoulder in a plea for balance. ]

We’re far enough away now, okay? I’m going to set you down now, okay? My head is still trying to shake its way off my neck when my feet first touch the ground, and even then I can’t will my hands to let go completely, first gripping tight to his shoulders for the few moments I stand, and then again when I sink to the ground and kneel, my chest collapsing to my thighs—even then, I feel my arm stuck out at a strange angle, all for the sake of being able to keep my hand pressed against some part of Isaac, some physical reminder of his presence in the absence of sight.

His ankle is sweat-slicked, and I feel the muscles underneath quivering violently in fear or anticipation or something else I do not wish to put a name to. I cannot figure it out, but I find myself starting to apologize to him, a jumbled I’m sorry that accounts for everything I should have done and did not, though I’m not thinking of him at all when I say it, but the girl who dropped in front of me, glassy-eyed. I saw my own face there, reflected and distorted to the point at which one can no longer claim immediate recognition, but it’s tears, after all, that allow us to see the world reflected back in the eyes of another, and it wasn’t difficult, even in that single moment, to imagine the fingerprints Isaac left on either side of the girl’s neck transferred to my own.

[ Izzy remains there, prostrated and dazed before Isaac. The only sure thing is her hand wrapped around his ankle, the tears she drops quiet and, unbeknownst to her, fearful, to the ground. ]

[ table: pogue ]

[ does first aid on self ]
[ collects cornucopia items ]