Closing the Distance

The pain was unimaginable. It took everything Trinity had to keep from crumbling into a broken madness where she quivered and shook on her knees, clutching her head and wailing in agony. She had spoken Nathaniel’s name, pleading for him to help her, to save her, and he did not disappoint. The young woman had been too blinded by the painful spell to see as much, but the blonde man had quickly pushed past his injury to throw himself at Scrooge in a furious rage, hacking him to pieces brutally until he was dead and the magic -- and the pain -- had stopped.

Trinity gasped deeply as the torment faded, a wash of relief pouring over her and leaving her shaking and exhausted. She fell forward until she was braced on her hands and knees, gulping down oxygen in ragged breaths as her body threatened to give way to hyperventilation. Tears poured freely down her face as she sobbed openly. It was all too much for her. Wasn’t her life already difficult enough? And now, after finally seeing Nathaniel after weeks of him giving her the cold shoulder, after finally getting the chance to tell him the truth about what she suffered, the moment had been ripped away before it could begin. The fighting, the bloodshed, the chaos, the anger, the confusion… She couldn’t take it anymore!

Just as she was beginning to sink into a deep despair, she felt strong arms wrap around her and pull her close. Nathaniel had rushed to her almost immediately after slaying the awful old man, dropping to the ground and holding her tightly against his chest. She could feel his chin on the top of her head, the warmth of his body against her own, the rhythm of his chest as it rose and fell with each breath. Trinity practically collapsed against him, burying her face into his neck and crying for all it was worth, no longer able to hide or control the stress and anxiety that she had been stuffing away all this time. Thankfully, with Nat there, it didn’t feel as overwhelming as it usually did. At the very least, she didn’t black out. That was something to be grateful for.

She wasn’t sure how much time had passed as they sat there in the snow holding one another. Eventually, her tears began to slow and somehow they managed to decide that it was best for them to go somewhere more private to calm down and talk things out. Still sniffling, the couple made their way out of the festival and deeper into town, looking for any place that could be suitable. Trinity’s pretty black and white santa themed dress was a mess, covered in dirt and grime from the snow, and blood from Nat’s injury. Eventually, they came across a hotel. Wearily, they booked a room for the night, more concerned about getting cleaned up and having some peace and quiet than propriety.

The room was simple enough, a decently sized space with a queen sized bed, a love seat, a desk, and a dresser with a lacrimavision sitting on it. There was an attached bathroom as well, stocked with cleaning and hygiene supplies as well as clean towels. Despite how badly both of them needed to wash up, Trinity didn’t even glance in the direction of the bathroom when they got inside. Instead, the door closed behind them and she simply stood there just past the doorway, her head hung sadly as she wiped tears and snot off of her face with the back of her hand. There was a depression settling upon her shoulders, a deep seeded air of sorrow and hopelessness that was always a part of her life but never really on display. By nature, she was a very happy and innocent woman that loved life and everything in it, but that innocence was constantly being stripped away and tainted by darker parts of her life that she couldn’t escape and didn’t understand. How could she even begin to try explaining it to him? She had talked to Ehoron about it once, but that was so long ago now that she couldn’t really remember how she’d approached it.

Steeling herself and finding some semblance of courage, she lifted her head enough to look at Nathaniel, her mismatched eyes wrought with a mixture of emotions. Hesitantly, she slowly raised a hand and gently touched him near his injury, careful not to jostle it or make it worse, as if to silently ask him if he was okay. Trinity didn’t like seeing him covered in blood, especially his own, and by the look on her face she was clearly worried about him.

She didn’t take her eyes off of him as he answered her wordless question, putting his hand over hers and assuring her that he was okay. Nat informed her gently that he was going to get himself cleaned up, and after that they would talk. Now that the battle was over, he seemed less upset than he had been before their conversation had been interrupted. Or rather, he was no longer fuming with anger. He was surely still frustrated with her absence from before, but he wasn’t yelling at her anymore and that was enough for her. Trinity nodded softly, giving him a sad but brave smile in the face of the one he gave her and dropped her hand as he moved off into the bathroom to clean up.

Trinity was pretty dirty herself. Her once cute and trendy black and white santa themed dress was stained with blood spots and covered in grime from the dirt and snow. However, the state of her clothing was the last thing on her mind. Cleanliness was never something she had ever learned to have a mind for, anyway, not when she’d spent most of her life forced to live in squalor. It was so normal for her that she barely stopped to think about it most of the time, so when Nat disappeared to take care of himself, Trinity merely glanced around the rest of the room to figure out what to do until he came back.

On the plus side, she supposed it gave her plenty of time to get her answers together for him. Or at least, to put together an explanation for why she had disappeared without a word, something to start the conversation and get questions generated. Sitting down on the small love seat in the room, she pulled out her iLac and opened it up to the app she used to type out messages to communicate with people, taking the time while Nathaniel was cleaning himself up to take her time and get the story out straight. When he returned and was ready, he would find her typing up the last bit of her explanation.

