Demons, Part 2
Friday, January 25th, 2008 08:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lizziecWarning - this fic contains distressing themes.
Len could think of nothing much else all day. She sat in her study in her free periods ostensibly thinking about her French essay. In reality, her mind was on the best way to get away from it all. There was running away, but how and where to run were huge problems. The uniform of the school was recognised all over the local area, just as she was as the eldest daughter of Herr Doktor Maynard, not to mention her frustrating lack of money. She thought of her parents, always keen to keep her and the rest of the family on a tight leash financially, not that the Maynard family were really that wealthy - the sheer number of them made sure of that as well as a constant lack of actual physical presence of their parents - they were always “around” but never available, especially to the older ones. There was always someone who needed them more than her. She sometimes wondered if it was because they assumed she could cope or if it was because she had once done something to earn their wrath. Maybe, whispered a thought in her head, they just did not love her as much as they loved the others. It was a possibility she gave credence to as she had never been treated like the others, even like her own triplets. She had never been spoiled like Margot, or had her gifts understood and nurtured in the same way as Con.
Her thoughts lingered on her sisters for a few moments. Would they be upset if she ran away? She doubted it somehow. They were much too wrapped up in their lives and their plans. They hadn't even noticed when it had all begun. In some ways that wasn't their fault. They largely left their eldest alone anyway, she was the interferer, not they. Anyway, Len could hardly pinpoint where it had started. Sometime in the fifth, she thought. That was when the pressure of keeping up with girls so much older than she had started to really make itself known. How she had longed to be in a form with her peers, have something resembling a normal life. She had known it was not really possible. The reactions of her parents to Margot when she was in a form lower than the other two, but right for her age had made it clear that they would never allow her to do that as long as she could manage the work of the higher form. Despite seeming happy to take on the advanced duties demanded of her by her senior form she began to grow more inward, much more introspective, but she was “that age” and if anyone had noticed it they just attributed it to natural “teenage” (a term barely allowed by the school) moodiness. Throughout the fifth her thoughts had spiralled down and once she had reached the lower sixth she had started to pinch herself. At first, inexperienced, she pinched her arms, but people had noticed and she'd had to pretend she was just being very clumsy. To avert suspicion she had switched to her upper thighs where no one would look.
The bell for the end of period, and the start of the walk sounded and she jumped, startled out of her rather melancholy chain of thought. It was then her means of escape suddenly came to her.
The Auberge.
Len could think of nothing much else all day. She sat in her study in her free periods ostensibly thinking about her French essay. In reality, her mind was on the best way to get away from it all. There was running away, but how and where to run were huge problems. The uniform of the school was recognised all over the local area, just as she was as the eldest daughter of Herr Doktor Maynard, not to mention her frustrating lack of money. She thought of her parents, always keen to keep her and the rest of the family on a tight leash financially, not that the Maynard family were really that wealthy - the sheer number of them made sure of that as well as a constant lack of actual physical presence of their parents - they were always “around” but never available, especially to the older ones. There was always someone who needed them more than her. She sometimes wondered if it was because they assumed she could cope or if it was because she had once done something to earn their wrath. Maybe, whispered a thought in her head, they just did not love her as much as they loved the others. It was a possibility she gave credence to as she had never been treated like the others, even like her own triplets. She had never been spoiled like Margot, or had her gifts understood and nurtured in the same way as Con.
Her thoughts lingered on her sisters for a few moments. Would they be upset if she ran away? She doubted it somehow. They were much too wrapped up in their lives and their plans. They hadn't even noticed when it had all begun. In some ways that wasn't their fault. They largely left their eldest alone anyway, she was the interferer, not they. Anyway, Len could hardly pinpoint where it had started. Sometime in the fifth, she thought. That was when the pressure of keeping up with girls so much older than she had started to really make itself known. How she had longed to be in a form with her peers, have something resembling a normal life. She had known it was not really possible. The reactions of her parents to Margot when she was in a form lower than the other two, but right for her age had made it clear that they would never allow her to do that as long as she could manage the work of the higher form. Despite seeming happy to take on the advanced duties demanded of her by her senior form she began to grow more inward, much more introspective, but she was “that age” and if anyone had noticed it they just attributed it to natural “teenage” (a term barely allowed by the school) moodiness. Throughout the fifth her thoughts had spiralled down and once she had reached the lower sixth she had started to pinch herself. At first, inexperienced, she pinched her arms, but people had noticed and she'd had to pretend she was just being very clumsy. To avert suspicion she had switched to her upper thighs where no one would look.
The bell for the end of period, and the start of the walk sounded and she jumped, startled out of her rather melancholy chain of thought. It was then her means of escape suddenly came to her.
The Auberge.
