Hush, Hush: Chapter 25
ZeldaQueen: Rejoice, ladies and gents, for we are very nearly done with this POS. We must keep moving through this series because the third book has come out and reading the prologue, it does nothing but increase my desire to kill Patch. Also, according to an interview, there's a fourth book in this series coming out, so joy. Lord.
Also, a belated happy birthday to watermage100!
Projection Room Voices: Starting Media in 3...2...1...
Chapter 25
ZeldaQueen: After Patch leaves the room, Nora goes into High Security Alert and locks the door, shoving a chair under the doorknob for good measure. She makes it clear that it’s out of concern that Dabria will get her, and I must ask a few things.
First of all, Dabria has done nothing to you this entire book, besides tell you to stay away from the guy who’s harassing you (and yes, I still have that rant coming). Why do you think she’s going to suddenly burst in now, when she easily could have attacked you any of the multitude of times you were an idiot and walked off alone?
Second of all, yes I realize that she’s concerned that Dabria is the person in the ski mask, which would justify her panicking. If that’s the case, why is she only freaking out now? She was attacked several times and in all of those times she did the same thing - panic, call for help, and pretty much shove it out of her mind. She showed no signs of being in fear for her safety before now (and no, her just saying it every so often doesn’t convince me, especially when she doesn’t act like it) and thus, I continue to be under the impression that she somehow sees Dabria as some Big Bad Bunny-Killing Angel who is the worst thing ever to deal with. Think about these things, Fitzpatrick. As I’ll go into more detail with on my rant later, do you really want to go into those unfortunate implications?
Which leads us to our third point, she’s locking the door and freaking out because of someone she’s seen a grand total off… *counts* three times, two of which were less than five minutes, I’d wager, might be after her. She is doing absolutely nothing to bar the door against Patch, who has attacked her, frightened her to the point of tears, pinned her, generally acted in a dominating and threatening manner, sexually harassed her, stalked her, orchestrated the extremely contrived events to get her to the motel room at all for presumably no purpose other than sex or something similar (that is, if we take him at his word that he does not intend anymore to kill her), and OPENLY ADMITTED TO TRYING TO KILL HER TWICE. No, he - the Hot Guy - is the one she feels perfectly safe with and Dabria, who has done nothing beyond being his ex, is the one she thinks is extremely dangerous. Even though all evidence points in opposite directions. Again, Fitzpatrick. Unfortunate Implications. You haz them.
Nora finally spares a thought for her mother and how she was probably worried sick over her disappeared daughter. Of course, Nora has no intention of telling her mother that Patch arranged for this all to happen by pretending his car and cell phone didn’t work and then arranging for them to stay in the same room at a motel, nor what he did to her when they were in said room. Nope, she’s going to hide it if she can. Otherwise, she might get in trouble and get grounded. The horror! That’s right ladies, if a guy lies to you and tricks you into a bad situation, you shouldn’t tell anyone about it. It’s your fault and you’ll just get in trouble. Besides, it's totally worth risking further harm from a stalker just to avoid a grounding!
Also, Nora begins to whine about how her mother will probably quit her job and get one in town and how that will mean they’ll need to move and oh noes, they’ll have to sell her father’s home, whatever shall she do? Imagine! If that happened, her mother might actually be forced to participate in the story and take care of her child! She might even call the police on his harassment of Nora! We can’t have that, can we?
We jump ahead fifteen minutes and conveniently enough, just as Patch shows up with the Jeep, the lights come back on. We get a description of the hallway Nora walks down to go outside, which would work great if it were at all relevant.
We jump ahead yet again and get to Patch dropping Nora off at her home. He goes inside to make sure Evil Dabria isn’t lying in wait and then just…leaves Nora there while he goes off to rat around through Dabria’s files at the school. In other words, he and Nora are utterly convinced that this woman is going to come flying in on her broom and kill Nora and her little dog too, and he’s just going to leave her there, with no way to contact him or defend herself. And Nora doesn’t realize this I guess her single brain cell was burnt out after he attacked her in that motel.
There’s a pointless description of Nora searching the house again after Patch leaves, along with what new outfit she puts on. She then finds the family’s “emergency cell phone”. So…these people can’t afford a basic home security system, but three cell phones are fine?
Whatever. Nora calls her mother, who of course is worried. Nora takes a deep breath and shamelessly lies her ass off. I’m serious. She doesn’t feel sorry she snuck off and worried her mother. She doesn’t think that maybe it’s in her mother’s best interest to know what Patch did to her. Nope, she openly states that she’s looking for “the right words” and uses her “most sincere and apologetic voice” so she can talk her way out of getting into trouble. That’s horrible, Fitzpatrick. Nora’s an idiot. Plain and simple. And even more stupid? Nora feeds her some cock-and-bull story about some place called “Cascade Road” was closed for flooding, she stopped for a room at some place called Milliken Mills which conveniently had no electricity and which I must conclude is a previously-unheard-of hotel/motel, because the only “Milliken Mills” I could find via Google was a town in Ontario. Also, Nora insists that she’s still there. When her mother asks why she’s picking up Nora calling from an unrecognized number, she says it’s the emergency cell phone (wouldn’t that be a number that her mom should recognize?) You know, the emergency cell phone that’s in their house? And guess what? NORA’S MOTHER BUYS THIS ENTIRE STORY! Now granted it might sound faker to me because this is the first time we’ve been told anything about most of those things, like Cascade Road and whether or not it is closed due to flooding or has a tendency to flood. Still, I’m pretty sure that a parent who is actually attentive would notice a few holes there. So, spitefic!
“‘Here's the deal-,’ I began in my most sincere and apologetic voice. ‘Cascade Road flooded and they closed it. I had to turn back and get a room in Milliken Mills-that's where I am now. I tried calling home, but apparently the lines are down. I tried your cell, but you didn't pick up.’
‘Wait. You've been in Milliken Mills this whole time?’
‘Where did you think I was?’
‘Gee sweetie, I don’t know,’ said Mom, and I flinched at the hurt and sarcasm cutting through her voice. ‘I do know that you should have been at home, where I was expecting you to stay.’
