chapter five.

❛ the birth of aphrodite. ❜ 

AS SHE HAD FOR ALL OF THE LIFE SHE COULD REMEMBER, Madeleine Delacour had hated silence.

There was something so suffocating about it. Clawing, desperate, mute as it screamed her fears back into her deafened ears. It needed her to feel everything; even things she had never faced before. Guilt and shame and pain and regret and anger, all of it choking up her throat, making it impossible to get more than a fragment of air, purpling and paling her skin as she gasped for breath.

The silence made her feel like she was trying to unlock a chest. Except there were no keys, and the chest was covered in chains, under a deep, deep pool of water, and she was dragging her heavy, exhausted limbs through the churning currents trying to bring it back up to the surface while invisible foes nibbled at her skull and made playgrounds of the spaces between her ears.

Mae could never stand the silence. She avoided it as much as she could. But that night, all she could hear was the soft, pained pants of the stranger bleeding out on her front carpet, and the sounds of another stranger, trying to piece him back together. And she listened to that and only that, and let the silence press into her pores, ripping it at her fragile flesh, until it was over. 

She couldn't really remember feeling or thinking a thing. Just whirling, overwhelming, silence.

Two hours later, Theo sighed, and Mae knew it was done. From her position on the couch — facing stiffly away, avoiding all sight of the gory mess — she couldn't see what was going on, but she could hear her stretch, and tools clattering, and she could piece the puzzle together well enough.

Mae blinked, and something glossed over her eyes. She frowned, wiping at her lashline to feel something wet. Had she been crying? She couldn't remember starting. Or even the desire to start. Honestly, she couldn't really remember when she had sat down. Perhaps the silence had just been that strong, that overwhelming that her senses had just gone numb.

"Hey, Mae." 

She didn't look up, still staring at her moistened fingers. "You're done?"

"Yeah." The chair creaked across from her; Theo sitting down, Mae guessed. Another day and she'd recoil, command her friend to change before ruining their furniture so carelessly. That night, however, she said nothing. "He'll live. Guy had two bullets in 'im, the thigh and the side. The side wasn't as bad as the leg, though. Honestly, I'm surprised he was able to make it here on that bad of an injury."

Mae hummed dully.

"I gotta find a place for him to stay — I figured the guest bed, if that's okay with you?"

"Okay."

"You sure? I know this is a crazy situation, so take your time and consider what y—"

"—I'm sure, Theona." Mae stood up then, staring blankly at the woman across from her. She saw a twinge of pain flit across her face at her full name, something she had been usually so adamantly against. "I'm going to clean up. Get the blood out, before it stains."

"Oh, let me do it. I'm—"

"—you can just move the man." She didn't offer to help. Touching the stranger again felt like a death sentence. She didn't even want to look at him. "My father's clothes should fit him. There's his set of spares in the guest room. He probably shouldn't stay in those bloody rags."

"Mae..."

"Just toss them when you're done. I doubt they'll be usable."

"Mae."

"I'm going to clean up now," Mae told Theo, pointedly ignoring her pleadings. She turned away, ready to get started on her work. "Just take care of the man."

And she did. Theo dragged the man out with some superhuman strength Mae never knew she possessed — though, with the way the night was paving, finding out another shocking thing about her roommate wasn't that surprising. Mae avoided her path and focused solely on cleaning. She plugged her earbuds in, blaring her favourite angry orchestral harmonies, and scrubbed away any clue that there had just been an emergency surgery in their front foyer. No more bloodstains, no more red soaked mysterious tools that Theona just happened to have at the ready, no more bloody towels and tissues and scraps of fabric she could guess had been cut from the stranger's clothes. Everything was mechanical. 

The rug had to get tossed though. That almost felt like the worst part. Mae had loved that rug, because it was the first thing she had bought for her new place, an apartment she was paying for all on her own. It was green, with faded pink and white apple blossoms draped across the fabric, and it had reminded her of something sweet and saccharine she couldn't remember.

But it was ruined. Like it felt like everything was.

Another hour passed; by half past one, Mae was done cleaning up. Her hands were finally clean, too, flesh scrubbed red, ironic after so studiously wiping blood from it.

She glanced around the corner. Theona moved around in the guest bedroom, fixing something up for the stranger. She didn't know what.

