Page 39 of Dwindle

“I knew I had to stick with a code name to keep Rhyme from killing you. He, as you know, is your father’s brother, but they couldn’t be more opposite. Rhyme was all temper and vengeance. If I gave you a real name, his jealousy would get the better of him and he would know what you were. He wanted to be like us; smart and witty and emotional like us, despite the fact that he could never be like us. I think he was a spawn of two Deviants, a thought my mother introduced to me right before she died.

  As many problems as we face in child birthing as we do between human and Deviant, it is supposedly doubly so for two Deviants together.

  It would make sense for them to be unstable like Rhyme.

  But I didn’t want you to die, so I never said this.

  At least not to his face.

  But I digress.

  I named you Myth was because the circumstances around your birth were secretive. You were in a way sort of like a little, special lie – a myth.

  But in my heart, in our hearts, you have always been Elizabeth, sweetheart. It was the name of the first Deviant ever in our family. This is your true name. Ellie. I hope, one day, with all this, you can learn to call yourself this, given time.”

 
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