by Daise, Sonny
“Yeah, I don’t know if we were perfect, but I loved him. I do love him—”
“Wow Scarlett, you don’t sound too sure of that,” she accused.
“No, it’s not that. It just seemed so easy for him to leave.”
“Dante can act a lot tougher than he actually is,” she pointed out.
“Do you want to go for a walk or something?”
“Sure, I could use some fresh air,” she said.
We walked down to the lake, sat on the dock, and put our feet in the water. I needed someone to talk to, and Grace was always best at making me feel better. Nothing could heal these wounds, but Grace was a distraction, a painkiller; I just hoped it wouldn’t wear off.
“I found my dad,” I blurted, needing reassurance for another one of my problems.
“That’s great,” she started to say before she saw the look on my face. “So what’s wrong?”
“He’s a murderer.”
“That’s awful. It would have been a lot worse before all of this though. Murder isn’t that rare of an occurrence anymore.”
“Yeah, you’re right. I just wish I had gotten a chance to know him—without him being a murderer and all. Though I can’t help but feel that I’m not too different.”
“Scarlett, you’re not a murderer. I mean, you would never hurt anyone if it wasn’t absolutely necessary.”
“I guess,” I sighed. “So, how has everything been for you lately?”
“Good, actually, I’ve been hanging out with Jackson a lot lately.”
“So you like him?” I asked.
“Yes, he’s amazing. I’m really happy.”
“I’m happy for you,” I smiled. “Maybe we can go get Rose, Annabelle, Lily, and Rachel and go for a hike or something.”
“Actually, Jackson and I were supposed to hang out soon….”
“Oh, it’s okay. Have fun.”
Grace left to go get ready. I walked over to George and Elizabeth’s house. It couldn’t hurt to go see them and try to get a little information out of them. I knew Skylar probably felt uncomfortable sitting there with people he didn’t know.
I knocked on the door, and Skylar answered. He laughed as he opened the door. It wasn’t directed at me but something Elizabeth had said. It was like they were old buddies.
“Hey,” I said as I looked at both of them. “How’s it going?”
“Great, he is a very nice young man,” Elizabeth commended.
“So is Dante,” I said a little too defensively.
“That wasn’t what I meant Scarlett,” Elizabeth replied.
“I know. I’m sorry; I’ve had a long day.”
“Sit down, I’ll get you some coffee,” she offered, giving me a strange look.
She came back with coffee and sat down next to me. She asked Skylar if we could talk alone for a minute.
“What did you want to talk about?” I asked as I took a sip.
“You’ve had a long day? It’s eleven o’clock in the morning, Scarlett. You didn’t go home last night, did you?”
“I—”
“Don’t lie to me.”
“I did go home, but then I left,” I shrugged.
“You didn’t go back… there, did you?”
“No.” Not on purpose anyway.
“Alright,” she sighed.
She didn’t believe that I would let this go. I wasn’t quite sure that I would ever purposely go back there, but still I could promise nothing.
“Skylar,” I called. He came back into the room. “Let’s go for a walk.”
When I looked at him, it was so painfully obvious. I would never love him like I loved Dante. I could only love him as a friend and if that could work, I would happily do so. There was a small piece of me that cared for him in another way, but I was starting to feel like that part just didn’t fit with the rest of me. It didn’t belong.
“So, what do you want to do today?” he asked as he put his arm around me. I shook it off; I would have jogged a little bit ahead of him, but I was starting to feel weak again.
“Um, I don’t know, maybe we could….” I was trying to think of somewhere that there would be evil people, people who deserved to die, but I couldn’t think.
We had stumbled upon those boys in the woods at random, and the Alliance was gone. I knew one place where I could without a doubt find someone evil, but I wasn’t sure I could kill my own sisters, my father.
“Well?”
“I’m feeling weak; I need to find someone to kill, and your dad is a cop….”
“Yeah, but I told you I never see him, he—”
“I just need to find a murderer or someone who has done something—”
“Okay…” he said looking down, deep in thought. “Okay, I got it! You can turn invisible right?” I nodded. “Well, maybe you can help me turn invisible, and I can sneak into the police station, listen to their radio or something.”
“We can try,” I smiled.
“Alright, let’s go,” he said.
We parked around the block from the police station. I was a little nervous, not about Skylar sneaking into the police station, but seeing if my powers would work for him.
We faced each other, and he gave me his hands. We sat there for a minute; I closed my eyes, concentrating, but all I could think about was Dante.
When I opened my eyes, Skylar was still sitting there with his closed. Neither of us had gone invisible, but Skylar’s hair was about three shades darker. When he opened his eyes, my heart skipped a beat. His eyes weren’t green but dark brown. It wasn’t Dante, but I wanted to pretend he was, even though it would do no good. His eyes held the same power over me as Dante’s.
He had no idea anything had changed, but his dark-brown hair was swept across his forehead. His eyebrows furrowed with confusion and a seriousness I had never seen Skylar possess. He let go of my hands, and they hit the console with a thud.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” he asked.
“Like what?” I asked innocently.