She shifted a bit where she sat, a visible wave of shame and emotional discomfort washing over her as she slowly handed him the device. I did not mean to disappear, the message said. It will probably happen again. There are times when I black out, and I don’t remember anything that happens. Usually I wake up and don’t know how I got where I am. Most of the time, I am covered in blood or injured and I don’t know why or how. This has been happening to me my whole life and I don’t know why. I don’t know what makes it happen. It terrifies me. I have no control over it and I don’t know what to do about it. I did not want to disappear, and I am sorry that I hurt you.

As he came back in from the shower, she had already finished her message and was waiting a bit anxiously for his return. Despite her emotional state, she was happy to see him when he came back out looking fresh and clean. He had taken the time to patch up his arm and in general looked to be in better spirits. They looked at one another for a moment, and she couldn’t help but be thankful that he didn’t appear to be upset with her anymore. Trinity did not handle negative emotions very well, and if he had still been more aggressive with her as he had been before, she honestly wasn’t sure if she would have been able to work past her anxiety enough to give him an explanation.

Nat walked over to her and asked what she was working on, and she gently handed the device to him so he could read what she had put together. While she had come a long way on the sign language that he had started teaching her a while ago, her nerves were far too chaotic to try signing something so important. He read the first line or two before giving her a look of concern and sitting down next to her on the small couch with a small pat on her head. Wrapping an arm loosely around her shoulders, Trinity sad in anxious silence as she waited for him to read, her thumbs twiddling where her fingers sat interlaced in her lap. Yet, her worries eased as he read further and with each passing sentence drew her closer until he had her pulled right up against him. She relaxed, breathing a sigh of relief and letting loose the built up tension from her worry that he wouldn’t believe her.

She accepted the phone back when he gave it to her. Nat asked if there was a way he could help her, suggesting finding a way to monitor her while she is blacked out. Her mismatched eyebrows furrowed in contemplation. Lifting her hands, she closed them into two fists against one another with her thumbs pointed up, twisting them in two opposite directions, the way he’d taught her to ask, How? It wasn’t that she was unwilling. The idea of him monitoring her wasn’t something that made her nervous, because she fully trusted Nathaniel. But he couldn’t be by her side every minute of every day.

Reaching into his back pocket, he pulled out a magazine that was already opened to a double paged issue that had two women featured on it. It appeared to be an interview of some kind between them. They were both very pretty, one with pink hair and the other with black hair. Nathaniel pointed to the latter of the two women, asking if Trinity knew who she was. They shared a name, he said, and indeed the feature did list her name as Trinity. He also said that they looked alike and was wondering if they were relatives. Trinity didn’t see any resemblance between her and the woman in the image, personally. Shaking her head gently to indicate that she did not recognize the woman, she took the magazine from him to take a closer look at it, taking the time to read it.

It appeared to be an interview where the two woman had been given questions about one another separately, as it seemed they were enemies. It talked a lot about their first encounter with one another, or rather the one who shared Trinity’s name did a lot of talking. In fact, she had a lot of awful things to talk about, admitting how she had killed a lot of people at a spa and used her magic to dig up information about the other woman’s -- Sivvy’s -- past, and use it against her. But it was the last question that caught her attention, where she was asked if there was any message she wanted to have passed along to her rival. Her answer was to inform Sivvy to relay some information to… Nathaniel. Trinity tilted her head a little in curiosity as she continued to read, the woman talking about how she had enjoyed a late minute date with Nat a while ago. She complimented Nat, if one could call it a compliment, on all his anger and his willingness to kill, and stated how she hoped their daughter would turn out just like him.

For most people, that would have been a jarring slap of reality. After all, the implication was right there that this woman was pregnant with Nathaniel’s child, and not only was she a cold hearted serial killer but she had bad blood with a woman that Trinity could only assume was like some kind of teacher or mentor to Nat. Yet Trinity, who was so bright and intelligent in so many ways, was remarkably innocent in the ways of the world, and the nuances of societal expectation. After taking a moment to think, she reached for her phone only to stop herself. The pink and brown haired girl knew she needed to practice her signing, and now that she was past the initial hump of her anxiety she felt strong enough to try something more conversational.

Moving her hands slowly, as she still wasn’t wholly confident in the language, she told him, I don’t know who she is. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her before. We just happen to have the same name, I think.. Then, after another moment, she looked up at him and added more. Is she talking about you? Is that why you are asking me about her? Because you know her, and you two are going to have a baby? It was a strange reason to bring the woman up, but shockingly Trinity didn’t seem upset by the knowledge. It was a struggle for her to sign the last part of the question, but only because they weren’t words that she readily used in conversation and she had to think extra hard in remembering how to say them properly.