The Fortress by T. A. Styles

Author:T. A. Styles [Styles, T. A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-08-28T16:00:00+00:00

Sixteen

Ace entered building four through the main entrance—a pair of double glass doors that led to a dark hallway. He turned right and stopped in front of apartment six. After offering six distinct knocks in pairs of twos, he waited patiently for Willow to answer.

He and Willow met for the first time six months earlier on his first trip to the heights. At twenty years old, she was older than Ace, but she catered to his infatuation with her. Feeling a sense of flattery in these days was rare. Willow was well kept. She was not letting something as little as the end of the world get in the way of her enjoying life. While not everyone at the heights cared to maintain, Willow was a stickler for her appearance. She wore dresses, makeup, kept her curly brunette hair cleaned and cut, delighted in wearing bracelets and earrings and she smelled like the finest perfume. Aside from this, she was full-figured and well proportioned. Anyone into such beauty would be captivated by Willow. Not least, a boy of seventeen who was attracted to women.

When she answered the door, she was in a pink robe. She tilted her head and smiled, regarding Ace as if were a lost puppy dog. “Ace?” she said. “Ironic, because I’ve been thinking about you a lot lately.”

“Why?” Ace said, swallowing hard.

“Because the only cute guys to look at around here are either too old for my taste or lost beneath three years of decay.”

“Sim would never allow us to fall into that trap,” Ace said.

“One of these days, you’ll have to bring me to this fortress of yours and impress me with your devotion to remaining civilized.”

Ace stepped over the threshold and paused at the gate. “It’s not always sunshine and roses over there these days.”

Willow turned to him, hands on her hips. “It never is. He’s overseeing a dozen kids in the apocalypse. Most families I knew before the end could barely raise one child in normal times.”

“Some of us aren’t children anymore, though,” Ace said. “Sim never wanted the interference of other adults at the fortress. He says he tried it once and it didn’t work. But it’s what he is getting anyway as we get older. Maybe he never thought about that.”

“Well, he’ll either have to treat you as equals, or kick you out and use your rooms to find other orphans.” Willow sighed. “My parents couldn’t wait till I was eighteen to send me packing. I guess some things never change.”

“Or maybe, one by one, the orphans will just move out when they are old enough.”

“The only difference is there were options back then for a young person needing to leave home.”

“There are always options,” Ace said. “They just aren’t as ideal now as they were then.”

Willow ran her hands through his hair and kissed him on the lips. “Maybe the heights will be an option for you someday.”

Ace closed his eyes and relished her kiss. The thought of leaving Sim and the fortress for a life on his own never entered his mind until recently.

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