text: "You can remove it, can't you." It was less a question than a statement of fact. The young woman, staring over the rooftops into the blessedly empty sky, was hugging her legs to chest, gripping the denim of her jeans tight enough to whiten her knuckles. In the shadows of the run down attic they took shelter in, a young, yet somehow older voice sighed out wearily. "I could, yes. But I won't." For the first time since she *saw* it, its victims, it's *helpers*, she showed signs of emotion, brows furrowing as she tried to process what he just said. As though the very idea of removing her ability to *see* was anything but agreed. "Remove it." Another sigh, and he pushes himself out of the shadowy corner he had been leaning in, swinging his legs to join her sitting on the crumbled window ledge, looking down at the small town below. "I can't." "Bullshit. You just said-" "I know what I said. And I *can't*. It doesn't end well. Trust me, I've made that mistake before." He sipped from the bottle in hand and wished for something stronger. Five times he's had to guide someone through their awakening, and I never got any easier. He rocked in place as she punched his arm, silently demanding an explanation. Gulping down the last mouthful, he tossed the bottle at one of the many abandoned buildings in this part of town, the corner of his mouth twitching up a little as he scored a mental bullseye, becoming sombre once more as he turned to face her. "Its not that simple... Look, you've *seen*. You know what's out there now-" "I saw more than I wanted last night. I don't want to see that, or anything like that, again. Can't you understand that?!" A deep breath smothered the annoyance building up in him. Did he understand that? Yes, far more than she could imagine. The things he's seen, *seen*, done and *done* haunt and thrill him in equal measure. Standing up, he glanced back at the old mine set into the mountain and snorted, lifting a foot. "Meet me downstairs." Amidst her complaints and a demand to get down from there, he stepped off, plummeting several stories. The punch was anticipated. The baseball bat coming the other way was not. "Fucking asshole..." He laughed as he got to his feet, rubbing his jaw. She was already developing the strength needed for their kind of... Existence. Sooner than expected. Maybe he was wrong about when she woke? "Walk with me." She grumbled, naturally, as he led her through the town centre, holding up a hand to stop her. "What do you see?" A scoff, a roll of the eyes. A sarcastic quip as she gestures towards the barely surviving town centre, with its run down buildings and dishevelled people, eking out an existence without the rest of the world turning a blind eye. "The "gorgeous scenic views with traditional family val- ack!" Petty perhaps, but the slap to the back of her head was so very satisfying, discretely moving behind her, out of view. "What do you *see*?" Silence stretched between them until her head hung low, rubbing her own arms as though chilled by the waning summer sun above. "What will I see? You?" "Only if you turn round." She laughed, bitterly and shook her head, eyes closing. "You're such an aashole..." He shrugged. He'd been called worse. Came through this part of the world and ended up burnt at a stake for it. Shame he had grown too old by then. Standing back, watching as she took a deep breath,raise her head... And *Saw*. "... She was beaten last night. For dropping a plate. But it was the hand he broke a few days ago..." "Yes." She turned her attention from the woman sitting on a park bench to a young man bobbing his head to the music pounding in his ears. "He's... Like a star. He asked his boyfriend to leave town with him. He said yes. He's... So bright." He nodded as he slipped into his own Sight, observing the changes in her *other* self. Hair flowing behind her like a rising waterfall, a contrast to her cropped short hairstyle. Barbs all across her body, typically defensive. Hardly a change from her physical self. He awkwardly pulled his limbs closer to himself. Time would change that fact. Suddenly she started to thrash, a brief thought directing his physical hand to steady her body while he followed her line of sight, clenching his jaw as she moaned and begged him to let her go, to let her get away. "Look closer. Its okay. I promise you, it's okay." He carefully turned her head round, back to the child slowly swinging on the swingset. His other form was identical to his physical, in almost every detail. Save for the oily black, leech like tendril wrapped around him, lamprey jaws coating it as it spasmed, the child blissfully unaware of the parasite. "Look... Its dead, okay? Its dead. You killed it. We're just watching it's death spasms. He'll be okay..." She angrily wrenched herself free from both his grasps, rounding on him, mouth open to yell before falling short. "... You almost look exactly like it." "I'm old. I think I have a century left. Maybe longer, maybe shorter." He watched as she shifted her attention back to the physical, observing her in both states at once. A perk with experience. The bat in her hand creaked as she secured her grip. "It was like you?" "Us. Once. I think it gave up it's humanity long ago." Another bitter laugh, shrouded in disbelief. "And you won't remove it." Pulling himself back to the physical completely, he gestured to a bench, slipping into it and waiting for her to follow suit. "I removed it. Once. The first one I met after seeing things no man should see... I thought I could spare him that." A sigh past his lips as he fought back the memories. The once sane man turned into a broken, empty shell. Forever paranoid of things he could no longer see, no longer avoid, it was a relief when he finally passed away. "Let's just say seeing and knowing is better than knowing but not seeing. Come on." He held out a hand which she, reluctantly, took, and he pulled her to her feet, walking side by side while unconsciously stepping around or over quivering, decaying lumps of the beast that once entrenched itself here. "It's not so bad. You might be lucky and die before immortality sets in. I saw the Beatles perform live. Woodstock. Helped tear down the berlin wall. And there was this one time I helped out these US and USSR agents... Woo, nothing *cold* between those two under the sheets, lemme tell you!" He kept his attention fully in the physical as they walked back to her flat and friends. Kept his gaze away from the remains of the once man turned monster scattered over town, so much decaying, immaterial flesh. He felt a twinge of hunger in his other form and firmly stamped it down. A century. Maybe more. Maybe less. He hoped she was ready to face him by then. *A little experiment to see how I could hint at stuff more than outright say it.