Only in the Darkness

Chapter 1

As light filtered through the curtains and the residents of the house woke up and went about their usual morning routines Mattie Hawkins found herself waking up but not wanting to move an inch due to sheer contentment. Under her head she could feel the outline of Leo's upper chest as memories of the night before flooded her mind. Wanting that moment to last forever she simply shuffled minutely and stretched her legs a little, breathing in his warm, comforting aroma.

Opening her eyes, Mattie stared up at Leo and smiled as he tucked a strand of hair behind one of her ears. /span/span/p

Cosying up to each other even further (if that were possible) Leo and Mattie were so content in themselves until suddenly they heard Laura calling up from the bottom of the stairs "Mattie, I need you to take Sophie to school. Did you hear me?"

After rolling her eyes in despair Mattie sat up and shouted her reply, saying that she'd be down shortly. And so, reluctantly, she got out of bed and started getting ready.

"Are you gonna get dressed or what?"

"Why don't we both just stay right here?"

"I have to take Sophie, you heard what my mum said yesterday, all this stuff with the Dryden Commission is draining her, I have to help where I can. So you can either stay here or come with me, its your choice"

Ten minutes later, once they were both dressed, Leo pulled Mattie in for a kiss before they left the bedroom, giggling and smiling to each other as they did so. Upon exiting the room they were confronted by Toby, who left his room yawning and scratching his head, but when he saw his sister with Leo he just smiled at them, as though simply by looking at them he could tell what they had been up to.

A short while later, once they had eaten breakfast (made by Stanley), Mattie, Leo and Sophie were on there way to Sophie's school, with the older two walking together as Sophie skipped along a little ways in front of them.

"So, where does your dad live?" asked Leo, though when he was met with silence he added that she didn't need to answer if she didn't want to.

"No, its fine. Dad's uh ... doing well, he has a fruit and veg shop in Waltringham"

"Waltringham?"

"It's a synth free town"

"There's a synth free town!"

"Yeah, its actually not that from here"

Before either of them can say anything else, they are alerted by a sound they here from a distance in front of them, looking up they see a bunch of kids who were pointing and laughing at Sophie, calling her names and talking about her sympathies with synthetics. There were even parents walking with their younger children, who were passing Sophie and giving her dirty looks. Shouting out to the boys who were hassling Sophie, Mattie said "Oi! You leave my sister alone or I'll come over there and do something I regret"

After shouting one last insult at Sophie, the boys ran off in the direction of the school, upon which Mattie walked over to Sophie and told her that she should tell the teachers if she was receiving threats in school, or that she should at least tell her so that as her big sister, she could deal with them.

Meanwhile, a few miles away Mia was sat in her flat, drawing while she heard people talking outside, shouting derogatory things at her, suddenly though there was a shattering of glass, so she got up and went towards the sound. Her foot then made contact with an object of the floor, bending to pick it up she saw a brick and hundreds of pieces of shattered glass, strewn across the floor. Walking a few more steps forward she saw a hole in the middle of a pane of glass that the brick had been thrown through. Looking through the gap she saw an angry looking, burly man walking backwards down the path shouting "Go back to where you came from Synth scum!"

Looking at the crowd in front of her home, Mia was shocked when she saw a face in amongst the others that she thought she'd never see again.

End of Chapter

***Author's Note***

Sorry for the shortness of this chapter, but its been a while since I wrote a fanfiction and I wanted to ease myself back in, I hope you like it.