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k_a_webbSee the beginning of this story here (LJ link).
“Have you ever wondered what it would be like if you were lucky enough to get a new life now?” Louisa asked wistfully.
“Not really. I've lived in a coven safe house since I was twelve and I know that I will never get a new life. This, or somewhere like this, is where I will live for the rest of my life.” Skyler sighed. “Unless a miracle happens and the Inquisition is disbanded for some reason.”
“Twelve? I didn't realise you'd been living like this for so long.”
“Not many people do.” He smiled at her. “It's not that bad really.”
Slowly he looked around the basement. It was the fifth he had lived in and they were all pretty much the same. The door opened up into the room they called the lounge. On either side of the room there were more doors, ten of them, which each led to a bedroom. No one ever bothered much with personalising them after the first few years because they knew it was only a matter of time before they'd have to move. A small en-suite shower room was connected to every room. Then there was the small kitchen with one oven, one hob, one microwave and ten small fridge freezers. Each person had their own to keep their own food in.
“It must be hard to have spent all your teenage years in places like these.” Louisa also looked around the room. “I can't imagine what it would have been like.”
Skyler shrugged. “I can't imagine what it would have been like to go to a secondary school and take GCSEs. I never got a chance to do anything a normal teenager would do because I was 'lucky' enough to survive the Inquisition.” He glanced down at the paper, wondering whether Natalie would also be 'lucky'. “Sometimes I wish I hadn't survived.”
“Don't say that, Sky.”
“Why? I'm going to spend the rest of my life living in a safe house and there's no chance of me ever seeing the sun again.”
“We're all in the same boat.” She reached out and touched his hand. “I'll never see the sun again either, but I'm glad that I'm alive. Every day I miss my family but at least I have the friends I make here.”
“Until we have to move on.”
“Live in the present. If you spend all of your time dwelling on the past or looking into the future then you'll miss things. Every day is different in some way and it's those little differences that we should appreciate.” Louisa smiled. “One day our lives will be different.”
“Do you really believe that?”
“I have to. If I didn't then I think I'd probably give up even trying to live, like you.”
“I haven't given up trying to live, Louisa. I just think that my life is pretty pointless. What exactly can I do?”
“Anything you want.”
“Unless it's going outside.” Skyler stared over at the other people he shared the basement with. “All I've wanted to do since my fifteenth birthday is go outside but that will never happen.”
© K A Jones 2011
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
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Date: 2011-10-08 05:33 am (UTC)I didn't find any typos in this story.