devil's backbone 🗝 tommy shelby

chapter 1

Sybil placed her hat on her head, completing her final look before heading out the door and walking to the local church, where she was to be going to some cousin's wedding that she didn't really care all that much about. It wasn't that she didn't like her cousin, even though that may have helped her case, but more the fact that she hated weddings.

The church bells, the people, the uncomfortable silence when the preacher was speaking, the reception, all of it. Maybe the fact that she wasn't married yet, or even the fact that she couldn't seem to care about men in general. But nevertheless, she just hated weddings. They were far too much work for anyone to enjoy, and the prospect of going to one made her want to do nothing but stay in bed all day. She didn't feel like the fake enthusiasm, or the small talk, or the finger food, or (most of all) getting ridiculed by her family because she was the only child left that hadn't gotten married.

"You'll find someone eventually!"

"Aren't you getting a little too old to be frolicking around like you do?"

"You aren't getting any younger, Sybil! You've got to start having babies soon, or else it'll be too late."

She'd heard it all a thousand times before. Truth be told, she didn't really care all that much. She was happy with her independence. She wasn't confined to a house full of kids that she didn't want, nor in an unhappy union that she was trapped in out of fear. She was free.

But back to reality.

Sybil walked up the steps to the church, making a cross at the door before entering and finding a pew to sit in, which was the farthest one back, away from everyone else.

She watched in boredom as the couple shared their vows, toying with her bag aimlessly before noticing a stranger sit down next to her.

"Rather weary look for a wedding, don't you think?" He asked in a whisper, glancing once at her bored expression before looking ahead.

"This isn't a wedding," She scoffed, not paying the stranger any mind. "This is a party of which my dearest cousin becomes a new mother to three children that she did not birth and her fiancé — husband, now, I suppose — gets someone to clean up after him and fuck with no charge."

"Does that still not make this a wedding?"

"It isn't a wedding unless there's love between the two partaking," She reasoned. "Something that you don't see much of, anymore."

"And why do you think that is?"

Still not looking at his face, Sybil continued.

"Because it's all about politics or sex."

"Is there really a difference?"

She stifled a laugh and shrugged, knowing that he had a point.

"Maybe, maybe not," She answered. "But people just want power or some sort of economic gain. I have never been to one of these that actually meant something."

The stranger was silent as the couple shared their vows, but couldn't hold his words back any longer.

"Do you believe in love?" He asked, this time even quieter before.

Sybil was silent, just as he had been before.

"I don't know." She whispered back in response. "It's hard to believe in what you can't see, yet here I am, sitting in a church with a cross around my neck."

"So you do believe in love?"

"...No. I believe that we believe in such because we need something positive to hold on to in this lonely world."

"Well, then, Ms. Sybil Day," The stranger spoke as he stood, finally drawing her attention as the wedding finished up.

As soon as she saw his face, her blood ran cold.

"That's a very lonely life to live."

And with one last glance at his icy eyes hidden under the peak of his cap, he was gone, leaving Sybil wondering what the hell a Peaky Blinder knew about any sort of love.