( the cloth wrings out in her hands, sterile cotton stained pink. alina barely pays notice to the sticky rivulets of blood and sweat running down her fingers; her stare busies itself with bouncing around august's expression, trying to decipher the cryptic warning written into its serious grooves. don't let that fool you. it chimes like a warning bell in the back of her mind as genya's had: be careful of powerful men, leaving her with the same deafening, echoing paranoia.
it's pride, really, that makes alina want to insist she isn't so easily fooled — that she's learned not to look at dangerous men with rosy eyes. but if that were true — she would've seen danny johnson's mask for what it was. would've known to watch for a hungry wolf herding sheep, a row of sharp teeth hiding behind pleasant smiles.
the ugly truth of it is — she hadn't. she's as naive as she had ever been. accepting it feels as hopelessly impossible as having to set a broken bone, a moment of agony so she can heal from it, later. so she can be better. know better. she chews on the inside of her cheek, curbing her sudden spike of frustration. )
What do you mean?
( what has august managed to see that she's been too blind to notice a third time? alina spares a sidelong glance toward the next set of matches, seeking luci in the busy swarm of bodies, as if she might spot the warning signs. the symptoms of whatever inner rot creeps through his insides. )
I know he isn't harmless, ( she scoffs, swiveling her stare back to august's marred body. ) No one who leaves marks like that behind could be.
cw i luv icky vibes
it's pride, really, that makes alina want to insist she isn't so easily fooled — that she's learned not to look at dangerous men with rosy eyes. but if that were true — she would've seen danny johnson's mask for what it was. would've known to watch for a hungry wolf herding sheep, a row of sharp teeth hiding behind pleasant smiles.
the ugly truth of it is — she hadn't. she's as naive as she had ever been. accepting it feels as hopelessly impossible as having to set a broken bone, a moment of agony so she can heal from it, later. so she can be better. know better. she chews on the inside of her cheek, curbing her sudden spike of frustration. )
What do you mean?
( what has august managed to see that she's been too blind to notice a third time? alina spares a sidelong glance toward the next set of matches, seeking luci in the busy swarm of bodies, as if she might spot the warning signs. the symptoms of whatever inner rot creeps through his insides. )
I know he isn't harmless, ( she scoffs, swiveling her stare back to august's marred body. ) No one who leaves marks like that behind could be.