Never Lie, Never Sin, Tell Us What A Mess We're In [Open to Multiple]

[all_the_gifts]

Melanie stares at the door to her cell. There is something different about it today. She's having a little trouble placing it, but she knows there's something off. It's concerning. She has been so clear about what ROMAC needs to do to keep everyone else safe from her, and the suspicion that they're messing up somehow makes her very, very nervous.

It's the locks, she realizes after a few moments of intense scrutiny. That is what's wrong. There are supposed to be five, but she only counts four. That can't be right. Melanie approaches the door with a little frown on her face, her fingertips hovering a few inches from the metal, wary of the shock she'll get if she actually touches it. Her hand flits from lock to lock like a hummingbird. Now there are six. How are there six? She counts again, baffled to find that the number has halved itself to three.

She tries to count again, but this time, there are none.

Now she does reach out to touch the door, she can't help it - she can't believe it. They can't have taken the locks away. They're important. Hasn't she made it clear how incredibly important it is that they keep her in here?

The door does not shock her. Instead, it swings open beneath her hand, smooth and silent.

Melanie presses her lips together, her mouth a thin, disapproving line. She doesn't like the thought of leaving her room, but someone has to be told about this so they can get it fixed. Keeping her movements slow and even, as if she's trying to sneak past a group of hungries, Melanie carefully steps out into the hall to look for help.

Comments

[peacefulexplorer]

One minute they're both sitting, Daniel hesitantly reading out the passage and the air shivering with the strain of the words, and the next they're - not.

Daniel looks up, mouth open, the book almost entirely forgotten. The sunlight gleaming down at them is a welcome contrast to the dark and derelict building, a complete tonal about-face. Melanie's recreated the titular garden, blending the description on the pages with details Daniel assumes came from her own head. The effect is striking, if not strictly botanically accurate.

He closes the book and carefully tucks it under his own arm - it must have traveled with them through kinetic necessity since Daniel had been holding it at the time - and stands to better observe their startlingly beautiful new dream setting. He quickly decides that he vastly prefers it to the building they were in before. Both versions. For a few minutes he can only stand and stare in silent, appreciative wonder. Melanie's enthusiastic reaction returns him to the present.

"You did it," he answers, smiling. "You did this with your mind. Which is really...wow. It's, it's incredible, really."

He's not lying. The attention to detail, while not what Daniel would call conventional, is stunning - and unconventional has never equated to anything bad in his mind. It demonstrates an ability to think beyond common confines, a freedom of imagination Melanie clearly possesses. She's a bright kid, which, as Daniel soon remembers, makes her real world situation all the more sobering. He can't understand why someone with this much intellect and creative energy would be locked up, would want to be locked up. Her potential is astronomical. And she very obviously loves books, only serving to endear to him more.

[all_the_gifts]

"You helped," Melanie says, transferring her grin up to Daniel. "It would have been a lot more difficult if you hadn't read to me." Maybe not impossible, but she wanted to get them both out of there sooner rather than later. "And now we know dreams can be changed if you think hard enough about it." She's still not certain how often she's going to be dreaming, but this seems like useful knowledge to have either way.

Especially if you're having a nightmare.

Melanie looks around the garden, admiring the vivid colors. A few implausibly-patterned butterflies make their way past. "Should we explore?" she asks, bouncing on the balls of her feet.

[peacefulexplorer]

It's wonderful to see her happy, elated and smiling and not the perpetually wary child he first met wandering in the halls, but the joy upon seeing Melanie's excitement is soon tempered by a stab of regret. However much he's glad she's more at ease now, this is just a dream and sooner or later she'll have to return to the waking world which, as Daniel is beginning to understand, won't be as easy to escape as reading aloud from a book.

He refuses to let his grin fade, however. For the first time she seems to be completely open and delighted to explore this new space, and he won't spoil that for her.

"Sure," Daniel replies, tightening his grip on the book for safekeeping. He has no idea what they may even need it for, but he's not about to put down potentially useful items where he won't be able to find them again. "Love what you've done with the place."

He's also retroactively grateful that allergies are no longer an issue for him. The amount of vividly colored flowers is almost overpowering.