Marbles on Glass
21. Quiet
"Hush, Caroline," her brother always says, when daddy is working too late to kiss her goodnight. "Nice ladies like you don't cry."
"Shut up, kid," the new boss growls. "Listen and do whatever you're told. Easy enough, right?"
"Shut it!" Henry finally snaps, overwhelmed by impatience. "You cannot refuse anymore. I don't care who you are!"
"Silence," the other half of her whispers, holding ethereal slender claws around her ethereal self. "Do something useful now, be gone forever. Goodbye."
And now — now that she is a memory, and her power is gone — Caroline decides she has had enough.
She sings.