"Sorry!!" This time Stella almost whispered with an apologetic look as she sat down. Sharp shook his head tiredly as he spoke, his voice sounding weirdly deep after waking up, "It's fine. What happened?"
Stella furrowed her brows as she began to ponder this question. What actually was this man referring to? She had no idea if he meant what he had done when he wasn't in control? Or what had happened in the attic?? Or why had he passed out??? Or whether information on what Stella had been doing in the attic in the first place?!?!
"Ummm . . . . . . " was all she could manage before Sharp added with a tired shake of his head, "What happened when I found you?"
Stella nodded as she pursued her lips. She knew the answer to that, but whether she could truthfully tell Sharp what had happened was another matter. She decided that he was old enough to take responsibility for his own actions as she opened her mouth.
"Well, to be honest, I don't really have an idea about what happened to you. All the times you've fed off me before . . . . " Stella began, but winced at the choice of her words. Should she really be saying this to Sharp? But seeing as there had been no change in the expression on his face, she continued, "You knew what you were doing, but you were mostly too hungry to stop yourself. And you always stop as soon as you can control your actions."
Sharp nodded and she continued, "But today . . . . I have no idea what happened. It was like it was you, but it was some other person inside that was controlling your body. Like you didn't seem to know what you were doing. Kind of like when you guys get hungry, but you weren't hungry. So I have . . . . . " "What happened?" Stella train of thought was interrupted as he repeated his question.
She shrugged and said, "Nothing happened. You tried to bite me, Penelope manipulated you to knock you out. Because you appeared to suddenly and didn't give anyone any time to think, she reacted out of instinct and couldn't hold back." "We carried you downstairs then." she finished.
Sharp massaged his forehead as some of the things started coming back. He also now recognized this room. This was his room at June's family mansion. Yes, he had a room at June's home. He and June had basically been such good friends since childhood that they had often stayed at each other's houses. At one point it became too inconvenient to share rooms whenever they stayed over, so both of them now had separate rooms at each other's houses.
Anyway, that did not matter now. Had McCarteney really just said Penelope? "Penelope? As in my cousin, June's friend Penelope?" he asked. "I should hope so. I hardly think there are two Penelopes who are such great manipulators in the world." Stella replied.
Sharp rolled his eyes and tried again. "Straight black hair, monolid eyes, weird fashion sense and a hellish attitude Penelope?" he wanted to be one hundred percent sure. Stella sighed, "Yes. The same Penelope. I was introduced to her twice. By Simon and June." "I like her fashion sense though." she added under her breath.
Den chose to ignore the last comment and closed his eyes.