The next few weeks passed quickly. Nothing much happened which you would call interesting. Everything that I had decided to do last week now seemed like a shattered dream.

I became very busy in the hat shop. Sometimes, I overslept and made Lettie very angry. I couldn't go out as Lettie was keeping a sharp eye on me. She knew I had intentioned to visit mom and dad and was making sure I didn't.

She made up excuses to stop me leaving the shop. This made me mad at her. I could've jumped out of the window and ran away but the window was very high from the ground and someone would see me. So I was kind of stuck.

The only thing that happened all that time was the increase in military aircrafts. They came often and with every day that passed, I noticed bombs with the aircrafts. The customers in the shop talked tensely to each other and whenever I entered, they would just stop talking and go back to their shopping. Some of them even whispered quietly to each other in my presence. My life was becoming uncomfortable. Even the dream had stopped coming and the only thing left to amuse me were my books.

Then one day, Lew stopped by. He was one of my best friends and a really cool dude. He had blonde hair and a strong built body. He marched inside the shop his grey eyes glancing around quickly.

I was a talking to a customer when he spotted me. The next thing I know was being pulled into a tight hug that suffocated me. "How are you, (Y/N)?" he cried pulling me into a tighter hug.

"Can't-breathe-" I managed to choke out. He pulled away immediately and looked guilty. He came over his guilt in half a second and patted my head.

"Now to answer your question" I said snapping his hand back "I am dying here."

"Ah I should've known," he said in his boyish tone.

Lew was a really nice and handsome guy. Everyone loved him and he had earned quite a lot of admirers. One thing I like about him was that he always stood up for me. We had been together since we were kids and he always protected me and made sure I was treated fairly and justly. I was very glad to finally see him.

Lettie appeared out of nowhere and said to Lew, "good to see you. Thanks for coming over." Lew raced his fingers through his hair. "No prob" he replied in such a way that it seemed to me he was saying 'you called me to this hat shop suddenly and I had to walk all the way to this forbidden place and here you are thanking me for coming. I wanna slap you.'

Lettie turned to the last customer left in the shop and said, "we are closing early today, ma'am."

The woman looked surprised and so did I. It was not even afternoon and Lettie was closing the shop hours ago. In my record, since the last two decade, Lettie had never closed any shop before the due time.

 Lettie closed the door shut and turned the sign saying open to closed. Then she turned to Lew and ordered, "follow me!" Lettie marched upstairs with Lew following her. But before Lew disappeared, he passed me a strange grin.

I became curious about what was going on. First I decided to go upstairs and amuse myself in a book. But I couldn't do it. I wanted to see what were they talking about. Lettie had clearly ignored me and it was so unlike her. I wanted to know what they were talking about so I tried listening at the door but it was useless. Finally I got an idea.
My room was next to Lettie's. Our windows were very close to each other and I knew Lettie's window was always open. I climbed up on the windowsill and careful balanced myself. Not daring to look down in the fear of falling, I tried listening to the two. I was able to hear Lew and Lettie talking.

"I don't know, Lettie" Lew was saying "perhaps we should tell her."

Tell me what? I wondered .

"Are you mad?" Lettie's voice came "we can't. We promised, have you forgotten?"

"And how long do you think she will stay calm?" Lew demanded getting angry. When was the last time I was calm?

"She will get used to it," Lettie said and I could hear her rubbing her hands together "but let's get back to the point. You have to keep an eye on her. I have to go at any cost."

I almost choked. Where was Lettie going?

"Yeah sure" Lew said sarcastically "as if I wanna stick around here."

"I mean it" Lettie said nervously "I am their daughter. I have to attend the funeral."

Who's funeral? Who's dead? "That's it!" Lew said angrily standing up "I have had enough. Why are you all hiding it from her? She has every right to know and she will, through the news."

Guys, this is getting on my nerves.

"Don't worry" Lettie said softly "I have made sure she won't get a clue on what's happening. I have asked them to stop sending newspapers and what other source is left? She can't watch television without me knowing." I didn't heard more. I had had enough. What was this silly talk all about.

I jumped back into my room and stormed out of the house. I walked away into an alleyway. I had to find out what's going on. I walked quickly and stopped at the end of the alley.

A few men were examining a newspaper and talking to each other. I focused my ears and soon enough I could hear them.

"This is bad" one of them was saying.

"They can't declare war on us!" the second man protested "are they in their senses? We did not kidnap their prince."

"A lot of casualties in the eastern side" the third man announced sorrowfully "this war is going to be a terrible one."

"We ought to get moving" the first one proposed "before they come and burn Market Chipping down into ashes."

After hearing this conversation I was too shocked to say a word. So there is a war going on. No wonder there have been military aircrafts. And- Lettie didn't tell me. She lied.

I felt hurt when suddenly a thought struck me. Oh no! This can't be it. I fell down and held my knees my head buried in my skirt.

No way! Mom and dad, they live in the eastern side and my dad- he is an officer what if he's... I couldn't think about it anymore. That's it! I am going to go and check on them.

For that I would need a bus. I recalled that a bus was supposed to go towards east today about fifteen minutes later. Quickly I gained up my speed and started running. As I was running, I accidentally bumped into a young man. "Whoa!" he cried. Sorry, I said inside my head and I turned around the corner, still running.

I ran for ten minutes without stopping. I felt tired and worried. I was getting anxious about my family. I also wondered what Lettie and Lew might be up to. I pictured them pasting posters of me being wanted all around the Market. It seemed likely enough.

Finally I reached the bus stop. The bus was almost setting off when I quickly jumped up on it. Slowly it started moving towards the east. The north side was the Waste and everything in that land. The southern side was where Market Chipping was. On the eastern side was another small town and on the western side there was the capital.

After two hours of standing in the bus, I got off at the eastern stop. Knowing my way, I marched towards my parent's house. My legs started slowing down themselves as I reached a familiar house. The house where I had spent my whole childhood. I was home.

I looked at the small two storied house. It looked all the same except something didn't just looked right. There were some people entering the house all dressed in black. Slowly I walked up to my house. I felt scared. Something had happened. I could feel it.

I walked inside the house and the living room. I was shocked to see what I just saw. It was not a monster or anything. It was my mother. She was weeping and moaning while a girl tried to calm her down. I was even more surprised to see that the girl was none other than Lettie. She too was dressed in black which did not suited her. How the hell did she get here so fast?

There were some people seated around mother. In a corner I spotted Lew standing like a noble king. The atmosphere suggested someone had died. I searched around the sea of  black for dad. He was not to be seen.

Suddenly I realized what just happened. I turned my head slowly towards the other direction and saw a picture of a man, his eyes brown and kind like they always were. He was grinning in the photo and around the photo there were red roses and bouquets of flowers. "No!" I heard myself scream as everyone turned their heads to me. "No! Dad can't be dead!"

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