Chapter Text
The summer night was late. The warmth from the day lingered in the room, and the songs of whatever creatures were about resonated through the walls and into Raelle’s ears. Many hours had passed since everyone had fallen asleep. She woke from a light sleep and after an hour of tossing and turning in futile attempts to get some rest, she decided to pace the house. She rose from her bed, pushing blankets to her feet. She swung her feet of the edge and sat there briefly. When she rubbed her face, she felt the cold touch of her ring on her cheek. Raelle scoffed and removed it, tossing the ring among her blankets. She sighed and stood to walk out of her room. As quietly as she cared to do, Raelle walked through the house, ending up in the living room. She observed the trinkets placed on shelves and the pictures hung on the wall. Everything about everything was unfamiliar. Raelle found herself by a window facing the street. A car drove by, the rumbling sound building up the before fading into the silence again.
Raelle looked out the window, watching the clouds roll over the full moon. She had her hands close together, tracing on her palm, some silent incantation that calmed her nerves. By now, her eyes were tired and her eyelids were heavy, but like it always did, sleep eluded her. Even with her mother back, her life still felt out of control. Most everyone she ever trusted had somehow managed to remind her that trust was fleeting and was something she shouldn’t hold on to. To Raelle, it was only a matter of time before everyone would prove themselves as untrue. Willa’s explanation was enough for a moment, but the longer Raelle thought, the more she solid her own conclusion became: there was no reason good enough for her mother to let her suffer like that. Not even to mention her father.
Though she kept such feelings to herself, Raelle tended to let them out in the middle of the night while everyone else was asleep, when there were no witnesses to her grief but the moon and the stars. She watched the sky still, breathing in deeply and filling her lungs to the brim with oxygen. She let it all out as slowly as she could as someone walked into the room behind her. Raelle turned around quickly, still holding her hands together, though no longer moving her finger. A pair of familiar blue eyes stared back at her.
“Raelle, I’m – I’m sorry,” Scylla stuttered, “I didn’t think anyone was awake.”
“It’s fine,” Raelle said flatly, turning back to the window.
“Are you alright?” Scylla asked. Raelle didn’t respond.
“That was a stupid question,” Scylla mumbled.
Raelle again said nothing, only looking at Scylla with a flat expression that did more to carve a wound into the woman it was for, a reminder that betrayals had not been forgotten. Scylla expected Raelle to say something, to move, to shout, anything, but Raelle only stood firm watching to see what she’d do next. It was strangely out of character for the person Scylla had known before. Though, to expect her to be the same after everything that happened to her would be both naïve and stupid.
"You finally decided to talk to me, huh?"
“I know I’ve been distant you arrived,” Scylla said with as steady a voice as she could muster. “I thought you’d like me to give you some space.”
“It wouldn’t have killed you to say more than two words to me during dinner.”
“Yeah. You’re right.”
“It's not about being right. Anyway, it’s not all about me, anymore Scyl,” Raelle said. “Everything is much bigger than just us now.”
“I know I just – I’m sorry, I don’t know what I’m trying to say.” Scylla shook her head and brought her hand to her brow in frustration. She started to turn away and leave the room.
“I should go,” Scylla muttered.
“Do you have to?” Raelle said before Scylla could even finish her sentence.
Scylla didn’t know whether or not to believe the question actually came from Raelle’s mouth. A familiar glaze of suspicion washed over her face, a sight that filled Raelle with a strange sense of happiness, though she didn't show it. For Scylla, that question would be the first time she’d been beckoned or invited by the woman she still loved since well before either of them had arrived to that place. It took her a moment to think, to answer to what she believed could be some sort of trick. Despite her reservations, she made a choice she could regret. It wouldn’t be the first time.
“No, I don't,” Scylla said softly, articulating her words. “I don’t.”
Raelle didn’t need more than that. She walked over to Scylla with an unhurried and paced urgency that anyone else would have misunderstood. The look on Raelle’s face changed as she approached Scylla; her solemn expression morphed into a passive guise that Scylla was accustomed to, and that took her by surprise. Scylla’s face changed too, shifting to one more worried than before, though less obviously so. Raelle stood face to Scylla, looking into her eyes with a closeness they hadn’t experienced in a while. Raelle looked at Scylla through eyes that became less and less jagged by the second. Scylla watched the dull fury in Raelle's eyes fizzle into cool relaxation. There was a calming effect Scylla had on the fiery soul before her, and despite all that had happened, that attribute she carried had not revoked. The moonlight shining on Raelle’s face made her seem otherworldly, though Scylla already saw her that way.
“I need to know something,” Raelle said.
“Anything,” Scylla replied.
“Did you know about my mom?" Her voice cracked.
“What do you mean? That she was alive?”
“Yeah,” Raelle forced out.
“No, I didn’t know.”
“Is that a lie too?”
“Why would I lie about that?” Scylla asked, as her chest trembled and her chin shook. “What would I have to gain?”
“I don’t know. You’ve lied before.”
“Raelle, I swear, I had no idea,” Scylla said with a stifled panic, “I would have told you. You have to believe me I would never –”
Scylla’s explanation was cut short by Raelle taking her hand in her grasp. Scylla looked down to see if it was real. Her lip shook. Raelle looked at Scylla, watching carefully as if to make sure it was really her, as if to make sure Scylla was actually right there. Neither spoke. As they stood shrouded in the darkness of a late night, both of them thought back to a time where everything seemed simple; though they both acknowledged that there were many lies told, neither of them could find the will to care right then. None of it mattered beyond the space around them.
“I believe you,” Raelle said softly. “I believe you.”
"I'm sorry," Scylla managed to say, "I'm sorry for everything."
"It doesn't matter anymore."
Raelle rested her head on Scylla’s shoulder, wrapping her arms around the woman before her. Scylla, even with her impenetrable walls built firmly around her once again, fell apart and sunk into the embrace. She pressed her forehead against Raelle, feeling the torrent of emotion rush to the surface. Scylla had always hid that pain, found another place to put it, but that night where the moon was all that illuminated the room, she didn’t feel compelled to hide it from Raelle anymore. It was overwhelming for Scylla to finally fully let her walls down, to accept that the person that held her had no intention of hurting her and never did. Scylla cried like she hadn’t in many years since she was a scared sixteen year old girl hiding in a garage, and the woman who still loved her stood fast in the wake of it all. While neither of them knew where they could take it beyond that moment, both of them were happy to have someone to talk to openly, someone to love in whatever way it would be.
Raelle tightened her embrace around Scylla, as if trying to hold her together.
“You’re gonna have to be honest with me from now on, okay?” Raelle asked, tears rolling down her face. “Don’t ever lie to me again.”
Raelle spoke her words with articulation and a softness that made them in no louder than a whisper.
“I won’t,” Scylla forced out, “I promise.”