Doug was way, way too quiet. Like a tide lowering before the tsunami hits. It wasn't calm -- it was eerie and grotesque, uncomfortable -- and yet immediately after, when Madhukar least expected it, there was a storm.

She had seen this kind of lightning once before. Intermingled with her own, that previous time. She did not want this lightning to end up the same. The implications of that scenario were far gone from her mind however, because at the current moment she was freaking out because of the freaking lightning.

Havoc splayed across the ground, crashing down in every spot but her. Was Doug controlling it? It didn't look like control. It looked like Madhukar's worst nightmare. It looked like she'd gotten lucky.

Still the feline(?) couldn't move. She froze instead, seized up and locked her muscles. And they stayed locked after the lightning barrage came to a close. And they stayed locked when Doug said "Need home". And they even stayed locked when it it it Doug turned around and disjointedly walked away.

And then they started quivering. Madhukar couldn't help it. She couldn't control it. They just shuttered and shook like a broken machine, like springs about to break loose and cogs about to fall off their axles.

Then they released. Madhukar leaned back against her chrysalis, her back side tingling with the awareness of itself. She stared at the rock Doug had "failed" to do magic on. A jagged and long splinter. She stared at it without passion or emotion in her eyes, an old doll, an empty vessel. She let horrible, unremitting memories fill her up. There was nothing she could do.

There was nothing she could do.

So she went to sleep, slick with salty tears.

Madhukar would be gone from the spot without a trace in approximately two hours.

Think "Speak"