ROMANOGERS: PAST TO PRESENT

Chapter Twenty Four

If you want to make this really sad listen to The Scientist by Coldplay

Scarrlet's POV

I was somewhere but nowhere, just like the man said. I was surrounded by a fog that was tick and numbing to the senses. I wasn't sure how I got here but it was warm and the air smelled sweet. I felt no pain, no aching bones or muscles, I didn't hear haunting voices or see flashing images. I felt a peace that I hadn't felt in a long time.

"You haven't changed a bit." The voice was familiar and startling. It couldn't be, it shouldn't be. Spinning around my eyes settled on a tall muscular form.

"Pietro!" I cried my emotions blurring together. He smiled his same dorky grin and I rushed forward into his outstretched arms. I breathed in a lungful of his familiar sense and warmth spread through me, a kind I had not felt in a long time.

"It is good to see you sister." He kissed the top of my head and I couldn't help but cry into his shoulder. My sobs were that of joy and unbelievable happiness. My mind swirled in glee and wonder before resting on the inevitable. I recalled everything had done, I had sold out my friends, I thought they were my enemies. I recoiled from his grasp. "What is troubling you?"

"You wouldn't love me if I told you." He bestowed a sad and pitiful look upon me. He gestured to the pale floor and we sat by one another like we had so many times before.

"Try me." He smiled taking my hand. Concentrating on my power I showed him everything, all of it, each painstaking second of my endeavors. When I was finished he nodded in contemplation. "I've done terrible things."

"Not of your will." He informed. I shook my head angrily.

"No, they were! I told him! And now I think the are monsters! Pietro I'm a monster now." The tears came again, suddenly and forcefully.

"You are confused." He whispered wiping my tears away and looking in my eyes. His were warm and safe. My safety, my heaven. "My sister is not a monster."

"I am. That man has made me a monster." I choked oit gripping his for arms and begging him to understand. He shook his head sadly.

"That is not my sister." I scoffed.

"It is! It is me!" I shouted. He stood suddenly getting to his feet and looking angrier than ever before. He waved his finger angrily for emphasis.

"No! That is not my sister! She is kind, polite, sweet, brave, intelligent! That is a mindless, pained, being! That is what I see. That is what he has made! That is not you!" He turned his back to me his shoulders tense and his back heaving.

"Pietro, that is me." He turned to look at me the Fire in his eyes not having dwindled.

"If that is what you believe then that is what you have become!" I recoiled at the desperation and passion in his voice. I laughed bitterly shaking my head.

"Who am I kidding, you aren't even real." I turned my back to him. This was just my weakened mind playing tricks on me. A hand rested on my shoulder forcing me to spin around.

"I am real, sister. Very real and as long as I am in your thoughts and heart I am real! Just like am real this is the real you. Not that other girl. This is you, your beliefs, what you know is right. He has not taken that from you! It is still there deep under the havoc of your mind. You must remember yourself." He insisted and I could tell by his glistening eyes he was close to tears.

"I can't Pietro. I've tried so hard!" I cried. His arms wrapped around me in a protective shell. His breath was hot on my neck, he felt so real.

"You have tried, but you have not believed. Hope is the only thing that can save you from yourself. It saved you before and it can again. You must find it yourself, when and how I do not know, but I know this; when you let go of your fears, when you let go of yourself, you will lose the darkness you are living in. Then and only then will your facade of an outer shell be cracked. That is when you will find hope, when you let go of everything you think you know and except that you know nothing."  He let go of me stepping back to look at me with a saddened smile shaking his features.

"I love you." I whispered. His smile grew and he took my hand in his.

"I love you too." With that he began walking into the dog with me in tow.

"Where are we going?" I asked feeling like a little kid when he would drag me on mysterious adventures.

"Back to reality." He winked at me from the corner of his eye.

"I thought you said you were real." He smiled a bounce in his step.

"And I told you I am. You will learn that sometimes the real realities are the ones you cannot see, sometimes you cannot even feel them, but that does not mean they do not exist. You simply must believe that they do." We came across a large oak door standing in the center of the fog. "When you are ready simply open the door and walk through."

"What about you?" I asked gripping his hand tighter. I could not bear to leave him behind, to leave him would be like reliving his death.

"I will not be gone sister. I am always by you. In your heart, your soul, your mind. You do not have to be afraid of losing me, I am gone and yet I am not. Remember sometimes you must simply believe." With his impish grin we walked towards the door and as I opened and entered the firm grip of his hand slowly faded until I was holding air. I shed a single tear as I stepped through the door, my heart aching. But at the same time it was a good pain, a pain of having to let go.