Ev'ry Day I'm Shufflin'

Okay, if you don't know what story shuffles are, here's a quick 'splanation for you: You set your iPod on shuffle and write a really short story that's related to the title or lyrics of the song. Or, in my case most of the time, you just find a song you like and decide it would fit the Leviathan characters, so you write it.
The song "Safe and Sound" by Taylor Swift,  which is ironically for The Hunger Games soundtrack, just happens to be one of those songs. I like it so much, in fact, that I wrote TWO story shuffles about it. Feel free to weigh in on which one you like better.
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Leviathan characters, Scott Westerfeld does.
Safe &Sound- Taylor Swift, attempt 1
         The fire was everywhere. It crawled up her arms, leaping to everything around her.

“No! No, please! Not again...” she pleaded with it, but it didn’t listen to her, just continued to eat away at all that she had left. “I thought I’d escaped you!” she cried, wishing the fires would just go away. They followed her everywhere, even here into her new life with Alek.

Oh no. “Alek!” she screamed, but he was already gone, the flames had taken him away, leaving her alone like they always did.

“Deryn? Deryn, wake up!”

There were tears streaming down her face, and she reached for him blindly, craving his solidness, the reality that he was still there, still alive. “Don’t leave me alone, don’t ever leave me, please.”

“It’s alright, Deryn. I’m here. It was just a nightmare. You’ll be okay. Just close your eyes, Deryn. I won’t let you go.”

“Don’t ever leave me alone.”

“I won’t. We’ll be together, safe and sound.”

So that's that one, now here's the other:

Safe and Sound- Taylor Swift, attempt2

The ground was shaking. At first they had been small tremors, but they had grown larger steadily. Alek could feel it on his bare feet as he rushed to Deryn’s room. Another blast came, and the chandelier in the dining room clanged against itself. He pushed her door open and rushed to the bed, finding her shaking worse than the floor. She looked at him, face pale and tears gleaming on her cheeks, and he gathered her into his arms. “Come with me, Deryn, we’ve got to get to the basement.”

This wasn’t the first they’d heard of the bombings, but never before had they been this close. Dr. Barlow had warned them before she left on a mission that the Clankers would be targeting London soon, but Alek hadn’t thought it would be this soon.

Don’t you dare look out your window, darling, Alek pleaded with the girl silently, everything’s on fire. It was the one thing that terrified Deryn Sharp.

They scurried down the hall and under the trembling chandelier to the basement stairs. He led her to a corner and their they huddled, watching the dust fall from the ceiling with each new bomb. Alek tried to look brave as he brushed away the tears streaming down her face.

Her wide blue eyes met his as the ground shook more violently. “Don’t leave me here alone.”

“I’ll never let you go,” he assured her. “Just close your eyes. The sun is going down.”

She nodded and took a deep breath. Alek leaned his head onto hers, kissing her hair.

“You’ll be alright,” he breathed. “No one can hurt you now. Come morning light, you and I’ll be safe and sound.”

The second one very closely fits the lyrics to the song, and even though their weren't really many bombings in WWI, there weren't living airships, either, so I figure it could happen.

If you like my story shuffles of Dalek and other Leviathan characters, please say so below, and I'll post more.