Not that it mattered. Mae hurried the other way, down to her own room, and shut the door. She didn't glance Bowie's way, ignoring how he mewed in grumpy confusion. She didn't even change out of her own dirtied clothes, even though normally it would annoy her how disgusting she looked. 

Mae went straight for her cell phone. She dialed the same number from hours earlier. Didn't register that Abigail had called her back eleven times, didn't notice the thirty two text messages asking where the hell she had gone. Her finger slammed down the call button and she lifted the phone to her ear.

It was answered on the first ring. "Hello?!"

"Abby?"

"Mae, oh thank god, I've been trying to reach you this entire time! I thought something happened to you, I swear I've been sitting in terror this entire time thinking—"

"—I need help," she mumbled, dry as a bone and stone still. Her lips cracked; she ignored the sting and continued muttering, because if she stopped she might never start again. "Something happened. I don't know what's going on. But I need you. I need help, I think."

"Okay. It's alright, Madeleine, just calm your mind. Take a deep breath for me."

"I can't calm down. I'm barely holding myself together. Uh, some...something's happened. It's too much, Abigail. I-I—"

"—calm your mind, Madeleine." Abigail didn't quite sound like herself then. Lost was the panic. Mae only heard that calming, emotionless voice that had been her guide for all the formative years she could recall. "You know what is best. Don't you?"

"I—" Yes. She was right. Abigail was always right. Mae sucked in a breath, realising she hadn't been able to take a full gasp in for the entire night, and let the air cool her overheating system. She relaxed the tiniest bit, feeling some strange sense of relief fill her bones. "Okay. Yes. You're right. Sorry."

"It's okay, Madeleine. You're stressed and I just want you to be able to tell me why. Can you do that, so I can help you?"

"Yes. I can." She could almost smile; this was what she wanted. Abigail was there to help. Abigail was going to fix this. "There is a—"

Something clicked. She glanced idly over to the door.

"Madeleine?"

"Sorry," she said. Probably just Theo shuffling around. "I'm hiding right now. There's been an accident. A stra—"

But Mae would never get the finish that sentence. Just before she could tell Abigail about the torn apart body they had just barely saved, there was a whoosh and a hand, snatching her cell phone right out of her fingers. Before she could protest, Another firm hand — blood stained, much to her disgust — clapped down across her mouth and held it shut. Mae protested, but it was no use.

Theo was too strong.

"Sorry, Abs," she drawled, voice relaxed despite the iron grip across Mae's lips. She glanced down to meet her gaze. Her eyes were cold, and dark with warning. What, she didn't know, but the unknown was scary enough to silence her. "Mae-baby had a weird nightmare. She's been having them all night. I thought she was good, but I don't think she took her pills tonight — eh, girl?"

Theo lifted her grip from Mae's mouth, raising her bloody fingers to her own lips with a silent warning. She swallowed.

"Madeleine? What's going on?"

"I-I'm sorry," she spluttered, trying to rack her mind for something, anything to fix this before anything more went terribly wrong. The relief that had been with her mere moments had fled; all she had was panic, then, trying to weave her way out of an impossible fog. She needed peace again. Not this. What the hell is going on? "I-I'm not sure what's happening—"

"—she woke up about three hours ago, blathering on about some dream she had about getting hunted. Woke me up, tried to get me to leave, called you thinking there was someone after her." Theo sighed, sounding every bit the part tired and concerned. "I thought she was okay again, but...well, I guess I shouldn't have left her. That's my bad."

Abigail was silent for a moment. "Well, Theona," she finally said, an icy bite to her tone, "I might be surprised on how inattentive a being you are, if I had not known for years already. Madeleine, is this true? Please, be honest with me. If you want to talk in private, tell your friend to leave and we'll do just that."

"No," Mae said quickly, shaking her head along with Theo's. She just wanted it to stop. "I-I think she's right. I...I thought it was real...but I, I don't know..."

"Did you take your medicine tonight?"

"I...no...?"

"Madeleine. You know you have to take it regularly, otherwise you're going to hurt yourself!"

"I know," she muttered, more to herself than her sister. Because...she did know that... "I have been, I guess I just..." she frowned up at Theo, trying to understand why she was wagging her head so adamantly. "I'm sorry. I...just woke up I think..."

"I found her with a bat in hand, ready to defend us from intruders," Theo told Abigail, sounding so honest Mae herself almost believed her. "I think she's waking up more, she seems more in control. Mae, you okay?"

