#↾ ֍ grace haloway ⋯ closed starter ֎ ↿

[onebigerror]

@araneorum closed starter for grace and jamie

grace slipped through the lattice in one of the long-forgotten yards of deering highlands. she hoped to lose the girls that had followed after school, taunting and mocking her for where she and her family were forced to reside after lena disgraced the family almost twelve years ago. the highlands was where families plagued by the disease went to hide in shame. what was once a nice neighborhood of higher-class family homes had long ago been abandoned when the city found a ring of sympathizers - cured and uncured - living there and passing information to the invalids. the place had been quickly evacuated and deemed as unclean. it was too festered with the disease for anyone to safely reside there. that was when squatters overtook it. out of options, driven from their homes and jobs, the highlands was their only option. there weren’t many of them. most families that lived in shame didn’t last long. they found a way to escape. sometimes it was to the wilds if they were lucky enough and the ones that weren't chose death itself as the only viable option. some of them just found a way to get themselves arrested just to have a bed and three meals a day in the crypts. aunt carol and uncle william were too stubborn for that. mainly due to carol the family persevered. she still had two girls at home that she was determined to give a shot at graduating and getting paired. even if it would be very low, grace and jenny still had a chance. they would be cured and evaluated - in that order - to ensure that they were disease-free and could live as decent citizens of portland. after that their job was done. she suspected carol had hopes of being redeemed if at least jenny paired decently. they saw grace as a lost cause. even if they didn’t openly say it where she could hear it, they still said it. jenny at least spoke. she had also grown up pretty and not mousy or awkward like grace who hadn’t spoke a word since the night lena escaped. jenny would be their hope for salvation. gracie might even be forgotten at the end of the year when jenny graduated. carted off to the crypts, locked away and forgotten about. her last year of school might not even matter to carol and william anymore.

normally the girls gave up before this. they chased her to the edge of the highlands but retreated before they entered. today the were especially relentless. her best defense was that she knew the fallen neighborhood like the back of her hand. she could find an old cellar and stay hidden until they were gone or climb a tree and stay safe in its branches. desperation filled her as she heard the girls gaining on her, calling her terrible names. it was days like this that grace wanted to just give up. quit school. quit everything. jump off that cliff that lena’s mother had all those years ago. who would miss her? she was more of a burden than anything else. she didn’t deserve to go to school. she didn’t deserve anything.

she was so close to darting around a corner and taking refuge in a cellar when the girls caught up with her. the ringleader of the pack was screaming at her to just say something. the others threw rocks at her and told her that she shouldn’t even come back to school. she let out a pitiful whine as she was backed against the crumbling brick wall of a more derelict home. what were they going to do to her? maybe they would just end her. crime was low. murder was almost unheard of but it did happen every few centuries. if it was against a sympathizer's family it would probably go unnoticed and therefore not cared about. it was a problem that had needed to be taken care of and then - if even caught - the cure would take care of the killers. and in the very rare instance that it was a cured who committed the crimes, they’d be carted off to the crypts and life would continue on. a clean, cured society ruled correctly was a safe and good society. grace had these words drilled into her from the day she was old enough to understand them.

and then one of the girls called her the worst insults that was possible for a young uncured to be called. unnatural. a girl or boy that was attracted to the same sex. gracie shook her head vehemently. she was unnatural and it was something she struggled with daily. she was not attracted to boys and the thought of marrying one and having sex with them filled her with the greatest terror. the cure promised to take care of that as well. those impure desires would be culled and she would no longer feel that pull of attraction towards women. she wouldn't feel it towards anyone. she would not care. she would be a good wife and mother as the book of shh promised. but how did they know? how?! she kept that secret so safeguarded. did they know or were they simply being mean? did she have to hide it better? 

the sound of a thud came from behind them and all the girls turned in unison as a young woman landed perfectly and catlike on her feet from a nearby tree. the girls were immediately told to ‘beat it’ and threatened with the action of calling the regulators. that was all it took. fear of the regulators was what kept their sheeplike society in check. they were scrambling out of there as fast as they’d come without even looking back. gracie’s wide blue eyes peered at her savior. she wasn’t sure if she should run or stay there and attempt to thank her as best as she could. in the end, she stayed. if she tried to dash her legs might give out and she wouldn’t make it far. her hands smoothed her light purple school uniform first before they came to her hair to pull some twigs out of the overly long mess of brown locks.