Roger pulled away from the hug first. He drew playfully at her sleeves. Pulling the beige material up passed her elbow. Scarlett blushed and pulled it down, but not before his eyes fell on the black bruise around her forearm.
"Scarlett," he sighed. "You can't keep these hidden. You have to tell someone."
"I can't," she breathed, precariously close to tears. "They'll take Damon away. Better me than him. As long as he's okay, I'll be fine."
Roger shook his head, but he said nothing more on the matter. "Come here," he muttered, pulling her slowly to the ground. They leaned back against the large oak tree. Scarlett settled against Roger's chest, and he ran his hands playfully through her hair.
"Tell me how you've been," he whispered, his mouth tickling her ear.
"Now that you're here, I'm perfect," Scarlett's face drew up in a lazy smile. Roger traced her lips with his eyes before leaning down and kissing her. His kisses were soft at first, but they grew in intensity until they were pressed against each other. Roger was pinned between Scarlett and the tree, his arms entrapping Scarlett. When he finally pulled away his face was flushed and his breathing heavy. Scarlett grinned.
Roger returned the smile, but something else flashed in his eyes. Scarlett couldn't place it, so she decided to ignore it. "How've you been?" she asked, placing her hand against his heart. She could feel the steady beat under her fingers. It was comforting in a way she couldn't explain.
"I-"he glanced over Scarlett's shoulder and stiffened suddenly. Scarlett followed his gaze and spotted what he was looking at.
Damon.
He was outside her window. He was fully dressed, which struck Scarlett as odd. She'd remembered putting him to bed in his pajamas earlier. His eyes were rimmed red and his sandy hair was sticking up at odd angles. Scarlett felt her heart constrict at the look on his face. He looked terrified. Scarlett quickly untangled herself from Roger and went to Damon. She dropped to her knees in front of him, laying a hand on his shoulder.
"What is it?" she asked "What's wrong?"
"I- I don't know," he stammered. "I just-"he broke off and his eyes widened as Roger came up behind Scarlett. Damon's face scrunched up and he began to cry again. Scarlett pulled him into her arms and he sobbed into her shoulder, darkening the beige of her sweater.
"Shh," she crooned, stroking the back of his head. "It's okay; you just had another bad dream. It's okay now"
He shook his head as another sob wrenched itself free of his throat. "No, no it wasn't just a dream," he demanded, "it wasn't! You were there and he was there and we were afraid and we were running and-"Damon pulled away from Scarlett, his eyes full of fear.
"Damon," Scarlett said slowly, "What do you mean?"
"Something bad is going to happen!" he yelled. "It wasn't just a dream! They're never just dreams, but I always forget them, but I can't forget this one-"he broke off, unable to continue through the flood of tears. He was shaking all over. Scarlett looked at Roger helplessly as she drew Damon into her arms again. He was trembling so violently she was afraid he would hurt himself. Roger was staring at Damon with a mix of fear and awe.
"Roger," Scarlett whispered, "Do you know what he's talking about?"
Roger slowly tore his gaze away from the shaking child in Scarlett's arms. When his green eyes met her grey ones, there was something in them that made Scarlett shiver. Something cool and calculating that she had not seen in them before.
"Roger," she squeaked out. Damon trembled fiercely again, and she tightened her arms around her terrified brother. Panic was clawing its way up her throat and she tried desperately to force it down. Surely what Damon was saying couldn't be true. Roger would never do anything to hurt either of them. Roger loved her. She was sure of it.
Roger set a hand on her shoulder. His face was set, his mouth pressed into a thin line. "Get up," he said softly.
"What?" Scarlett breathed.
"Scarlett get up, we have to go. Now. Your brother's right. Please just- trust me. Can you do that?"
She looked down at Damon. His sobbing had eased slightly, but he was still a shaking mess in her arms. Slowly, Scarlett unfolded her legs, grunting with the effort of lifting herself and her brother. She shifted Damon's weight in her arms. His hands came around her neck and his legs locked around her waist. She tightened her arms around his back.
"Roger, what's going on?" Scarlett asked. She tried to remain expressionless, but fear was gnawing at her insides.
Roger sighed. He looked tired. Dark circles were smudged under his eyes, and Scarlett felt bad for not noticing them before.