‘Mom listen, I -’
‘Nora please. No more excuses or lies. You told me you were going to stay at home. How do you think I felt when I tried to call home and couldn’t reach you?’
‘It’s fine, Mom!’ I insisted. ‘I’m sixteen. I’m allowed to leave the house if I want.’
‘Your age doesn’t matter, Nora. You are a minor. You are legally under my care. And more than that, you are my daughter. What sort of way is that to treat me, just running off like that? You didn’t bother to call me, even.’ I could hear Mom’s voice crack. ‘Where could you possibly have gone that you thought I would protest?’
‘Mom, I told you it’s fine -’
‘I don’t believe that, Nora. After everything that’s been going on, I honestly don’t believe you. I’m sorry, but I can’t.’
I felt like someone was squeezing my chest. ‘Mom please don’t…please don’t say that! I told you where I’m at right now, it’s perfectly safe!’
‘And you’re somehow calling me from there with the emergency cell phone. The one I know for a fact we keep in the side table drawer in the living room.’
My breath caught in my throat. ‘I…took it with me. I couldn’t find my own cell phone and wanted to make sure you could reach me -’
‘Then why didn’t you pick up? I called the emergency cell phone after you never picked up for the home phone.’
‘I…’
‘Nora,’ Mom said, and she sounded so tired, ‘This isn’t like you. Listen to yourself. You just keep lying and it’s so pointless. What else are you lying to me about?’
‘Nothing!’
‘I don’t believe you’re really at Milliken Mills,’ Mom continued, as if I hadn’t spoken. ‘Were you with him?’
‘Him?’
‘Patch. That boy you introduced to me. Was that it? Nora, please tell me. I didn’t like that boy when you brought him over, but I didn’t say anything because I trusted your judgment. I told myself that there was no way my smart little girl would get tangled up with a guy who was bad news. Please Nora, please, make me believe you haven’t.’
I couldn’t say anything.
‘I see.’ My mother’s voice was faint. ‘I’m coming home as soon as I can, and you had better be there when I do. We need to have a talk.’”
ZeldaQueen: I can’t begin to tell you how good that felt.
And no, none of that happens. Instead, Nora’s mom is stupidly relieved and asks no questions at all. Nora lies that she just misplaced her own cell phone, and openly admits that she wants to save her ass from a grounding. I really have nothing.
So yeah, from what I can gather, the place Nora's mother is at really was flooded out and thus she can't get home until a bit later. So now we have Patch leaving Nora alone, Nora's mother being stuck far away with no way to get home, and the message hammered into our heads now that DABRIA IS PURE EVIL AND WILL CERTAINLY BE COMING FOR NORA AT ANY POTENTIAL MOMENT, PREVIOUS BEHAVIOR BE DAMNED! You know, these situations are so obvious and contrived that Garret from The Quest for Camelot could see them coming.
Nora tries to contact Vee and gets the voice mail on her cell phone. In case any of you forgot (and after the events of the previous few chapters, I don't blame you), Vee has continued to be a dumbass and, ignoring Nora's warnings, gone off with Elliot and Jules. Now, Nora can't get in touch with her. Again, incredibly obvious conflict set-up is incredibly obvious. Also, Nora appears to have acquired Zoey Redbird's Deus Ex Machina Feeling, because she mentions that "The invisible thread tying [Vee and I] together had been warning me for hours now that she was in danger. If anything, the feeling was heightening with each passing minute". No, of course it's not explained. That would require this story to make sense.
So Nora is popping a few iron pills and feeling them cause her breathing to "deepen and slow" (erm, do iron pills really work like that?) when she turns around and who should be in there but Dabria! Oh wow, what a shocker! Who would have seen that one coming?
Right. So Nora is all scared out of her mind, because obviously logic doesn't work in this world and Dabria's someone to be extremely terrified of. I've already ranted about how that makes no sense, so let's just get this over with. Dabria is all cheerful and her hair is tangled and her makeup is smudged, which I think is Fitzpatrick's way of showing us that she is Not Right in the head. I'm just glad the bizarre infantization approach has been dropped.
Nora asks what she wants, and Dabria says that she wants Patch. Basically, she's put out that Patch won't take the guardian angel position and thinks that he only wants to stay on Earth because of Nora. Thus, she figures that if she kills Nora, Patch will come home with her.
You know, I have to agree with ceilidh_ann's comment on her Sparkle Project entry for this book. Why does everyone think Patch is worth this much trouble? Even if you ignore the fact that he seems only capable of showing affection through stalking and sexual harassment, he's still anti-social and rude. And yet no one notices or cares. You'd think I'd be used to that by now, after Edward and Jace and their ilk, but even they aren't as bad as Patch is! At least in the case of those two, they are allegedly redeemed by their desire to protect people (yes, I'm well aware that they really don't do anything by way of that, but that's more of an issue of bad writing, so let's leave it be for now). Patch doesn't even do that! His entire existence is based off of using people, possessing others, and passing up a job to protect others in favor of what seems to be the equivalent of a get-rich-quick scheme that, we'll find out, involves the murder of two innocent people. AND YET EVERYONE WANTS HIM. WHAT THE FUCK?
Right. Got that out of my system. I'm good.
Nora figures that Dabria was the person peeking in her window waaaaaay back at the beginning of the novel. Why yes, this is the first time we've been reminded of that incident. Dabria insists that she has never been to Nora's house before. She was, however, the person in the ski mask who attacked Vee. She also admits that Vee thought Patch did it because she mindraped Vee into thinking that. And she did this all because she wanted Nora out of the way so she could have Patch instead.
And now, ladies and gentlemen, it is time for me to cash in on that rant that I've been promising.
Do you want to know what I get from Dabria's little plan there? Do you? *clears throat* "Oh no girls, if your therapist tells you that a guy is dangerous and that you should stay away from him, it's best to ignore their advice. It's suspicious of them to warn you away from someone who is endangering your wellbeing, and they're just getting in the way of an epic, steamy romance. And if your therapist is a woman you should be doubly wary of her, because if she warns you away from a man who is stalking and harassing you, it's clearly just because she's a jealous bitch and wants him for herself. After all, women are hateful, spiteful creatures and never try to deter you from the abusive Bad Boy because they're concerned about your safety, after all. No, they're all a bunch of backstabbing bitches who only are in it for guys for themselves".
