Convergence

Chapter 18

Gregory rolled up his black shirt-sleeves hastily, muttering unintelligibly as he did so. Allafair watched with great interest. An amused smile spread across his lips as he pondered whether he should talk to him or not.

Annabelle came into view. She regarded him with a dark look, as she had begun to do since their discussion about her past, before approaching Allafair casually. She was not so distant, much to Allafair's delight, but she had become very wary of the way the others looked at her.

Allafair gave a quiet laugh when he recalled the previous night's events. Elwynn had given one his rather distasteful looks to Annabelle, and she had noticed. He came out with a bruised shoulder, and Annabelle had come out rather embarrassed. "Why did you look at me like that?" Annabelle had asked him while straddling his body, her hand clamped around his shoulder. "What do you know?" she'd said.

Elwynn had been utterly confused and unable to reply. It was at that moment that Annabelle realized her mistake. It went unnoticed by Allafair at first, but while it seemed that Elwynn had gone throughout the day as he normally would, Eloise remarked how he avoided looking at Annabelle at all costs. If anything, Annabelle had raised the suspicions of her fellow "inmates".

"You—"

"No, I haven't told them a word. Don't you trust me?" Allafair said, cutting Annabelle off.

She looked to the ceiling as if it held all the answers. "I do trust you, I—"

"Then prove it. I'm your friend, Annabelle," Allafair told her.

Annabelle frowned. "That's what Melline told me, too," she replied. Allafair's heart sank at her words, and he said nothing more until Annabelle pushed onward with the conversation. "Do you think he's nervous?" she asked, rather amused by the sight of Gregory. Allafair followed her gaze to his tense figure and he smiled once more.

"All he has to do is pretend he's dead at the precise moment Eloise tells him to. Why would he be nervous?" Allafair said with a touch of sarcasm in his voice. "And it's only a rehearsal. We must get this as close to perfect as we can."

"Since when has Gregory ever done anything Eloise tells him?" Annabelle said.

"Since she first put her hands around his throat," Allafair said. Annabelle laughed and nodded.

"I suppose that's true," she said. A few moments of silence passed between them before Annabelle continued. "Well?"

Allafair gave her a strange look. "Well...what?"

"Are you going to see if he's alright?"

"Me? Ah...no," Allafair told her. "I don't do well in these circumstances."

"You did fine with me and Eloise," Annabelle replied simply.

Allafair looked at her, raising his eyebrows. "Have you noticed that you're both...women?" he said.

Annabelle returned the look, raising her own eyebrows. "I think I'd have noticed otherwise," she said. "What's that got to do with it?"

"Well..." Allafair said. He cast his eyes to the floor, kicking at a few small pieces of concrete that had chipped away from it. "Women are...easier to comfort," he finally told her rather quietly.

Annabelle's eyebrows remained raised, though her expression was entirely formed by shock. "'Easier to comfort'?" she asked. "Please, explain to me what you mean."