Morning all and happy inauguration day. Let’s just hope it all goes smoothly. I’ll say nothing further lest fate be tempted. So on to the prompt? Excellent. pens and keyboards at the ready? Then start the timers and let’s go.
I think my prompt veered from the path the sentence was going to take me on and I’m not certain of the story. I do find the landscape interesting though. That might be worth playing around with to fit a story around.
Wednesday, January 20th: She summoned the courage to leave her comfortable life.
She summoned the courage to leave her comfortable life. It was hard. There were many things she liked about it. She was the envy of her circle of friends and received with difference anywhere she went. She was accustomed to such attention, to dismissing such attention as just normal. She liked the comfort, the respect. She liked spending her time focused on the grand ideas and plans she made without having to worry about the daily inconveniences of life.
It was comforting to know she would always be taken care of, protected.
At least until the day she saw what that protection cost.
How many dead were there? In her dreams she could still see their faces, she could see every eyelash, every bullet home. She could hear the rattle of every last breath. However, she could not yet bring herself to count them.
To count them made them individuals instead of The Great Horror. If they were individuals they had names, they had families and before that night, they had lives. She knew she couldn’t imagine what those lives were like, she knew it would probably be insulting to their actual lives if she tried and made up a past for them. She knew then that her ideas would supplant their truths, whatever they were, even if it was only in her mind. That seemed like heaping insult on top of injury.
Thus far no one knew she was there. Now one knew she had seen. She shouldn’t have been there. She was told time and again the limits her comfortable life imposed. That day she felt justified in not listening.
She was certain that she would lose more than comfort if anyone found out she was there, that she had seen. She was doing well hiding it, but she knew the limits of her skills. While she knew there was no trace of her left behind, she knew she had to get away before anyone realized she knew anything they wanted to keep secret. And this she knew was to be kept secret.
She had to leave before they realized she knew. Then they could play it off as a youthful adventure. She could just be stretching herself for a time, assuaging her curiosity. She knew they would think that she wouldn’t stay out on her own, that the lure of comfort would be too strong to let her stay away. She knew that as long as they didn’t know she knew anything, they would let her go, confident that she would return.
She knew she had to leave as they would expect her to leave, and then once out of site, drop completely from view. It took planning. And she thought she was almost ready. There was one piece she needed before she could go her own way. While her family would ensure that she would be given a pass to leave the New City and stay in the outskirts, she knew that the pass they got for her would limit her to a small section of the outskirts and be heavily monitored for her protection. If she was to get away, she needed a pass that would let her leave the outskirts and go into the old city.
There were few ways to get the pass, and even fewer ways that weren’t monitored. Jason promised to help. He thought it was for a small adventure and as he was always up for a little adventure, he was happy to make sure she was equipped. He made certain that if she was going to try for a pass to the old city, she have all of the gear needed to survive the trip. Adventure was one thing, getting her killed was another. She felt somewhat guilty for not telling him the truth Fro letting him believe she just wanted a peek at the Old City. She didn’t tell him her true plans or what she hoped to find when she got there.
Ten til Midnight 