Even worse, I'm pretty sure we never get any more of Nora seeing a therapist after this. Her father recently died, she's supposedly still affected by it, and now she's being frightened and threatened by this creepy stalker guy who takes delight in psychologically tormenting her. Given that we're told that she skipped sessions with her previous therapist (who is male and apparently more welcoming than Evil Miss Greene here), I'd think it's safe to say she's still in denial. SHE CLEARLY IS IN NEED OF THERAPY. And yet it's written in that she's in a perfectly fine mental state. That her insistences that she doesn't need to talk to Miss Greene about anything are normal and not a sign that she's avoiding help for her issues. That she's not suffering an emotional breakdown from Patch's tormenting of her. And she doesn't go back to any sort of therapy after this is over and doesn't suffer at all for it. No, that doesn't work. People seeing therapists don't just suddenly get over their problems so quickly, and someone who resents a therapist's advice is much more likely in denial that they really do need help than being justified in their suspicion and pissiness.
And continuing from there, let's look at the implications of what's going on with Vee. Because all I get from that is the lovely message of "Hey girls, if your friend thinks that your boyfriend is dangerous and seriously might break your arms, just ignore her. She's just confused and not thinking straight".
In other words, not only does this book promote and glorify horrifically abusive relationships, it actively encourages the idea that one should ignore one's friends and parents and anyone else in a position to recognize and guide them away from such dangerous positions. It's like the Suethor has a checklist of all the things one should use as warning signs of an abusive relationship and wrote them in reversed and mocked.
*jabs finger in the direction of Fitzpatrick* For the love of God woman, I sincerely hope you were just stupid and missed those implications. Because if you were not, get some therapy yourself!
Now that that rant's over, back to the chapter!
Dabria tells Nora that Patch is "not exactly harmless to begin with. It was in my best interest to make you as frightened of him as possible" which, coupled with her previous statement about how she wanted to help Patch but wouldn't lie to protect him makes it sound like she knows that he's up to dangerous activities on Earth and is trying to drag him back to Heaven before innocent people are hurt by his actions.
Nora starts trying to downplay Patch's feelings for her, figuring that Dabria wants to murder the hypotenuse, so to speak. Dabria laughs at this and basically calls Nora a dumbass (truer words have never been spoken), telling her that Patch doesn't love Nora, he just wants to kill her. Nora insists that he won't do that, because clearly he is the sort of person whose word can be trusted, and Dabria gives us this
"Dabria's smile hardened at the edges. 'If that's what you believe, you're just another girl he's seduced to get what he wants. He has a talent for it,' she added shrewdly. 'He seduced your name right out of me, after all. One soft touch from Patch was all it took. I fell under his spell and told him death was coming for you'"
ZeldaQueen: Now if this were reality, I'd say Dabria is correct. After all, we saw how Patch treated Dabria in that flashback. He basically gave her, to borrow a phrase from Mervin, a G-rated fuck into submission so she'd do what he wanted. By his own admittance, she means nothing to him. He used her. But no, this is a sad, sick world where reality bends to Fitzpatrick's will, and in the book Dabria is Evil and Patch is the Romantic Hero, so we know that Dabria is wrong about him. *sighs*
Anyway, Dabria informs Nora that the birthmark on her wrist means that she's the female descendent of a Nephilim and, surprise surprise, she just so happens to be the descendent of Chauncey Langeais, the poor sod who Patch mindraped into being his vassel in the prologue. And if you'll recall from the previous chapter, Patch informed Rixon that to become human, he just has to kill the female descendent of his vassel. In other words, divine law appears to state that Patch can become human (and, according to gehayi's research, advance down the road to achieving greater power and spiritual authority as per Morman beliefs) by murdering two people. Again, I'm firmly convinced that the angels in this book have no clue what the heck they're doing.
Also, if I may digress, I'd like to add that if Nephilim are so hated and automatically evil (as the fact that killing them and their descendants seems to be an instant step to saving a fallen angel), why is the only way to kill them so hidden? It's apparently just sitting around in the Book of Enoch. Why are the angels forbidden to read it. Why are the fallen angels forbidden to read it? THEY'RE FALLEN ANGELS! THEY DON'T OBEY HEAVEN'S LAWS! And it's present times, when the Book of Enoch is online in pretty much any language you want, I'm sure! We hear in the sequel that fallen angels are still crusiing around, possessing Nephilim (and that apparently Nephilim are still being born, which continues to fuel my theory that these angels are dumbasses). If the angels want the Nephilim gone, why do they forbid the fallen angels from reading the Book of Enoch? You'd think that it would be a great deal for them, with so many fallen angels clamoring to kill the Nephilim to get human bodies. And if the angels don't want the fallen angels to get human bodies (as evidenced by the fact that they asked Dabria to dissuade Patch from his plan) WHY THE FLYING FUCK WAS THE WORLD CREATED SO THAT A HUMAN BODY IS A REWARD FOR KILLING A NEPHILIM? WHY IS A HUMAN BODY AN OPTION FOR A FALLEN ANGEL AT ALL?
*rubs forehead* All I ask is for some logic. Is that too much?
Anyway, Nora refuses to believe Dabria on this one. Normally, I'd find it refreshing that it's occuring to the heroine that the villain is lying. Here though, I'm slapping my forehead because dude, Patch has done nothing to convince anyone that he won't still stoop to murder!
In any case, Nora tries to distract Dabria by talking to her. She tries to goad Dabria with the knowledge that Patch dumped her, which works out about as well as one would imagine it would. Dabria starts shrieking about how she tried her best to get over Patch, but fell for him again when the archangels asked her to go stop him from trying to become human. Yet again, I feel the need to question the better judgements of these guys. Sending the hurt ex-girlfriend who's clearly still pining after the guy sounds like a recipe for disaster, if you ask me.
