A Web Of Lies

Aelita

Spiders. Aren't they beautiful things? They create intricate webs - all strung together so delicately, you can't tell where one ends and where one begins. Maybe that's where I learnt it from - the lying. Spider webs have a downfall, though; one thread of spider silk breaking causes the whole thing to shatter.

"Come on, Rae, don't you want to leave this goody posh place?" Aelita asked, half-dragging her best friend, Rachel, with her.

"No! I mean, yes, I do, but even that won't be enough to get us out of here. Will alone won't do it, A. We need a solid plan. We're two sixteen-year-olds, we can't survive out there." Rae answered.

Aelita's expression didn't change; it remained the same desperation and longing. "So then what? We stay here? Rot till they send us all to military training - not to mention we'll all probably die?"

"No, of course I don't want that - but we're going to get killed trying to get, and I don't know about you, but I fancy having a chance at survival," Rachel told her, planting her feet.

"I'm leaving tomorrow, Rae, tomorrow at sundown. I'll have a plan, I'll have everything we'll need, meet me by the cafeteria if you're with me. Otherwise, this is goodbye." Aelita said, finally. She couldn't bear to be in this hellhole any longer. She'd decided that she'd rather her chances out there at survival than in this school.

She packed a small duffel bag, the colour of court ravens - pitch black. She didn't pack much: a hoodie, a scarf, gloves and a butter knife she had stolen from the cafeteria at breakfast. A few pennies clinked together in her pockets. She hadn't owned much. Hadn't been allowed to, every prized item had been confiscated the moment she'd stepped into this school that resembled a prison.

In fact, she hadn't seen the outside world in so long that she had forgotten the warmth of the sun, the way she used to laugh, and the smell of dirt after rain. That had all been snatched from her two years ago, when her mother had died in an accident, and her father, whom she'd always hated, had sent her to this boarding school.

Her most prized possession, her mother's wedding ring, had been taken from her the second she stepped through the gates, literally. She didn't know of its fate; maybe it was somewhere in the office, maybe it was pawned, maybe her father had it, maybe it was lost or destroyed.

She didn't wait in the cafeteria for long. She entered the empty cafeteria as the sun began to sink into the horizon. She watched it set through the windows that never opened. She was gone by the time the stars twinkled at twilight.

Rae did not come.