Talk about something other than the entities? Malin didn't even know how. His whole life had been dedicated to avoiding the entities, proving them wrong, complaining about them, hating them--well, except Life, of course. Did he even do anything else?
But Life was right. Wasting so much time on his family was stupid. They didn't deserve to be the focus of Malin's attention. For the sake of the two souls he kept up in his realm--Bailey Stanford and Gerald Helios, if he remembered their names correctly--he would abandon all ties to the other entities and commit himself to being a good companion for them and for Life.
A smile graced his gentle features. "Sure. We used to play this game called 'Trouble'--you have these pegs, and you hop them around the game board and try to get back to your own base, but if someone lands on you you get sent back to start. Bailey--she's a young woman, I think she died in her twenties--but she always gets so mad, because me and Gerald cream her. Oh, Gerald was hit by a car--he was twenty-six, I think. Nice guy."
Already, talking about something else was making Malin feel much better. "You ever been stargazing?"
"Sh*t."
Bennie couldn't afford to wait for Kayin to remember. If Life really was in trouble, she had to get to the girl before something terrible happened, and that meant she had to leave right at that moment.
It no longer mattered if anyone followed her. "I don't have time for this, kiddo. Sorry. I gotta run, gotta find Life, you can follow me if you want!"
She took off further into the woods, her heels sticking in the mud. Life was in danger. Her mind just kept telling her that Life was in danger.
That was all that mattered to Bennie.