Monday, 8 October 2012

Stillborn XII (Josh)


XII - Josh

            Josh was impatient to get moving.  There seemed to be something inherently wrong with sitting around in a fake living room in a department store whilst the end of the world might be happening outside.  He knew where they needed to go.  He knew that Clara would be waiting for him there.  He had dropped his hints and now he knew he had to wait as patiently as he could, otherwise the others would get suspicious.  He had already nearly blown it by mentioning the cult directly.  He had to be careful from now on.

            But despite all that it still felt wrong to be just sitting.  He needed to move, to get closer to Clara.  An involuntary smile twitched at the corner of his mouth as he thought of what they had done together in the factory.  He let his mind wander for a moment, then reigned it in as he felt his body stirring in response.  He didn’t want to give himself away that way either.

            And so they sat, mostly in silence, just Paige and him sharing the occasional word, whilst Henry dozed and Charlie fell asleep all curled up on a striped sofa that looked like it belonged in some old T.V. show.  Eventually Paige began to drift off as well, but Josh couldn’t.  He was too alive to be falling asleep, too anxious and excited.

            He sat for a while on his own, watching the others take their rest and he wondered why he needed them to go with him at all.  Clara had wanted them, sure, but they weren’t really necessary, were they?  She would understand if he came to her alone, wouldn’t she?  The thought of being alone with her again got his pulse racing once more and only made him more anxious to be moving.

            At last, when the excitement got too much, he stood up, walked carefully around his sleeping companions, and made his way to the stairwell.  When he was sure that none of them had woken up he picked up his pace and bit and then dashed down the steps towards the ground floor and the streets beyond.  His destination was so close he could almost taste it, but it was Clara he wanted to taste and it wouldn’t be long now.  Not long at all.

No comments:

Post a Comment