Night Walkers {{Ali

[Deleted]

these words will not fade

It was close to midnight of another sleepless night.There seemed to be nothing to cure the restless mind of a teenage shortly after the reaping. Most people would assume that it was because he was not chosen to go battle that he was restless. That was a part of it, but his mind was racing on a different subject. He had one more reaping before he was in the clear, before he was a permanent disappointment. Of course how could that be helped? He did not want anything to do with his family's sick and twisted desire. It was like a poison that coursed through their veins creating uncontrollable desires, insane actions and unattainable goals. Thankfully he had been skipped from the disease that plagued the Aubergines. Perhaps though, he had been inflicted with something much worse.

Dread rolled his head to the side as he stared down the length of his arm, his body sprawled out in lanky thin limbs across his bed. He watched as the blood slid downward towards his wrist and dripped on the floor in a quickly drying puddle. Why was it not working? The boy slowly returned his stare to the ceiling above him. He needed to get out of the house for a while and do something that did not involve training. That never happened though because training was his entire focus, as his father so happily put it. His entire focus, he gave a meek and cruel chuckle at the thought. No, there was something better that was his focus. Freedom from the evil was his focus. But on that particular night it was not working.

Dread looked down at his bare chest. He needed to get out. The thought kept pressing against the inside of his skull as it tried to break free into an action. The teenager rolled over onto his side and looked at his arm. Minimal damage. It wasn't long before a few bandages were placed on the wounds and then a black t-shirt covered his torso. He reached for his jacket but paused for a moment. It was midnight. Who was outside? Who would he be hiding from? His eyes studied the dark hoodie for a moment with his hand half outstretched toward it. He needed to leave. What was he leaving? His worries, his troubles, his world. Was his world not contained within the black jacket that cloaked his arms on a daily basis? The boy dropped his hand and turned to his window. Thankfully for him he was placed on a higher floor with an easy escape. It was how he escaped every night and day in his room except the difference here was his body was going with him.

There was a soft padding noise as Dread dropped a few feet from his window to the roof of the next building. He had never been there before, never done these actions. He really was not sure of how to act. His eyes scanned the dark night as he started to lower his body and slink across the roof of the neighbors house on down the street. He was almost halfway to the intersection that had no logical way around when he stopped. His brain was trying to figure out how to stay above the streets and away from the peacekeepers but there was no logical explanation of how to go about the intersection and crossing it. The boy bit his lip right before a sound caused his heart to drop. It sounded as if there was another person walking in the night. He tried to silently and quickly flatten himself out on the roof while simultaneously searching for the creator of the padding feet. His heart was racing. He was doomed to be found. Untalented and awkward he was a visible sight in the dark night for those who were looking. Doomed forever.

[ali]

