A Meeting of Horsemen

Fatima sighed, it was the John she had thought it was. The one who had massacred the only family she had ever known, and yet she believed him when he said he wasn't going to hurt her. He sounded so sad and lost. Pretty much like she felt at the moment, though her emotions rarely showed as plainly as his. She was hesitant and still a little wary of the other horseman as she spoke. "I'm Fatima... Danvers..." She stumbled a bit over her last name, knowing that he may recognise that name, even if he didn't know her first name. She was uncertain about continuing but figured she might as well. "I'm a horseman - like you. You're death, I'm famine."

"I was raised by that cult..." There was really no way for the young horseman to put what she had to say next delicately, and she wasn't really sure the boy deserved delicate treatment, even if he was putting on a good show of remorse. "You killed my entire family!" As she said it, she realised that it still did hurt, no matter what the cult had done to her. They were the only family she'd ever known after all.

This was a really awkward and uncomfortable moment. she'd just been worried about being attacked at first, she hadn't actually meant her statement to sound so accusatory. she suspected that the cult had brought their deaths upon themselves if they had done anything like what they did to her for powers training to someone who hadn't been raised by them. And after all, he was the Horseman of Death, maybe he needed to kill people like she needed to eat. All she knew about this guy was that he had killed her family, but they probably deserved it. If they had summoned him properly, John might've been her brother. And he did seem to be regretful. Perhaps she'd give him the benefit of a doubt.

Fatima shrugged off her feelings. "It's okay... I mean they were training me to be a weapon. I just deal with hunger, but I probably would've killed people if I'd been told to. Well, obviously I would've killed people eventually, meant to end the world and all that. But they hadn't had me kill anyone yet. I think finding you threw them off. What was it like, y'know being raised by normal people? Did you kill a lot of people... before? And they'll give everyone a second chance... You won't really be able to kill people here - if you need to. But they'll probably help you. I - I was undercover at first, but... I kinda like it here now. It's very different."

It felt weird to be engaging in this sort of small talk with someone she probably shouldn't be talking to, but she felt pity for the older boy. who knew what kind of things her family had done to him before he killed them? and it was admittedly nice to be talking to someone who might understand her a bit. She hadn't met another horseman yet.

Small talk may have been weird in this situation, but Fatima wished this boy didn't talk so little. He seemed willing enough to talk to her, but he wasn't saying anything. She wanted to know more about him. She'd been surrounded by humans and wanted to know what a different horseman was like. She wasn't sure if he was shy, or also not used to talking to people, or what.

"How many parents did you have? Two is the normal amount, right? I had two official parents, but I think pretty much my whole family was parents or at least aunts and uncles. Was your family really small? What did you do if you didn't kill people? Did you go to school" The young horseman was just bursting with curiosity. She had so much to ask this boy. She'd almost completely forgot she was afraid of him in her excitement at meeting someone like her.

She took a big gulp of the Irish coffee she'd almost forgotten was in her hand. It had kept its heat pretty well or they hadn't been talking as long as it seemed because it still managed to burn her throat going down. She liked that feeling and it healed so quickly she didn't mind. "You said earlier you just got here? Did you mean downtown or the island? Have you been here long? I've only been here a week or so... just got here when... you know..." She refused to get back into the topic of her family's death with their killer. She just wasn't ready for that now. "So I guess you're going to the school... and we're probably in the same grade... we'll probably see a lot of each other. I - don't know if I trust you yet, but I don't want to fight you either. You could've been my brother and I don't know anyone else like me."

She was talking to him for many complicated reasons, but one of the most prominent was that she had just started to separate herself from her past and was unconsciously doing anything she could to distract herself from negative emotion. And that included making not-unfriendly small talk with the boy who had basically killed her entire family. It helped that she was used to dismissing or outright blocking off any uncomfortable feelings and that she had already been actively trying to think of the cult as the cult instead of as her family so that she wouldn't feel her grief as strongly.

Even if she didn't feel some strange sympathy for John because she guessed that he had had good reasons to kill them, she probably wouldn't have attacked the other horseman. She may have tried to punch him, but she wasn't really a killer, and she wouldn't have used her weapons, which were not much use in an impromptu fight anyways. She, like him, had no desire to fight and she wasn't going to pass up this chance to talk to another horseman even if it might seem strange. She didn't realise that he had believed he was human until the cult had found him. After all, he was calling himself a horseman now, and she had always known what she was.

"That sounds so small. I can't imagine having just a mom and dad... though that might've been easier. I didn't go to school. I mean I was homeschooled. I got a lot of training too. How did you get trained if they didn't even know about your powers? I guess you're lucky cause they wouldn't have chopped things off then - do you even regenerate? That would be a thing, right, that's the same? I'm new too. Guess we got here around the same time. I - it's hard to know if I should trust you, but - I'm not saying we should be friends. I just... you're a horseman too, like me. It seems like that's a rare thing even here. You could've been - is it weird that I want to talk to someone like me?"