Sparkle fell silent at that. Quiet, and there was no sign of the brush that would dust colour over Sholeh's eyes. Just quiet.

Sparkle's gaze had traveled to the far wall. It wasn't going to move from there for a while. For a few days, he'd been a monster, he'd been a killer, and he had enjoyed it. He'd reveled in the warm blood running down his throat in deep swallows, and in Sholeh's struggling to break free. He couldn't excuse any of that, and he'd been apologizing. What else could he do?

"Never should've happened," he mumbled. "I was in there, but there wasn't enough of me left to fight it. Just the worst parts of me, laughing, wrecking fucking everything. Anything that would've stopped it died when that bitch forced her blood down my throat. I can't say I couldn't stop it. I didn't want to."