Survivin' - [B.C.]

Chapter 7: Swinging London

"Oh, and-" He paused halfway in the doorframe, hand on the doorknob, body half-hidden behind it.

"Welcome home, darling."

He winked and shut the door, once again leaving me with only the dark and my thoughts. I turned my head to look out my window, gazing into the London playground.

Welcome home.

==========SURVIVIN'==========

Big Ben chimed. All sorts of people bustled this way and that. Double-decker busses swam through the seas of assorted cars. Bikers rushed past. People chatted as they walked and others laughed as they sat at outside tables. A hundred different smells came from a hundred different directions. Some dogs barked. Some children cried. The sun poured down on each and every soul around and everything shone in it's reflection. The ground beneath my feet felt increasingly more familiar as I ran towards everything that caught my attention. Ben was laughing and trying to keep up, continuously yelling at me to wait up and slow down. The fresh morning breeze of London blew through my hair and for the first time in almost two years, I felt alive. I felt full.

I darted around the corner of a building and into an alleyway, pressing my back against the wall and breathing heavily. Ben did the same thing.

"Okay, that..." I panted. "Was ridiculous. That was the most ridiculous thing I've ever done."

Ben scoffed playfully. "And you risked your life to play the big piano in a Macy's department store."

We both giggled maniacally which just made the whole ordeal even funnier.

"That wasn't just me," I said.

We stayed there for quite a while, just getting our breath back and regaining our composures. The busy life of London didn't falter around us.

"Wait..." Ben finally spoke up. "Did you... did you just 'Sherlock' me?" He asked, turning to look at me with his eyebrows bent. I just shrugged and brushed off his question.

"You just referenced my own show to me and I didn't get it until five minutes later!" He laughed at himself and rested his palm on his forehead.

"Oh, boy."

"So what do you wanna do now?" I asked. We'd been running all over London since earlier this morning, and we had started to run out of highly interesting things. Ben leaned silently against the wall for a minute as he thought. Then I could almost visibly see him come alight with an idea.

"The London Eye," he said, turning to face me completely. I mirrored him.

"The what-what?" I asked, hiking up an eyebrow. Ben's smile grew larger.

"Come on." He grabbed my hand and dragged me out the alley. We power-walked together, sometimes pushing each other so that we could get in front, which wound up in giggles and play fights. Everyone around us looked at us like we were insane, but neither of us cared. We just kept goofing off until we were almost right beneath the giant Farris wheel I kept seeing. Ben tilted my head upwards so I could look at it in full.

It was huge, stretching up to what seemed like forever. Almost three dozen oval-shaped pods bordered the circular skeleton. It made me think of a carriage of death. On the ground floor, here on Earth (or Purgatory, if you believe it exists), you board the pods which will take you to your afterlife. You ride all the way up and, if you lived an acceptable life, you got let out into heaven. If you didn't, you rode all the way back down into hell. My opinion? I'd like to get the whole experience, so I'd gladly go 'round the whole thing just to be let out into hell. Plus - I'm scared of heights.