This all gets Dabria to launch into a spiel about how humans are selfish and slovenly and undiscipled and generally nothing that an angel would want to be. I honestly think this is some way of Fitzpatrick trying to show us that humanity is more enjoyable than life as an angel and that the other angels are in denial over it or something, but it's the only time this is brought. Therefore, I really don't know what to make of it. There's also a moment where she mentions that being on Earth is driving her crazy and leaving her unable to control herself, which again has potential to be interesting but just makes me wonder how she managed to stay so collected the first few times we saw her and why she's letting herself go to pieces now.
Dabria starts advancing towards Nora and promising to make her death quick and easy and to guide her to the afterlife swiftly, all while trying to corner Nora against the counter. This feels exactly like the scene where Patch chased Nora around the motel room. Fitzpatrick, care to commet? Nora finally gathers her wits and makes a break for the door, only to be knocked to the ground by Dabria, who is floating several feet above Nora's head and aiming for her with a knife. As a note, ladies and gentlemen, this is the start of Fitzpatrick more or less pulling angelic powers out of her butt. As far as we were told, angels could just do illusions. I can buy the flying because, you know, wings and all, but more keeps coming.
Anyway, Nora saves herself from this threat by kicking the knife out of Dabria's hand.
I shall repeat. Nora, the girl who previously was whining about how gym was so horrible and hard for her, was able to kick a knife out of the hand of a being noted for great strength and no feeling of pain, while lying on her back. While said being is floating several feet up.
Yeaaaah, I'm not buying that, Fitzpatrick.
Dabria responds to this by sending things flying at Nora's head, poltergeist-style. So apparently angels also hath telekinesis. Good to know. Dabria uses these powers to move a convenient bench in front of the door, so now Nora can't escape that way. With options running out, Nora runs up the spiraling staircase nearby, which, going off of the description, sounds like something out of Vertigo. Dabria tries to cause Nora to fall to her death or at least severe injury by causing the banister to shatter.
Nora makes it to the second floor and hides in her mother's bedroom. She figures that it's too high to jump from the window, so she decides to hide in the fireplace. To do that, she slips inside
"I ran to the fireplace and ducked under the mantel. I had just pulled my feet up, bracing them against the inside of the flue, when the doors swung open, slamming back against the wall. I heard Dabria stride to the window"
ZeldaQueen: Is it just me, or does it sound like Fitzpatrick imaged Nora clinging up the chimney, River Tam-style? Speaking of River, I wish she were here. She'd never put up with someone victimizing her like this. And even if she couldn't manage, Simon certainly would. And Zoe. And Mal. Heck, let's just bring the crew of Firefly in here. Please?
*drifts into a Serenity-induced daydream*
Projection Room Voices: Back to the sporking, please!
ZeldaQueen: Well you're no fun anymore!
So yeah. *sighs* Dabria breaks into the room and apparently her Angel Senses let her know that Nora is somewhere nearby, but can't give her some hint to look in the fireplace. Instead, she makes the decision to burn the entire house down and then burn the fields behind it. Marvelous logic there! That's a sure-fire way to give your victim a chance to escape, especially if you leave the room you think they're in and go downstairs, giving them the opportunity to slip out through a window!
And sure enough, Dabria does just that. After setting the room on fire, she leaves and heads downstairs, presumably to torch the rest of the place. Nora runs into her own bedroom, and of course she suffers from no pesky issues like smoke inhalation, even though she had spent some time hiding in the fireplace while the room she was in was burning. She hopes to be able to escape out the window of her bedroom, seeing as there's a tree growing nearby that she thinks she can reach. Before she can do so though, she hears someone heading towards her room. She hides in the closet and dials 911, telling the operater her address and that there's a nutter trying to kill her. She then hunkers down to hide.
Folks, I'm sorry if any funny is missing from here, but it's really hard. This is supposed to be frightening and I'm sure in the hands of a better writer it would be, but Fitzpatrick clearly is not going to let Dabria actually win in any way. Not to mention that Nora showing survival skills here would be much more appreciated IF SHE DIDN'T SHUT OFF HER BRAIN WHENEVER PATCH WAS AROUND!
Right. So someone comes into her room and starts poking around. Nora feels for a weapon and accidentally knocks over a pile of shoe boxes. This causes the intruder to look in the closet, and she starts throwing shoes to ward them off. And...surprise! It's Patch! I'd say he's even worse, but Nora of course is thrilled to see him. He wrestles her out of the closet (yes, Nora uses that very verb) and hugs her.
Nora informs him that Dabria is somewhere in the house, and is burning the place down. Yeah, you'd think if she was so determined to smoke Nora out, she'd set off more fires and thus more house would be destroyed by this point. Anyway, Patch gives Nora the keys to his Jeep and tells her to drive to the amusement park and wait for him there. He's off to take care of Dabria. And when Nora asks how he's going to do that, he gives her a look which is the equivalent of Edward refusing to tell Bella what he did the night prior. Because nothing makes a guy romantic than him heavily implying that he intends to do unspeakable things to his ex-girlfriend. Also, he apparently has no intention of putting out the fire that is destroying his girlfriend's home, seeing as he says the police can handle it. What a dreamboat!
Nora heads off, but can't help shake the niggling feeling that there's something a wee bit off about Patch. What could it be? Oh yeah, she's divided between her desire to do what Her Man tells her to, and the minor issue that HE WANTS TO SACRIFICE HER TO BECOME HUMAN!
Really, she's taking that news remarkably well. The way she mentions it, it's like he lied to her about his religion or something. Now lord knows, if I believed there was the slightest possibility my boyfriend would want to kill me for some ritualistic purpose, I'd be much more alarmed and suspicious. Given how she continued to want to trust him after what he did to her in the motel though, Nora clearly is a few quarters shy of a dollar on Patch-related matters. I'd pity her, but I've read ahead and know how stupid she is so...yeah. I'm going to have to go with "too dumb to live" on this one.
Instead of pondering the notion that her boyfriend wants to murder her, Nora calls Vee's mother and asks if Vee has come home yet. Shock and horror, she has not! Nora finally decides that she'd best find Vee, and sets off to search for her at the movie theater.
