Dark Side Of The Moon

[Tereza Rozanov]

Tereza flops down on the bunk in the holding cell next to Isolde's, leaving the door to the cell open. She picks up a pillow and puts it over her face as if to block out the light.

[Isolde Schwarz]

"You shouldn't have come back here," Isolde's voice comes from the neighboring cell.

"I'm sure they told you I'm a bad influence."

[Tereza Rozanov]

"They didn't have to tell me you were a bad influence," Tereza says, muffled by the pillow. "But all the damn lights are so bright right now and I only have to put up with you here instead of everyone else. Don't you feel privileged?"

[Isolde Schwarz]

"It takes some getting used to. Our eyes become sharper," she mentions, oddly helpful.

[Tereza Rozanov]

"How long does this usually last? Or does it come and go? Or is it different for everyone?"

[Isolde Schwarz]

"I couldn't bear the light for a little over a week after I fled the hunters. The night felt better. Not surprising, I suppose. It was easier back then. More places the light couldn't reach."

[Tereza Rozanov]

"I am a bit of a night owl, but I can't do the full nocturnal thing. I still have classes, a girlfriend, and other stuff that want attention. I guess it will just be a hell of a week."

[Isolde Schwarz]

"It lingers if you fight with it," she says simply.

[Tereza Rozanov]

"I suppose you would advise giving in to it?"

[Isolde Schwarz]

"What do abused or neglected animals do?" She asks a question to answer.

[Tereza Rozanov]

"So that would be a 'yes' to my question, but she certainly doesn't behave like an abused or neglected animal, more like one who hasn't been properly trained. Only an improperly trained animal just bites the mailman, she doesn't bite the mailman and turn him into some sort of hellbeast."

[Isolde Schwarz]

"It's a wolf, not a dog."

"And if you are determined to make the wolf your enemy, she will live up to that."

[Tereza Rozanov]

"So tell me, how can she not be an enemy? So many things she wants are hazardous to everyone around me."

[Isolde Schwarz]

"You don't always disagree."

It's not a question.

[Tereza Rozanov]

"And broken clocks are right twice a day, but that doesn't mean you should use one. I get that she can be helpful, but she's frequently unhelpful or outright dangerous."

[Isolde Schwarz]

"Are you listening to her?"

[Tereza Rozanov]

"I would assume so. I'm perfectly aware of which students she thinks smell like prey and which she thinks we should hit preemptively."

[Isolde Schwarz]

"You don't seem to have thought much on why she wants what she wants."

[Tereza Rozanov]

"I assume it's because she's a survivor and her idea of what survival requires is a bit more... basic."

[Isolde Schwarz]

"You assume, but how will you be able to persuade her if you only go with what you think she's like?"

[Tereza Rozanov]

Tereza's sigh is audible even to those without acute hearing and it sounds very tired. "I can't ever trust her because she's a part of this damn infection or whatever you want to call it. And if I can't trust her, then what?"

[Isolde Schwarz]

"You take a great many things as given that aren't necessarily so."

"And why? Because you don't want to end up like me?"

[Tereza Rozanov]

"That's some of it," she says, deciding there's no harm in being honest with Isolde, "But I know what 'I'm' feeling and how... out of bounds it is."

[Isolde Schwarz]

"And you think I put this in you."

[Tereza Rozanov]

"It started after you bit me. It's not hard to draw cause and effect. Are you saying you didn't?"

[Isolde Schwarz]

"I didn't put something in so much as pull something out."

[Tereza Rozanov]

"So you're of the mind that I was always a dangerous killer? And you just, what, gave me something to express that?"

[Isolde Schwarz]

"Again, expectations. If that's how you see her, that's what you'll get."

"Is it really so strange to think there might be more to you than you understand just yet? Is everyone straightforward, to you? Is your girlfriend?"

[Tereza Rozanov]

Tereza rolls over, turning her back on Isolde while keeping the pillow over her face. "Things were becoming straightforward until this happened," she growls.

[Isolde Schwarz]

"You thought they were. Wouldn't it be boring if we were never wrong?"

[Tereza Rozanov]

"I'm a little tired of being wrong."

[Isolde Schwarz]

"You are closer to the truth than you've ever been. You've touched a deep seam, and that can be frightening."

[Tereza Rozanov]

"Truth? What 'truth' could there possibly be in this curse?"

[Isolde Schwarz]

"Some brush up against these things in themselves. Most recoil from them. Shove them down. Lock them away. They convince themselves that wasn't them."

"You no longer have that luxury."

[Tereza Rozanov]

"So encouraging. The curse is only making me this way because I was already a horrible person."

[Isolde Schwarz]

"I can't cure you of these assumptions. Only you can."

"But if you continue to think this way, it'll only end in tears when you figure out what your little ginger is really like."

[Tereza Rozanov]

There was the slight sound of ripping cloth as Tereza's claws punctured the pillow. In front of Isolde's eyes, her wild hair developed streaks of black. She otherwise didn't respond to Isolde, but the scent of resignation was unmistakable for as refined and trained a nose as Isolde's. There is just a soft murmur of "one more mission, I just have one more mission".

[Isolde Schwarz]

"Is that all?" Isolde asks idly.

[Tereza Rozanov]

"A promise to keep," she says quietly, "then..." She doesn't finish the sentence.

[Isolde Schwarz]

"You want to run."

"That's it, isn't it?"

"You think I've just taken all the good things from you."