Chapter 166
“She’s basically become that boys mother…” One of my old neighbours said to another. Once I made my way into the store I walked over to the desk and immediately spoke to the she wolf that was on duty there.
“I heard she might have to quit school!” Spoke another. One thing I hated more than anything was gossipers.
“Shes just a child herself, how can a mother put so much pressure on her daughter?!” Urgh, I was beyond livid. Yes my mom may have broken down, but no one knew how much she actually loved my dad. Now that he was gone she had nothing. I knew if thing’s continued I’d have to drop out of school, even in this new world I would be able to find a job to pay our way, not that I wanted too. “She hasn’t even been able to grieve herself, poor thing.”
I felt my eyes prick with tears but fought them back. Everyone could speculate on my situation as much as they wanted, but they would never know the truth, and that was that my small family were barely staying a float. It was easy to gossip and criticise other people when in you knew nothing about their life, but speaking about things and experiencing them first hand were completely different and I knew no one would truly understand. No one would ever know how thin the tightrope we were on truly was.
Present day….
“Your grace…? Your grace….? Dylan?” Huh, I shook my head quickly and finally met the eyes of the man who had helped me change the license plate of the crashed van to an almost identical one, I think his name was John? He was the son of the locksmith who had helped me out of my restraints when I had first arrived 8 hours ago.
“Sorry, I switched off for a second.” I was that exhausted after being awake and on the go for so long that I had began day dreaming. The entire time I was at the van site, I switched off and kept remembering how closed off my mom was after the death of my dad. Four months it took for her to finally come round slightly, and even then it was only because I ended up yelling at her. Only now after losing her too did I truly understand what grief could do to a person.
“Are
you sure this is the route Ryan takes?” I nodded my head and sighed looking at the scrunched up piece of paper I had given him with the instructions scribbled on it.
“That’s definitely his route. When you get stopped at the borders don’t let anyone see that paper. Make sure you tell border control that you’re only late because you got a puncture. I’ve placed a spare tire in the back of the van and slashed it slightly, so you have proof of the story.” I explained everything to him and sighed, rubbing my stinging eyes roughly trying to keep myself focused on my task. I had zoned out for so long that a tired taste began to take over my mouth. You know the one I mean, the one when you start to doze off but get jolted awake so abruptly that your se:: don’t have time to catch up.
“Is there anything you haven’t thought of?” The man chuckled before looking at me again this time with sympathy, 1 rolled my eyes slightly, I was beginning to get used to looks like that. Even though I hated them with a passion. “Hey, erm… I’m really sorry about everything that’s happened to you.” He looked somewhat ashamed for even bringing things up but I admit I was expecting to be questioned by people when I arrived. “It’s just, when the king made his announcement about the schooling law, you said some intimate things that…” he trailed off and my eyes widened suddenly.
I hadn’t even realised that I’d said something like that on live tv. Did I really tell the world that I had been defiled? Had I made myself out to be a victim? That wasn’t how I wanted to be seen, I wanted people to think I was a strong person. Although with the way I broke down at my mothers death I was hardly a strong character. I couldn’t for the life of me remember what I had said that day. Maybe I should rewatch some of the news footage.
1/2
Chosen By The Moon