The Disappearances Read Online Free

actually had a point to it.
    ‘They really trust you to plough a whole field?’ Evie teased.
    Raffy flicked her around the ankles with his towel. ‘Watch what you say,’ he said, grinning. ‘People respect farmers around here.’
    Evie looked at him thoughtfully. That’s what it was, she realised suddenly. That’s why he was so happy here. For the first time in his life, Raffy had earned the respect of others. For the first time in his life he could walk tall. And this tall farmer loved her. Had always loved her.
    As he got to the door she called out to him. ‘Wait.’
    ‘What?’ Raffy asked, turning just as Evie put her arms around him. Her future. The only one that mattered. Once they were married, he would stop being so jealous; he would know that he had her. And things would be good. They would be completely good.
    ‘I love you,’ she said. ‘That’s all.’
    ‘And I love you,’ Raffy said as he leant down and kissed her again, tenderly, holding her tight against him. ‘More than you could possibly know.’ Then he smiled, and wandered out of the room.

2
    It was early morning. Gabby noticed that the street she was walking down, one of the larger streets in the City, was almost empty and walked a little faster. She was five or so minutes late for work, which wasn’t good, but nor was it the end of the world. Not any more. Still, ten minutes might be pushing it. Ten minutes and she might be forced to work into her lunch break.
    Lunch break was one of the improvements since the System had been deactivated. Or ‘taken away’ as her parents liked to put it, fear in their eyes, resentment in their voices. Her parents didn’t like Lucas, the City’s new leader. They believed that what he was doing would bring devastation and evil back within the City walls. But that was mainly because her parents could no longer use the System as a threat; at least that seemed to be the thing that vexed them most. They couldn’t tell her what time to get back home every night any more; couldn’t insist that she sit with them after supper listening to her father give them both a lecture on the importance of contemplation or something else utterly boring. Now she could go and meet her friends on the green after work; now she could choose who she was going to marry, choose everything.
    Although, she reminded herself, as she broke into a light jog, there were still rules about getting to work on time. And anyway, she wasn’t ready to make any of the big choices yet. She couldn’t imagine getting married, having a house, being all serious like her parents. Mainly she just wanted to play ball on the green, feel the exhilaration of running for a catch, the thrill of winning, the pain of losing. Until the System had been deactivated, the only winning or losing in the City was determined by the System and involved labels: an upward movement meant you won, a downward movement meant you lost. But the System was no game; it determined everything: where you worked, who you married, who you associated with. Whether you won or lost, things could still turn against you. Whether you won or lost, you had no control.
    Then again, back then no one disappeared either.
    Gabby stopped for a second, caught her breath, looked around. Was someone watching her? Following her? Then she shook herself. Of course they weren’t.
    What Clara, her best friend, had told her was probably made up anyway. There weren’t any Informers in the City. The Disappearances weren’t what Clara had said they were. There would be some other explanation. There had to be. Clara’s terror had seemed genuine; Gabby had noticed how her hands were shaking as she told her the story, had seen the fear in her eyes. But Clara got scared easily; she believed what people told her. And Gabby refused to believe that she would disappear just because Clara had told her about the people in the hospital. Otherwise, Clara herself would have disappeared.
    The truth was that Gabby was