Sorry, this one's a little short.
"Do you think she was telling the truth, Frederik?"
He shook his head hesitantly. Shan's face was streaked with dirt and tears. She pursed her lips.
"But how can you be sure?"
"I can't." He said softly. Frederik was scared that Nocha had been telling the truth-and what would happen to their family if she was? He had heard of the Snuffer before, in little snippets of whispers and pages from books. But it had always been fake and silly; myths told round the campfire.
Juo snorted in his sleep, and Leo clung tighter to Frederik's hair. He didn't want his sister to be scared, though. If she was frightened, then it would be harder to hide that Frederik was too. He was only a year older than her, and yet the difference seemed so great.
"Then how can we be sure that he isn't coming for us?"
"We..We can't."
Shan stomped her foot lightly.
"Then what use is the warning!" Sighing, she turned back to her brother.
"What can we do to hide us?"
Frederik thought back to the stories he'd heard around campfires in better times.
"I...I...I'll have to think on it..."
The truth was, he didn't. Every story-myth-he had ever heard ended with and so she died.
And so she was found.
And so her soul was sucked out.
Soul sucking was never good.
And why was it always a girl?Shan looked at him hopefully, and Frederik's heart cracked.He turned away, blinking hard.
Softly, he said, "let's not pester Muma about it. It's probably just poppycock. Just forget it."
Shan pursed her lips, and nodded absently.
"Poppycock."
He bit his lip, and nodded back.
"Poppycock." He repeated.
YOU ARE READING
Beats and Breaths-Lifelines
FantasyWhat if you lived in a land where no-one breathed? What if you lived in a land where no-one's heart beat? Shannon-Alice and Frederik don't exactly have an easy life. Their only living family is sick and bedridden. They only have jobs at all because...
