God knows they've all seen a whole lot of horror and atrocity over the past couple years, but there hasn't been anything quite like an acid burn, and Tess is briefly torn between preparing Ellie further and avoiding the risk of psyching her out. She settles on saying no more: nothing she could possibly say will prepare Ellie for what it will feel like.
Tess feels, on the other hand, like she is going to maim a girl who is, in no small way, one of her own. There's no avoiding that, but there's no living in Jackson without doing it.
"Alright, then," she says. "Let's do this. I'm going to lock you in, apply it with a cloth, and we're going to count to forty-five together. Then I'm going to let you loose, and we're going to dunk it underwater in the bathroom by sixty."
Tess is fully expecting to be dragging her by then.
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Tess feels, on the other hand, like she is going to maim a girl who is, in no small way, one of her own. There's no avoiding that, but there's no living in Jackson without doing it.
"Alright, then," she says. "Let's do this. I'm going to lock you in, apply it with a cloth, and we're going to count to forty-five together. Then I'm going to let you loose, and we're going to dunk it underwater in the bathroom by sixty."
Tess is fully expecting to be dragging her by then.