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She wrapped her arms around him but she could not touch hi physical contact

"Petey, no, you have to let me--"

"Ahhh ahhh ahhhh ahhh!"

"It was an accident! I just lost control, it’s just, I just, I can’t, Petey, stop it, stop it!"

She ran to retrieve his gae She carried it back to Little Pete, but for just a moment her step faltered The room seemed to warp and wobble around her

Little Pete’s frantic shrieks snapped her back

"Ahhhh ahhh ahhhh ahhh!"

"Shut up!" Astrid screamed, as confused and unsettled as she was furious "Shut up! Shut up! Here! Take your stupid toy!"

She stepped back, stepped away, not trusting herself to be near hi inside her head would lash out at hiain A voice inside her rationalized it even now He is a brat He does these things deliberately

It was all his fault

"Ahhh ahhh ahhh ahhh!"

"I do everything for you!" she cried

"Ahhh ahhh ahhh ahhh!"

"I feed you and I clean you and I watch over you and I protect you Stop it! Stop it! I can’t stand it anymore I can’t stand it!"

Little Pete did not stop Would not stop, she knew, until he chose to, until whatever crazy loop that was in his head had played itself out

She sank into a kitchen chair Astrid sat with her head in her hands running through the list of her failures Before the FAYZ there hadn’t been very otten an A She’d inadvertently been cruel to people on a couple of occasions, memories that still bothered her, even now She’d never learned to play an instruood as she would like to be with Spanish pronunciations…

"Ahhh ahhh ahhh ahhh!"

Before the FAYZ the ratio of success to failure in her life had been hundreds to one Even in coping with her little brother, back then she’d been as successful as anyone could be

But since the FAYZ the ratio had reversed On the positive side she was still alive, and so was her brother On the negative side there were too h she could recall them all, each and every one in painful detail