Out of the Ashes by Craig Olivia Duncan

Author:Craig, Olivia Duncan [Craig, Olivia Duncan]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, pdf
Publisher: ODC Press
Published: 2012-07-29T16:00:00+00:00

~*~*~*~

Noah changed after the beating.

He had always been a pleasant boy, an obedient child, someone who followed the rules and respected authority. Outwardly, that remained the same. He did what he was told to do, worked hard and never complained or spoke out of turn, no matter how great the temptation might have been.

But that was only outwardly. Inwardly, he'd come to a decision.

Hope was for suckers.

He was tired of believing that if he were only patient enough, good enough, his behavior would be rewarded. Someone would realize the great injustices his grandmother and he had suffered and intercede, at long last giving them lives beyond the third floor.

As the years had passed and nothing had really changed, Noah had begun to question whether such rescue was possible. If so, where was this mysterious knight in shining armor? And why was he waiting so long to make his appearance?

Willis' brutality had been the final straw. That night, as Noah had laid there in the darkness, bloodied and bruised and so very frightened, he'd finally come face to face with a harsh and very real truth. No one was ever going to rescue them. No one knew who they were or cared whether they lived or died.

They didn't matter.

And wasn't that what Elaine had been telling him in one way or another now for years?

Anyone who could have helped, with the exception of his grandmother, had either deserted or betrayed him.

This was his life.

It was foolish to yearn for anything more.

So Noah didn't. Not any longer. He isolated himself behind a shield of indifference, thin as glass and transparent to any who knew enough to see beyond it. Yet, like a window in a house, it offered him some protection from the world. Just enough to survive.

He told himself if he didn't care, then he couldn't be hurt. It may have taken him years to learn that particular lesson. But with the beating, he quickly became an excellent student.

His grandmother saw the change, and understood its cause. She'd witnessed what Noah had looked like when he'd come back from the stable the morning after Elaine's party, and had cried over her grandson as she'd helped clean away the blood and bandage his wounds.

"It's all right, Grandma," Noah had told her, though he wouldn't meet her eyes. "I'm not sorry I went. I don't care what they do to me; I'll never be sorry."

She didn't understand why that party had been so important to Noah, why the boy he'd gone to see seemed to matter to him as much as he did. But she didn't care about the boy; she cared about her grandson.

She wanted to help Noah so desperately, but she didn't know how. She loved him as much as she ever had. But she had no magic wand, no way to simply wave her hand and make all Noah's heartache go away. She wasn't powerful enough. Not like she needed to be.

So she continued to be the one who showed the boy kindness, touching him gently and speaking soft words.

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