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Edilio wept as it kept

Astrid aimed her revolver at the creature’s heart, just behind the shoulder, and fired The gun kicked in her hand and a s red

She fired again, hitting the creature in its canine neck

It fell over Blood pu’s neck and forain, the avatar broke apart

Pete had tried to play with the bouncy avatar and it had broken apart, changed color and shape, and stopped

He had tried to play with another avatar and it had ame?

It wasn’t very fun

And he was beginning to feel bad when the avatars fell apart Like he was doing a bad-boy thing

So he had i happened But things always happened when Pete wanted them really hard He had wanted the terrible sirens and screams to stop and the world not to burn up and he had created the ball he now lived in

He had wanted other things and they had happened If he wanted soh it happened Didn’t it?

Well, noas feeling sick inside and he wanted the avatars to go back and be right again But they didn’t

No, Pete corrected his happened He couldn’t just wish them andinside his overloaded brain

He wasn’t afraid now The frenzy that used to take him over couldn’t touch him now That was the old Pete The new Pete wasn’t scared of noises and colors and things that moved too fast

The new Pete was just bored

An avatar floated by and Pete knew it Even without the stabbing bright blue eyes, without the shrieking voice He knew her His sister, Astrid A pattern, a shape, a coil of strings

He felt very lonely

Had he ever felt lonely before?

He felt it now And he longed to reach out, and with just the smallest touch, to let her knoas here

But, oh, so delicate, those avatars And his fingers were all thuhed before?

He laughed now And that was enough for a while, at least