And that's it for this chapter, folks. Tune in for the next chapter when Patch is even creepier! Oh joy!
Onward to: Chapter 26 (Part 1)
Back to: Chapter 24
Return to to: Table of Contents
Also, a belated happy birthday to watermage100!
Projection Room Voices: Starting Media in 3...2...1...
Chapter 25
ZeldaQueen: After Patch leaves the room, Nora goes into High Security Alert and locks the door, shoving a chair under the doorknob for good measure. She makes it clear that it’s out of concern that Dabria will get her, and I must ask a few things.
First of all, Dabria has done nothing to you this entire book, besides tell you to stay away from the guy who’s harassing you (and yes, I still have that rant coming). Why do you think she’s going to suddenly burst in now, when she easily could have attacked you any of the multitude of times you were an idiot and walked off alone?
Second of all, yes I realize that she’s concerned that Dabria is the person in the ski mask, which would justify her panicking. If that’s the case, why is she only freaking out now? She was attacked several times and in all of those times she did the same thing - panic, call for help, and pretty much shove it out of her mind. She showed no signs of being in fear for her safety before now (and no, her just saying it every so often doesn’t convince me, especially when she doesn’t act like it) and thus, I continue to be under the impression that she somehow sees Dabria as some Big Bad Bunny-Killing Angel who is the worst thing ever to deal with. Think about these things, Fitzpatrick. As I’ll go into more detail with on my rant later, do you really want to go into those unfortunate implications?
Which leads us to our third point, she’s locking the door and freaking out because of someone she’s seen a grand total off… *counts* three times, two of which were less than five minutes, I’d wager, might be after her. She is doing absolutely nothing to bar the door against Patch, who has attacked her, frightened her to the point of tears, pinned her, generally acted in a dominating and threatening manner, sexually harassed her, stalked her, orchestrated the extremely contrived events to get her to the motel room at all for presumably no purpose other than sex or something similar (that is, if we take him at his word that he does not intend anymore to kill her), and OPENLY ADMITTED TO TRYING TO KILL HER TWICE. No, he - the Hot Guy - is the one she feels perfectly safe with and Dabria, who has done nothing beyond being his ex, is the one she thinks is extremely dangerous. Even though all evidence points in opposite directions. Again, Fitzpatrick. Unfortunate Implications. You haz them.
Nora finally spares a thought for her mother and how she was probably worried sick over her disappeared daughter. Of course, Nora has no intention of telling her mother that Patch arranged for this all to happen by pretending his car and cell phone didn’t work and then arranging for them to stay in the same room at a motel, nor what he did to her when they were in said room. Nope, she’s going to hide it if she can. Otherwise, she might get in trouble and get grounded. The horror! That’s right ladies, if a guy lies to you and tricks you into a bad situation, you shouldn’t tell anyone about it. It’s your fault and you’ll just get in trouble. Besides, it's totally worth risking further harm from a stalker just to avoid a grounding!
Also, Nora begins to whine about how her mother will probably quit her job and get one in town and how that will mean they’ll need to move and oh noes, they’ll have to sell her father’s home, whatever shall she do? Imagine! If that happened, her mother might actually be forced to participate in the story and take care of her child! She might even call the police on his harassment of Nora! We can’t have that, can we?
We jump ahead fifteen minutes and conveniently enough, just as Patch shows up with the Jeep, the lights come back on. We get a description of the hallway Nora walks down to go outside, which would work great if it were at all relevant.
We jump ahead yet again and get to Patch dropping Nora off at her home. He goes inside to make sure Evil Dabria isn’t lying in wait and then just…leaves Nora there while he goes off to rat around through Dabria’s files at the school. In other words, he and Nora are utterly convinced that this woman is going to come flying in on her broom and kill Nora and her little dog too, and he’s just going to leave her there, with no way to contact him or defend herself. And Nora doesn’t realize this I guess her single brain cell was burnt out after he attacked her in that motel.
There’s a pointless description of Nora searching the house again after Patch leaves, along with what new outfit she puts on. She then finds the family’s “emergency cell phone”. So…these people can’t afford a basic home security system, but three cell phones are fine?
Whatever. Nora calls her mother, who of course is worried. Nora takes a deep breath and shamelessly lies her ass off. I’m serious. She doesn’t feel sorry she snuck off and worried her mother. She doesn’t think that maybe it’s in her mother’s best interest to know what Patch did to her. Nope, she openly states that she’s looking for “the right words” and uses her “most sincere and apologetic voice” so she can talk her way out of getting into trouble. That’s horrible, Fitzpatrick. Nora’s an idiot. Plain and simple. And even more stupid? Nora feeds her some cock-and-bull story about some place called “Cascade Road” was closed for flooding, she stopped for a room at some place called Milliken Mills which conveniently had no electricity and which I must conclude is a previously-unheard-of hotel/motel, because the only “Milliken Mills” I could find via Google was a town in Ontario. Also, Nora insists that she’s still there. When her mother asks why she’s picking up Nora calling from an unrecognized number, she says it’s the emergency cell phone (wouldn’t that be a number that her mom should recognize?) You know, the emergency cell phone that’s in their house? And guess what? NORA’S MOTHER BUYS THIS ENTIRE STORY! Now granted it might sound faker to me because this is the first time we’ve been told anything about most of those things, like Cascade Road and whether or not it is closed due to flooding or has a tendency to flood. Still, I’m pretty sure that a parent who is actually attentive would notice a few holes there. So, spitefic!
“‘Here's the deal-,’ I began in my most sincere and apologetic voice. ‘Cascade Road flooded and they closed it. I had to turn back and get a room in Milliken Mills-that's where I am now. I tried calling home, but apparently the lines are down. I tried your cell, but you didn't pick up.’
‘Wait. You've been in Milliken Mills this whole time?’
‘Where did you think I was?’
‘Gee sweetie, I don’t know,’ said Mom, and I flinched at the hurt and sarcasm cutting through her voice. ‘I do know that you should have been at home, where I was expecting you to stay.’
‘Mom listen, I -’
‘Nora please. No more excuses or lies. You told me you were going to stay at home. How do you think I felt when I tried to call home and couldn’t reach you?’
