Callum, six

The morning after I saw Sephy on the news going to the clinic the run of the mill lawyer I had been appointed had an unscheduled meeting with me. As he was a lawyer I assumed that nothing he told me could possibly be good news. I was probably halfway back to the scaffold anyway so my hopes weren't exactly high.

I sat down opposite him. He was a Cross but he didn't look too well off. In fact, he looked like he hated his job because he had a look on his face that showed me that he thought I was guilty. More than that, he looked like he thought the best place for me was at the end of a rope.

"What's the bad news then?" I asked. I wasn't in the mood for drawing it out longer than necessary.

"Your sentence has been reduced to ten years," the lawyer said in a bored voice. "You will not be on death row and you will live to see the outside of prison. You will be able to have visitors from next week. That's all."

"Really?" I said unable to believe it. "You aren't winding me up?" The Cross lawyer looked blankly at me. He probably couldn't joke if his life depended on it. The lawyer got up to leave after that short interview. I was led back to my cell by a couple of guards. As if I was going to try anything.

I now had my life back. It was incredibly hard to wrap my mind around it. I had got used to the fact of dying and it was hard to accept that one day I would be free. I would see the outside of this prison. And something that, at the moment was much more important to me. I was now allowed visitors. I could see mum. I'm sure she would have tried to visit before. I wasn't entirely sure Sephy would try to visit. I hoped she would but I wasn't going to hold my breath. Not after the abor… After that.

The first day I was allowed visitors my mum did turn up. I had to sit behind a glass barrier and speak over the phone. I felt horrible that she had to come here and speak to me through a barrier. Mum looked… old. She had lost all of her family and it looked like it had finally taken its toll on her.

"How are you mum?"

"Fine, how are you?"

"My sentence has been reduced to ten years, had you heard?"

"No I didn't know. That's great!" Mum's eyes began to fill with tears.

"Mum, this is good news. You don't have to cry."

"I know." Both of us went quiet for a while. We couldn't think of anything to say. Something struck me.

"Has Jude been caught?" Mums eyes went wide and she shook her head. "Do you know if Sephy…?"

"Don't talk to me about her," mum said harshly. "I saw her on the news getting rid of the baby. How could she do that!"

"Don't. It isn't her fault." But I wished I said nothing.

"Of course its her fault! You didn't kill the baby. She had a choice. She…" I tuned out. I didn't need to hear all the problems Sephy had and all the things that she could have prevented. It wasn't worth it. But it did hurt that Sephy hadn't even turned up to visit. She hadn't even bothered to try to explain why she had murdered our baby.

The next chapter is in bits and pieces so it might be a little while before I post. I'll get it up asap.