by Daise, Sonny
“Okay, you do it; I need to find Rose and Dante.”
I walked around, and connected to another machine, was Rose. I took the tape off her arm and pulled the needle out.
“Scarlett?”
“Yes, Rose, it’s me,” I said. “Are you alright?”
“I—I don’t know.”
“Okay, I need to find Dante right now. I’ll be right back.”
I ran around searching for him. He wasn’t connected to one of the tubes when I found him, but he looked in worse shape than Violet and Rose combined. He was half conscious and covered in bruises, and he looked so frail and weak.
“Dante?” I whispered, running my hands over his face, trying to wake him.
“Scarlett?” he croaked.
“Yes, it’s me. I’m here,” I assured him. “I need to go get Skylar. I’ll be right back.”
I ran back over to where Violet was, Skylar was standing there dumfounded.
“I don’t think she lost too much, but we’ll need to try and get it back.”
“Rose and Dante aren’t in good shape, Skylar.”
“Okay, you stay here. I’ll see if I can figure anything out over there.”
I grabbed the IV that was in Violet’s arm; I followed it back to the glass tube, and there was a switch. I flipped it, and some of the liquid came spewing out. I flipped it back and put the needle into her arm. Then, I flipped it again; Violet closed her eyes and laid there.
“Violet, you yell for me if you start feeling weaker or anything, okay?”
“Yeah,” she whispered.
I ran back over to Rose and did the same, and then, I ran over to Dante. He still looked the same, if not worse. I needed to find out which of these machines he was connected to, if any.
“Dante?” he looked up at me. “Were you connected to any of these machines?” He nodded as much as he could. “Which one, can you tell me?” he pointed to the one right next to us.
I grabbed the IV to see if it would reach him, it did. I put it back in and turned the switch. Now we just had to wait. The glass tubes were emptying quickly, but I feared it wouldn’t be quick enough. If anyone realized I wasn’t in there, they would come looking for me.
Once all of their tubes were empty, Rose and Violet were back to their old selves, but Dante was still sore and covered in bruises. We ran back up the stairs. That was when I realized—everyone but Dante, Skylar and I were locked in; they couldn’t walk through walls.
“Okay, we need to figure out how to get everyone out of here, and then you all need to go home.”
“What? You’re not staying here,” Skylar said.
“I agree,” Dante and Violet said at the same time.
“I have to,” I sighed. “I’m going to save Sienna and Hazel. I’ll make them forget everything, and then maybe they can have a normal life.”
“Who cares about them, Scarlett? They tricked us; they’re the reason you’re here.”
“Fine then, we all save them, right now. Does anyone have any ideas?” I asked.
“They injected us with something. I was in a daze for hours; I could hardly move,” Rose said, I knew exactly where she was going with that.
“Let’s find more. I’ll go out there and drug them. Once they’re drugged, we’ll bust the door down, and then I guess we’ll figure it out from there.”
“I’ll help,” Dante offered.
“So will I,” Skylar said.
We ran back down. Stored inside a small cupboard on the other side of the room, was about fifty syringes. It looked like they were already filled. I grabbed three, and handed one to Dante and one to Skylar.
We went to the top of the stairs, and I grabbed Skylar and Dante’s hands. We turned invisible, walked through the door, and then, we ran up to the side of the house.
“I’ll take care of your dad. You two go for the girls,” Skylar said.
“Are you sure?” I asked.
“Yeah, I’m sure.”
“Okay, when we go through the wall, it’s going to take a lot out of us; it’s much thicker and harder to do than a door. We need to be quiet; it has to be a surprise.”
“Alright,” they said.
Once we were in, we sat down for a moment. I knew that Dante was still not quite himself, and Hazel would be the easier target.
“Okay, at the top of the stairs the first room on the left, I believe that’s his. Sienna and Hazel have their names on their doors, so that should be easy enough. I’ll take Sienna; you get Hazel, okay Dante?”
“Okay,” he said.
We headed up the stairs. Skylar opened the first door on the left, and my dad was inside sleeping. I nodded to Skylar, and he walked in. Dante continued into Hazel’s room, and I went to Sienna’s. They were all asleep, oblivious to what was going on.
I walked up to the bed, slowly pulling the covers down to get to her arm. As I went to stick the needle in her skin, her eyes shot open. She grabbed my arm, uncovered the rest of herself, and kicked me into the wall. In the second I had to react, my only thought was that I hoped Dante and Skylar had already used their shots. If they didn’t, then we were all screwed.
Sienna came at me and held me up against the wall by my throat. Then, she took the syringe from my hand and brought it up to my face. She held the needle just inches away from my eye as she choked me. I lifted my leg to push her off; it worked, but she was right back up the next second. She ran at me and knocked me to the ground. I pushed to get her far enough off of me, that I would have enough momentum to punch her in the face. It worked, and she fell to the ground. I got on top of her and grabbed the syringe. She tried to push me away, but it was too late. The contents of the syringe were already swimming through her veins. Her arms hit the ground, and she laid there without moving; she just stared at the ceiling.
