You Might Aswell (a Tegan and Sara fanfic)

Take me by the hand

The skinny teen shivered in a cupboard and cursed it for being cold. Her dirty blonde hair reflected the dusty dim light coming from the grate near the roof. She reached out her hand in the darkness. Her bony hand was clasped tightly by another, equally bony, hand. "How you doing?" The girl asked her friend.

The other girl, who had short brown greasy hair, snorted with laughter "Cold."

"That's all?"

"Mmhmm."

The first girl, Ebbie, pulled the slightly younger brunette into a hug.

The smaller girls muffled whimpers got through to Ebbie and she broke away to try and study her friends face in the gloom.

"Oh Beth." She sobbed, seeing the misery on the girls face, "I'm so sorry."

They looked at eachother for a while, and listened to the sounds of echoey footsteps and mumbled conversations from the corridor outside.

When it all seemed quiet outside, Beth whispered "Ebbie, I don't think I can do this."

Ebbie knew she was telling the truth, and understood why. This place might be terrible, but it was safe, if it was this difficult to get out, it would be just as difficult at least to get in. And there was family here. Or at least close friends, to most people here, they felt more like family than their actual family did though.

The prospect of fending for yourself was scary. The thought of anything different than the life they had known here was scary. Being alone would be scary.

Eventually, Ebbie answered. "I understand." She whispered, her voice husky from disuse.

And then Beth slipped out from her stare, away from her grasp, and out of the cupboard' leaving Ebbie alone to cry.

  Ebbie shook herself out of it quickly though. She hadn't done all this for nothing and she wasn't going to give up on her dream, to get out.

  Ebbie waited until no more light came through the grate, and no more noises came from the hall. Only then did she allow herself to open the cupboard door a crack, and peer out.

She gave herself the all clear, and softly ran to the corridor the 'nurses' go home via, her slippers making scuffling noises that echoed off the bare walls. She got to the locked doors, turned ninety degrees, and looked up at the loose ceiling tile. She dragged a wooden stool from the nearby visitors area, and placed it against the wall. The nervous blonde girl climbed onto the stool with shaking legs, and dislodged the ceiling tile slowly, pulling herself through the hole it left with effort.

After crawling through countless dusty ceiling vents, Ebbie finally saw some light. She peered through the grate on the wall of the vent, which was where the light was coming from, and saw a streetlight. She lay on her back and pushed the vent with her legs, eventually breaking it off the wall. Pulling herself from the maze of vents, she found herself standing by a big red brick building, and nearby was a bus.