"I'm okay." But there was cooling blood, blood that wasn't hers, draped across her lips, and Mae had the sudden desire to lick it all off and taste the metallic on her tongue, to know what sort of being lay dying in the other room. 

Abigail said something, but Mae didn't really hear her. She tuned out of the conversation between Theona and her sister and sat stiff as a board on her bed, trying to piece together what was going on. The strange, out of body calm was coming back, probably after settling back down, and a new sensation tickled the edge of her mind.

Theona was not to be trusted, her mind told her, and Mae knew that was right. That whatever had happened, was not right. Her roommate was not the woman she thought she knew. She was not safe. She was not Abigail, she lacked her calm demeanor and tact. And she had said she was a purchasing manager.

Purchasing managers didn't know how to save lives.

"...opry for the interruption, Abs." Mae snapped out of her mind and looked towards Theo. A thought came to mind, and she readjusted herself on the bed. She licked her lips; iron dripped down her throat as she swallowed what little saliva her mouth could produce. "I'll let you go now. Yep...yeah. I'll make her do it, no sweat. She'll call you back in the morning, yeah? She looks pretty out of it."

Mae tilted her head, looking at the phone in Theo's hand. Her phone, she reminded herself, snatched right out of her fingers because of what — the stranger in the other room, the secrets staining her roommates hands, something she wasn't supposed to say.

"Mae-baby, you wanna say goodnight?"

She glanced up to Theo, towering over her, holding the phone out. But just out of reach, she realised, because she was still afraid of something. "Goodnight," she managed, through croaking lungs. "I will...call you tomorrow."

"Please do. And take your pills. I want a detailed report on this, Madeleine, when you're able; I don't like the idea of this happening to you again."

"Okay," she heard herself respond, though her mind wasn't on the conversation. Just the phone. "I love you, Abigail."

"I love you do, dear sister. Try to rest sound."

"I will. You too."

The phone clicked and Mae knew Abigail was gone again. And she acted.

In one quick, fluid movement — so smooth, it surprised Mae herself — she reached out and snatched the phone out of Theo's hand. Before her roommate could react, she threw herself off the bed and towards her en suite bathroom. The door slammed shut right in Theo's face; Mae wasted no time locking it shut.

"Mae?" Heavy pounding came from the other side. Nails scrabbled at the lock, and Mae held it tight, hoping she was strong enough to last against her. "Mae, open the damn door right now! Do you hear me?!"

"No!" She meant to sound determined, but the cry came out more scared than strong. "I-I'm not opening the door."

"Mae, this isn't funny!"

"Neither is you doing what you did," she shot back, feeling a little braver. The panic in Theo's voice meant she didn't have the upper hand anymore. Mae did. And in case her roommate was a secret mafia boss and wanted her dead...well, at least she had a leg up on her. "Neither is any of this! I don't know what's going on, but I don't trust you."

"I..." Something thudded against the door; Theo's head, Mae guessed. "I can explain. You just have to get out of there, okay? So we can talk. Face to face."

"Why? So you can tie me up and take my phone? Make sure I can't get help?"

"What?! Jesus, Mae, no!"

"Well — well, then why else would you take my phone like that? And — and body me so violently? You can't blame me for being suspicious, Theona." 

A soft snort echoed through the wood. "I guess I can only applaud you, for being smart. I'd be confused too. But I can explain, Mae, really."

Mae pondered her options. On one hand, she knew she had a right to be paranoid. At least that time around. With a nearly dead stranger in the guest room over, and a roommate who somehow knew how to save his life with the few tools she had in her work bag — a bag she took to her job as a purchasing manager — there was no denying, the shit around them was weird. Not to mention she had forced her to lie to her sister, with a bloody hand over her mouth, no less.

She spared a glance towards herself in the mirror, only to cringe. Dark red had dried across her cheeks and lips, making her look like some sort of medieval vampire, or something. Mae had never been into Halloween, yet she looked like she'd stepped right out of the stupid celebration.

Mae glanced back to the door. Theo didn't seem like she wanted to hurt her. She could have already if she wanted to, and she probably wouldn't have trusted Mae to run around their apartment alone if she was really a mafia boss. But...

"I'll come out," Mae decided. A soft sigh of relief echoed on the other side of the door. "But I have a condition."