‘It’s fine, Mom!’ I insisted. ‘I’m sixteen. I’m allowed to leave the house if I want.’
‘Your age doesn’t matter, Nora. You are a minor. You are legally under my care. And more than that, you are my daughter. What sort of way is that to treat me, just running off like that? You didn’t bother to call me, even.’ I could hear Mom’s voice crack. ‘Where could you possibly have gone that you thought I would protest?’
‘Mom, I told you it’s fine -’
‘I don’t believe that, Nora. After everything that’s been going on, I honestly don’t believe you. I’m sorry, but I can’t.’
I felt like someone was squeezing my chest. ‘Mom please don’t…please don’t say that! I told you where I’m at right now, it’s perfectly safe!’
‘And you’re somehow calling me from there with the emergency cell phone. The one I know for a fact we keep in the side table drawer in the living room.’
My breath caught in my throat. ‘I…took it with me. I couldn’t find my own cell phone and wanted to make sure you could reach me -’
‘Then why didn’t you pick up? I called the emergency cell phone after you never picked up for the home phone.’
‘I…’
‘Nora,’ Mom said, and she sounded so tired, ‘This isn’t like you. Listen to yourself. You just keep lying and it’s so pointless. What else are you lying to me about?’
‘Nothing!’
‘I don’t believe you’re really at Milliken Mills,’ Mom continued, as if I hadn’t spoken. ‘Were you with him?’
‘Him?’
‘Patch. That boy you introduced to me. Was that it? Nora, please tell me. I didn’t like that boy when you brought him over, but I didn’t say anything because I trusted your judgment. I told myself that there was no way my smart little girl would get tangled up with a guy who was bad news. Please Nora, please, make me believe you haven’t.’
I couldn’t say anything.
‘I see.’ My mother’s voice was faint. ‘I’m coming home as soon as I can, and you had better be there when I do. We need to have a talk.’”
ZeldaQueen: I can’t begin to tell you how good that felt.
And no, none of that happens. Instead, Nora’s mom is stupidly relieved and asks no questions at all. Nora lies that she just misplaced her own cell phone, and openly admits that she wants to save her ass from a grounding. I really have nothing.
So yeah, from what I can gather, the place Nora's mother is at really was flooded out and thus she can't get home until a bit later. So now we have Patch leaving Nora alone, Nora's mother being stuck far away with no way to get home, and the message hammered into our heads now that DABRIA IS PURE EVIL AND WILL CERTAINLY BE COMING FOR NORA AT ANY POTENTIAL MOMENT, PREVIOUS BEHAVIOR BE DAMNED! You know, these situations are so obvious and contrived that Garret from The Quest for Camelot could see them coming.
Nora tries to contact Vee and gets the voice mail on her cell phone. In case any of you forgot (and after the events of the previous few chapters, I don't blame you), Vee has continued to be a dumbass and, ignoring Nora's warnings, gone off with Elliot and Jules. Now, Nora can't get in touch with her. Again, incredibly obvious conflict set-up is incredibly obvious. Also, Nora appears to have acquired Zoey Redbird's Deus Ex Machina Feeling, because she mentions that "The invisible thread tying [Vee and I] together had been warning me for hours now that she was in danger. If anything, the feeling was heightening with each passing minute". No, of course it's not explained. That would require this story to make sense.
So Nora is popping a few iron pills and feeling them cause her breathing to "deepen and slow" (erm, do iron pills really work like that?) when she turns around and who should be in there but Dabria! Oh wow, what a shocker! Who would have seen that one coming?
Right. So Nora is all scared out of her mind, because obviously logic doesn't work in this world and Dabria's someone to be extremely terrified of. I've already ranted about how that makes no sense, so let's just get this over with. Dabria is all cheerful and her hair is tangled and her makeup is smudged, which I think is Fitzpatrick's way of showing us that she is Not Right in the head. I'm just glad the bizarre infantization approach has been dropped.
Nora asks what she wants, and Dabria says that she wants Patch. Basically, she's put out that Patch won't take the guardian angel position and thinks that he only wants to stay on Earth because of Nora. Thus, she figures that if she kills Nora, Patch will come home with her.
You know, I have to agree with ceilidh_ann's comment on her Sparkle Project entry for this book. Why does everyone think Patch is worth this much trouble? Even if you ignore the fact that he seems only capable of showing affection through stalking and sexual harassment, he's still anti-social and rude. And yet no one notices or cares. You'd think I'd be used to that by now, after Edward and Jace and their ilk, but even they aren't as bad as Patch is! At least in the case of those two, they are allegedly redeemed by their desire to protect people (yes, I'm well aware that they really don't do anything by way of that, but that's more of an issue of bad writing, so let's leave it be for now). Patch doesn't even do that! His entire existence is based off of using people, possessing others, and passing up a job to protect others in favor of what seems to be the equivalent of a get-rich-quick scheme that, we'll find out, involves the murder of two innocent people. AND YET EVERYONE WANTS HIM. WHAT THE FUCK?
Right. Got that out of my system. I'm good.
Nora figures that Dabria was the person peeking in her window waaaaaay back at the beginning of the novel. Why yes, this is the first time we've been reminded of that incident. Dabria insists that she has never been to Nora's house before. She was, however, the person in the ski mask who attacked Vee. She also admits that Vee thought Patch did it because she mindraped Vee into thinking that. And she did this all because she wanted Nora out of the way so she could have Patch instead.
And now, ladies and gentlemen, it is time for me to cash in on that rant that I've been promising.
Do you want to know what I get from Dabria's little plan there? Do you? *clears throat* "Oh no girls, if your therapist tells you that a guy is dangerous and that you should stay away from him, it's best to ignore their advice. It's suspicious of them to warn you away from someone who is endangering your wellbeing, and they're just getting in the way of an epic, steamy romance. And if your therapist is a woman you should be doubly wary of her, because if she warns you away from a man who is stalking and harassing you, it's clearly just because she's a jealous bitch and wants him for herself. After all, women are hateful, spiteful creatures and never try to deter you from the abusive Bad Boy because they're concerned about your safety, after all. No, they're all a bunch of backstabbing bitches who only are in it for guys for themselves".
