[Short] The Price of Freedom

He was young when he finally tasted freedom. And it was bad. Really bad.

He’d been at an amusement park when it happened. An amusement park is a wonderful place, and when you’re a young boy with lots of energy, it’s a place of mystery and wonder. All those dark alleys and tents that your parents pull you past, instead of letting you in to soak in all the different joys that mystery has to offer. He wanted to taste them, and he knew, just knew, that it would be wonderful and fun. Parents are there for a reason – to take away fun. Therefore, by extension, anything that his parents denied him must be fun.

He never told them that though, for fear of being punished. Parents, you know.

So when the roving amusement park came to town again, and they were queuing for a ride, he waited for them to be distracted with his sister’s incessant questions, and then he ran. He ran.

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[Short] A sweet, sweet dance

He sat with his hands placed in his lap, on top of the blankets that covered his knees, as he stared out the window. Light shone in from outside, but he never felt the warmth that should have come with it. Instead, he watched, and waited in silence.

The door opened behind him, and clicked shut again. Footsteps softly padded behind him. And her arms, her warm arms, reached around him in an embrace as he closed his eyes and leaned back into her. “You’re here.”

“I am.” A whisper, a familiar voice. Floating past his ear, entering his consciousness, as he raised his arms to cling on to hers. An act of desperation, one that didn’t go unnoticed.

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