“Like you are, you’ve never looked at me like that before.”
“Give me your hands back,” I demanded.
I imagined him going back to normal, and then I tried to concentrate. I sat there holding his hands, trying to keep Dante off my mind, but after I had that slight glimpse of him, it was almost impossible.
Finally, I was invisible. I opened my eyes and Skylar, too, had disappeared. I could see a slight outline of him. He looked down at himself, and then got out of the car.
“I’ll be right back okay?” he said.
“Alright,” I answered.
I waited in the car for at least a half an hour. Skylar had to of been trying his best, but I wasn’t quite sure what to expect when he returned. When I saw his outline and a couple of floating files, I reached over and started the car.
“Hey, how did it go?” I wondered.
“Good, good…” he sighed. “Look over these, and then decide where you want to go.”
I grabbed the papers and flipped through them. They were all men, all accused of horrible crimes, but the main thing that connected them, the main thing that made this all worthless—they were all proved innocent.
“Skylar!” I snapped. “All of these men were let go.”
“Well, yeah. I mean, do you want me to take you to a prison or something?”
I grabbed his hand and we both became visible. We drove past two abandoned buildings, and I suddenly had a horrible feeling. It was deep down; it was hard to prove that anything at all was wrong. Then, from the back of the buildings, I heard a woman scream.
“I’ll be right back,” I called behind me as I got out of the car and ran toward the scream.
I ran to the back of the building. There was a man pushing a woman up against a brick wall. He had a knife to her throat. She looked like she had accepted what was happening around her. She had accepted she was going to die—until she saw me.
I stood there, calculating my next move with p
recision. There was a rusty metal pipe sitting on the ground a few feet away. The man had no idea that I was behind him, so I used that to my advantage and grabbed it. I ran back over and swung the pipe. It hit him on the side of the head, catching him off guard and knocking him to the ground. It didn’t keep him down though; he jumped right back up and smiled.
I got ready to hit him again, when he started running at me. I swung, but this time, he saw it coming, caught it in his hands, and ripped it from mine. Then, instead of using the weapon for himself, he threw it on the ground.
He lifted up his knife, taunting me, showing me how he planned to kill me. I wasn’t ready to give up yet though. I held out my hand and imagined a knife twice the size of his. Then, I looked back up to his face and smiled the most evil smile that I could. He looked frightened, but that didn’t stop him from lunging at me. I fell to the ground, and when I did, I could see the woman sitting there staring, looking horrified.
“Run,” I yelled.
She listened and took off. It didn’t look like she was hurt, but I couldn’t be sure.
Soon, he was on my side, holding me down with his free arm across my chest. His other arm was above me, knife in hand, waiting to strike. I used my free hand to grab his wrist, but still the knife inched closer. I was using all of my strength, trying to keep his knife away; I couldn’t even try to use mine own. I closed my eyes, imagining myself gaining some strength; I pushed up harder. I felt the weight of him lessen, and soon I moved his arm up, just enough that the other arm came off my chest the tiniest bit. I moved over and let his knife crash into the cement. The blade was bent, and his knife was now useless. He looked over at me with a fear in his eyes that I’d never seen. He was afraid of…me.
I smiled and got up; I quickly moved behind him and put the knife to his throat.
“Before I do this, please just tell me why.”
“Why should I? You’re going to kill me anyway, so just get it over with.”
“Just tell me,” I demanded as I pushed the knife into his skin.
“Because I wanted to, plain and simple. You wouldn’t understand.”
“No, I wouldn’t,” I mumbled as I stuck the knife in his chest.
I closed my eyes and felt the strength flowing through me. It wasn’t like when I’d just imagined it, then I didn’t really feel stronger; I just was.
I sat there and looked around. I needed to hide the body; I just didn’t know where. In the woods, things were much simpler, you just bury it. In the Alliance neighborhood, who cared? No one in there would be shocked by a dead body.
I thought about what the man said, he killed people only because he ‘wanted to.’ I couldn’t relate to that. I never really wanted to; it was survival, or helping someone, or needing strength.
I ran out to the car; Skylar was sitting there, looking anxious. I got in the car and turned toward him.
“Are you alright?” I asked.
“Yeah, are you? What happened?”
“Yeah. I killed him,” I sighed.
“Are you feeling better?” he asked, looking almost uncomfortable.
“Yeah, I need to get rid of the body though.”
“I’ll help you get him to the car, but I don’t know where to go from there.”
“We’ll take him into the woods by the neighborhood,” I said.
We backed the car up into the alley, just a little ways, then went to get the man. He was heavy, but we had no problem getting him into the trunk.
We drove home. Skylar still seemed upset about something. He drove down the street to the neighborhood and asked me where he should go. It was pretty private near the hole in the fence, so I figured it would be better to go there.
He stopped the car, and we went to the trunk. He grabbed his arms, I grabbed his feet, and we climbed the small hill up to the fence.
Once we were through, we started heading back toward the cabin. Then, we left the path and walked deeper into the woods. There was a patch of bushes and next to it, I imagined a hole. I pushed him into the hole, and imagined bushes covering over it.