"Anything."

"You tell me the truth. The whole truth. You're leaving nothing out, okay? I want all the details — including why you have a scalpel in your work bag, Theona Chavez. If," Mae paused, a silly idea planting itself in her mind, "if that's even your real name."

Another snort came. "You think I've kept a fake name, for the entire seven years we've known each other, Mae-baby?"

"After tonight, I don't know what's going on. And don't distract me; I have another condition."

"I...okay. Shoot."

"I'm keeping my phone. And it's going to remain open, ready to call Abigail the second I sense any, and I mean any, bullshit in your story. Do you understand?"

"Mae, I don't need you to—"

"—those are my conditions," she interrupted, firm like she was lecturing one of her students. "Otherwise, I call her back right now and tell her my life is in immediate danger, and you know that won't end well for you."

There was silence for a long moment, so long Mae wondered if Theo had just given up and left. Then there was a shuffle, someone rubbing their feet against the carpet. And a meow, though Mae guessed that wasn't from her roommate.

"Okay. I agree. Let's talk this out."

"You swear you won't do anything?"

"I swear on my life, Mae, I won't. I'd never do anything to hurt you."

She hesitated, hand still firmly on the doorknob. It'd be so easy to just act on her suspicions...and she should, her brain told her, she had every right to call her sister back and never let the stranger on the other side of the door back in. 

"Okay," Mae finally declared, stepping out of the bathroom. She held her phone out of reach of Theo and glared her down. "Let's talk."

The woman seemed to slump in relief, all her muscles relaxing at the sight of her friend. But after a second of a happy smile, she paused. "Uh...before that, you...you got something, on your face?"

Ah. Right. That.

TEN MINUTES LATER AND SANS THE STRANGER'S BLOOD, Mae and Theo were sitting in the same places they had been a few hours before, right across from one another. That time, however, the room was much more tense, something Mae couldn't have imagined possible before. As well, her fingers remained poised over Abigail's contact, trembling and ready to make a cry for help.

"So..." Theo pursed her lips, drumming the pads of her fingers together in feigned boredom. "How d'ya want this to go?"

"How do you know the stranger?"

Theo sighed. One hand rose to wipe at her face, splattering sweaty strands of dark brown across her forehead and temples. She didn't seem to care. "Alright, cutting right to it. No foreplay?"

"Theona."

"Again with the full name! You know, I'm still your friend. I'm not a bad person, and I'm not trying to hurt you. I won't hurt you. Ever."

Mae just sat there.

Theo huffed again. "Fine. You want the truth? The guy's my cousin. James." When Mae's brows furrowed suspiciously, she elaborated, grinning bitterly. "Cousin in law. Obviously. He married my cousin Elena, the one I told you lives in Tampa now? When they were young. Too young for marriage and crazy decisions like that. Hell, they were barely out of diapers!

"But they eloped at eighteen and Elena came home with a ring and a white guy with this crazy look in his eyes that no one trusted. James was wild. He," she hesitated, rubbing at her neck absent-mindedly. "He had a rough go at life. Weird childhood, bad parenting kind of led him down a bad path with some bad people. I won't get into it, just for his sake, and yours 'cause we'll be here a while. But he was a good guy, or he was trying to be, he just...stuff he was involved in, it's hard to shake."

Mae loosened her grip on her phone a bit. "Awfully vague."

"Well, it's his story to tell," Theo retaliated, though the soft smile on her face didn't mean much harm. "I don't want to hate on him. He tried his best, and he was always nice to me. We got along great. He'd visit me on weekends at college, and I'd let him crash whenever he was...too messed up to go home to Elena's."

"Didn't she know what he was...going through?"

She nodded slowly. "He was trying to break his old habits, though. I got that, and while I knew it was wrong to encourage him, I...I wanted to see the best, y'know? So I let him stay when he needed and I didn't ask questions about what he was doing." She shifted awkwardly, the couch groaning with her adjusting weight. "That was before he stole all Elena's savings and ran for the hills."

"Oh."

"Yeah. I...ha, obviously didn't see him for a while, after that." Theo scrunched her lips. "Elena got a divorce, and we all assumed we'd never see him again. Then...a couple months ago, I ran into him at the mall. Actually, it was at the weird smoothie place, where you put like graham crackers into it and stuff? I—" she hesitated, seeing the look on Mae's face. "Right. Doesn't matter. I met him, and he recognised me, and said he was trying to get his life back together again. He just needed a bit of cash."

