Perfectly Normal

Perfectly Normal Chapter
Forty Nine

Disclaimers Apply

A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies, BUSIEST
WOMAN ALIVE ™, Prophetic Muse, Hamster Witch and Uberbeta…style='mso-spacerun:yes'>  Somehow I am just not as off the walls
excited as most of the CMA people this go… Maybe I’m not in the right mindset…style='mso-spacerun:yes'>  InterNutter, TC, Maxwell Pink, Dracena and
Greywolf are loverly and wondermous for archiving/hosting.style='mso-spacerun:yes'>  Jstyle='mso-spacerun:yes'>  ProPhile: *swat * Morgan: *echo * Hello…
hello…hello…  Readers/Reviewers: okay…
For those who used to get updates via AFFN and those who just want another way
to get updates… I set up an LJ community. 
It’s moderated (*waves at Foxy *) and is therestyle='mso-spacerun:yes'>  to be a source of updates rather than anything
else.  href="http://community.livejournal.com/forever_stories/">http://community.livejournal.com/forever_stories/
  You have to be of legal age to
read/post there and you have to have your birth date in your profile.style='mso-spacerun:yes'> 

            “You could
have killed them!”

            “But I didn’t.”style='mso-spacerun:yes'>  Marrow strode forward, ignoring class=SpellE>Callisto entirely. 

            “You bitch,”
the half-blind woman snarled, lunging towards Marrow in the darkness.style='mso-spacerun:yes'>  “You have no concept of OOF!” class=SpellE>Callisto hit the ground hard, the slime-slick concrete
causing her to slide, abrading her skin in the unlit tunnel.style='mso-spacerun:yes'> 

Marrow was on her feet before class=SpellE>Callisto could take a breath, planting her foot firmly in
the middle of the other woman’s chest. 
Pressing slightly, feeling the faint whoosh of breath against her leg as
the Morlock leader was forced to exhale, Marrow
grimaced.  “You have no room to talk, class=SpellE>Callisto.  You
revealed us to the world. You showed them what we are.”style='mso-spacerun:yes'>  She shoved herself way and, turning sharply
on her heel, continued down the long expanse of tunnel, heading for the ladder
leading to the access panel near her favorite alley.style='mso-spacerun:yes'>  She heard Callisto
scrape to her feet behind her, knowing that the usually stealthy woman was
making sure her movements were heard, making sure she, Marrow, knew that she
was not attacking her.  “Leave me be, class=SpellE>Callisto. You have made your choice and you are leading the
Morlocks away from our purpose.”

“Our?” Callisto’s
voice rang out and the sound of someone scurrying away was clearly heard in the
confines of the concrete tunnel.  “You
speak as if you are still part of us. 
You separated out long ago.  When class=SpellE>Caliban would not go with you, you sulked and pouted and
pitched a fit like a child…”

Marrow stopped, turned, and bared
her teeth like an animal in a gesture that would have made Thornn
proud.  “You are not a true class=SpellE>Morlock. You are just some poor, scared woman, an class=SpellE>Eloi.”  She spat, the
wet sound of it blunt and dull in the dark. 
  “Poor little pretty girl with
her scars, poor little freak with her senses…” 
She shook her head, her spiked bones itching, telling her that it was
time to shed some of the older ones to allow for new growth.style='mso-spacerun:yes'>  Odd, she thought, watching the shadowed form
of Callisto slowly approaching her, how the mundane
things often force themselves forward, make themselves known whether you want
them to or not.  “You are no more a class=SpellE>Morlock than I am Eloi.”

“You are vile,” Callisto
said in a low, tense voice, stopping out of Marrow’s arm’s reach but knowing
full and well that she was no where near far enough away to avoid one of the
bone blades should the other mutant decide to throw one.style='mso-spacerun:yes'>  “You have no care for what is going on around
us, above us…”

“I have every care,” Marrow
growled, taking one half-step forward.  “You
do not realize how close we are to destruction, not while you moon after Evan,
not while you prance about, pretending to be in control.style='mso-spacerun:yes'>  The Friends of Humanity are at the gates,
ready to step across the threshold and all you can do is say stay calm, remain
quiet, do not break any laws.style='mso-spacerun:yes'>  They are not the morality police, class=SpellE>Callisto!” Marrow heard her own voice ringing off the hard
walls around her and she took a deep breath, calming herself. “Stay here, play
freak all you want.  I have another path
to follow.”  She turned away and knew
that Callisto would not follow her any further.style='mso-spacerun:yes'>  Each step she took made her hearts beat
harder, made her shake a little more but still she did not turn back.style='mso-spacerun:yes'>  This break, she thought, was a simple
fracture.  It was not irrevocable.style='mso-spacerun:yes'>  She was a Morlock
no matter where she dwelt and right now she was being driven from her own home.
There were some like her, some that did not wish to follow Callisto’s
new rules, but they would not leave. 
They did not know about anything outside of the Tunnel.style='mso-spacerun:yes'>  The others, she thought bitterly, wrapping
her long fingers around the cold, damp rungs of the ladder, did not realize
they were on the verge of destruction. 
She reached the top and pushed against the access panel roughly, feeling
Callisto’s eyes on her the entire time.style='mso-spacerun:yes'>  “Good bye,” she said sharply.style='mso-spacerun:yes'>  “You will see me again only when the end is
near.”  The cold of the afternoon air hit
her face like a slap, unseasonable chill startling her until her second or
third breath.  It smelled clean, even
near this trashy alley, and she smiled almost beyond her will.style='mso-spacerun:yes'>  “New day,” she breathed.style='mso-spacerun:yes'>  With a slight push, she was out and on the
street, kicking the panel back in place with a pang she could not identify deep
in her chest.  A moment’s fear froze her
but she forced it down, breathing through it. 
Saint Dymphna’s had not been as accidental as
all that.  Break down walls, she reminded
herself.  Free them from the Eloi…