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I collapse into the chair in front by the metal table in the center of the room A copy of Shakespeare’s sonnets lies in theit uess the new Recorder, Bartie, is too busy writingto start an unneeded revolution to bother with doing his actual job

Sighing, I snatch up the book and head for the S shelves There’s just enough roo Lear and Macbeth

I head for the door-- attached to any of the rest of Harley’s paintings

I pause Orion had a contingency plan for everything--why not ether, just in case someone tampered with one? I’m the only one who ever really bothers with the book rooms--and before me, there was only hi a book on the wrong shelf--right next to the book that held the first clue?

I rush back to the S shelf, es are glossy and thick, dotted with illustrations froe is a color portrait of Shakespeare The Bard wrote about star-crossed love, but I doubt he ever realized his works would one day be soaring through the stars

I frown We’re not exactly soaring now, are we?

I flip through the pages quickly, creasing them in a way that I know Elder would frown upon Butthere’s nothing here I force h theybreath Part of otten ht Maybe this whole thing is pointless

Still, I take the book with me as I head back to my room in the Ward

The Hospital’s still busy even though it’s nearly time for the solar lamp to turn off, but the third floor is al out theI start to say soave me when she found ht to the glass doors leading to the hallway She glances up at lare

She’s been crying

I think of saying so to her, but I doubt she’d care to speak to me I hear her sniffle as I reach for the door She hatesin a sob But I hear anyway

I let the glass doors close and head over to the couch

"Go away," she says, but there’s no heart in her voice

"What’s wrong?"

She turns back to the

I lean into the seat cushion and crossto stay here until you tellthe glass of the , "I just et, the ht have done"

"Is thisis this about Orion?" I ask

She chokes out a laugh, a wet sound ry tears She swipes her arm across her face "It’s stupid really," she says, still talking to themore than to me "Hehe was older than me I was just some stupid little kid to hio to the Recorder Hall, and he’d be there"

My lips twitch up in a small smile, and I think back to what I knew of Orion before I discovered he was a murderer He wipedonce, and I sort of wish I could do the sa that makes me so upset," Victria continues, "is that I never had a chance to tell him I mean, I think he knew, but I never actually said the words I’d go to the Recorder Hall almost every day, and we’d talk and joke, butI never said what I wanted to And now it’s too late"

It’s sad how much Victria and I have in common--she wants to reveal her deepest secrets to people who are nothing but ice, too

"I think," I say slowly, "that if you really loved him, he probably knehether you said it or not"

She finally turns to look at me, and there’s a hint of a smile on her lips Her eyes are mostly dry now "I just wish I had a choice," she says

"A choice?"

"If I could, I’d make myself not care anyabout s easier I wouldn’t wake up everywith a hollow ache inside of me

And then I think of Elder It’s the question I ask myself every time he looks at me with those soft eyes of his, every ti just because I asked it: do I love him? I don’t know But I do know that I can at least tell myself I don’t

"I think love is a choice," I say That’s why I can’t love Elder Because I don’t have anyone else to choose from

"But who," Victria asks, "would choose this?"

We both look up when the elevator doors slide open

Shit

Really?

After all this, he has to walk in? What, does he have a stalking ?

"Get out," I say

Luthor grins

"My two lovely carros, all in one rooain

HeI jus up under her and wraps her arms around her stoht be fate To see the both of you, here, together"