I ran out the door and into Hazel’s room, she was laying there motionless. Dante and I ran to check on Skylar, who had completed his mission. We ran outside, and out to the shed, Skylar had one of the hollow handled knives on him, and he proceeded to dig it into his palm right under his thumb.
Once the handle finished filling with the blue liquid, he screwed off the blade and drank the contents. Then, he brought his hands to the lock, and it crumbled between his fingers.
Everyone was free, aside from Sienna and Hazel. I couldn’t know for sure; I couldn’t be totally confident in this, but I knew they should have a chance at a real life. If things backfired, I would have no choice but to kill them. Which I was fine with, because if I left them here, there was no doubt that I would kill them or one of them would kill me.
“Okay, we need to go back for Sienna and Hazel now,” I said.
“I think this is too much of a risk, Scarlett. You know if I didn’t think that, I would be okay with this,” Violet said.
“Look, I’ll make them forget. We can tie them up or something. We can go and get more of those syringes, but at least this way they have a chance—we have a chance.”
“Okay, go, but if this doesn’t work—”
“I’ll take care of it,” I promised.
Dante and Skylar followed me back into the house. It would be quite a long walk home, and someone would have to carry the girls. I knew Skylar could handle it. Hell, after that lock crumbled in his hands, he could probably easily carry both of them.
We went up to their rooms. Everyone was still passed out. I went into my father’s room first—he would need to forget as well. I put my hand to his forehead, and made him forget everything about me, Rose, Sienna and Hazel.
Then, I went into Sienna’s room, and placed my hand on her forehead. She would have to forget much more—basically her whole life—if we wanted this to work.
Once that was done, I moved on to Hazel, who would also, have next to nothing left to remember. Skylar came into Hazel’s room with Sienna already slung over his shoulder; he bent down to pick her up, too.
“Are you sure you can carry both of them?” I asked.
“Yeah, I�
�m sure,” he replied with confidence.
“Where’s the knife maybe I could—”
“No, Scarlett, I’ve got this,” he interrupted.
“Alright, where’s Dante?”
“I don’t know.”
“Okay, you take them outside, and I’ll find Dante.”
I went into Sienna’s room, but he wasn’t there. So I went and checked my dad’s room, and there he was, standing on the side of the bed with a knife.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“Everything, all of this, it’s his fault, every-last-thing, Scarlett, and you want to let him live?”
“I don’t know what I want anymore, Dante,” I sighed. “How are we going to solve all of these problems? Because I know killing him wouldn’t do it. He would find another body and try again.”
“You’re right,” he sighed.
“One day, he will pay; I promise, but for now, he isn’t going to remember much. He’ll be as harmless as Ann.”
We went downstairs and back outside. Everyone was waiting for us, and we began our walk home.
It took us about an hour and a half to get there, but finally, we made it. I didn’t need to worry about the Alliance or my father, not right now.
I had one worry on my mind that left little room for anything else—exactly what kind of loophole did Skylar and Dante find, and what would this entail? I didn’t even know if they knew the reason Skylar and I had been forced together; the reason Dante and I had been forced apart.
“Can I talk to you for a minute, Scarlett?” Violet asked.
“Yeah,” I said as I followed her into the house.
“They’re going to need somewhere to sleep. In the long run, we might need to move, but as of now, they’re going to take your room.”
“Fine, but I need to get some things first.” I went to go upstairs, when she grabbed my arm and stopped me.
“I’m sorry Scarlett, so much of this is my fault, but I didn’t know. Not until it was too late, not until they were gone. I was clueless. I should have told you about the curse, but by the time you were in my life, you were already in love with that boy. It was already set into motion, and it broke my heart every day. I never told anyone about that.”
“It’s okay; everything is going to be made right,” I said before I went upstairs.
I grabbed the boxes from Ms. Winter’s house, and took them into the basement. The book that I’d been looking at was at the top of the box. I opened it, and it opened to the exact page I was looking for. The page with me and Skylar. There was no breeze, but the page was doing exactly as it had done, when the fan was blowing it. His eyes were changing between green and brown. I set the book down and ran upstairs. Violet was still sitting at the kitchen table.
“Where’s Skylar?” I asked.
“He put the girls upstairs, and then he took off, why?”
“Where’s Dante?”
“He left, too,” she said.
“I’ll be back,” I said as I ran out the front door.
I was going to stop at Dante’s house, but I had a strong feeling that he wasn’t there. I closed my eyes and concentrated. I saw a quick flash of his face; he was standing somewhere in the woods, or next to the woods.
I was about to run into the trees, but I saw light coming from just off the lake. I walked up slowly, taking everything in. There was a table with two candles, and a small vase filled with roses. There were strings of lights hanging off of every branch, but I didn’t see Dante. I walked up to the table and a few feet away, I heard them talking.
“You know that isn’t possible, Dante, it won’t be any different. I’ll barely even be there. It will be just like normal, and don’t forget, this was supposed to be my date anyway,” Skylar said.
“You’re right. I just hope this doesn’t upset her,” Dante whispered.
“That’s why she’s not here. Stand still.”
I peeked through the bushes and saw Skylar holding a knife to Dante’s neck. What the hell were they doing and how would killing Dante help anything?
“What are you doing?” I cried as I ran through the bushes.
