Alex wasn’t used to feeling warm water across their skin, to watch the dirt rinse off without filling xer bones with the deepest of colds. This entire situation was odd comfort.
Would they give this up because a couple of people in the trials were weird? Maybe Emily was just the resident basket case. Who knows? The rest of the people could be completely normal and human.
Then, in the stream of water that became the only tether to the physical world, they remembered Alex’s words. We are already perfect. It was hard to believe that. Alex had endured six lifetimes worth of insults; they bore the marks of someone’s disappointment on xer skin. Every fiber of scar tissue was a reminder of their mistakes; every day xe stayed stuck in the same pattern, a testament to their flaws. Maybe Sadie was perfect, with her bite and her fire and her vibrant life, but Alex was not. Alex was a coward, lucky even to be considered good by someone as bright as Sadie.
