by Daise, Sonny
“Wait,” he said as I went to kiss him again. “I can’t do this. I’m sorry.”
“I don’t want you to go, please don’t leave,” I was crying like a little kid. I needed to do something to get it across to him that I didn’t want anyone else.
“I need to Scarlett,” his voice was like velvet, and his hand was on my back comforting me, but it didn’t help.
“Why? I don’t understand this. For a while when I first came back to the past, I was smarter than you; I knew more about this than you. I was the one with answers. And now you remember what happened before, you know everything you knew, and you’re back to keeping things from me and doing what you think is right.”
“Scarlett, this has to be right. I don’t know why, not yet, but everything could depend on this. Our future could depend on this.”
“I can’t do this; I don’t know what everyone expects from me. I’m supposed to be super powerful and all knowing; I’m supposed to be able to get over the love of my life and make myself fall in love with someone else and for what?”
“I don’t know, but maybe we should,” he said as he grabbed the book from his drawer. He flipped the page and began to read. “It doesn’t say.”
“What? What do you mean it doesn’t say? What if there is no reason at all, what if this is a mistake?”
“You can feel it; I know you can. That’s why you couldn’t take your eyes off him.”
“When will I see you again?” I asked.
“I don’t know. My ride is waiting outside.”
“What? Already? You’re leaving right now?” I cried.
I felt hopeless, and desperate, but that desperation gave me no ideas. There was nothing, not a chance that I could change this.
He looked at me, his eyes burning through my soul. I closed my eyes, and a single tear escaped. This seemed like the end. I felt like I wouldn’t see him for a hundred years—which would be possible as long as neither of us were murdered or had a horrible, tragic accident. I had the future that I’d dreamt up burn down within the course of a day. I had my heart break over someone who I thought would never do such a thing. The world had taken back my happiness and replaced it with something so forced, so unnatural. I wasn’t sure without Dante here, that these feelings wouldn’t morph and grow, and if they did, there would be nothing that I could do.
I realized I’d fallen to my knees, and Dante had left me. I ran down the stairs and out the front door. His mother stood on the porch waving good-bye, she seemed confused, but I had no time to listen to her. I ran out to the car. I couldn’t beg him anymore, I was only torturing myself, and he wouldn’t even look in my direction. The next thing I knew, they were off.
Chapter 9: Familiar
I went back to the lake. Skylar was still sitting there waiting. I felt horrible. I couldn’t give in to my feelings for him because I was afraid they would replace what I feel for Dante.
He put his arm around me, and we watched the sun set on the worst day of my life. He understood, and he felt responsible; it was all there in the way he said nothing. He cared about me, that I could tell. He wanted to heal my broken heart, he just didn’t quite know how.
“I’m sorry Scarlett,” Skylar finally said.
“I don’t know what’s going on,” I said, staring out into the faint line of sunset that hadn’t yet been consumed by darkness.
It wasn’t normal, or healthy to feel this way, but there was something much stronger than my emotions tearing my heart to shreds. With every breath, my heart ached more. I felt like the sun wouldn’t rise tomorrow or ever again.
“To be honest,” Skylar said. “Neither do I, it’s obvious how much you care about him. I wish I didn’t feel the way that I do.”
“I wish I knew why we were meant to be together, it doesn’t even say in the book. What is so important that we need to feel this way? I guess the best thing for me to do, is just forget about Dante for now. I can’t obsess over him until he returns.”
“I’m here for you,” he whispered.
It was innocent. I could tell he wouldn’t try to push me into doing anything I didn’t want to do. At least for now—while I didn’t want that—but when the wounds start healing for Dante, when he has been gone so long, that it’s hard to remember us and how we were, I wasn’t sure it would stay that way.
We sat on the shore and stared at the sky all night. Once the sun started to rise, I felt—alive. I still missed Dante. My heart still ached for him, but I was starting to realize that the world was going to continue. I still had my friends, and I had made a new one. He reminded me of Dante in the way that he didn’t leave when I needed him, though Dante did just that last night.
“I’m sorry I kept you up all night, sometimes I forget that people need to sleep more than just once in a while.”
“It’s okay, I would never sleep again if I could spend all my extra time with you,” I looked away from him. I couldn’t look into his eyes while he said things like that to me. “I’m sorry.”
“You don’t have to apologize, and I’m not promising anything, but you have to give me some time.”
“Okay, so what do you want to do today?”
“Do you want to go check something out with me?”
“Sure,” he said.
I led him to the hole in the fence, and I climbed through before him. I needed to know who lived there and why. Who would want to live so close to the Alliance? I had an odd suspicion about that place, like no matter what we found, no matter who lived there, it would be a clue, or at least something significant. I went down the path, and in no time, we were standing in front of the vine, and bush covered fence.
I pushed a small branch out of the way and there was a clear view of the house. A man came outside. He was looking around for something. Then, he yelled into the house—I’d heard that voice before. A woman yelled back from inside the house, and she, too, had a familiar voice. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. Then, the vision of the woman who was murdered popped into my head. This man, was the man who murdered her, and whoever yelled back to him, was the woman in the attic.