♥ Astrid Shaw ♥ The clock was ticking, the droning sound echoed through the hallways, and could be heard by Astrid in her room. The young woman was staring at the canopy of her bed, her toes wiggled beneath the lilac sheets as she listened to the drumming of the grandfather clock. It was so noisy in her room, she could hear the creaking of her old house as it contracted in the cold midnight air. Her head was noisy too, the voices were awake and the pills had not silenced them yet. Whispering and cackling was all they were doing but it was driving Astrid up the walls inside. All she wanted to do was get some sleep. The sun is out! Insisted a voice inside her head; but Astrid knew it wasn’t, she knew it was just the moon. Sitting up, her hair a tangled mess, the crazy girl looked round her room with a pout. The white walls with lilac accents on chairs, fabrics, paintings was all becoming very dull to Astrid tonight; she had seen it countless times before. She always saw the same canopy when she woke, always the same park across the street, always the mountains- that was always when it were day- but never during the night time. Her mother and father would call her a fool for leaving the house at this hour; let alone at this time of year when winter had set in and Jack Frost had painted over the land with an icy curse. Astrid was going stir crazy locked up in her room as if she were a princess waiting to be rescued. “Well…” Astrid whispered to herself as she quietly slipped out of her bed “This princess is tired of waiting to be rescued.” *** Astrid watched her father reading, sat in front of the fire. She was not allowed outside because it was late and the moon had come out; mother thought it was dangerous but her friends told her it’d be fine. Except the doors were locked, like they were every evening, so going outside was an impossible feat for little Astrid. Turning away from her father to the window, the little girl could see the snow gently falling past the window; the flakes twirled and danced in the pale moon light as if they were fairies. All of which was all the more tempting to the little girl. “Astrid??” her father asked Turning, the little girl looked up at the man who sat in the chair. He had a young face, despite being almost 40 years old. He had hair that was almost as blonde as her, however his eyes were a dark brown; quite a contrast from her pale blue ones. Astrid was more of a Daddies girl, even though she shared many of her mothers attributes; her mother was stern and harsh and for some reason hated her. Astrid had never done anything wrong, not in her mind anyway, but her mother always dragged her home from school before conversations to other mothers could begin. Astrid did not understand why her mother was like this; she wished her mother gave her the same affection as her Daddy did. “What are you doing??” he chuckled lightly putting down the book he had been reading and letting Astrid up on his knee. The little girl shuffled a little so she were comfy before looking back up at him with wide, sad eyes. “Mama won’t let me go play in the snow” the little girl pouted, to which her father smiled “It is cold outside, you do not want to get ill do you??” “Well..” the little girl paused or a moment “No but snow is fun!! She never lets me play when I want to play” “You know why though?” Her father said as he stroked his daughters hair and watched as she shook her head. He grinned, glanced around, and leant in to whisper “It’s because you are a princess” “Reaallly!” the little girl gasped with delight. She had heard of many stories about princesses being saved from towers by handsome princes; never had she thought she was one of them. “Yes really…You’re my little princess” Her father smiled and embraced her tightly, her little hands digging into the fabric of his jacket as she hugged him back- a smile washed across her face. Astrid Shaw had never been so excited about whom she was; it was unlikely however that she would be again. *** After struggling with a pullover, Astrid was finally ready to escape her tower; except for one thing. Where are my shoes? The girl asked herself as she turned over the items in the wardrobe to find a pair but he search came out fruitless. Frustrated, the girl sat on the floor and contemplated where they could be but the last time she remembered having her trainers was at the front door that morning. Cursing under her breath, Astrid knew there was no way of getting to them now. They were the only sensible shoes she owned; all her others were heels. Slipping on a pair of socks, Astrid hurried to the window and gently let it off the clasp. Pushing it open carefully, she pushed it open. A cold breeze seeped in through the gap sending an icy shiver down her spine; the young woman had noticed it was snowing outside. Clambering from her window, she carefully scaled down the icy drainpipe and onto the snow covered grass. Her toes stung as the cold reached through the fabric of her socks. They stung but Astrid didn’t care as she took off down the street. As she reached the third road down the pain in her toes had stopped- they had begun to feel numb. Astrid paused for a second and considered her choice of footwear not the best for the weather she had run into. Her breath marked the air as she let out a shallow breath as she tried to catch it. She had forgotten that curfew was in place and that she should keep off main streets. As she slipped down a side road, she saw a shadow at its end. At first, she thought it was a peacekeeper but as she edged closer she recognized the face in the streelit road. *** There was so much noise. Astrid could barely handle the shouting and the screaming at night- let alone during the day- it put her on edge and it often stirred the voices inside her. Breakfast, was no exception to the noise. It wasn’t breakfast if one patient didn’t start screaming about their breakfast talking to them or about how they believe the world to end. As Astrid shuffled between the tables of the mad men and the insane woman- trying to find a seat to sit at by herself- she saw in their eyes and their quick anxious glances that they had lost more than just their marbles, that they had lost things dear to them. Perhaps children, lovers or something like hope; which bought the question to Astrid’s mind what had she lost that had landed her here? There were no tables left- none that were completely empty anyway. Most were full with patients, but there was one in the far corner of the room that only housed one person. A boy, who had bright blue eyes and ruffled brown hair and a young face. Except his eyes were not bright anymore, they were dull, his ruffled brown hair was a mess and his young face was aged with what some of the voices called guilt, sadness and regret. He was lonely and he was on the only table that didn’t frighten Astrid, so holding tightly to her tray, she went over and sat down. As she did, she noticed his wrists were bound up in bandages, a sight that Astrid knew all too well. The boy did not acknowledge her at first, he only glanced at her when she coughed and when he didn’t smiled back Astrid rolled her eyes “I’m not going to bite your hand off if you say hello. I’m all sorts of crazy except I don’t like to eat people” He looked at her, then his untouched breakfast. “What’s your name??? Mines Astrid...” she began to go off on a ramble, a nervous ramble, as she leant back in her chair “You must be rich to be living here. I mean if you weren’t you’d be in a real bad place where they don’t feed people porridge. I don’-“ “Dread.” “Pardon??” Astrid said not quite catching what the boy had said “My name, its-“ *** “Dread!!”she squealed excitedly, throwing her arms tightly round him“Not in the mad house anymore????” The girl waited a few seconds before pulling out of her hug, her eyes wide with the excitement of being free. The light above them flickered, Astrid glanced up at it before looking back at Dread, waiting for him to reply. They both knew that they were sitting ducks if they didn’t move from this spot soon- peacekeepers were probably lurking nearby; the last thing she wanted was to be caught and taken to her Dad. She let out a long deep frosted sigh after a second, frustrated that he wasn’t talking sooner. “What’s wrong Dread? Cat got your tounge?? Voice been stolen by the monsters in the dark?” She raised an eyebrow as she crossed her arms over her chest and waited, a little more, patiently for a responce WC♥1,590