Chapter Text
The pie was nice. The night was dark, a bit cold, but pretty.
Madeline and that Part of Her had, eventually, enjoyed their time together reaching the peak of the mountain, and now they were, mostly, alone. Theo or Granny might be listening, but it didn’t matter.
…was it fair to just call her a “part of her”? Madeline worried for a moment. Better just to find out.
“I didn’t ask… do you have a name?”
That part of her replied: “No. You’ve given me a few. I don’t like them.” She seemed upset.
“If you could, what would you call yourself?”
There was a long pause. That other self seemed lost in consideration for a while. A little nervous, sometimes, a little irritated.
“You don’t ha-” “Sssh.”
More time passed. The moon moved across the sky. The shadows of the moonlight along the wooden table had changed.
“Cassandra.”
Madeline smiled, and Cassandra smiled back. “That’s a nice name.”
A pause. “We haven’t really talked about… I know you know what I’m interested in, but, do you have interests? Is this…” Madeline felt nervous, and it showed. “Weird?”
Cassandra shook her head for a moment. Was it egotistical for Madeline to think she had nice hair? Or was it distorted enough to be its own thing? Oh, right, the question.
“It’s fine. I like the safe things we used to do. Movies, books, things like that. We used to get so involved in those little worlds. I miss it.”
Madeline snorted a little, softly. “Acceptance of the Plant Overlords was funny. Hit hard, though.”
Cassandra sadly nodded. “Yeah.”
“What about the games?”
Cassandra looked down. “I was always scared we’d fail. Like, we couldn’t do them. You remember, right?” Madeline gave a nod in acknowledgement, and Cassandra continued. “It’s like this mountain. I thought we’d never climb it. I thought we couldn’t. I had to stop us before we got hurt.”
“It’s okay. You were doing what you thought was best for us.”
“But it wasn’t. If you’d gone back… It’s weird, being like this. Being kind of a person and all that. It lets me think things through on my own. And, I know where you might’ve gone if you didn’t go here. This was…” Cassandra paused for a moment, her eyes shifting uncomfortably, nervously. “Your last chance to save us.” Madeline thought she saw Cassandra’s eyes turning wet, but she wasn’t sure. The moonlight glinted against them in a way they hadn’t before. Her voice, though, cemented it. “And I almost…”
Madeline leaned over the table to hug Cassandra. It wasn’t the best hug, but it was what it had to be.
“It’s okay, Cassandra.”
They did go to sleep, eventually.