(no subject)

[ladyfirestarter]

It's the same hallway as the last time he came through. The drawings have changed; one of them is a careful pencil sketch of two hands in repose, fingers halfway overlapping.

Charlie stands aside to let him pass, studying him carefully as he crosses the threshold.

Comments

[ladyfirestarter]

Charlie's leaning forward a little now.

"Who, Charles?"

[thisfatefulhour]

He glances over at her, blue eyes shadowed.

"He called himself Sylar. He -- he sounded like almost no one I've ever heard before. And he was very . . ."

He frowns, searching for the right word. "Perceptive."

[ladyfirestarter]

"But not sympathetic."

[thisfatefulhour]

Swallowing,

(who hunts you, Charles?)

he looks away.

"No."

[ladyfirestarter]

Charlie's nodding.

Zillah's nodding too, and Avi bites his lower lip and brings his arms up around himself as though cold.

Perceptive, but not sympathetic; they know -- they all know -- what that's like.

[thisfatefulhour]

"You could say it set me back," he murmurs, mostly to himself.

Then his head comes up, turning towards Avi; he looks distressed, part his and part a reflection of the boy's.

[walk_ins]

"No," Zillah says impatiently. "It was no fault of thine."

And then, softer: "Forgetting if, remember yes."

[thisfatefulhour]

Shaking his head -- "How children are apt to forget to remember--"

[walk_ins]

"Only a few," she says, stubbornly.

[thisfatefulhour]

"Yes," he agrees, still looking at Avi.

[walk_ins]

Avi looks from him to Zillah; his glance flicks to Charlie, and then to the apparently empty air, and then down.

"Won't find him here," he says softly. "Safe."

[thisfatefulhour]

Charles' glance echoes his -- Zillah, then Charlie -- then up, through the swirling dust specks, and out to someplace else.

(peace safe quiet)

"Okay."

okay, echoes the good-mind, and Charles smiles again, just a little.