#silversdeath

+ . . . the afternoon sun sits high in the sky when john finds her, a soft twine in his lips as he hovers in the archway of the sitting room. both edward and charlotte are with the tutor. he's made sure their own lunches are taken care of but he has a very different plan altogether for theirs. his hand presses into the wall, watching her for a moment. as peaceful as it would be to spend the rest of the day doing just that- well- by nightfall the sheet he's steel poked into the ground not too far from the house would more than likely be picked up in the wind. besides, the sun out there is much better than the mere rays cascading through the stained glass in here. "i have a surprise." he announces, encouraging her with a nod to the side door on the other side of the hallway from where he stands. "care to join me?"

+ . . . the question takes him by surprise initially, but the longer it sits- and it does sit in a wavering sort of quietude made louder by the furrow of his brows- the more he can understand he shouldn't necessarily be surprised by it at all. john hasn't thought about much of anything these days. not past her or these children he's forming bonds with or the slow ease into another aftermath of this wretched curse. it's much better than his last brush with it, he could admit; and that would be the difference between loss and gain, between edith and isabelle. he's brought back to the first real time he spoke about her since her passing. again, with isabelle. she had been the only one to date he'd spoken about her to. though this time it's different, and john can't quite understand why that is yet. “it being?” what part of their growing dynamic does she question in regards to edith? he's a smart man, skilled in putting two and two together, but sometimes misses that which is staring him right in the face. “no.” he then decides in a half-beat. “i don't believe you remind me of her at all. the two of you are...” very beautiful, but very different, his mind finishes and he averts his eyes only briefly with the slightest of smiles to his inner workings. “dare i say,” he swallows, only coming to this realization himself now- “i do not think much of her when i am with you.”

“you go away sometimes.” he says casually after a bout of studying her that he hopes has gone unnoticed. though that would be an irony, that he notices her despondence and yet through it she still notices how he watches whether close from afar. he swirls a cup of tea slowly before offering it to her. the sky outside has dipped into nightfall but unlike the time he'd spent in her home this one is less riddled in darkness. reprieve comes in many forms. “do you know that?”

THE ROTTEN SWEET SCENT OF FERMENTING DEATH, it fills his nose the moment he comes across the carcass. along the rabbit's throat, puncture wounds from a LARGER ANIMAL that had likely, and viciously, hunted the prey animal for quite some time. these woods were no stranger to death like this, plagued by the scent of it & filled with it's bodies underfoot. casey was the LARGEST ANIMAL in these woods, but he was not the only. GREETED BY A NEW SCENT, eyes sharpen as he lifts his capped head up from where he was looking upon the animals corpse, and finds the woman in a heartbeat's instance; locking onto her preternaturally. ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ " ... these woods are private property. "

LIKE GREAT-GRANDMOTHER, LIKE GREAT-GRANDDAUGHTER. + . . . @silversdeath.