Anomaly [Undergoing Editing]

Chapter 5

"Did you hear about what happened to the Gypies, Louis?" asked Clara. "They say some disease spread like wildfire, and a lot of them died. However, Father sent the best doctors to save them all. I thought he didn't care about them, but he does. Guess you were wrong about him Lou."

They were in her flat again, sharing a loaf of bread Louis brought back from Aadila's shop. He hadn't been visiting Clara's house as much since he took Kai to the Free Market with him, and she left very lonely without him.

She often found herslef not even being able to go to sleep at night because she hadn't seen him since working hours were over. So she used this time to talk about whatever. Even if he didn't like it. She just wanted to hear him talk, if only for a little while.

"Louis? Can you hear me?" He blinked and looked at her, as if he was pulled out of trance. "Are you okay?"

"Never better." He put a peice of bread in his mouth and laid his head on the table.

"Louis..." She grabbed his hand and gave it a loving squeeze. "What happened? You haven't been the same since you took Kai with you. What happened there?"

He didn't answer. He just nodded and looked up at her. Then she really saw him. His normally bright blue eyes were dull and tired, and his whole face looked older, and more tired. "Haven't you been sleeping?"

He shook his head and laid it back down on the table. "Is that why you haven't come over?" Another head shake. "Did I do something?"

"No. Clara you didn't do anything wrong. And neither did...neither did Kai."

"Why'd you do that?" she asked. "Why'd you hesitate like that? What did Kai do?"

Louis looked up and tried a smile. "Clara he didn't do anything. I'm just a little shaken up because Aadila almost died a week ago. That's all." Clara knew her best friend better than that. She'd known him for almost eight years now, and could tell when he was lying and when he was telling the truth.

However she didn't feel the need to ask him more and more questions. She didn't want to bother him more than she already had.

"It's almost time for Mr. Bradley's speech. Do you want to watch, or do you want to go to sleep?"

He looked at her, and she could see something was bothering him, and it wasn't whether he should watch Bradley or go to sleep. It was something else that he wasn't telling her. Something big. Something that had to do with her son.

"Tomorrow there will be a public hanging of the Raymond Smith and Logan Reid, the two homosexuals, okay, who were caught together last week. There was no helping them. Ladies and Gentleman we tried to cure them, however they were not willing. They did not try to cure their illness. We must put them out of their misery, for if we don't, they will spread like a plauge. They are a plauge."

Louis was sleeping with his head on Clara's lap, snoring as loud as he possibly could. She wished she could wake him. She wanted to talk to him about Mr. Bradley's speech. She wanted to know what he would say about this.

She knew he would say it was wrong for him to hang someone based on how they chose to live thier lives. He would say humans are humans, and how they choose to love is not of anybody's concern.

Clara shook him and told him Bradley's speech was over. They went to her room and curled up together, with her face burried in his chest. Louis wasted no time falling back to sleep, though the same couldn't be said about Clara.

She stared at his peaceful sleeping face, that ocasoinally twisted with fears of his dreams. She brought a hand to his face and lightly traced his jawline, before running her thumb over his parted lips. She thought about what it would be like to kiss him. He often joked about sex with her, but never really about kissing.