Subject 3311 - Freewrite Fiction - post 2

Busted Down to Pretense

(ishasalways happening)

Let me show you something.

Is how I got her into the car. I mean, we were in a motel room in the last scene but the people still ask. I didn't bother to ditch my phone at that point, because I wasn't about to try to separate her from hers. I drove out of town and tried to break it to her gently.

There's this scene in that bad live-action movie for the cartoon about the airbender, where the fire-folk want to test him and say he can leave after, but that's only what they expected because no one ever passes the test. You're kinda like that, but I'm not fire-folk - so I'm getting you out of here.

She looked at me like I was crazy for about 2.5 seconds, then laughed.

This is when you tell me about the bugs, and that I'm psychic.

I sat with that one for a moment. Thought about questioning her as her laugh calmed down, but then I do what I do best. I rolled with it.

Okay, so there are these annoying bugs called Cicadas. They can live underground kinda hibernating for, like, 17 years. John Oliver did a thing. Anyway, human psychics are pretty much the same. The government knows they're going to come up somewhere in batches every few years, and my work screens for them.

When I saw the read-out I felt a strong compulsion to take you to @frankbacon at the Mandela Center in New Mexico. While I think that's the actual last thing I should be doing, I figured it would be a good idea if it looked like the compulsion was working flawlessly.

I turned to look at her then, and she was smiling softly. She leaned over and put her arm on my forearm, holding my eyes.

I know this is going to be very hard for you. I'll let you know when to pull off course. Just drive and relax, you're doing fine.

Then, she started singing.

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