Darker London-Uncover what is underneath...

The Oslo Opera House in Norway was a architectural wonder, according to Elise, and Scarlett thought it was nice but a little too 'modern' for her tastes. She liked the old opera houses, all gothic and gray stonework and spires. This thing didn't have any spires, just strange slanted roofs that meant you could walk right up onto the top of the building and look out over the water and art installation that floated out there.

Don Quixote was what the family were going to see tonight and it had been made clear to Astrid that if she needed to leave at any time then they'd go. No one cared about money lost. It just wasn't important. All anyone wanted was for Astrid to have everything she could. (Scarlett wasn't looking forward to the conversation that had to be had about how Ava had supplied the money, about who she really was, about what was really going on. Firstly because it was going to be difficult and secondly because of the knowledge that it was happening 'after'. When that conversation happened it meant that Astrid was gone.)

( ... )

When Scarlett woke up on Monday morning it was far from home and where she had started out yesterday. She rolled over on the mattress on the floor and waited for her blurry eyes to join her in the land of the living.

Land of the living. Scarlett closed her eyes again and pushed her face into her pillow, the smell unfamiliar to her. She didn't want to think about living because that reminded her suddenly of all the people she knew who now weren't.

The whole family was at the house of her aunt Mary in Saint-Junien, a place of only a little over ten-thousand yet the largest city for miles. Scarlett hadn't seen much of it when they came in last night as she'd spent most of the hour and a half drive from the airport dozing in the back of Mary's old van. She felt exhausted, and she didn't think it was just because she'd changed last night. (She wanted to get it out of the way so it didn't force itself on her unexpected while they were in France.)

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