Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
┏━━━ CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN━━━┓ ★゜・。。・゜゜・into the depths of a new beginning ──── Mallory Thompson
▌│█║▌║▌ ║▌║▌║█│▌
IT WAS A SHAME THAT MALLORY NEVER ACQUIRED A LICK OF MUSICAL ABILITY. Instead, she pressed the same key over and over having much more respect for those people that became famous in the old world. She wondered what happened to them. Were they still somewhere in the world, sitting around a campfire and singing until they couldn't anymore? Or had they escaped on a private jet to an exotic and secluded island? Or had they suffered the same fate as so many others? She would never know and the part of her that was curious was restless for the answer.
She started to understand why Louis spent so much time in this room though. Whether it was the much-needed quiet that lingered around the room because no one else came through, or the fact that the single instrument that was placed in the center of the room somehow exuded a feeling of tranquility without even being played properly. Maybe musicians were smart after all for spending all their time writing music.
She glanced around the dimly lit room and all the memories that still hung around. The school never felt like a complete home, but after everything she wouldn't want to be anywhere else. And if by some stroke of luck she and Marlon had a normal upbringing, maybe they'd both be dead already. Whether it was because they couldn't find adequate shelter, or never had the tools to learn how to hunt.
So many things would've been different. Maybe being deemed a threat to her family and others wasn't necessarily a bad thing. Because all the people she met were somehow the most normal teenagers, despite what they did to get placed in Ericson's in the first place. She fit in with them because they understood what it was to struggle. Most of them were dropped by their families, shoved between adults to figure out what to do. Stability was something they all searched for. Just kids given the worst of circumstances.
It was funny how almost dying changed her whole outlook on life. Before the list of people she'd go to hell and back with was scribbled with the fewest of names. Now she wanted to protect every single of the residents of this school.
"Look who's up and about."
Mallory's cheeks flushed when she glanced back and saw Louis leaning against the door jam—breaking her out of her thoughts. God, why couldn't she just go back before she realized her feelings? She watched silently as Louis glided over it her and plopped down onto the bench beside her, somehow not noticing the shift in her stance. She was so caught up in her thoughts, that she didn't realize Louis had asked her something more and was now staring at her expectantly.
