When Worlds Combine - A WWC Sequel

60; Souls, applications, and gifts

Zayn

I stand outside alone staring at the scenery that hasn't changed at all within the last ten years; the dull and lifeless view of Bradford. The trees that only experience change during the season, the grass that's too overgrown to be saved, the abandonment. God, it sucked here. It really did. There was not one place on this earth that sucked more than Bradford did.

I tap the ash off my cigarette before inhaling another hit, blowing out the smoke and watching it disappear into the cool air. Even during Christmas Bradford sucked. The little snow we had had turned into absolute sludge and everyone just seemed depressed as hell. You went around town and saw nothing but misery. This was the most boring, dead end town I had ever known.

"Zayn? You coming in?" Waliyha sounds from behind me. "Mum's made chicken pie."

I look over my shoulder and give a small nod. "Yeah, I'll be right in." I finish off my cigarette.

I figure she's left but she speaks up again about a minute later. "Are you okay?"

I'm a little shocked at the question to say the truth, not because it came out of the blue but because I figured everyone knew better than to ask that by now. The thing was though, Waliyha was smart. She was damn smart. She knew things others had no clue about. She had always been the smartest.

I turn and look at her, my look somewhat aloof, cigarette hanging out of my mouth. I shrug. "Would you be okay if you were forever stuck in this town?"

She wraps her cardigan around herself, trapping in the warmth. "You're not stuck here, Zayn. You don't have to be if you don't want to."

"Where else am I gonna go?"

She looks at me seriously. "Anywhere you want."

I snort. How wishful. "That's a luxury that doesn't come to me," I say. "It never will."

She looks down soulfully, sighing a little. "You know, I was so happy that you had made it in London. You seemed so ... right there. Like, it was everything you had ever wanted. I really hope you can get to go back."

Her words make me stumble. Any mention of anything of my past year always makes me stumble. Every single time. I don't think there'll ever come a time where the mention of her will come any easier to swallow. I stamp out my cigarette with my boot and shake my head, laughing slightly under my breath. "There's nothing left there for me now. There's nothing to go back to."

"There's always something to go back to."

I look at her for a while before laughing, moving over to her and wrapping my arm around her shoulders. "When did you get so deep, huh? You're turning into a right poet."

She rolls her eyes, grinning. "Well somebody has to be. This family is so literal and daft that sometimes I want to shoot myself."

I throw my head back in laughter. "Now you know how I've felt all these years. Not one creative bone in any of their bodies. Bloody ridiculous."

"I know!" She cries. "Drives me insane! They don't appreciate anything!"

I smile, looking down at her. "Hey, never let them get to you, yeah? Never let them destroy your magic." I point at her chest. "See this in here? That's your soul. And that's a damn colourful soul. Don't ever devoid yourself of the colour."

She stifles a huge smile as I lean down and kiss her forehead. "I won't."

"You promise?"

"Yeah, yeah. I promise."

"Come on then, let's go get some of that chicken pie. Smells damn good."

-------

"I was talking to Roger today," dad grunts as we all sit around the dinner table. We all wait for him to continue because his stories always go on forever, and never actually have a point. "He said that the business is really hectic at the moment, and they could use all the help they can get. I put in an application for you."