Even worse, I'm pretty sure we never get any more of Nora seeing a therapist after this. Her father recently died, she's supposedly still affected by it, and now she's being frightened and threatened by this creepy stalker guy who takes delight in psychologically tormenting her. Given that we're told that she skipped sessions with her previous therapist (who is male and apparently more welcoming than Evil Miss Greene here), I'd think it's safe to say she's still in denial. SHE CLEARLY IS IN NEED OF THERAPY. And yet it's written in that she's in a perfectly fine mental state. That her insistences that she doesn't need to talk to Miss Greene about anything are normal and not a sign that she's avoiding help for her issues. That she's not suffering an emotional breakdown from Patch's tormenting of her. And she doesn't go back to any sort of therapy after this is over and doesn't suffer at all for it. No, that doesn't work. People seeing therapists don't just suddenly get over their problems so quickly, and someone who resents a therapist's advice is much more likely in denial that they really do need help than being justified in their suspicion and pissiness.
And continuing from there, let's look at the implications of what's going on with Vee. Because all I get from that is the lovely message of "Hey girls, if your friend thinks that your boyfriend is dangerous and seriously might break your arms, just ignore her. She's just confused and not thinking straight".
In other words, not only does this book promote and glorify horrifically abusive relationships, it actively encourages the idea that one should ignore one's friends and parents and anyone else in a position to recognize and guide them away from such dangerous positions. It's like the Suethor has a checklist of all the things one should use as warning signs of an abusive relationship and wrote them in reversed and mocked.
*jabs finger in the direction of Fitzpatrick* For the love of God woman, I sincerely hope you were just stupid and missed those implications. Because if you were not, get some therapy yourself!
Now that that rant's over, back to the chapter!
Dabria tells Nora that Patch is "not exactly harmless to begin with. It was in my best interest to make you as frightened of him as possible" which, coupled with her previous statement about how she wanted to help Patch but wouldn't lie to protect him makes it sound like she knows that he's up to dangerous activities on Earth and is trying to drag him back to Heaven before innocent people are hurt by his actions.
Nora starts trying to downplay Patch's feelings for her, figuring that Dabria wants to murder the hypotenuse, so to speak. Dabria laughs at this and basically calls Nora a dumbass (truer words have never been spoken), telling her that Patch doesn't love Nora, he just wants to kill her. Nora insists that he won't do that, because clearly he is the sort of person whose word can be trusted, and Dabria gives us this
"Dabria's smile hardened at the edges. 'If that's what you believe, you're just another girl he's seduced to get what he wants. He has a talent for it,' she added shrewdly. 'He seduced your name right out of me, after all. One soft touch from Patch was all it took. I fell under his spell and told him death was coming for you'"
ZeldaQueen: Now if this were reality, I'd say Dabria is correct. After all, we saw how Patch treated Dabria in that flashback. He basically gave her, to borrow a phrase from Mervin, a G-rated fuck into submission so she'd do what he wanted. By his own admittance, she means nothing to him. He used her. But no, this is a sad, sick world where reality bends to Fitzpatrick's will, and in the book Dabria is Evil and Patch is the Romantic Hero, so we know that Dabria is wrong about him. *sighs*
Anyway, Dabria informs Nora that the birthmark on her wrist means that she's the female descendent of a Nephilim and, surprise surprise, she just so happens to be the descendent of Chauncey Langeais, the poor sod who Patch mindraped into being his vassel in the prologue. And if you'll recall from the previous chapter, Patch informed Rixon that to become human, he just has to kill the female descendent of his vassel. In other words, divine law appears to state that Patch can become human (and, according to gehayi's research, advance down the road to achieving greater power and spiritual authority as per Morman beliefs) by murdering two people. Again, I'm firmly convinced that the angels in this book have no clue what the heck they're doing.
Also, if I may digress, I'd like to add that if Nephilim are so hated and automatically evil (as the fact that killing them and their descendants seems to be an instant step to saving a fallen angel), why is the only way to kill them so hidden? It's apparently just sitting around in the Book of Enoch. Why are the angels forbidden to read it. Why are the fallen angels forbidden to read it? THEY'RE FALLEN ANGELS! THEY DON'T OBEY HEAVEN'S LAWS! And it's present times, when the Book of Enoch is online in pretty much any language you want, I'm sure! We hear in the sequel that fallen angels are still crusiing around, possessing Nephilim (and that apparently Nephilim are still being born, which continues to fuel my theory that these angels are dumbasses). If the angels want the Nephilim gone, why do they forbid the fallen angels from reading the Book of Enoch? You'd think that it would be a great deal for them, with so many fallen angels clamoring to kill the Nephilim to get human bodies. And if the angels don't want the fallen angels to get human bodies (as evidenced by the fact that they asked Dabria to dissuade Patch from his plan) WHY THE FLYING FUCK WAS THE WORLD CREATED SO THAT A HUMAN BODY IS A REWARD FOR KILLING A NEPHILIM? WHY IS A HUMAN BODY AN OPTION FOR A FALLEN ANGEL AT ALL?
*rubs forehead* All I ask is for some logic. Is that too much?
Anyway, Nora refuses to believe Dabria on this one. Normally, I'd find it refreshing that it's occuring to the heroine that the villain is lying. Here though, I'm slapping my forehead because dude, Patch has done nothing to convince anyone that he won't still stoop to murder!
In any case, Nora tries to distract Dabria by talking to her. She tries to goad Dabria with the knowledge that Patch dumped her, which works out about as well as one would imagine it would. Dabria starts shrieking about how she tried her best to get over Patch, but fell for him again when the archangels asked her to go stop him from trying to become human. Yet again, I feel the need to question the better judgements of these guys. Sending the hurt ex-girlfriend who's clearly still pining after the guy sounds like a recipe for disaster, if you ask me.
