Freerunner

Chapter 4

In one day, I'd lost my friend.

In one week, I'd lost my rationale.

In one month, I'd lost myself.

And I never found it again.

It felt like ages since I'd discovered Stevie went missing. I hadn't been keeping track of time since time seemed to have smashed to itself the day my parents delivered the news. I'd given up on sneaking around and spent all my time, including school hours, under the canopy of the fallen watchtower. Here, I remembered him best. It was comforting to have a place like this.

I had taken the letters he'd sent and put them in chronological order around me whilst I lay in the middle of all of them. Each one started with Dear Rose and ended with Take care. That is, given you didn't count the P.S. He'd given me many little notions for pranks I could play. Pranks I would never do.

My mind wandered back to the day we met. I had just turned six so I was old enough to attend school but most parents waited until their children were seven since the nuns were extremely strict. I remember walking in blank-eyed, only going because my dad told me to. I had refused to look up and my hair was pulled so tight I swore my scalp would tear. The sister then, I can't remember her name, told me quite tersely to sit up the front with the seven-year-olds. That only made me more reserved; my eyes never left my feet. There were no other six-years-olds, no one for me to really get along with.

In the middle of the lesson, I didn't answer any questions asked of me. Of course, the nun wasn't happy with that and slapped my wrist with a ruler. I got sent out of the room and was told to sit next to the door. Outside, I didn't cry, I didn't run. I just stared at the dust curling around my boots. That blank stare had consumed me, stopping me from being human.

That was until the door burst opened.

There was a cloud of some sort of white dust and a lot of coughing. Out leapt a boy of eight with light brown hair that flopped down to his earlobes and deep, wood-coloured eyes. A mischievous half-grin was perpetually etched on his lively face. You could tell he was strong from his stocky build but it only really showed once he'd grown up. That boy with the wrinkled uniform crouched in front of me and put a finger to his lips. Then he got up and motioned for me to follow.

What would've happened if I didn't listen to him? I almost found out for I was still on the ground when the nun charged out of the convent and went to seize my arm. I didn't react but this boy did. He kicked up the dust, clouding the nun's vision before pulling me up onto my feet and making me run into the main block. Luckily for us, the nun didn't follow. We weaved in between passing soldiers and officers. They didn't seem too shocked by the boy's presence but did a double take as I flew past as well. If we were any older, I reckon we would've been stopped or mistaken for underages. However, two little children sprinting down the hallway gave off the impression that we were going to find a parent. We rushed past the classroom and office area until we reached the storage room at the very end of the block. If I had taken two seconds to think, I might have resisted since that caved-in roof didn't look like it would hold up. However, the state I was in could've been likened to comatose.

We were winded from the run and collapsed against the shelves. He reached up and took a ration pack from it.

"Are you allergic to anything?" He asked. I just shook my head. He cracked it open and threw me the chocolate in it. I just stared at the bar in my lap as he dug in and pulled out some other items and started eating them.

"Hey. Hey," he repeated. I looked up with my eyes but kept my head down. "You're Rose Kennedy, aren't you?" I gave him a small nod. "Then your parents are the heads aren't they? That must be tough." I nodded again. "But they must be nice to you, right?"