zg_shadows | For Sarah and Ginnie

What do you mean, 'my city'?

Don't be ridiculous. London has never been my city. It's a lovely place, undoubtedly. It's a little bit like a giant laboratory, with every single alleyway and building containing a new test tube, or a new petri dish, each with a unique and marvelous sample of supernatural xeno-typing. It's maybe slightly more like an adventure playground for those for whom normal adventures ceased to thrill a long time ago, and every time the sun goes down, you get on a new ride. It's entirely like a great masquerade ball. Everyone in this city wears a mask.

Some of the masks are human, but there's a monster behind. Others wear masks carved in stone or leather, to try and hide the human inside, who isn't sure if they will make it through the night. Some of the masks are monstrous, and then when you rip them away, you discover that far from a vulnerable child inside, there is something even worse waiting for you.

It's a grand party, and I can never hold off the excitement of waiting for the masks to come off, when midnight strikes and the room goes dark.

I love London.

But London isn't my city.

Why on earth would I form that kind of emotional attachment to this place?

And who wants to live in a party, or a funfair, or a laboratory?

OK...well...maybe the last one. But really, why would I would want to waste what little emotional energy I have on London? It is a city - big, and cold, and entirely without any sense of emotional obligation to me, or any of its multitudinous denizens. Loving London would be like loving a leech. It will undoubtedly cling to you, but only as long as you feed it.

No, London is not my city.

My place is smaller, and filled with secrets and sunshine. It has a river that still sparkles, and the wind rustles in the treetops as if it is whispering. It is a place where my father can still leave a window open, in case my mother comes back from her other worlds, and it is a place where my daughter will learn to read.

London isn't my city.

But that doesn't mean I'll just let it be.

After all, what a dull world it would be if we all just stayed at home.