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Tom woke to the sound of the water.

It was for the 5th time that he'd been woken by this sound and it was barely even dawn.

He rubbed his head, trying to ease the throbbing and the disturbing memory of what he had seen the night before. The hard wooden flooring pressed splinters into his back like the jab of annoying friend- soon to become an acquaintance.

He turned away from the window, for he could barely see anything out of it anyway. He came face to face with Kate, with her eyes closed and sleeping peacefully. He could see the movement of her eyes beneath her lids and he wished that he could close his too. To sleep without the crippling fear that accompanied Tom's lack of mental control.

Tom tried to fall into a slumber like Kate had but he couldn't mirror the rise and fall of her chest like he used to do because it was non-existent. She was frozen, gripped by an icy breathlessness like he was.

Being in the boathouse with Kate reminded Tom of their times spent with Jasmine and Flynn. The children's plot to find the Last Forest was first derived within these slowly collapsing wooden walls.

In the beginning the idea that trees still existed felt like momentary static in the children's minds, colourless and without a clear form or truth.

But the more they researched from the book Tom had acquired, dubiously through his brother, the more the black and white dots of static in their mind morphed to form definite slender branches, flowing into oval shaped leaves. The water parched land they were used to grew carpets of luxurious grass in their brains, that Tom imagined would shine a silvery gold in the sun ( Law 4: No water that touches human hands must touch the ground in case of accidental growth.)

As children do, they had become blinded to the dangers of the world in their youth.

Jasmine Belewa had shared Tom's passion for what was prohibited in the Lake District. She felt particularly at one with the flowers they'd seen in those books of Tom's. Her favourites were the ones that looked like frozen fireworks- mid burst and brightly coloured. Lilies, they were once named.

When Tom imagined the nature they'd seen in the forest it calmed him.

Though Tom cursed when he realised what danger he was putting himself in by picturing that forest. He was becoming consumed by it all again - by the want to see nature.

Hauling himself into the present, he re-focused his eyes. His blurry vision un-fogged and pieced together Kate' face again- her eyes were now wide open. Tom flinched in surprise.

"Hey!" said Kate, a little too loudly for his liking.

"Ugh," Tom groaned. "Ephemeral."

"What are you on about?" said Kate, stretching under the blanket.

"The peace and quiet. It's ephemeral." Tom wondered why he was even trying to explain anymore. "It means short lasting." Kate rolled her eyes. "Here, why don't you go back to sleep!" Tom insisted, from the onset of drunken tiredness.

He shoved the blanket over her face and pretended to smother her. Kate fake screamed before kicking Tom away and pulling the blanket from around her head.

The friction between it and Kate's hair brought the fiery strands of hair forward so that they hung over her face as curtain drapes.

Tom and Kate took one look at each other and burst out laughing- for Kate looked like a mad old woman, with a head of hair that had a mind of its own.

They laughed together for the first time in a while, like they used to do when they were really little- competing against one another in silly competitions: climbing, pebble and spoon races (chickens were extinct from radiation poisoning), as well as who could tell the scariest story.

At that young age they were each fully aware how much of a fool they were making of themselves- and they didn't care.

The moment of happiness was gratefully received by both. Until, Kate decided to open her mouth...

"Let's go and check out what else the government could've done," Kate said - she had decided that it was best to try and convince Tom to leave when he was in a good mood.

The mirthful curve of his smile and eyes fell in an instant like the puppet of a drunken puppeteer.

"Go home Kate," His elevated mood quickly deflated. Tom had had enough of seeing what the government had done to his family and him let alone the whole of the Lake District. Dread dripped darkly from the top of his mind.

"This is home!" Kate replied stubbornly. She leaned over Tom and rummaged through the plastic bag for a can of Meat 4 to eat.

"Look Tom..." she began softly, running her hands through her smooth ginger hair. "Jasmine and Flynn might be out there somewhere. Making sure they're safe should be our main priority," Kate lied. True, she had wanted to see her friends but the experience of finding out that her mother gave her up to the Government last night, had saturated her heart with bitterness.

"They're better off without us surely. All we've caused so far is trouble. We shouldn't have been in that forest. Let's stay here." Tom threw the blanket over himself and sunk back down.

"The government could fix you..." Kate tried - For she knew Tom would want to be accepted by his family. 

"No. Even if we found them again they'd never willingly perform an operation. Not after what you did to that nurse."

The image of the woman in blood made her recoil as Kate was overcome with anger. A disguise for another emotion.

"I. Couldn't. Control. it." Kate said through gritted teeth "Whatever they did to me to make me turn into that that Fox... I couldn't control what I was doing."

Tom raised his eyebrows incredulously. "I'm not a monster," she said to someone, she wasn't quite sure who she was talking to. Though had there been a bed, the monster underneath it would've been listening and would certainly disagree.

"Why did you really come back here, if your mum accepts you?"

"To check on you!" she ventured, lying once again. "And we need your help... It's about time we stood up to these stupid laws and orders anyway. Look what they've reduced us to! Revenge is needed."

"What's law number 5?"

"Yeah yeah I know- no questioning of the laws or it'll result in having your tongue cut out...How can you expect your brother to respect you when you can't even have the courage to go outside?" she said, crossing her hands over her chest.

"You know nothing about my family," Tom growled, standing up. The blankets fell from him like a shell.

"Oh I'm awfully sorry sir Tom Darshana let me get you your personal slave. He'll wipe your tears away!" she retorted, jestingly. The gash on Tom's forehead stung more intensely now that Kate had mentioned his family.

"It's a wonder your mother even let you back in her house when you act so childish." In anger Tom went to slap Kate's smug face but then held back.

"Childish? I lost four years of my life. Of course I'm going to act childish." Kate pushed Tom towards the  door and grabbed the oxygen masks. She was tiring of his resilience.

Tom resisted, securing his left foot under a wonky floorboard just before he could be pushed out of the door. "At least my mother actually listened to me enough to try to understand what happened. So I'm obviously doing something right. Get out and prove yourself."

Kate wanted more than anything to find out what the Purifiers were doing so used all her strength to push Tom. It was to no avail. He remained rooted to the spot.

Kate couldn't tell Tom about the metal suit she had seen now. It would just give him another reason not to leave.

"If we joined the Purifier's the government might forgive us and you can pretend Project: Synthesis never happened. We could work for forgiveness."

She prepared to shove Tom one more time. "Like when they always told us we should work hard in school." Fat chance she thought cynically to herself, simultaneously hating that she had to pretend to conform to the Government's ideologies, and nevertheless pleased with her cunning nature.

A light flickered in Tom's eyes. Pretend it never happened. He liked the way that thought settled in his brain like a seed, which could grow into something beautiful, to protect you from the acid rain perhaps.

While Tom was distracted by that very thought he had stopped resisting Kate's pushing. In one movement they both fell.

Tom's foot was still stuck though and they crashed through the door into the outside, which had awaited their return.

Howdy. Thanks for reading chapter 12. Also we now have 100 votes and comments??? You guys are so brilliant. You inspire me everyday to keep writing. Please give me a star if you enjoyed the chapter and comment too. It makes my day to read things. All constructive criticism is welcome.

Stay awesome -hippywitch