{"id":4472,"date":"2020-11-18T09:27:03","date_gmt":"2020-11-18T14:27:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=4472"},"modified":"2020-11-18T09:27:03","modified_gmt":"2020-11-18T14:27:03","slug":"fourteen-02-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=4472","title":{"rendered":"Fourteen – 02"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Their voices followed me as I walked and I winced, knowing that whatever respite I\u2019d hoped to garner wasn\u2019t going to come.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s going on with him?\u00a0 Is it because of whoever showed up?\u201d\u00a0 Anne asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomething like that,\u201d Kailey said.\u00a0 I could sense the grimace in her voice.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s\u2014it\u2019s been a really long day.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery day is long lately,\u201d Tory said.\u00a0 \u201cThere\u2019s a weight to everything we\u2019ve been trying to ignore for weeks.\u00a0 Dad should\u2019ve been back by now but no one\u2019s saying it out loud.\u00a0 Shit doesn\u2019t feel quite right.\u00a0 Something\u2019s happening but we\u2019re not talking about it.\u201d\u00a0 He paused, then added, \u201cEspecially not Lin.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dammit.\u00a0 I just want time to sleep and think.<\/em>\u00a0 My limbs felt heavy.\u00a0 It was like I was walking through water to my waist, slowing me down, trying to drag me under.<\/p>\n

Was this what it was like when Mom and Dad had to deal with things?\u00a0 Gods and monsters, I wish I knew for sure.<\/em>\u00a0 The journals said a lot, but there were things that they left unsaid\u2014to what ends, I couldn\u2019t be sure.\u00a0 I wasn\u2019t even sure it was strictly necessary for me to fully understand what they\u2019d left unsaid at this point.\u00a0 Maybe they\u2019d done it on purpose.\u00a0 Maybe they\u2019d known.<\/p>\n

Knowing them, they probably had\u2014they\u2019d known a lot of things they never spoke about, never told anyone.<\/p>\n

\u201cLin!\u00a0 Lin, wait up.\u201d<\/p>\n

I could hear Tory\u2019s footsteps behind me, though I didn\u2019t slow down\u2014I was moving slow enough already for him to catch up easily, and if I stopped walking, I was probably not going to start again.\u00a0 The weariness and pain was starting to grind me down like grain under a millstone.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t a pleasant feeling by any stretch.<\/p>\n

Did you live with this, Mom and Dad?\u00a0 Was this every day\u00a0 of your lives?<\/em><\/p>\n

Is it still this now?<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[This post is from Thomas Merlin Ambrose’s point of view.] Their voices followed me as I walked and I winced, knowing that whatever respite I\u2019d hoped to garner wasn\u2019t going to come. \u201cWhat\u2019s going on with him?\u00a0 Is it because … 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":[336,337,363,14],"tags":[340,275,271,150,345,149,148,168,147,165,200,146],"class_list":["post-4472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ambrose-cycle","category-book-8","category-chapter-14-book-8","category-story","tag-ambrose-cycle","tag-anne-mackenzie","tag-artorius-mackenzie","tag-awakenings","tag-kailey-astoris","tag-original-fiction","tag-post-apocalyptic","tag-serial","tag-serial-fiction","tag-story","tag-thomas-merlin-ambrose","tag-web-fiction"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1EBlN-1a8","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4472","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=4472"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4472\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4473,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4472\/revisions\/4473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}