So here's another soldier on the train; You hope you won't be seeing him again.
You tell yourself:
 "my god, he looks so young."

And you find that you are staring at his gun. (And you wonder what this soldier does for fun.
And you wonder 'bout the things he might have done)

@bryce

Time again, to ask Bryce if he was ready for her to try to help him out of the country. She had connections, she had places, she could help him. He knew it, she knew. She implied it few times, and if he still refused, she could arrange it that he was taken. Well. Probably. Most likely. It was easier to do those who were above-age than people like Olive Baba. . .noux? nout?noot?nou?, even though she'd done Willa's place. That had been difficult, but-- ugh. She should have included the kid in it, but she hadn't really known of her until later and smuggling people out took planning, if you wanted it to stay hidden for a few days. You didn't want to send alarm bells ringing an hour after curfew which is what caught people.

She could convince him, she was sure. Eventually. Him, or Baba...dook? If she couldn't get him, she'd get others, check up on them. Give him something to take back, something to share. She'd passed on some books some time during the holidays (if it was actually Christmas, she wasn't sure. She'd only known the last night of Hanukkah when she told she had agreed to go to Queenie's place some months ago, so she needed to spend lunch with her mother's parents, but they were close enough, right? It was winter) and she needed to make sure that the people in his tenement had survived. Wanted to know, more like. She told herself she only cared about a few-- the smiling kid that vanished some months ago, Babaroux, Duncan, Wu, Bryce.

A lie, she knew. She wanted everyone out safely, she wanted to tear that place to the ground with her hands and leave it as a monument of horror, but if she told herself it was only for five people, she could keep herself slowly moving out people. Starting with checking on him, once again.

“Ilana, I’m giving you five seconds before I punch you in the face.”

It certainly wasn’t the best way to greet the person that you intended to extract a favor from, but Bryce was furious and he was sure she knew why. She had kept it from him. She had kept Dion’s existence to herself, she had made sure that he didn’t know. How often had he seen her since Dion had died? How often had she seen him since she had known? Bryce couldn’t begin to explain the bubbling hate brewing in his heart. This was someone that he had trusted with his life, with his valuables, with things to sell and things to get rid of. She had burned him so easily, she had ruined their strong trust with just one lie. He had promised himself that he would hear her out. He had said that he would wait, that he would listen and then judge. But Bryce had worn thin his smiles and his promises in the past few months. He had only one smile a day, that was what he gave himself. And that morning? It was slow and venomous as he started out the door towards Knockturn.

He didn’t work that day. He wasn’t sure why, and he wondered if they had forgotten to assign him someplace with the thought that they could curse it out of him the next day. It was funny, really. He could go days without a witch commenting or cursing, and then all at once it came out. They were furious, not benign. It was ironic. They seemed so delicate and dainty at their balls. He remembered helping out before one of the weddings, how sweet and simple one of the ladies had been. And then he had messed something up and the sweetness had gone away in a heartbeat. He was sure that it was going to be repeated the next time he went to a job, but for now Bryce was taking advantage of his freedom. He had time to himself, now. He had time for a break, a breath. Was it freedom? No, because it was going to be yanked away soon. But it was something.

Bryce stared at Ilana with steel eyes, waiting for her to move. He had meant it, really. He was going to punch her, and he would punch her whether he had a functioning wand or not.