𝔹𝕠𝕣𝕟 𝕥𝕠 𝕃𝕠𝕤𝕖 | Tommy Shelby

𝕏𝕀𝕍. ꜰɪʀᴇ

Everything was fire around him. When Tommy opened his eyes, he was surrounded by flames and black smoke blocked his lungs.

He was lying on his back on a bed and recognized the ceiling above his head. The cracked wooden ceiling that rainwater used to seep through was the same one that Olivia hated and which he had promised her to fix. The flaking plaster walls that surrounded him, and through which pillars of fire rose, were the same as those found inside the brick house. That brick house.

Tommy couldn't move. He was paralyzed on the burning bed, naked, and Olivia slept on his chest. He tried to call her and warn her but his throat refused to utter a phrase.

<<Olivia, wake up>>. Lacking the ability to speak, Tommy spoke to Olivia with his mind, hoping for a miracle. <<Wake up, for fuck sake>>.

But it was too late. The fire had reached the sheets and started to burn the white cotton. It reached his legs and Tommy was surprised to find they weren't burning. It reached Olivia's feet, and while she didn't move one iota, Tommy despaired.

"Wake up!"

His upper body rose on its own at the exclamation that he was finally able to let out. When Tommy opened the eyes, confusion overwhelmed him: he was in the living room of Ada's house, Olivia's diary on the floor, the box on the coffee table. The first rays of dawn, whitish and dying, filtered through the blinds, and the ticking of the clock was the only sound his ears could catch.

<<It was a nightmare>>, he told himself. Tommy's pulse was racing. He settled into a sitting position and felt an immense urge to vomit.

Tommy barely remembered the state in which he had arrived at his sister's house. The laudanum had acted and spoken for him, but had not succeeded in blurring the conversation with Ada. Reading Olivia's second diary made him succumb to exhaustion, falling asleep.

He picked up the notebook and tried to remember where he had left the reading. Tommy couldn't help but smile as remembered that night that Olivia had recounted so well. He wondered how her day continued after this and with sincere curiosity, he started reading again.

╭⋟───────────────────╮

We arrived in Birmingham shortly after noon. Thomas parked the car in front of Ada's house and before allowing me to get out, he took me by the chin and kissed me. The gesture surprised me, since my attention was focused on the very possible discussion that I would have with Ada as soon as I crossed the portal.

"I'll see you at the Company on Monday", Thomas said.

For a moment it seemed to me that he wanted to tell me something else. I am not going to risk it and assume that it was a manifestation of affection since such a thing contradicted everything that had given me to understand the night before. According to Thomas, there was something between us but, for him, that something was not love. He loves Grace.

Smiling, I got out of the car and with a brisk step I entered my friend's house. I had not closed the wooden door when I heard footsteps heading towards the hall from the living room and expecting to meet Ada's angry face, I was surprised to see Polly, with a cigarette in her hand.

"It's her, Ada. Here's your friend". Polly took a drag on her tobacco as she kept her haunting gaze fixed on me.

Ada appeared almost instantly. Seeing me, she narrowed her eyes in an angry expression and crossed her arms. Her attitude didn't surprise me.

"We couldn't go back", I hastened to excuse myself. "It started to rain in the afternoon and..."

"We already know, girl", Polly interrupted. "It rained here, too. The surprise would have been it didn't. We are in England, after all".