Dandelions Blowing in the Wind

VI

a/n: this chapter contains subjects such as suicide, murder, an eye getting sliced open, and child abuse. if you are uncomfortable reading this chapter I encourage you to skip to the next chapter, all you're missing is sad dan. I will continue the actual story after this chapter. Thank you.

October 1968

    This was all a publicity stunt, an advertisement if you will. Dan wasn't a big fan of concerts; the roaring crowds, the flashy lights, the anxiety that came with standing on stage with everyone's attention on you. It made the vocalist feel like a mouse surrounded by hissing felines. It wasn't a good feeling.

     And yet here he was halfway through a North American tour.

The band was going on tour with Jael across North America, Jack thought it was a good idea as people that couldn't make it would buy their album. People that couldn't experience the real deal could buy a record and get a toned-down version of the show... or people that liked them enough would buy their album to experience it at home.

The plane had just touched down in Nova Scotia. The Halifax Airport didn't seem as busy as it was when Dan left here last. When he left for good. As much as he wished he could skip over this place he wished to stay there and connect with his old schoolmates and his Aunt Pearl. He hadn't been in touch with his three siblings as much as he should've but he called them from time to time.

After giving up so much for his brother and sisters to have a better shot at life he found it hard to return home. The beautiful shorelines, pipers and fishermen that once seemed colourful and welcoming had become distant and dull. Dan loved his family and his home, yes, but he couldn't fight the feelings of guilt about leaving them behind. He'd abandoned his younger siblings, right? How could they forgive him for walking out and leaving them with their bitchy aunt?

Though leaving them with his aunt provided a safer home. Pearl was a widow. She had married an older man with a comfortable amount of money and lived worry-free. Dan and Pearl never saw eye to eye. She had practically pushed him out of the lives of Walter, Jolene and Eloise. Those were his siblings. Every phone call home was answered by her. Every letter was either blatantly ignored or sent back to his current home.

Walter was approaching his 18th birthday by this point. Dan had left home when the younger boy was 13 after their grandmother passed. The memories hurt but the blond couldn't stay. He couldn't keep living in the home he was neglecting his own needs to keep others alive. He couldn't stay in the home he lost three parental figures in. He just couldn't. When Pearl came for the funeral of her mother and took a liking to the kids, Dan caught a glimpse of freedom. When she moved into the farm with her son that was his chance. He had to get away from that life.

There were times in that life when the only way out seemed to be the rifle in the closet. He was just a kid. Only a kid. No more than a kid. A kid lost in a world meant for the mind of an adult. A pool full of despair and maturity was what Dan was thrown into at the age of 14. A brutal way to be taught to float when drowning in the pool seemed like the only way out. It started with a rifle... he'd never forgive the man that killed his mother. Never. A twisted man he was, tricked a woman stricken with grief and coated in vulnerability into loving him. Into trusting him. Into giving him her heart only so he could shoot it multiple times... with the rifle Dan wanted to shoot himself with as well.

He remembered that night all too vividly.

The blood-curdling scream.

The three gunshots echoing throughout the house and into the woodland surrounding the farm.

The crying of young children.

The ringing in his ears.

The roar of the diesel engine as his stepfather left, leaving Dan with his mother's blood-coated body and the mental anguish of caring for them all.

Dan remembered calling the authorities and explaining his situation while trying to soothe the baby. Eloise would've been killed too if it weren't for the eldest of Jolene Miller's children. The girl had one of her eye jaggedly slashed vertically and in a blur of bandaging and blood Dan had saved her life. The ringing never stopped. Dan couldn't stop. This innocent little girl's life was nearly taken by a monster. He couldn't let her lose it. He couldn't let her bleed out.

He should at least try and check in on them while he was here. He was the man of the house after all? It was his job to act as their protector, it was his job to keep the family afloat. Or.. was it? Dan hadn't been home in three years, he recalled his childhood. The landscape was vibrant with colour and imagination, childlike emotions such as wonder and curiosity made the fields and forests feel more like an adventure. A quest to conquer.

But now he was an adult and the province he once called his own seemed more like a pair of blue jeans one had washed and wore too many times. The dreamlike state of childhood was something Dan thought he'd never get back. Ever. It was gone like a child's front teeth, or cotton candy dipped into water. It was gone.

Dan was snapped back into reality when Pete began to tugging his fingers through some of the knots in his mop of hair. Pete hummed to himself, cautiously detangling the best he could with his piano-player fingers. The gentleness made Dan's cheeks heat up, making the pinkish undertone of his porcelain skin even pinker.

     Though that didn't last long, as utter chaos sat on the horizon like a fiery sunrise.