(Trigger warning, just wanted to put one here just in case as this chapter does talk about sexual abuse, not in graphic detail but I know how sensitive the topic is so if this will affect you, please don't feel the need to read this chapter, parts of the story will make it clear)

Telling stories had never been Keegan's strong point, she preferred to be taken away into another world by reading them. Devouring each and every word brought her a kind of solace that couldn't otherwise be found in a life with bars surrounding it. The funniest thing was that she had constructed her own mental prison, it would have almost been more bearable if those barriers had been put up by someone else, then she could at least blame them.

She was smiling, Keegan had thought the muscles in her face had forgotten how to do that, had withered from lack of usage. But as she walked side by side with Noah she wondered at the fact that it had taken something as crazy like this to happen to her to cause her to wake from her deep slumber. Because Keegan felt more alive than she had in a long time, every nerve in her body was alight with its one purpose, this morning she would never have imagined she could have achieved all of this. 

Keegan couldn't make her smile go away, it was inappropriate given what was meant to be a serious situation but she wanted to pat herself on the back, she hadn't abandoned Noah, she'd convincingly lied to a nurse and now they had escaped a hospital like it was nothing, just everyday stuff. 

"Nice someone can see the positive side of life," Noah said dryly, but the corner of his mouth was arched up in a smile, so she knew he wasn't really mad.

"There actually is a lot of beauty in the world, you just have to know where to look for it." she nodded to herself, that was the right thing to say right now, she was sure of it.

Her brain hadn't fully worked him out, a part of her wanted to be trusting and believe that she alone could do this, but a more sensible part of her knew that forcing him to open up to her wouldn't achieve anything.

"Where do you want me to start?" Noah said as if he was reading her thoughts.

Now she felt awkward, really they didn't know each other, his reasons were probably as good as any.

"Wherever you want" she shrugged keeping her eyes fixed on an approaching red bus so she wouldn't have to look at him, then her calm composure might disappear.

Noah seemed to be a fan of benches, she wondered how he'd known what direction to walk into to find one, they'd reached a small clearing.

"Want to sit?" he asked, "Because you're probably going to need to take a seat after everything I tell you."

And now she really did look at him. He looked smaller than he had when they'd first met, maybe knowing someone had deliberately overdosed changed your opinion of them. If she'd seen him in the streets on any other day he still would have been one of the untouchables, there were leagues of people, the average ones like her and the super beings like him. But just for today, the mighty had fallen, he looked like the nervous one, his eyebrows were scrunched together and there were frown lines on his forehead so deep, they should not have been there.

"Sure I'll sit."

Awkwardly, she sat down on the hard bench tucking her skirt around her legs.

"I'm going to start at the beginning, I know self-consciousness shouldn't even be a thing now if you hadn't come and found me I probably wouldn't be a thing right now, just someone who once was but this just feels really strange."

She was sure it did, you rarely sat down with girls you didn't know and told them why life was unbearable for you to live anymore.

"I can turn the other way if that would help?" she didn't know where the idea had come from, but he nodded, she turned around expecting him to begin talking but instead she felt his back leaning onto hers, now he was looking one way and she was looking the other. It would have seemed rude to move when she'd suggested it in the first place, but her muscles tensed at the unexpected touch.

Deep breaths Keegan, this is fine.

It wasn't fine.

"I wasn't born anywhere near here, I was raised in Cornwall and what I've always known since the day I was born is that I was never truly wanted. Now I know, you're going to shake your head at me and tell me that isn't true, but really it is. My Mum had me when she was seventeen, she was attacked at a bus station on the way home from college, that's another fact to add to your facts about me, I'm a rapists kid."

Of all the things she'd been expecting him to say it hadn't been that. The horror began making its way through her veins, she wanted to reach out, to apologise to do anything, but she could sense speaking was taking a lot of effort for him, if she showed too much pity he might completely close up, so instead, she closed her eyes tightly trying not to shake.

"My Mum had me, she didn't know she was pregnant for quite a few months, her parents were strict Christian's so having an abortion was out of the question, but as soon as I was born I was sent up North to live with my grandma. My Mum didn't want anything to do with me, she told me from a young age that she couldn't bear to see my face because it reminded her too much of him, when I was seven I looked at myself in the mirror and wondered if I could somehow take my face off, switch it for another one so she wouldn't see him, I picked up a razor and traced the outline of my face trying to see if it was just a mask that could be pulled off, that's the scar by the way."

He had adopted a nonchalant tone of voice, as if none of this could possibly faze him whilst Keegan fell deeper and deeper into a pit of disbelief, she couldn't quite believe the words that were coming out of his mouth. She wanted to clap a hand over his mouth so he couldn't say any more, so the world wouldn't seem more and more unlivable, but that would be the most selfish thing to do right now.

"In her own way, my grandma did love me, she told me I was wanted at least by her, when I was nine years old she died of a heart attack and nobody really knew what to do with me, by then my Mum had remarried, her new husband knew nothing about me so going to live with them wasn't really an option. I was put into the care system, got into the wrong crowd as people sometimes do. And then my one hope at redemption came along, her name was Samantha Wilde, and she was interested in adopting a teenage boy, she wanted to help improve lives, she believed in it so very deeply, I probably could have been happy there, if I hadn't been caught with over £2000 of stolen goods the day before we met. Nobody, not even the kindest people want a criminal living under their roof."

Noah had said it all so fast, this was his life. She couldn't comprehend it.

"I ran away from the care home, I wasn't going to live out my days there until I turned eighteen, the only problem is nobody wants to hire someone with no references. I've been staying at a hostel near here for quite a while. And then I woke up yesterday and just realised there is literally nothing to live for, my life, all of it has been a horrible mistake. All that talk about there being a silver lining to every cloud is utter crap. Nothing is ever going to change for me and all I've done today is brought a perfectly innocent person with a good life into my mess."

Keegan couldn't take not turning around anymore. She didn't care about what was right or proper, she had gotten this all so very wrong. Noah didn't need to be persuaded with reasons why he had to live.

She had to give him a reason.