“You should just leave Scarlett. This will be easier on everyone if you’re not here.”
“I’m not going to let you kill him,” I shrieked. “Do you even know why we’re meant to be together?”
“Yes—it actually makes a lot more sense now—and if you know, too, and you try to be with him, he’s going to die anyway.”
“What?” I ran over and pushed Skylar away from him and buried my face into his chest.
“I love you Scarlett, but he’s right; this is the only way.”
“I love you, too,” I mumbled into his chest. “But I don’t understand why you have to die.” I stood up on my tiptoes and kissed him. Seconds later, he was gone, just a pile of ash.
“What happened?” I sobbed.
“You read the page; you knew why all of this was happening. You knew that you were supposed to be with me, but you kissed him anyway,” he explained.
“Why didn’t you tell me that?” I demanded as I beat on his chest. Tears were flowing down my neck, soaking my shirt.
“We have to hurry Scarlett,” Skylar said.
He took the potion out of his pocket. A blast of pink smoke came out, and it was in the shape of a heart. Then, a thin line of smoke went to Skylar, then me, then the pile of ash that Dante left behind.
Less than a second later, I saw Dante’s ghost, and the line moved toward him. Skylar put the vial to his lips, tilted his head back, and swallowed it. He fell to the ground and it sounded like he was choking. Dante’s ghost walked over to him and sunk into him. He lay there motionless, and I was starting to get worried. Then he sat up, coughed, and opened his eyes—they were brown.
“Dante?” I whispered.
“Hey, beautiful girl, how do I look?”
“Like you, like Skylar, great. How do you feel?”
“Honestly? I feel really weird, not bad, just weird.”
“Well you’re okay; we’re going to be okay—” I paused and wondered how Skylar was doing at this moment. “Where’s Skylar?”
“He’s in here; he said it would be like having another personality that was controlled about ninety-eight percent of the time. During that ninety-eight percent of the time, he said it would be like being in a dark room for him. He can kind of hear what’s going on next door, but he can’t see it. That’s the way it will be for me, that two percent of the time, but that’s fine, Skylar has sacrificed so much more.”
“Thank you Skylar,” I whispered, and a few tears fell to the dirt. I only hoped that he could hear me.
“You’re welcome,” Dante said, and I looked over to him. His eyes flashed green for a second, and then turned back.
I walked over to the table, and sat down; Dante followed my lead. He laid his hands on the table, and I rested mine in his. Before when I touched Dante, I felt little bolts of electricity, now it felt like I was in a bathtub with a hairdryer. It didn’t exactly hurt, but it was a very intense thing.
In that moment, that small part of me that longed for Skylar, and the rest of my heart that knew exactly where it stood, came together. I could have sworn Dante noticed this change. He got up and went around the table. Then, he grabbed my hand, and we walked toward the water. The lights continued overhead until the shore. We stood there facing each other for the longest time.
He was Dante, the love of my life; he was Skylar, the only other man I’d ever felt anything even close to love for. Together, they made me feel complete. I felt so selfish, always wanting Dante, never just enjoying my time with Skylar. Then Skylar—the boy with the beautiful soul, that I didn’t quite see until it was too late—unselfishly gave up his life, without the freedom that came with dying. He would be locked in that dark room forevermore, paying for his courage, and selflessness, and silently holding on to his love for me in the dark. While those pieces of me came together—the part that loved Dante, and the p
art that longed for Skylar—I knew that those pieces were still headed in the same directions.
“I love you,” I said as I looked up at him.
“I love you, too,” he whispered, as his eyes flashed back and forth between green and brown before finally resting on brown.
He put his hands around my waist and pulled me closer. I could feel the electricity from his touch, going up and down my back. I moved closer to him, and the electricity was everywhere, soon I noticed a soft white light radiating from us. I closed my eyes as he ran his fingers across my cheek, afterwards it was tingling.
He leaned down to kiss me, touching his lips to mine just enough to tease me. I stood up on my tiptoes and kissed him back, this time for real, but only for a few seconds, and then I pulled away. I smiled at him, teasing him back, watching him to see what his next move would be. He put his hands on the small of my back and kissed me, while making me walk backwards until I was up to a tree. Then he grabbed my hands, and pinned them above my head. This time as he brought his lips to mine, I couldn’t pay attention to the feelings rushing through me, or how much I loved him in this moment. The lights overhead started flickering, the more passionate his kiss became, the more the lights flickered, until they exploded.
He stopped and looked around, and then we both looked up to the sky. The stars had gotten brighter, brighter than I’d ever seen them before, and soon, three shooting stars passed by. I smiled at him, and he brought his lips back to mine.
When I opened my eyes, I saw a bright light coming from my house.
“Hey, what is that?” I asked as I started moving forward. “Oh my God!”
The house was on fire, and I didn’t see Rose or Violet. Sienna and Hazel were still inside, too.
We ran into the house. It was already filled with smoke. I pulled my shirt up and covered my mouth with it, then, I ran into the kitchen. Violet and Rose were passed out, tied up to chairs.
Then, I saw Sienna and Hazel. Hazel looked distraught—like she had nothing to do with this—but Sienna kept moving forward.