Morning all. I did not sleep well last night. Strange twisting dreams only half remembered. But coffee is brewing and the day is starting so timers set and on with the morning prompt.
It took me a while to get into this and I think it very much needs to be expanded. It is sort of bullet points to include in a story rather than a story itself. But I do like a few of the points.
Thursday, August 21st: I did not need to be told twice.
I did not need to be told twice. I dropped the knife Evan forced into my hand and turned away. I head Evan call me a coward, but he did so under his breath, making sure the others didn’t hear.
I didn’t stop walking. It wasn’t my fight. It had never been my fight. Evan only gave me the knife because there was one extra and he didn’t want anyone to have it. He knew I was being told to leave because they knew as well as I did that I wasn’t a part of this.
I turned the corner never looking back. The wind kicked up and I shivered. Even with hat, gloves and a nice thick scarf wrapped around my neck and tucked deep into my coat I shivered. I thought it might be more than cold, more of a reaction.
Evan and Dennis had been at each other’s throats since birth. They took one look at each other and instantly hatred boiled up between them. I thought of it as the opposite of love at first sight. If one said black the other would say white regardless of any consequences. They long since grew out of petty squabbles and now each joined a city faction, each diametrically opposed to the other of course.
The factions were supposed to be political. They were vehicles for discussing differences of opinion and were meant to curb the violence that once wracked the city. For the most part they were. Evan and Dennis rose through the ranks of their factions to become leaders. Once in charge, the violence seemed to escalate. I didn’t know if anyone else saw the connection but I certainly did. My own faction disagreed with both but was considered of such little consequence that we were left alone. It was why I was allowed to leave. And why I left.
I could and had placed my life on the line for things I believed in. I wasn’t about to kill or be killed for something I had no stake in. Despite the layers of cold I could feel my scars tonight as though the icy wind caressed my bare flesh. I snorted at Evan’s accusation of coward.
Evan and Dennis were with me on the front lines. They broke and ran. I stayed and fought. We won the day and as we were cleaning up, I saw them each emerge from their hiding places, pick up weapons and mutilate the dead claiming they were always in the fight.
They each knew I saw them run. I never mentioned it and they never pushed me. Until tonight.
‘Technically only Evan pushed me.’ It didn’t make me like Dennis any better, but it was something to think about. I reached the end of the street and gratefully slipped into a café. I ordered a hot chocolate and settled at one of the tables. I unwrapped my outer gear, tucking my gloves into my coat pocket. I rubbed my hands together and when the drink was brought, wrapped them around the mug. My left hand drank in the heat. While my right appreciated it ever since the bones on my left hand were broken, the breaks, though healed, ached with the cold and relished the heat.
As I relaxed, warming my bones, I heard the sirens. Like the others I turned towards the window. There had been peace for nearly a decade, yet I saw the instinctive jump and clench of the other patrons at the sound. I felt the same in myself.
Ten til Midnight 