Echoes of Albion

Great image, it captures the atmosphere of the time!!!!

Story loosely inspired by

Story loosely inspired by

Story inspired by @Diane-de-la-Cheneraye

“Promise me,” Isla whispered, “if they take us, don’t let them break you.”

Ellie pressed her forehead to hers. “I promise.”

The door shook — then silence. Only the wind howled outside. They held each other tighter, as though bodies alone could shield them from history.

Ellie too was dragged into the machinery. At charity galas she was paraded as proof of unity, her presence used to mask the regime’s cruelty. She smiled on command, but at night she cried into Isla’s shoulder, wondering how long they could keep pretending.

One evening, sirens wailed closer. Boots thundered on the stairs. Isla and Ellie clutched one another in the dark, breath shallow, waiting for the door to burst open.

Ellie pulled her close, her lips trembling against Isla’s hair. “They want us afraid. That’s their power.”

Still, fear lodged itself in every corner. In the stairwell a neighbour disappeared overnight. At work Isla’s case files were erased, her desk stripped bare. “You’re reassigned,” her superior told her curtly, sliding a new badge across the table. The word Compliance gleamed where Protection once had.

By day they queued for rations, surrounded by posters: Protect the Family. Purge the Threat. By night they listened to the radio in secret, foreign stations whispering of protests abroad.

One afternoon, returning from the market, they saw a line of buses rumble past, windows covered with steel mesh. Behind them children’s voices cried out, muffled. Isla collapsed against a wall, shaking. “That could have been him,” she choked. “That was him.”

Fleeing south to north, Ellie found herself again with Isla. They shared a cramped flat above a shuttered shop in Sheffield. Every knock at the door made them flinch. Every siren froze their blood.

“They’ll come for us,” Isla whispered one night, clutching Mahdi’s scarf. “Two women. Two betrayals. It’s only a matter of time.”

Ellie touched her hand in the darkness. “We’ll survive. Somehow.”