“Are you ready to go?” he yelled to the woman.
“Yeah,” I heard two people respond.
The man walked closer to the fence, and I started to panic. These people obviously weren’t good people.
“Come on,” I said as I grabbed Skylar’s hand. I led him over to a patch of bushes for us to hide behind.
They went in the opposite direction, and I didn’t get a chance to see the woman, and whoever else was there. We sat there for a minute, making sure the coast was clear.
“Do you want to go see what’s in there?” I asked, expecting him to say no. I waited for him to reason with me as to why this was a bad idea, just as Dante surely would have.
“Let’s go,” he said.
He pulled me over to the fence. There was an area without bushes, it was covered only in vines and when he pushed on it, it opened. We shut the gate behind us and headed toward the house. It was small and not very well taken care of, but they had better things to worry about, like not being caught for murder. I felt kind of like a hypocrite, but I didn’t kill innocent people.
The front door wasn’t locked, and we got right in. It was messy, but other than that, it looked just like any normal home. There were dishes in the sink, pictures on the walls—pictures of people I knew before I went back in time. Even though we were related, I had only met them the day before.
Sienna and Hazel. I don’t know why, but I had figured they just didn’t exist. I figured with getting me and Rose back, Violet would have brought them up, but she never did.
Here they were, just as I remembered them but worse. They were bitches when I first met them, but that was better than this. It didn’t really matter; they were no different than any other horrible person. The one problem with this: they looked way too much like me.
“What’s wrong,” Skylar asked. He looked at the picture then casually looked
away.
“They’re my sisters.”
I needed to find what they took from that house; I knew the boxes had to be somewhere. I ran around looking for them. I looked in every last place they could have been, but found nothing.
I went back outside to see if they were in the shed, but this was no ordinary shed. I had a hard time getting inside and when I did, I knew why. There was nothing inside this shed, nothing but a door leading to underneath it.
“Skylar,” I called. “You’ve got to come see this.” He ran outside and to the shed.
“Whoa,” he gasped as he looked. “Let’s open it.”
There was a staircase leading down. At the bottom, there was a light switch. I flicked it on, and it was like I was somewhere else entirely. There was nice furniture and cabinets filled with everything you would ever need. There was a stove, a fully stocked bar and a bookshelf filled with books. I walked over to the bookcase and noticed a button on the side. I pushed it, and the bookcase slid over and went right into the wall.
Behind it, were the boxes I was looking for, along with other things. I looked inside the boxes; they hadn’t taken any potions, but there was a box full of books. There was one, in particular, that enticed my curiosity. It was a book that looked like an almost exact replica of the one Dante had found at Grace’s house. There were differences though; this book looked older, and a little bit thicker.
I let my guard down, as I sat there holding the book, wondering if it was the same as the other, or if it would have more information. I felt safe with Skylar. Dante made me on edge. Whenever he was unsure of something, it made me unsure also, and I didn’t like feeling that way. Right about now, however, would have been a good time to be on edge. A good time to be paying attention to everything that was going on around me, because soon it was obvious that we weren’t alone.
“Hey, who left the door to the shed open?” the man yelled.
“Not me,” one girl called.
“Neither did I,” the other followed with the exact same voice.
I ran to the light switch and turned the lights off. The door in the floor closed, and then I could faintly hear the other close and lock. I ran back to turn the light on, and once I could see Skylar’s face, I saw that he shared the same worried look. We were locked down here, until someone else found this place—or they came back and found us.
We sat down on the comfortable couch and waited. I knew that even though we were related, they wouldn’t hesitate to kill me. I was unsure of their motives, but I was sure they would only see us as a roadblock. It could still be a while though, so why not enjoy it?
“How are you doing?” Skylar asked.
“I’m fine,” I smiled. “He didn’t have to leave, but he did. I couldn’t stop him, so why should I sit here and dwell on it?”
“You shouldn’t. I don’t exactly know how you should deal with a situation like this… but I know it will be a lot harder on you if you can’t get him off your mind.”
“Yeah.” I looked into his eyes. They were amazing. They looked like gems that shined a million equally amazing shades of green.
He walked over to the bar and grabbed a bottle of vodka and two cups. Then he came and sat back down.
“This will help us pass the time,” he smiled.
“Fine,” I said.
What was being uptight all of the time getting me? Sure, I still needed to use my brain and think for myself, but I could let go some of the time. I could just enjoy things without overanalyzing and spinning everything to be so much worse. Sure there were some things that warranted my paranoia. But why even bother now?
He poured a shot for each of us. I walked over to the fridge; there was a twelve-pack of Coke. I grabbed a can; I figured we could split it. I grabbed the cup and smelled it; it stung my nostrils. I plugged my nose and swallowed it. Then, I grabbed the can of coke to take a sip. After a few more shots, we started talking.
“So, when did you know that you were in love with Dante?” Skylar asked.
