Councillors were always useful for something. But clever people knew the what and the how.
She could've knocked, even pinged via her screen. But she didn't. Instead she just stood there. Contemplating the word alone that had gotten itself stuck in her brain like a clogged drain.
Kate, alone quiet, just stared at the door. At some point she'd passed ridiculous, left absurd in the dust, laughable was rusted over and growing moss.
Eventually it opened and a woman stared down on Kate as if she were little.
Well, she was twelve, she was little.
Out of nowhere the hurricane, the wind, the pressure hit her chest and determination ground it down as if it were nothing. Kate smiled as if the emotion had been stuck behind a bloated door, her muscles scraping against the ground to drag that damn smile out.
Because of it, Kate was certain she looked extra normal when she beamed her happiness.
The older woman, with bright pink hair, looked like she'd been aged by life and the planet's gravity bringing wrinkles to her eyes. Perfect teeth flashed at Kate and she tried to match it.
"Good morning, Kate um, lets see, the names here, oh I see Simone."
"Yes." She said reassuring herself of the name she had been given by her mother.
"And how can I help you?"
"I appear to have made a bad…" she looked for the right word. "look. I am friendless and alone. I don't think people like me."
Kate had needed to dredge up a sad face. Only, there had been no drag, no resistance, her pull of 'fake emotion' overshot so deeply she'd somehow pulled opened a horror of emotional pain. Kate's lips pull as her face scrunched up into a cry, sniffling until she just started wailing.
Kate was swarmed as the councillor stepped over her like a giant and dropped over her, resting her arms around her. The stranger whispered sweet nothings, not words of love but the sweet nothingness of a mother hushing a crying baby. The words were unknowable, only the soft tones of support audible enough to penetrate but never comprehend.
All to sooth a tidal wave of pain and weakness she'd let loose for the rouse. The problem being… it was so incredibly strong, far stronger than she'd planned. Feelings that had all been dammed up, hidden behind concrete and iron. She'd only opened a door a crack, and so much had come out! The way it gushed was unbelievable! It couldn't be stopped. All of it shot forwards, like it had been fired out a laser cannon, going on and on.
Ms Councillor's words proved both alien and supportive. And for that they were even more offensive!
How dare a stranger be able to pull so much out of her!
There was shuddering.
Her iron doors that had been so naively opened, to create on endless burst of pure forcefulness started to close. The device inside her tried to close. It struggled, trembling violently but again, words formed.
Who is this woman?
Is she Mother?
Is she family?
How can you let her Kate?
The raw pain had melded into that iron door and it actually started to close. Screeching as it shut.