Chapter 44: Victory Is Not Escape
Liora was surrounded by an innumerable mixture of individuals trekking with random, chaotic direction.
On her back was a backpack, heavier than the one she’d carried for her last school. Either by the laptop or the phone she’d equipped along with her, there was a continued vibrating hitting her back.
She sighed as she looked down at a paper, some of its writings obscured with the black but others more visible.
The class she’d entered was the former, undisclosed to her.
Despite the previous deaths having granted her enough autonomy to choose her own speech and actions, this time, she could feel for her body like it were her own, but she could neither direct it to move outside of the norm, nor did she feel that the thoughts running through her head was truly hers.
It was a deceptive freedom, her sensations hers but her thoughts and actions not.
"Hey, Rowan, how ya’ doing buddy?"
A voice chimed in from behind her, a warm hand pressing into her back. It was feminine yet sturdy, carrying within it a strength that she found rather strange.
Outside of her own will, her body jumped from the sudden intrusion, awkwardly posturing itself after the frightful scare.
"Why so jumpy," she asked, her eyes closed and mouth forming a wide smile as Liora turned to locate the person responsible.
"You know better than to creep up on me like that, Lyra."