A Peaceful Interlude

Maisie stares out at the horizon before her, her feet dangling over the edge of the bridge. Tears brim in the corner of her eyes, a few falling errantly down her cheeks. She knew this would happen, that she would end up here, watching another sun rise alone. As soon as the council spotted Anna, she knew what was coming. She knew there’d be questions and that they’d pull Anna away from her and send her…she doesn’t know what they’ll do with her. “Damnit,” she whispers cursing herself for being so reckless, for daring to dream, for allowing Anna into her heart knowing it would end up broken.

She should have been prepared. This is why she normally journeys alone. Maisie sighs, this is how each journey usually ends for her, on her own waiting to see where she’ll go next. She should be used to this. Yet, after all this time with Anna, letting herself open her heart to another, sitting here alone feels utterly crushing.

“Penny for your thoughts?”

Maisie jumps as she looks up and sees Anna staring down at her. Her heart stops in her chest as she drinks in the sight of the girl she thought she’d never see again. She doesn’t know whether to laugh or cry and somehow settles for both, leaping up to pull Anna into her arms. Anna responds in kind wrapping her arms around her and pulling her in for a kiss so decadent and joyful that Maisie dares to hope again.

She breaks the kiss, reluctantly, to ask, “What happened?”

Her heart hammers in fear, wondering if this is a goodbye. She’s not sure if she can handle a goodbye, would it have been better for Anna to just disappear? No, definitely not, she decides, every moment with Anna, is a moment she’d rather have, even if they all might be pulled away from her any minute now.

She pushes the fear aside, deciding instead just to cherish this moment with Anna, memorise every inch of her in case it’s the last image she gets.

Anna shudders, moving to hold both of Maisie’s hands in hers, “It was awful. They kept calling me a glitch in the system, that I shouldn’t have ended up here.”

Maisie frowns, “Well I suppose in their system, in their eyes, you are.”

“But not to you?”

Maisie offers her a soft smile back, the answer an easy truth, “Never to me.”

Anna smiles shyly back at her, “I know to them it’s what I am, but it didn’t make it any easier to hear. They didn’t call me Anna. It was just ‘what do we do with her’ over and over like I wasn’t even there.”

“That’s the council for you,” Maisie replies, “I tried to warn you.”

Anna nods, “You did, I kept hoping we’d beat the system somehow.”

Maisie gulps, those words filling her with a dread so overwhelming that it seems to fill the very air around them, “So…is this goodbye?”

“Goodbye?”

Maisie nods, “Are you going? Are they sending you elsewhere?”

Anna shakes her head, “They didn’t know what to do with me. Apparently, I shouldn’t be here yet and so they weren’t sure what sending me onwards would do, they weren’t sure if there was an onwards for me to go to. So, they gave me a choice, take my chances and see what would happen or stay?”

Maisie dares to look up, “Stay?”

Anna beams at her, “Stay.”

Her heart is hammering again, but this time for a far better reason, this time there’s a little spark of hope running through her. She almost doesn’t dare utter the dream aloud, once its out there in the open, she’s not sure if she could face it if it all collapses. She swallows back that bit of fear and asks, “What did you choose?”

“I told them I wanted to stay and help other lost souls like Emmy, and they agreed to make me a guardian,” Anna pauses before glancing shyly up at Maisie, “but I told them I only wanted to do it if I could do it with you.”

Maisie chuckles then, joy erupting out of her, picturing the faces of the council as Anna stood there making demands of them, “You want to stay here? With me?”

Anna nods, “You make it sound like this was a hard choice. Maisie, I don’t know who I was, not enough and I don’t know what’s waiting for me onwards – I’m not sure if I want to know. But what I do know is that the only time I feel like I belong is with you. I remember being someone else, but I don’t feel like her, I want to be Anna…so yeah, you’re stuck with me – if you want to be that is?”

Maisie grins offering her a shrug, “I guess I could put up with you for a little while more.”

Anna shakes her head, a smile tugging at her lips, as they turn to face the rising sun together, “So what now?”

“We wait,” Maisie says reaching for Anna’s hand, “Together.”

It’s a wonderful word. She chooses to relish this moment of peace; they’ve been far and few between for her. There’s been so much anger, fear, and despair, but right now there’s Anna’s arm brushing up against hers, the feel of her hand in hers, a curl of hair fluttering in the breeze and across her forehead and most of all that soft, joyful smile that always makes her heart flutter. She can count this as one of her good moments.

She dares to dream that there will be many more of these to come.

“How many of these have you seen?” Anna asks, her gaze on the sun as it paints orange and golden hues across the stretch of land in front of them.

Maisie shrugs before resting her head against Anna’s shoulder, “Too many,” she pauses before smiling contently, “But I think this is the best one yet.”

Anna smiles brightly, “Me too, I told you an easy choice.”

Maisie nods, “An easy choice. It won’t be easy all the time.”

Anna nods knowingly thinking of the things they’ve gone through together already, “Perhaps not, but we can face it, together.”

“Together,” Maisie echoes.

They stand there for a moment drinking in the sun’s rays and cherishing this little interlude that the world has allowed them.

“Where do we go next?” Anna asks.

Maisie reaches into her pocket pulling out the coin she’s carried with her for so long now, “Heads we go east, tails we go west.”

Anna nods and hands entwined they watch as the coin spins in the air, glinting in the rays of the sun as they wait to see where they go.