"Come with me." He turned and headed towards the oak tree without turning to see if she was following. After a moment's hesitation she followed him, being careful not to jostle Damon too much. His breathing had slowed a little, and Scarlett thought he had his thumb stuck in his mouth, which he only did in times of great distress.
Roger crouched in the soft dirt under the tree and began drawing symbols with a stick. For a moment Scarlett's fear was eclipsed by confusion.
"What are you doing?" Scarlett asked, shifting Damon's weight in her arms. Her shoulder was beginning to ache.
"We have to get out of here," Roger said, not looking up from his symbols. Scarlett tried to decipher them, but she had little luck. He had drawn a circle with what seemed to be squiggles radiating from the center at regular intervals. He stopped drawing and studied his work for a moment. When he seemed satisfied, he threw the stick to the side and pulled something shiny in his pocket. It looked vaguely like a watch, but there was something different about it. The numbers on the clock face were weird. They looked wrong. Scarlett couldn't place how.
"Roger, what-"Scarlett begin, but Damon cut her off. He began squirming in her arms and she put him down. He ran towards Roger, careful to avoid the circle.
"I know what you're doing! You're taking us away! You're taking us to the bad place!" He yelled. Roger shook his head and Scarlett knelt in front of Damon.
"Shh. Shh. Damon you'll wake up mom and dad, and that would be-"Scarlett trailed off. Not wanting to imagine what her father would do if he caught her in the backyard with a strange boy.
"Scarlett you have to stop him you can't let him he-"
Scarlett never found out what Damon was going to say. At that moment his knees gave out and Scarlett had to catch him before he fell, face forward in the dirt. There was a syringe sticking out of the back of his knee.
"Roger what the hell?" Scarlett hissed, scared of waking her father. "Did you-did you just drug my six year old brother?" Her heart was pounding in her chest, and she was having trouble processing what was happening. She vaguely hoped that all this was a weird dream. That she'd wake up to Damon crawling in her bed and tugging at her pajama sleeve. That everything would go back to normal.
"I don't have time to explain, we have to leave. Now." He grabbed her arm and pulled her and Damon into the circle. He fiddled with the silvery clock in his hand with a pained look on his face. Scarlett wanted to run back to the house, but she was too afraid of Roger to move. She'd never seen him like this before, and they'd been meeting in her back yard for almost a year.
"Roger, please," she pleaded, trying to keep her voice from cracking. "What's going on?"
He whirled to face her suddenly, his green eyes shockingly bright. "Your brother's right." He said, with cool detachment. "Those aren't just dreams. Your brother is very special, Scarlett. This isn't about you, not at all. I promise I'll explain everything but right now we have to-"
There was a loud banging sound. The door to their back porch flew open suddenly, the back of it slamming into the brick wall. Scarlett's grip on Damon tightened in fear. Roger began franticly twisting the clock in his hands.
"You stupid whore what do you think you're doing?" Scarlett and Damon's father screamed. He was drunk. Scarlett could practically smell the liquor on him from where she stood. He was really drunk. Scary drunk. The kind of drunk that made her feel three years old again. The kind of drunk that made her fear for her life.
Roger began twisting the device in his hands with renewed vigor. He was muttering something that Scarlett couldn't hear under his breath. Suddenly he dropped the device into the circle in front of them. He wrapped his arm around Scarlett and told her to hold on. He drew up his foot and smashed the device under it.
All around them there was a blinding light. Scarlett could hear her father yelling drunkenly, and through the light she thought she saw a baseball bat in his hands. Her skin crawled when she thought of what he intended to do with it. There was a nauseating sensation of stretching all around them. Scarlett felt as if her feet and head were being pulled in two opposite directions. She could feel Damon stirring in her arms. She tightened her grip on him, afraid that the light would somehow tear him from her grasp. Roger's arm tightened around her similarly.
A high pitched screeching pierced Scarlett's ears and a scream tore from her throat. The pain in her head was blinding. And suddenly they were falling. Scarlett couldn't see what they were falling down or even what they were headed towards, but she was vaguely aware that Roger's arm had fallen from her shoulders and that she was no longer holding Damon. She screamed again, but the sound was lost as they tumbled down the blackness.
And then it was over.
ns 15.158.61.8da2