We walked a few feet away and then sat down to rest, mostly for Skylar’s benefit. His eyes looked blank, his face pale. He looked miserable.
“Let’s just get back. I want to change and take a shower. We can talk after, okay?”
“Alright,” I agreed.
We got up and walked to the fence, and once we were out, we jumped in the car and drove to my house. Skylar walked down the street back to George and Elizabeth’s house.
I walked in the door and ran up the stairs to go change my bloody clothes and take a shower. Once I was dressed, I went outside to wait for Skylar. There was something going on, and I needed to know what. As I was walking out the door, I saw him coming. We decided to go sit on the beach.
We got to the beach and sat down. Skylar was twiddling his thumbs and not making eye contact. I sat there impatiently, waiting for him to tell me what he had to say.
Finally, he turned toward me and grabbed my hands. We sat there cross-legged holding each other’s hands and stared into one another’s eyes. His were filled with pain. He looked like all of his dreams had just been crushed, but there was a glimmer of hope there as well.
“What I wanted to tell you—” he broke off and gulped. “I have a way out; I have a way that everything can work out—for everyone.”
“That’s great,” I exclaimed, even though I could tell he was holding something back. “So what is it?”
“I think it’s best if I don’t tell you exactly what it is, I know you won’t like it.”
“Why?”
“I’m working everything out right now. Dante is okay with it, and he’s coming back in the next day or two.”
“He’s coming back?” I said with a little too much excitement.
“Yes, will you do something for me?” The desperation in his voice was evident.
“Of course, anything,” I promised.
“Go on a date with me, before it’s too late.”
“…Too late?”
“Yeah I—I mean Dante’s coming back so…”
“Yes, I will.”
“I’ll come get you tomorrow around noon, okay?”
“Sounds good,” I smiled.
“Great,” he said as he got up.
“Wait, where are you going?”
“This needs to be perfect; I don’t even know where we’ll go yet.”
“Don’t worry about it Skylar,” I assured him. I could tell he was going to take this way too far.
“Don’t worry about it? Tomorrow could be my last day–”
“Your last day…your last day for what?”
“My last day to spend with you, I mean, really spend with you… like I said Dante’s coming back so….”
I couldn’t ignore the nervous tone his voice took on. I got up so my eyes could meet his. He turned away; it had to be more than he was letting on.
“You’re keeping something from me; I know it. You can tell me.”
“I can’t. I can’t tell you anything, well, besides one thing. There is something that I need, and there’s a chance that you may have it.”
“Well, what is it?”
“A potion, it should be a bright pink color.”
I remembered back to the night at the movies, the night when that mysterious woman came up to talk to me, then vanished. She left something behind—a bright pink potion. What did she say to me? Something about someone new coming into my life, I couldn’t remember the rest. It felt like a heavy fog was tearing through the memory, sweeping it up and taking it away from me.
“What’s it used for?” I wondered.
“I’m not certain, but I think it has a few uses, some more helpful than others.”
“I have it, but I’m scared of what you’re hiding from me.”
“Don’t be afraid, everything is going to be alright for you; I’ll make sure of it.”
He walked away without another word. If I had any id
ea whatsoever about what was going to happen, I knew that I would be thinking the worst. This was almost worse; I had no idea, none. Whatever was going to happen, I wouldn’t know until it was happening, and there would be nothing that I could do about it.
I stayed in that spot for at least another hour. When the sun started to go down, I headed inside. I went up to my room and sat at my desk. I stared at the phone in front of me, wanting to call Dante. I needed to hear his voice, to see if he would tell me what was going on, assuming he knew everything. I picked up the phone, and dialed the number, when it started ringing I felt my heart stop.
“Hello?” His voice, it was so calming, and yet my heart was beating erratically.
“Hi, it’s me,” I mumbled.
“Scarlett? What’s wrong?”
“Skylar says he has a plan, would you know anything about this?”
“He hasn’t given me all of the details yet, but yes.”
“What has he told you?” I asked.
“Well, he couldn’t stress enough that I shouldn’t tell you.”
“Why? I don’t understand why I need to be kept out of this.”
“I don’t know. He hasn’t told me that much either,” Dante sighed.
“But you trust him?” I asked.
“Yes, I think I do.”
“He said you were coming home,” I mumbled.
“I am. I’m just not sure when I’ll get there.”
“I’m going on a date with Skylar tomorrow—” I blurted. He was silent, I couldn’t explain why I said yes to Skylar, that part inside of me that wanted to be next to him had been drowned out by my desire to be with Dante. “He said it could be his last day to spend with me or something.”
“Have your feelings changed?” he asked. His voice was low, barely a whisper.
“About you? Never.”
“I’ll see you soon,” he said. “I love you.”
“I love you, too.”
Then he was gone, leaving me here, holding onto the phone, hoping for a miracle when I’d never even been able to catch a break. I closed my eyes and wondered what magical thing would solve my problems. What magical thing would bring me and Dante back together? I needed to believe it was possible. I grabbed the book with the picture of me and Skylar and searched for the page.