Work Text:
until now, you still have these yellowing things?
good. the patient would be unknown to you if you just threw them away.
Simon Graham Cassidy
47 Blissford St., Joy's End
Sacramento, CA 95662
open if safe to read
be careful please
- B
S,
I can't thank you enough for getting me out. I'm still upset that it had to be done this way, but I reckon this is God's true plan for both of us. Maybe we were meant for something more, far more than the routine of getting married off like the other girls and boys in Joy's End.
I don't know how you'll explain my disappearance to Mother and Father. You received the family dowry instead of your parents, so they'll question you first. I hope you come up with something good, because I can't stand the thought of being the indirect cause of your punishment. The Church never takes prize theft lightly. They will surely flay you until you're half-dead if they figure out it was you, and just imagining it makes me sick.
Steel Cove treats me well so far. They're putting me on an accelerated regimen to reverse the effects of being a prize. They have quite the variety of tools, especially healing ones, like needles. I'm still afraid of them, I must confess. But it's either this or coming back to Joy's End, which we both know is a death sentence for me, a runaway.
I wonder where you'll go when the time is right. I know it will take them some time to even come up with the idea of searching outside the state, since they're so terrified of setting foot in the cities adjacent. Your fake trail was good thinking, but I doubt they'll believe I made my long-term escape using the highway.
If ever you think of permanently settling somewhere close to Auntie Tabitha, I would be so happy to find a way to visit you both. She was the kindest to us out of everyone in Joy's End. I already miss her bread pudding. Razor was kind to buy me a convenience store cup of some while we were travelling, but it's nowhere like Auntie's.
I don't enjoy praying anymore, but if praying really works then in this I will invest my absolute faith, so it may get to you faster than your parents find out. Please write back soon.
Stay safe always,
B