Reinvention: Challenge #5
Just joined this Asylum? Start from the beginning!
Your character’s past has come to confront them and, one way or another, that confrontation is over. Now it’s time to see what comes next for whomever is left.
Of the people who entered witness protection, who is left? A new choice lies before them about what life they move on to now.
First, decide whether the danger that forced them into witness protection in the first place still exists. Is it over now? Must they continue to run to keep safe?
Their current cover identity has been shattered, at least as far as hiding goes. If they no longer have to hide, would they choose to stay in this new life? Is there anything to keep them there? Would they choose to stay even if it would be unwise?
What about returning to their old life? Would it be safe? If that’s an option for them, would they choose to go back? Is there anything left for them there to pick up? Or now they’ve had some time away from it, does it no longer have a hold on them like it used to? Will they choose something else, or something new?
There is, of course, the third option: a whole new life. Perhaps they must stay in witness protection if they hope to stay alive and safe, in which case this may be their only viable option. Or perhaps they decide to strike out on their own, without the protection agency’s help, to make their own way. Maybe they don’t trust the agency any more, or perhaps they simply don’t need that kind of protection now. Maybe they feel it would be best for them to forge their own path. If this is where their journey takes them, what kind of choices does this lead them to?
Your final challenge is to tell us what this third stage in the character’s life looks like, for whichever characters survived to this point. You can show us the beginning of that journey, or skip forward a year or so and explore where they end up.
Your bonus element for this challenge is: Delightful Descriptions. Make your descriptions as alliterative as possible.