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"I can't help but wonder sometimes, you know."
Norman looked over at Marion. She looked so pretty sitting by the window of their apartment. He once again marveled at her golden hair shining in the sun, her fair skin that had a glow to it, her eyes that looked so very soft. Right now, she was even smiling.
It all made his heart flutter traitorously.
"Wonder about what?" he asked. His bag of candy corn was forgotten; it was placed on the side table so he could lean in and really listen. *Truly* listen. "Did anything happen?"
"No, nothing in particular."
Even when she sighed and drew back, she was beautiful. Norman couldn't stop himself from smiling now instead, soft and serene as could be.
"I just wonder if it could have been different if we hadn't gone away. What it would've been like if we stayed at the motel, perhaps."
His fingers twitched at the thought, and somehow, he managed to not frown.
It had been so hard to fight off Mother's influence that night. She'd wanted Marion to suffer for daring to elicit a smile from him, calling her a harlot and a whore. He'd refused, and it'd been the hardest battle of his life to go against her. Even now, he could hear whispers of how Marion had taken him away from Mother. How she'd succeeded at seducing him away from the one woman who actually cared for him, how he was such a failure of a son --
"Oh," he said instead.
She took that as an opportunity to continue, seemingly oblivious to Norman's plight. "Though, I suppose that would be the equivalent of putting a bear trap on my leg to help you with your own. Your mother wouldn't have been kind to me, either, I imagine."
"No," Norman whispered. His fingers twitched towards the candy corn again, and he wasn't strong enough to stop himself this time. He nibbled at the edge of one before he decided he didn't have much of an appetite right now. "She -- she wouldn't have been happy if you had stayed. She, um, actually wanted me to make you leave early."
A heaviness hung in the air that Norman didn't particularly care for. So, he forced a toothy smile that didn't quite reach his eyes.
"I hadn't... realized that her illness was so bad, that it had gotten like that." Marion looked put off by this information, but at least she didn't take it out on him like others would have. She didn't answer him, though, so he filled the silence. "It's why I left with you, you know. It's difficult to maintain a fireplace when you get burned every time you try to do it. I couldn't..."
She cut in at just the right time, as always. She even walked over, gently resting a just-manicured hand on his shoulder. Even through the thin cotton of his shirt, Norman shivered with the sheer gentleness of her touch.
"You did everything you could," Marion whispered. "Please. I didn't mean to upset you."
'Mother wanted you dead the second you told me to get away,' he wanted to say. 'She wanted me to strangle the life out of you in that office. She told me to lie back and let her do it. But I couldn't. Not you. Now she'll always yell at me, but I can manage it. She can't make me do anything anymore. You're safe.'
Norman just smiled and squeezed her hand with a certain reverence.
"You didn't," he promised.