Housewife Radio

[KamiKaze]

For however long, Nora Moriarty had curled inside her sleeping bag. The only sensation that she felt was the trembling in her arms and legs, the tears in her eyes, her speeding heart. She’d been awake for a while now, but she couldn’t bear to sit up, face what was going on. Everything had replayed inside her head for the past… hour? Maybe two? Since she’d woken up.

But she was ready now, she supposed.

She had eventually slid out of her sleeping bag, and, after rolling it up, looked through the duffle. She found the water. Uncapped it. Peeled her mask aside. Took a sip.

Paused.

Nora still found it funny. Everyone called their own unique abilities a ‘Gift’, and it was so… normalized, she guess? But then, for her, it wasn’t anything else. It was more accurately phrased as a ‘Curse.’

It meant that she had to be homeschooled. It meant that she couldn’t pursue her dreams the way she could without it. It meant that her bones would ache, her head would swirl. It meant that she had to be careful, no matter what.

It was a Curse. Her Curse.

And yet, here she was. Her Curse meant that she could hurt people if she so wanted. All it took was some saliva, and that could be it. And here? Here? She was being asked to inflict it onto other people.

She stared into the bottle. Closed her eyes. She felt another tremble.

She didn’t want to die. She didn’t want people to kill her.

Nora was used to being alone. She was homeschooled, after all. But that meant that, a lot of times, she didn’t know people as well as others did. Someone had to explain to her that, no, a devious lick isn’t someone going around licking things, but them stealing that somehow became a joke. Slang, see? And she’d embarrassed herself by pointing out she couldn’t do it because her saliva was literally toxic. Kind of funny now, but…

She opened her eyes again, and glared into the bottle.

She had only one weapon. She didn’t like the idea of ever using it. She was squeamish enough at the thought of watching people’s heads explode.

But she had it. She had no idea who could hurt her.

Nora built up some saliva for a few seconds. Then, she positioned the bottle between her lips, and–

Spit.

She tried to get as much out as she could.

Nora capped the bottle, and, using the scissors from the first aid kit, engraved a small line into the lid. That’d tell her which one it was, when she had to use it.

She packed everything up. The tremble still continued.

It was time to inflict her Curse on everyone, she supposed.

((Nora Moriarty continued in Old Town Road reference))