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“Are you land! I could never!”

“It’s just a stupid story!” Branwell yelled “It’s not even any good! No one dying and everyone loving each other—it’s dreck! Just leave it! You can make another one!”

But Victoria would not listen to him

An old, sour, awful, fa, terrible sense that no one really saw hi ahead of him, further and further ahead, and Emily and Anne would catch her but he could not They were not like him, they did not see how silly their stories beca and massacres and horror in theht he was ridiculous, that he was the odd one, when he was meant to be the one they all looked up to When the wooden soldiers had been his, his, his, all along

He shouted wordlessly in disgust At Victoria, at Anne, at Charlotte, at Emily, at all of them But Victoria especially Anne would replace the! He had to show her that Victoria wasn’t real, she wasn’t important, her stories were just stories but they had done all this together! The little brat hadn’t any right to s The stupid scratchings of a stupid scratching!

Why wouldn’t they ever listen? Why did she care soHalf of it was still lying in drifts on the floor They didn’t have time for this nonsense They had to leave Now Branwell snatched Victoria’s papers But the wedding dress girl would not let go

“Stop it, stop it!” wept Victoria

“Just leave it!” shouted Branwell

They struggled She was stronger than she seean to tear

“Oh, no, no, please!” Victoria sobbed “You’re spoiling it, you’re spoiling everything!”

Finally, Branwell gave up He seized the silver inkpot on the desk and dumped its contents onto the papers, onto the floor, onto Victoria’s pure white satin hands Victoria went slack Black ink dripped off her chin Her pages flew and cruirl sunk to her knees

“Bran! What have you done, you brute?” Anne snarled She rushed to hold little Victoria by the shoulders “Why ?”

“I’m sorry,” he said stonily But his heart shivered and tre to do They could go now They could go and live and be safe If she’d only listened to him in the first place If only they all would

“It’s all broken up now,” Victoria whispered, two heavy tears rolling down her face She ran her hands over the ruined pages “My darling Albert is all black and sopping and ruined It’s all bled out and y heap of story “My children! Allbut a horrid scrubby black space in the middle of them all, a black trench where half do I wanted it so beautiful, I wanted it to be a kingdom without pain, and now it is drowned” Victoria held out up a few bedraggled pages “Even the part I had written for you, look how it’s spoiled Look how dark it’s gone” Victoria ran her fingers over a black page, her tears puddling as they fell on it

“Don’t worry,” Branwell said helplessly to Anne as she glared hatefully at him “It’s not our world It’s not us Even if it were like Glass Town, even if it were real, it’s so to do with us! I’ain, I swear it But it’s not us, it’s another place, another Branwell and Charlotte and Emily and Anne, if it’s any real place at all No harm done No harm”