"And you helped him?"

Theo smirked, but it was heavy, too heavy to have any mirth. "Sure. I always liked the guy. I wanted to think the best of him, still. So I told him I'd give enough for a room and a meal, and if he ever needed a place to crash, I gave my address. Just for emergencies. And...that was that. I didn't think we'd see each other again."

Mae glanced away, to the closed guest bedroom door. "But you were wrong."

"Yeah. Guess I was."

She tilted her head, trying to run through Theo's story. It made sense, only because Mae really didn't know a tonne about her roommate's family, just that it was big and they were distantly connected to Benecio del Toro (because Theo brought that up every movie night, regardless if he was in the film or not). But, it didn't answer everything.

"Why couldn't I tell Abigail about him then?"

"Oh. That's easy. And — sorry about that, by the way," Theo apologised, wincing. "I didn't want to scare you like that. I just...no offense to your family, but we've never really clicked. Abigail especially, I don't think she's ever liked me? She always seems to think the worst of me."

That was true, much as it pained Mae to admit it. Abigail and Theo had butted heads on many an occasion, and she had seen the icy glares her sister sent whenever the brunette wasn't looking.

"Telling her I had just taken a bloody stranger into our home would've made her think I was nuts. That I was going to hurt you, that I was hurting you, and-and honestly I saw the worst possible outcome and I panicked. I didn't want to lose you."

"Then you should have just told me."

"I know! I know," she said, sighing. "There just wasn't time. I didn't think. And I'm sorry."

And Mae could tell she was, and also could understand why. Abigail would have shipped her back home and made her quit everything, thinking she was going to lose her precious baby sister to some 'half-crazed serial killers'. Thinking about it, telling her about their bloody new friend in the guest bedroom, the one who had two bullets still lodged in him, probably would have been a mental death sentence.

"Okay," she said slowly. "Alright. Then how could you save him? Why did you have all that in your bag?"

Theo's eyes brightened. "Oh! That's a simple one, too! That's not my bag."

"I — what?"

"Long story short, me and my coworker, D-Sarah, we have the exact same work bag. It's a joke around the office, long running thing that one day we're going to get mixed up. Honestly, I'm glad it was tonight that we did, 'cause god, I would have been screwed if I just had file folders and a bunch of paper clips to help Jamesie out with."

Mae's nose wrinkled at the odd nickname, but she mulled over the idea nonetheless. It was again, plausible, though it seemed all too coincidental...and why would one of her coworkers have medical tools so casually splayed in her work bag? Unless she worked next to a hospital, why would—

"—they weren't even her tools," Theo interrupted her thoughts, actually grinning then. "They were her sister's! Small present for getting into med school. I, uh, probably ruined that by already using them, but I guess now they're guaranteed to be good, eh?"

"Do you have a picture of Sarah? Your coworker?"

"Oh, sure." She leaned over for her phone, which had been sitting casually on their coffee table, and flipped through it. "Gorgeous girl, Sarah is. Lovely cheekbones." She hummed, swiping through what Mae could guess were pictures, before turning the device around.

Sure enough, there was another person beside Theo, which admittedly great cheekbones. They looked like they were in an office of some sort, the image cropped up to their necks, with both of them pointing at something above their heads. Mae squinted to read what it was, some sort of sign, but it was too blurry to catch.

"There we are at, uh, Nicky's surprise birthday," Theo told her. "See? Sarah's real. I don't have pictures of her sister, 'cause that would be weird as hell, but..."

"I believe you," Mae said wearily. She clicked her phone off and set it beside her. "I believe your story. I just...it's been a long night, Theo. And a lot of weird things have happened, in a very small amount of time."

Theo nodded in agreement. "I know. It was not how I imagined our Friday would go. And I'm really sorry."

"It's — can you just tell me, the next time you give our address to strangers? Especially those who might get shot and bleed out on our carpet?"

She shook her head wildly again. "One hundo-percent. I'll run it all past you. And I think this is'll be our only worry, anyways. Doubt anyone else will be making a stop from back home."

"You better hope so. I'm not doing this again."

Theo smiled at her. "I feel the same." She glanced over to the clock. "But we should maybe try and catch a few winks, yeah? Before you miss another night of sleep."