This all gets Dabria to launch into a spiel about how humans are selfish and slovenly and undiscipled and generally nothing that an angel would want to be. I honestly think this is some way of Fitzpatrick trying to show us that humanity is more enjoyable than life as an angel and that the other angels are in denial over it or something, but it's the only time this is brought. Therefore, I really don't know what to make of it. There's also a moment where she mentions that being on Earth is driving her crazy and leaving her unable to control herself, which again has potential to be interesting but just makes me wonder how she managed to stay so collected the first few times we saw her and why she's letting herself go to pieces now.
Dabria starts advancing towards Nora and promising to make her death quick and easy and to guide her to the afterlife swiftly, all while trying to corner Nora against the counter. This feels exactly like the scene where Patch chased Nora around the motel room. Fitzpatrick, care to commet? Nora finally gathers her wits and makes a break for the door, only to be knocked to the ground by Dabria, who is floating several feet above Nora's head and aiming for her with a knife. As a note, ladies and gentlemen, this is the start of Fitzpatrick more or less pulling angelic powers out of her butt. As far as we were told, angels could just do illusions. I can buy the flying because, you know, wings and all, but more keeps coming.
Anyway, Nora saves herself from this threat by kicking the knife out of Dabria's hand.
I shall repeat. Nora, the girl who previously was whining about how gym was so horrible and hard for her, was able to kick a knife out of the hand of a being noted for great strength and no feeling of pain, while lying on her back. While said being is floating several feet up.
Yeaaaah, I'm not buying that, Fitzpatrick.
Dabria responds to this by sending things flying at Nora's head, poltergeist-style. So apparently angels also hath telekinesis. Good to know. Dabria uses these powers to move a convenient bench in front of the door, so now Nora can't escape that way. With options running out, Nora runs up the spiraling staircase nearby, which, going off of the description, sounds like something out of Vertigo. Dabria tries to cause Nora to fall to her death or at least severe injury by causing the banister to shatter.
Nora makes it to the second floor and hides in her mother's bedroom. She figures that it's too high to jump from the window, so she decides to hide in the fireplace. To do that, she slips inside
"I ran to the fireplace and ducked under the mantel. I had just pulled my feet up, bracing them against the inside of the flue, when the doors swung open, slamming back against the wall. I heard Dabria stride to the window"
ZeldaQueen: Is it just me, or does it sound like Fitzpatrick imaged Nora clinging up the chimney, River Tam-style? Speaking of River, I wish she were here. She'd never put up with someone victimizing her like this. And even if she couldn't manage, Simon certainly would. And Zoe. And Mal. Heck, let's just bring the crew of Firefly in here. Please?
*drifts into a Serenity-induced daydream*
Projection Room Voices: Back to the sporking, please!
ZeldaQueen: Well you're no fun anymore!
So yeah. *sighs* Dabria breaks into the room and apparently her Angel Senses let her know that Nora is somewhere nearby, but can't give her some hint to look in the fireplace. Instead, she makes the decision to burn the entire house down and then burn the fields behind it. Marvelous logic there! That's a sure-fire way to give your victim a chance to escape, especially if you leave the room you think they're in and go downstairs, giving them the opportunity to slip out through a window!
And sure enough, Dabria does just that. After setting the room on fire, she leaves and heads downstairs, presumably to torch the rest of the place. Nora runs into her own bedroom, and of course she suffers from no pesky issues like smoke inhalation, even though she had spent some time hiding in the fireplace while the room she was in was burning. She hopes to be able to escape out the window of her bedroom, seeing as there's a tree growing nearby that she thinks she can reach. Before she can do so though, she hears someone heading towards her room. She hides in the closet and dials 911, telling the operater her address and that there's a nutter trying to kill her. She then hunkers down to hide.
Folks, I'm sorry if any funny is missing from here, but it's really hard. This is supposed to be frightening and I'm sure in the hands of a better writer it would be, but Fitzpatrick clearly is not going to let Dabria actually win in any way. Not to mention that Nora showing survival skills here would be much more appreciated IF SHE DIDN'T SHUT OFF HER BRAIN WHENEVER PATCH WAS AROUND!
Right. So someone comes into her room and starts poking around. Nora feels for a weapon and accidentally knocks over a pile of shoe boxes. This causes the intruder to look in the closet, and she starts throwing shoes to ward them off. And...surprise! It's Patch! I'd say he's even worse, but Nora of course is thrilled to see him. He wrestles her out of the closet (yes, Nora uses that very verb) and hugs her.
Nora informs him that Dabria is somewhere in the house, and is burning the place down. Yeah, you'd think if she was so determined to smoke Nora out, she'd set off more fires and thus more house would be destroyed by this point. Anyway, Patch gives Nora the keys to his Jeep and tells her to drive to the amusement park and wait for him there. He's off to take care of Dabria. And when Nora asks how he's going to do that, he gives her a look which is the equivalent of Edward refusing to tell Bella what he did the night prior. Because nothing makes a guy romantic than him heavily implying that he intends to do unspeakable things to his ex-girlfriend. Also, he apparently has no intention of putting out the fire that is destroying his girlfriend's home, seeing as he says the police can handle it. What a dreamboat!
Nora heads off, but can't help shake the niggling feeling that there's something a wee bit off about Patch. What could it be? Oh yeah, she's divided between her desire to do what Her Man tells her to, and the minor issue that HE WANTS TO SACRIFICE HER TO BECOME HUMAN!
Really, she's taking that news remarkably well. The way she mentions it, it's like he lied to her about his religion or something. Now lord knows, if I believed there was the slightest possibility my boyfriend would want to kill me for some ritualistic purpose, I'd be much more alarmed and suspicious. Given how she continued to want to trust him after what he did to her in the motel though, Nora clearly is a few quarters shy of a dollar on Patch-related matters. I'd pity her, but I've read ahead and know how stupid she is so...yeah. I'm going to have to go with "too dumb to live" on this one.
Instead of pondering the notion that her boyfriend wants to murder her, Nora calls Vee's mother and asks if Vee has come home yet. Shock and horror, she has not! Nora finally decides that she'd best find Vee, and sets off to search for her at the movie theater.
And that's it for this chapter, folks. Tune in for the next chapter when Patch is even creepier! Oh joy!
Onward to: Chapter 26 (Part 1)
Back to: Chapter 24
Return to to: Table of Contents