{"id":4305,"date":"2020-05-13T18:54:16","date_gmt":"2020-05-13T22:54:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=4305"},"modified":"2020-05-13T18:54:16","modified_gmt":"2020-05-13T22:54:16","slug":"five-02-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=4305","title":{"rendered":"Five – 02"},"content":{"rendered":"

[This post is from Thomas Merlin Ambrose’s point of view.]<\/em><\/p>\n

She seemed utterly content to just sit there and it was almost maddening. I drew a blanket a little tighter around my shoulders and frowned. I knew that she noticed, her brow arching slightly, an expression I could see out of the corner of my eye.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n

I shook my head. \u201cNothing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou want me to leave,\u201d she said. It was all I could do not to wince. I hadn\u2019t thought that I was quite that transparent, even with someone who I\u2019d known her whole life.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo,\u201d I lied. \u201cYou stay as long as you want to.\u201d You\u2019re going to anyway, whether I like it or not.<\/em><\/p>\n

She snorted. \u201cYou are a terrible<\/em> liar.\u201d<\/p>\n

I wasn\u2019t, not really, but again, she knew me too well. \u201cYou\u2019re going to do whatever you want to do, Kay. I have never<\/em> been able to stop you from doing that. Though, really, I wonder why you\u2019re sitting here when I\u2019m sure there\u2019s shit that you want to do beyond the ward lines.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her brows knit. \u201cWhat does that have to do with anything?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou realize that after today, they\u2019re going to keep us bottled up behind the wards for a while, right?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy the hell would they do that?\u201d<\/p>\n

I looked at her, frowning. \u201cWhat do you mean, \u2018why?\u2019 Think about it. Something just attacked me down in the ravine, something that they haven\u2019t seen in years, something dangerous\u2014something that could kill<\/em> if we\u2019re not careful. They\u2019re going to keep all of us kids inside the wards for a long time\u2014until they decide it\u2019s safe again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was just one, wasn\u2019t it?\u201d She frowned, hugging a knee to her chest. \u201cAnd didn\u2019t you and Uncle Phelan kill it?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cProbably,\u201d I said. \u201cBut it\u2019s never just one<\/em> with those things. Don\u2019t you remember the stories? They come in packs, Kay. There\u2019s at least two more out there, probably more. And they\u2019re never just out there hunting at random. Something sent them here for a reason and no one\u2019s going to be sure what it is. Unless or until your dad figures that out, we\u2019re going to be confined to the village wards.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe wouldn\u2019t,\u201d she said, shaking her head. \u201cHe knows better.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cKnows better?\u201d I leaned back against my pillows and stared at the ceiling. \u201cKay, there is nothing that he wouldn\u2019t do to protect any of us and you know it. If he thinks keeping us inside the wards will protect us, he\u2019ll do it and it doesn\u2019t matter what any of us think about it, either. His word is law.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe wouldn\u2019t confine us like that,\u201d she said, though I could hear the doubt in her voice.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust wait,\u201d I said. \u201cBy morning, none of us will be allowed to leave.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[This post is from Thomas Merlin Ambrose’s point of view.] She seemed utterly content to just sit there and it was almost maddening. I drew a blanket a little tighter around my shoulders and frowned. I knew that she noticed, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[336,337,347,14],"tags":[340,150,171,170,345,149,148,168,147,165,200,146],"class_list":["post-4305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ambrose-cycle","category-book-8","category-chapter-05-book-8","category-story","tag-ambrose-cycle","tag-awakenings","tag-fantasy","tag-fiction","tag-kailey-astoris","tag-original-fiction","tag-post-apocalyptic","tag-serial","tag-serial-fiction","tag-story","tag-thomas-merlin-ambrose","tag-web-fiction"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1EBlN-17r","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4305"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4305\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4306,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4305\/revisions\/4306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}