“It’s kind of hard to say. There were a few fleeting moments when we were younger. I’d have to say I really fell in love with him when I found out he pretended to be you just to help me…” I sighed.
“You miss him, don’t you?”
“Yes,” I sighed. “But you’re the next-best thing. You remind me of him in so many ways besides your looks. You’re actually kind, you’re nowhere near who I thought you were, and ever since we—”
“Ever since we… what?” He wondered.
“Nothing, It’s nothing.”
“Tell me, please,” he begged.
“Ever since we… kissed… I felt this part of me—”
“You felt it, too?” He blurted
“What did you feel… exactly?” I wondered.
“I—I felt whole, complete.”
“No, I didn’t feel like that. It was more of a part of me that I’d never felt before, I never even knew it was there, and now I can’t ignore it—that’s why Dante really left.”
“Part of me wishes that we’d never met, that we were never meant to meet each other. I wish that you had a chance to be happy.”
“Skylar, it’s not that I couldn’t be happy with you. It’s that fact that I was completely happy with Dante. I thought we were meant to be together; I thought we were bound by some magical, amazing thing. I thought that nothing could tear us apart. I thought that no matter what happened, no matter what anyone did to us, no matter what challenges we would face, we would have each other. That was the one thing I thought I could count on, but I couldn’t even count on that. He was the one person I knew I could count on to always be there, but he left.”
“If you ever decide that I am worthy of a chance, you will always be able to count on me.”
“It’s not whether you’re ‘worthy’ or not, It’s whether I can live without Dante or not.”
“You’re going to live forever and so is he, and I know that someday you will be together, but for now, could you try—”
I put my fingers to his lips; no amount of him trying to talk me into this would help. I was at war with myself. That part of me was begging to kiss him, but the rest of me was wishing Dante was here. I couldn’t go on like this. Dante left me, and Dante wanted me to be with Skylar.
“Pour me another shot,” I ordered. He did. I drank it and immediately, after my lips were touching his. Unlike Dante’s kisses, which were always soft, gentle, Skylar’s felt desperate, passionate. He stopped and looked down at me, and then he sighed.
“This isn’t fair to you, I can tell this isn’t what you want,” he smiled at me, letting me know it was okay. “What time is it? We should see if we can find a way out of here, I bet it’s dark out by now.”
“Alright,” I smiled back, confirming what he thought. It just didn’t feel right. Maybe someday it would, but I couldn’t give up on Dante until I knew why Skylar and I were supposed to be together.
We went up the stairs, but there was no handle on the door. We tried to push it, but it wouldn’t budge. Skylar went back down the stairs, walked over to all the boxes, and then, he looked around. He ran over to me, with a knife that looked a lot like the one that went through his hand. He dug the blade into the palm of his hand, about half an inch in. The handle started filling up with the blue liquid again. He did the same thing as last time, he drank the liquid. The cut was gone before he finished it. Then, he went up to the door. With one quick motion, the door was up. When I got into the shed, I realized it looked like the hinges were bent.
“Wow, that was amazing,” I complimented.
“Just one of the many things I can teach you.”
Skylar walked me home. The entire time I had the book I found clutched in my arms.
When we got to my house, I wasn’t quite sure what to do next. He didn’t seem like he planned to leave, but I needed some time alone.
“I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?” I said as I walked in the house.
“Okay, bye.” That
was easier than I thought.
I went up to my room and fell face-first onto the bed. I’d never really had to deal with a breakup. I was sure that if I had boyfriends before, the slight pain of losing them might have prepared me for all of this. I wasn’t sure how it was supposed to go. I didn’t know anything. It would have been easier in some ways, if Dante would have just stayed. I wanted to see his face, even if that was all I would be able to do.
I thought back to the time that I found out Dante had been pretending to be Skylar, I thought back to the night when we stayed awake in each other’s arms. I remember so vividly the night that we swam in the glowing pink water, how much fun we had, how alive I felt, how lucky.
I turned on the fan; the heat was unbearable. Then I put the book that I had found on my bed and starting flipping through it. Each page was filled with priceless information. Stuff I knew I would use eventually, but now I needed something a little more significant to what I was going through.
It was taking forever, and I didn’t think I would be able to find the page. I decided to go take a break and get a glass of water.
When I came back, the pages were turning. It was because of the fan, but it seemed to go slower than it should have.
Finally, it stopped and the page it fell on went back and forth violently—it was Skylar and I, but the next minute I could have sworn it was Dante.
As the breeze from the fan moved the page, Skylar’s eye and hair color seemed to change every other second. His eyes went from green to brown, his hair from ashy blond to dark, mysterious brown.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a faint green and blue light coming from the backyard. I jumped up and ran to the window, more precisely, I ran into the window. That blue and green light was exactly what I thought, but once Dante saw me, he was gone as quickly as he appeared.
I rubbed my forehead where it met the glass, and then, I sat down on the bed. I took a deep breath, balled my hands into fists and beat my pillow. I couldn’t control myself, even as the tears started to sting my eyes, the frustration remained.