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[abrightboy]

 This is Bright. Leave a message.

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[bossyboiler]

You did. I am convinced that you are the only one unless you saw someone else watching me and decided to wait until now to bring it up.

[ For this answer, she's going to be carefully watching his face and looking for any signs of falsehoods. ]

[abrightboy]

You were engrossed in what you were doing by then. And I was engrossed in watching you. You can't say nobody else saw you in a public place.

[bossyboiler]

I... [ She can't say that she's one-hundred percent certain that no one else saw her that evening. Doubt has crept in and now that percentage is closer to ninety than it is to one-hundred. ] I can't completely ignore the possibility.

How do I know that you're being truthful and not trying to turn me down the wrong path?

[abrightboy]

What would I have to gain from doing that? It's what we in the investigatory field refer to as 'motive' and I don't have any.

[bossyboiler]

[ She shakes her head. ] I don't know. All I know is that I got that text the day everyone woke up.

[abrightboy]

Yeah, well. [He looks down into his cup, wraps his hands around it.] That wasn't a day that I was feeling much up to lecturing anyone about anything.

[bossyboiler]

[ Kate reaches up and touches her throat. ] Yeah, well, no one could fault you for that even if it all felt very real. [ She can still feel Martin's hand around her throat, the way the coffee had smelled. She can still feel the knife. ]

[abrightboy]

I live it every night.

[bossyboiler]

I believe you. How do you cope with all of that?

[abrightboy]

‘Cope’ is a bit of a strong word for what I do. [It’s self deprecating and he distracts himself with a sip of his drink, but then he relents.] I survive until morning and then I let the sun come up and chase it away.

[bossyboiler]

Malcolm, that was just one dream I was in and it was one of the most terrifying things I have ever experienced. And that was just the one time. How do you deal with it everyday? The sun is not that powerful.

[abrightboy]

Monsters and the sun have one thing in common: they’re as powerful as you let them be. I choose to give the power to the sun.

[bossyboiler]

Your Father killed me and you just stood there. I know it's not your fault. It's not. You couldn't control it but if you believe that about the sun and monsters, why do you give him so much power?

[abrightboy]

[Malcolm studies her face for a moment.]

It doesn’t sound like you think it’s not my fault. [He shrugs his shoulder.] I can’t control what he does inside my head when I’m asleep. I can only control whether that crushes me when I wake up or whether I let the daylight wash it away. He wants me to break. He wants me to become him. I can’t allow that to happen.

[bossyboiler]

It's not your fault, Malcolm. And you're not your Father. [ It's really not his fault. Kate has her own trauma from the Dreamscape that she hasn't yet processed. Being killed had been terrible but the rest of the time she had been alone, oh so incredibly alone. ]

How many people did he kill in your dream?

[abrightboy]

[Malcolm takes a shaky breath.]

Too many. Like all of his victim counts.

[bossyboiler]

I'm so sorry, Malcolm. I really am. Do you want to talk about it?

[abrightboy]

[Malcolm gives her a wary side eye.]

All I do is talk about it.

[bossyboiler]

You are very open about it but I meant specifically about the dreams.

[abrightboy]

[He studies her from under his brow.]

There’s something you want to know. You can ask.

[bossyboiler]

I was trying to be supportive because that's a lot to have to live with.

[abrightboy]

I’ve been living with it since I was ten. [He watches her for a moment.] Are you sure you don’t want to know why I didn’t save you?

[bossyboiler]

You didn't because you couldn't. You must've felt just as powerless then as you were when you were a child.

[ She is assuming A LOT. ]

I would say that maybe you thought I deserved it but that would run contradictory to what I know about you.