All That She Can See(80)



‘What the —’

BANG!

Something jumped down onto the bonnet, tipping them forwards, the back tyres coming off the cobbles and then thumping back down as Loneliness leaped off the car. It turned to look over its shoulder and grinned at Cherry.

‘But how…’

‘I don’t understand…’

Chase and Cherry looked at each other in disbelief.

Loneliness let out a roar and the windows of all the shopfronts rattled. It roared again and they shattered, shards of glass raining onto the street. It scratched at the cobbles with its claws and beat the ground with its fists and then it ran straight for the blue suits. Some of them ran away but others stayed, foolishly thinking they could take on the monster – but they had no idea how strong it was. Without a moment’s thought, Loneliness tossed them aside like they were nothing.

‘No!’ Cherry screamed, her eyes widening in horror. Chase’s face paled.

This wasn’t the Loneliness Cherry had spent most of her life with. This… beast was violent, dangerous, murderous. One by one, it picked up the blue suits and tore them apart, limb from limb. Cherry tried to block out the screaming but it was no good – she’d remember that sound for the rest of her life.

‘We have to help them,’ she sobbed.

‘It’s too late, Cherry,’ Chase said through his own tears. ‘They’re all gone.’

Cherry couldn’t bring herself to have one last look at the town she’d come to love or her old friend Loneliness. She didn’t want her last memory to be stained in blood, so she closed her eyes as she and Chase sped past the chaos and away, for good.





Dear Peter, We’re safe. I think. As safe as we can be while the Guild is still in business, but I don’t think I’ll ever be happy with a life on the run. I’ve always tackled everyone’s issues head on but now that it’s me I have to save, I have to run away? I know I don’t really have another option. It could be life or death but it just feels so… wrong.

There is one thing that helps me sleep at night though, Peter, and I hope it may give you some comfort too. Something that the Guild overlooked. Something that I didn’t realise until now, either. On the day we left Plymouth, Loneliness came back to save us. It had escaped, Peter! It found us and saved us but… it wasn’t the Loneliness I knew. It was violent and brutal and more terrifying than I had ever seen. It had become an actual… monster. Loneliness had been mine since I was a child. It had been with me for seventeen years and not once had it been violent. Not once had it raised even the smallest finger to me. I was the only one it could touch and it never hurt me, not physically. Meddlums are still able to influence us. They can still stop us from being who we want to be and make us be someone completely unlike ourselves and yet Loneliness had never once made me violent or been violent itself. If it had violent tendencies, why did it never make me do violent things? I think it’s because I had as much influence over Loneliness as it had over me! I can see that now. No one can help how they feel so I was stuck with Loneliness. But I had a choice. I could let Loneliness consume me for the rest of my life, give in to it and let it control me like a puppet… or I could fight back. When it would whisper in my ear and tell me to lash out at those I loved, to push them away, I’d say no. When it tried to keep me lonely I would hold it at arm’s length and… it would listen. I pushed it away so much that I accidentally drew a line across the door of my bakeries so it couldn’t come in. I created a safe space for myself that Loneliness had no choice but to respect because, while I couldn’t control its existence, I could control how much I let it dictate my life. Which is why when it was finally free of me, it was able to cause so much devastation. It killed people, Peter. I created it and my creation killed people. I will have that on my conscience until the day I die. Something I gave life to took life from others. It’s made so many other people feel lonely but I know the blame is not all mine. It never would have been real had it not been for the Guild and all I can do now is make sure I’m ready for the day they show their faces to me again.

For now, Chase and I are happy. Very, in fact. According to him we’re surrounded by Happiness constantly. He’s become part of me and my life so fast it’s as if he’s always been here and it becomes almost unbearable when he disappears for too long. I didn’t get to see much of it when we were in Plymouth but Chase’s smile could light up a small town and I’m so pleased I’ve been seeing more and more of it as the days go on. You’ll be glad to know that I haven’t stopped baking. I don’t think I ever will. I don’t know when this fight with the Guild will start again, or if it will ever end, but I know we’re the good guys. The ones who want to help people are always the good guys – and we do it without electrocuting people, gouging eyes out and removing what makes us human. So we have to keep doing what we do best. We have to keep helping people fight their demons. The good way. The way that allows them to keep being humans with all those gorgeous, glorious feelings and show them that we hurt so much because we care so much. You can’t have rainbows without rain. It’s true – truer than most people will ever realise but that’s why the world has us. That’s why the world needs us.

So it can feel.





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