Helen of Troy...Sparta...Troy... (thefacethat) wrote in nevermore_logs, @ 2017-02-22 18:34:00 |
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Entry tags: | helen of troy |
Who: Helen {Narrative}
What: Sneaking out
When: Between 11 pm - midnight Thursday night
Where: Briseis' apartment, then the open road
This whole sneaking out in the dead of night thing was much too familiar for Helen. At least this time she was leaving of her own volition, instead of being dragged off by a lustful coward. She had rented a car because she didn't own one herself (what was the point when she lived in New York City, the land of overpopulation?) When her idea eventually became a full-fledged plan, she decided the best thing to do was to rent a car and have everything packed days before she intended to leave. She hadn't chosen an exact date or time. She just knew she had wanted to talk with Briseis one last time, so that at least one person knew her whereabouts.
Helen knew this was essentially a suicide mission, but she wasn't scared. Whatever happened, she was doing it of her own free will. This was her choice, something so few people seemed to care about. For so long Helen had been under everyone else's thumb. Now it was her turn to make her own choices.
When she retired to her room that night she didn't go to sleep. She just lay in the bed, staring at the window and the lights of the city. It was a city that never slept. Suddenly, Helen felt connected to this place in a way she never had before.
No sleep for either of us, she thought.
It wasn't that she was nervous. She just didn't want to go to sleep and wake up only to find she had missed her opportunity to make an undetected departure. She hated the thought of sneaking out without saying a word to Briseis. This was exactly the kind of behavior she had wanted to kick, because sneaking out in the middle of the night felt wrong and dirty. She did it because she didn't want Briseis to get hurt. She didn't want someone she cared about being hurt because of her choices.
She had waited until the apartment was silent and still, until she was absolutely certain Briseis was asleep. She changed into a fresh pair of clothes and pulled her hair back. She then grabbed her phone and charger and tucked them into her jacket pocket. The only other things she took were her keys and wallet. Everything else she would need was already safely stowed away in the cars trunk. She did grab one small box from the bedside table. It contained a selfie she and Briseis had taken together, when they had become friends... when Helen began to feel there was still hope in the world. In it, Helen actually looked happy. And she had felt happy.
She listened at the bedroom door for about two minutes, her eyes closed as she listened intently. Then she slowly turned the knob and stopped at the living room to set the box down on the coffee table. She set a little card on top with Briseis written across it. Inside the card it simply say, For you. It needed no explanation. It was a gift to her friend. Something to show Briseis that she had meant more to Helen than the two probably could have ever expected.
With her final task done, Helen proceeded to the front door and very slowly turned the knob. She relocked it as quietly as possible, then turned and hurried down the hall to the buildings entrance. As she walked she felt a sense of purpose, a sense of worth. But her heart was also heavy. If she didn't make it out of this it would be for nothing. It would mean that her good-byes were real. And if she succeeded... she had a lot of groveling to do.
Once in the car, Helen set up the GPS and then headed out. It took at least an hour just to get out of the city. It was a long time before she saw any open road. She drove into the wee hours of the morning, trying not to think about all the reasons she shouldn't be doing this.
Her conversation with Briseis played over and over in her head as she drove. Anytime she heard a little ding on her phone she didn't so much as glance at it, she just tightened her grip on the steering wheel.