Returning home with much haste for your preparations, you flooded into the house with a scatter brain and a million and one things to organise for your move. Your mother had first questioned where the sudden rush had come from, and you happily explained your new job role whilst packing your cases full of the not very vast amount of items you owned.
It felt strange, neatly pressing the clothes down into the case and clipping the case shut. It felt like the final point; stepping over the line or past the point of no return. You just hoped you had made the right choice, and that you would not be spending your days serving a thoroughly miserable bastard who in turn, made you feel miserable in yourself.
Your last night at the family home was spent in the cramped bed you'd been forced to share with your mother – Eloise and Theodore sharing the other small bed in that tiny cramped room. Not that you got any sleep, as your family around you slept quietly and carelessly. Your mind was racing anxiously over what may be, the obstacles you may encounter and how you hoped this would be the last job change you'd have to take for a while yet.
Turning over in the thin sheets, you faced the cracked wall with it's torn paper and just general unkempt tiredness. You so hoped one day you could afford to help move your mother and half-siblings out of that hell hole and into a better life.
-
Argent light poured through the thin veiling of smog that covered London that morning. The sun had only just begin to rise on another grey and thoroughly miserable wintery day, as you loaded your bags onto the cart drawn by a fine dark bay horse. Your brother and sister were quite happy to bid you farewell so insincerely, your presence in the family home meaning very little to them when they ran amuck all day playing silly buggers.
However, your mother was a different picture; teary, reddened eyes and an expression that would slot itself under the definition of sadness in the dictionary.
She drew you tightly into her arms, a great and welcome source of warmth on this chilly morning.
"You be careful now love, ok?" she whispered, kissing your cheek chastely as you relished the safety you felt in her arms. "You know where we are if this one doesn't work out." She reassured you as you pulled away, a wry smile creeping onto your face as some pitiful attempt to hide the fact your own eyes were beginning to glisten with tears.
"I'm hoping I won't have to come back for at least some time, ma." You laughed, sniffling softly. "I want this to work. I think it's time I carved my own path."
Your hand laid to rest tenderly on her arm, thumb stroking the rather scratchy material of her shawl.
"But of course, I'll be back to visit every now and again." You whispered with a promising smile, a somewhat more assured and happier smile blossoming onto your mother's expression – as she kissed your cheek one last time, and released you out into the world like a freed dove.
A shakiness embodied your legs, as you climbed the cart and sat in the empty space on the seat beside the driver. Clicking the horse onwards with his tongue and a gentle tap of the reins on it's backside, the mare plodded onwards with a musical clopping of hooves on the damp cobbles.
You'd lost count of how many times your mother had tearily waved you off to previous jobs; but you hoped this time it would be different. And you would not need to be back so bloody soon.
Soon enough, your horse and cart were margining in with the wider stream of traffic typical around day to day London. Omnibuses, hackney cabs and transportation vehicles all fought for a piece of the road.
YOU ARE READING
? ?????????????
Fanfiction"If I could give you the courage not to hate yourself, I would. You are so much more than the pain you have been through." - London, 1888 The Ripper has fallen, and the wreckage of his chaos tumbles down upon a grief stricken city. None more so than...
