{"id":3749,"date":"2018-10-15T00:00:29","date_gmt":"2018-10-15T04:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=3749"},"modified":"2018-10-15T00:00:29","modified_gmt":"2018-10-15T04:00:29","slug":"three-04-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=3749","title":{"rendered":"Three – 04"},"content":{"rendered":"

[This post is from Thom’s point of view.]<\/em><\/p>\n

Thom watched him for a few seconds before exhaling and flipping his sketchbook open again. \u201cHow\u2014how much do you remember about then?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHow much do you remember?\u201d Matt countered, shifting the metal in the forge so it would heat more evenly.<\/p>\n

Thom choked back a laugh. \u201cIs that how we\u2019re going to play it?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSeems like.\u201d Matt shot him a crooked smile. \u201cI think we both remember more of it than we let on\u2014especially to Mar.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, she\u2019s kind of weirded out by it a little bit herself sometimes,\u201d Thom murmured. \u201cSo the two of us keeping some of it on the down-low doesn\u2019t surprise me at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMe neither,\u201d Matt agreed. \u201cNot really. In actual answer to your question, though, maybe not as much as sometimes I\u2019d hope but enough to be sure of some things.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDid you\u2014\u201d Thom stopped, frowning for a second, then took a breath and started again. \u201cDid you remember before?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore? Before what?\u201d<\/p>\n

Thom grimaced. \u201cBefore she took you?\u201d<\/p>\n

Matt was silent for a few moments, then nodded. \u201cYeah. Yeah, I did, I just didn\u2019t know what it meant, who it was that I kept being with and talking to. I mean, it wasn\u2019t like I could see her, you know? It was never any time that I could really see her. It was always after.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter C\u00edar escaped.\u201d<\/p>\n

He nodded. \u201cYeah. I knew there was someone and I knew she was important, I just didn\u2019t know what she looked like. I just knew what she felt like and I knew how deeply he loved her, how deep that connection went.\u201d Matt sighed, staring into the forge for a few seconds. \u201cI wondered at first if that\u2019s why I cared about her, but I realized pretty fast that it wasn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWas she\u2014?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDifferent? Yeah. There was a side of her that she couldn\u2019t let anyone else see, part that she had to keep protected or she\u2019d be done for. Everything she went through kind of fractured her but she\u2019s getting better now. I think it\u2019s healing, even if it\u2019s slow.\u201d He smiled faintly. \u201cAnd I\u2019m glad that she feels safe enough here to let us help. She\u2019s making friends and learning that there\u2019s more than two other people in the world that care about her and that\u2019s worked wonders.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTwo?\u201d Thom echoed, brow furrowing. \u201cI mean, I know you\u2019re one, but who was the other one before all of us?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPersephone,\u201d Matt said quietly. \u201cWe have to figure out how to help her, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n

Matt shook his head, a rueful smile curving his lips. \u201cThat\u2019s right. I should probably tell you about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thom rubbed at his temple, shaking his head. \u201cI feel like I slept through a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNot a lot,\u201d Matt said. \u201cJust some important stuff.\u201d He glanced back toward the rain outside and sighed. \u201cWell, we\u2019re not going anywhere anytime soon. Guess we\u2019ve got time, right?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEven if we didn\u2019t, we\u2019d make it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTrue enough,\u201d Matt agreed softly. \u201cTrue enough.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[This post is from Thom’s point of view.] Thom watched him for a few seconds before exhaling and flipping his sketchbook open again. \u201cHow\u2014how much do you remember about then?\u201d \u201cHow much do you remember?\u201d Matt countered, shifting the metal … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[299,305,14],"tags":[150,171,170,181,149,148,168,147,165,158,146],"class_list":["post-3749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-7","category-chapter-03-book-7","category-story","tag-awakenings","tag-fantasy","tag-fiction","tag-matthew-astoris","tag-original-fiction","tag-post-apocalyptic","tag-serial","tag-serial-fiction","tag-story","tag-thom-ambrose","tag-web-fiction"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1EBlN-Yt","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3749"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3749\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}