Salesian...
It is not her given name.
When he found her, she clutched a prayer book. A tattered thing. With a name written inside. She does not know if it was her name. But she took it anyway.
Mortimer...
His eyes still shine sometimes.
Blue. Like they did when he was alive. The rest of the time they stare off. Vacant and dead.
But when they shine… she misses him. The only father she’s ever known. The closest thing to blood she has.
Blood...
So much blood.
Blood like grease in the cogs of an infernal machine. On her hands, like acid. Like ink. Marking her. In her, like a poison. Like a prison. Bitter in her mouth. Like a secret.
Salesian has a secret.
And she’s never going to tell.
No matter what they do to her.
