“They are,” Xeik said aloud. He realized that he spoke out instead of thinking it, and when the kids looked at him, he told them that Simone had called the two of them good kids, and he had agreed. He ruffled the boy’s hair, and smiled at Corrine’s drawing, noting how well done it was.
The rest of their time went by without a fuss, and soon it was the next set of turns for the kids. Aside from a minor few issues, Xeik did well, and even had Lewis stop by for a quick check up before running back to take care of Raine, who evidently was running amok as always. When Lewis arrived, though, there was a flood of emotion through the resonance that almost caused Xeik to black out. It was insane the amount of love that she held for that man, and when she heard that though the resonance, she smiled.
“Of course,” Simone said happily. “I don’t know what I would do without him….” Xeik could tell that it wasn’t a lie.
After all of the kids had their time, Simone excused herself to go relax and take a bath. Xeik was flustered at first, but Simone assured him that she could block out the superficial parts of the resonance like she and Lewis normally did. Once he realized this, Xeik was much more okay with the thought, and toolkit upon himself to investigate the grapes that Lewis was working on.
It didn’t take Xeik long to check over the fields, and he found himself quite bored. “So this is what it’s like…relaxing.” He took a deep breath, and let it out. “I hate it…” He walked around, trying to find something to do, and ended up in the shed, reorganizing the tools and supplies. That didn’t last long, and he let out another heavy sigh. He sat down in the shed, and closed his eyes. Just relax…
But there was something there. It was hard to describe…it was like a string that he wanted to pull, or a door that he wanted to open. Xeik could feel it…a place in Simone’s mind. Was this a part of the resonance too? Curiously, he prodded at it. There was no response from Simone. Was it something she was okay with, or was it something she couldn’t feel? He wondered, and pushed through.
“What…is this place?” he said aloud. It was…colorful. There were places and thoughts all around him, with emotions of all different types. There was one place, though, that was dark, a pitch black that seemed devoid of any semblance of emotion past despair. “Is that…the trauma?” He pushed deeper towards the black…
“Maybe this will help…”
