Laila had been reading. Reading as the shouts from reality punctured into her imagination world of dragons. Reading as the shouts turned into screams, and she could no longer concentrate. Scared, she hugged her goldfish bowl to her chest. Her door burst off it's hinges, and a tall 'man', or boy perhaps would be a better word, kicked it in, leveling a hand gun at her. Confusion crossed his face, and he left as quickly as he had come in.
This is the story Laila had recanted to the police after Calum had been shot. Calum lived next door, and was involved with the wrong people: dangerous people, and more importantly, people who's handwriting made "flat 15" look like "flat 16".
The police buzzed like insects around the youth housing block when she boarded the bus to leave. In all the tragedy, she had finally been offered the spare room at a friends house, away from the drug pushers and the stoners, away from the sound of headboards slamming into walls at all hours of the night, and away from all the constant reminders of how she was failing at life. She took a bag, and she took her goldfish, and with "Brown eyed girl" playing in her ears, the bus drove her to what she hoped would be a new beginning.
PostcardQuest2011: Bus Ride