Right. Sleep. Mae didn't think she could manage even a second of rest. She was exhausted, but her mind was swirling way too fast to relax, and she couldn't imagine how bad it was going to be when she put her head down on her pillow, with only silence to tuck her in.

"Oh, here's your new prescription refill." Theo dropped a small cannister into her hands, grinning lopsidedly. "I picked it up on my break, but...well, it was a bit too busy to mention."

Mae looked down at the small bottle. Her sleeping pills, the ones that didn't do a lick of good. Still, she opened it up and dropped one down her throat, swallowing it dry.

"Attagirl. You okay now?"

"I..." Mae felt like she had more questions, but her brain was too scattered to figure out just what they were. "I guess so. I might have more to ask later, though."

Theo shrugged, still smiling. "Figured you might. Now, c'mon, let's get you to bed."

"You don't have to walk me the seventeen steps it takes to get to my door."

"I'm a gentleman, m'darling. I must." 

Theo took her arm gently, leading her over to her bedroom door. When they reached it, she paused, turning to stare down at Mae. Her warm brown eyes flickered over her face, like she was trying to map all the features she could before time ran out.

Mae yawned, suddenly feeling very tired. A question sat on the edge of her tongue, something about a how, and Theo, and the wounds...but she couldn't wrap her mind around what it was supposed to be. Her body yearned for sleep, so much so she felt like she might just pass out right then and there.

At least Theo was there. Leading her in, setting her down, even going so far as to tuck her in. In her exhausted reverie, Mae didn't notice how she hadn't changed from her day clothes, nor did she remember that she hadn't planned her outfit for the morning, or even brushed her teeth. All she could feel, and think about, was dear Theo, ruffling her golden hair and grinning out of pearly teeth.

"Theo..." she murmured sleepily, pressing her fingers to her friend's wrist. "I'm glad...I have you..."

And the other woman just laughed, and pressed a quick kiss to Mae's fingertips. It was strange, but she wouldn't remember it the next day, nor did she register the affectionate action in her sleepy state. "Sleep well, Mae-baby."

And Mae did. For she dreamed of blue the entire night. The blue of an ocean that stretched all the way to the golden sun, rich in blues and greens and crest of white waves, and the warm feeling of peace that she had always felt staring into the endless blue.

It was a miracle, that such chaos and bloodshed could create such beauty. Though in her dreams, she did not know what that beauty was, she knew that the seafoam brought her something good, something of hope, and maybe that could be enough.

THE BIRTH OF APHRODITE: In the bloody war between the Protogenoi (first generation of deities) and the Titans (second generation), things looked futile for the titans. In an act of last hope, Gaia, the Titans mother, created a sickle for her son Chronos to use to defeat his father and her husband, Uranus. He used it to castrate Uranus and after, cast the genitals into the sea.

This action made the sea foam, and from the blood and the foam, came a heavenly figure soon known as 'Aphrodite' (aphros - foam). Hesiod described this as, "...and came forth an awful and lovely goddess, and grass grew up about her beneath her shapely feet...And with her went Eros and comely Himeros followed her at her birth at the first...this honour she has from the beginning...the whisperings of maidens and smiles and deceits with sweet delight and love and graciousness (Theogeny)."

Her birth is seen as a miracle, and a wondrous one, as such a bloody and horrific fight formed a heavenly, beautiful figure of love. She is both a fearful and hopeful being and one who brought one of the most human virtues with her; love.

It's so weird how different this version is from the first — because in all regards, like at least the first ten chapters are mostly comedic, especially with Theona. Like, reading back my original version, nothing feels serious. Yeah, there's a stranger in the living room bleeding out and omg that's so weird but haha who cares, let's let him stay here!! 

But truthfully? This version, I feel like, is so much more fun. The first was so obvious and it was flip flopping all over the place. This feels more like a thriller than that, and god I'm excited to write this. I hope that it's coming off in that light too! I hope it's not feeling too predictable.

Also! The title is probably going to be seen as a love thing, and it is but not in the way you might think. I always interpret Aphrodite's birth as a hopeful thing, like as a burst of light in a gruesome war. And this ties especially into the last part of this chapter. Really it's only a reference to the end of the chapter. But I guess you can apply it to the whole book too because it does work, I just know most people don't want to hear my rambles on why.

Thank you for reading; let me know what you thought.