Hide and Seek

Chapter 21

*NARRATOR'S POV*

"You'll come back for me, right?" Harry turns to Louis expectantly, only to note that he has

distracted the boy from whatever was previously occupying his mind.

"Uh....do you want me to?" Louis finally gets out after momentary deliberation.

"In an hour."

Only after Louis' driven of and safely within the confines of a usually dead-beat but currently

active civilization, does Harry go into the place he's dreaded since he escaped from the asylum.

His own mother has earned praise in that psychotic institution, and he had safely hidden behind

that dark-winged identification.

Now he's free and looking to walk away from the life that's haunted him and stripped him of any

trace evidence related to innocence until he was nothing; until he was hollow and bleak. His dark

ages, he calls it. When his smile was empty, and every time it came on display it would defy his

black soul. When a permanent frown was all he was allowed to show, an emotional frown was his

ever-present expression. His fingers clutched at empty sheets the nights he could sleep, or his nails

scraping the cold wooden walls of the basement when he disobeyed Mother and received his due

punishment.

His biggest regret was letting Louis live with him. The boy with blue eyes and a genuinely

peaceful heart corrupted Harry's pattern of emptiness. He gave him something to feel, to strive

for. To want so completely that the simple need consumed Harry. Now, who knows what they're

facing an eternity of? If they could have ane eternity to begin with. Harry's mother is a cruel

woman who felt nothing but disgust. Harry is hers, she knew that.

The dilemma is that Harry didn't want to be hers in such a whole comparison. He wanted to

belong somewhere, to someone just like he'd see on television before the fucked up device broke.

He thought he'd find a partner and all would be well. He has never been so wrong. Mother was

clingy, he frowned upon the thought.

The thought of saving Louis, keeping him safe and protected is what drove Harry away from the

edge. There was no comfort worthy of comparison with Louis' touch. Blue is Harry's favorite

colour.

The gate rattling is what draws Harry's focus back to the present. The smile that continually

accompanied the memory of his 'beloved' vanishes instantly. His eyes skip around as he takes in

everything that he'd so gladly abandoned. The house hasn't changed at all except for the fact that

the television is of completely and the stench of expired food fills the air.

He half expects something to happen. For something - by something he means Mother - to float

towards him wearing a terrifying smirk. Nothing happens. He is a little disappointed, he wanted