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"The trick is to keep breathing..." (Interlude) There was a weight upon her arms--a tugging, like the soft, gentle pull of fabric across skin. When she moved, that vague sensation moved with her, in a chilled motion of silence and regret. And also with the pregnant air of tension and anxiety that filled the alleys and streets, the skies. She moved: twisting her arms in a slight spiral motion, she watched the world whirl in shades of smoky dusk, vibrant peels of orange fading, threads of crimson that bled from the carpet to the stone. Colors. All blending and falling into the next, a rainbow of hazy light. And it smelled of coffee: a strong, clinging scent that always tossed her into the past, into memories of her father, into days of waking with the sun and running barefoot down wooden stairs, into offices of peeling paint and white papers that littered the desks and chairs... Hell. She needed sleep. As awful as it was to admit it, she needed sleep. She could feel snake-skin coils of anxiety creeping about her flesh. She was the mayor of Muse; she wasn't supposed to let things affect her, and yet... This did affect her. Not that she would let anyone know; not that anyone could see it, looking at her, into unwavering eyes. No; she could hold up Muse as long as needed; she could do it alone, with one hand, because she was strong. Because she was strong, and because she was not her father. Self-doubt pinched in her belly momentarily. Clara had been gone too long. Clara...had been gone too long. She should have been able to make it to Highland and back by now--provided she'd been able to get INTO Highland in the first place. But there was no ragged girl sending silent signals from the window below; there was no stir in the falling evening. Clara had been gone too long. "Clara has been gone too long." There. It was said. She had sent an innocent girl to her death. And Clara had been gone too long to be alive yet. She was certain. Anabelle sighed. She breathed in, deeply, filling herself with that nostalgic scent, filling herself with days of waking with the sun... And fell asleep.
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