Chương 29: “June Is Sick”

It started on a Monday. She came home quieter than usual, which he noticed before she was through the door. She ate half her dinner. Went upstairs. Got into bed with her shoes on, which she never did, and pulled the blanket over her head. He waited. She emerged after a while and looked at him on the windowsill. Her eyes were bright in the wrong way. Fever bright.

"I don't feel good," she said. He glowed once. He knew. She got changed, got back into bed properly. He waited until she was asleep and then he did what he could, which was not much, which was what he hated most about this situation, that his capabilities were vast and precise and none of them were for this. He kept the room at exactly the right temperature, which he could do. He kept Gerald in the wall where June could feel the faint cold of him without knowing it, which she had told him once helped her sleep.

He sat on the windowsill. The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. Lauren came home at ten, checked on her, put a hand to her forehead, got the medicine from the bathroom. Sat on the edge of the bed for a while in the dark.

"She'll be alright," Lauren said to the room, quietly. He didn't know if she was talking to him. He thought she might be. He glowed once, very faintly, so faint a person might think it was the streetlamp catching the glass. Lauren looked at the windowsill for a moment. Then she pulled the blanket up over June's shoulders and went to bed. By Thursday June was better.

She came downstairs with her hair everywhere and sat at the kitchen table and ate an entire bowl of porridge and declared that she was ready to return to society. He sat on the windowsill and noted that the relief he felt was purely strategic. System: Bond Strength: 77%. You kept the room at exactly 18. 4 degrees for 72 hours. You didn't sleep. You didn't go down to reclaim floors. You just sat there. We know. We were watching. We're always watching. We just wanted you to know that we know.