The Lady of Darkness

Home Alone

March 6th, 2016.

Stevie and Daryl were in the process of devising their grand scheme and eating lunch. Mark was gone for the live events and they were writing down their ideas on how to help their parents out.

"I wonder if there is anything in the basement or attic we can use." Daryl suggested.

Stevie thought over this possibility for a while, then agreed.

"Mom said she kept journals, right?"
"Yeah."

"Maybe we can find something in those."

Daryl thought for a moment and looked skeptical. "I doubt it."

"Daryl! You are such an idiot sometimes! Those were from the 90s! You know, when they really loved each other?"

"OH YEAH, duh! How could I forget?! C'mon let's go!" Daryl said.

"Clean up your plate first. And don't forget, we have dishes to do too." Stevie replied.

"Fine, fine, sometimes your worse than Mom."

"I'm the eldest, I have to be."

"You wish."

* * *

Stevie paged through an old diary from 1998, part of her wished she hadn't read this particular entry, but oh well. What was done, was done. There was no going back now.

"What are you reading, Stevie Wonder?" Daryl asked.

"You'll regret it."

"Never mind."

Stevie laughed and went back to reading. After a bit, Daryl found a box full of stuff, and when she came to a folder, smiled.

"Hey, Stevie, look at this." she said.

"What?" Stevie replied.

Stevie got up and was confronted by a folded piece of paper.

"Thanks, Daryl, so helpful." Stevie snapped.

"Wait! There's more!" Daryl said.

Daryl unfolded it and Stevie read what was on the piece of paper. Both her parents had written on it, she noted her mother's careful handwriting and her father's more bold text. She read it with interest when she noticed the date.

* * *

2/14/97

We've decided to commit our lives to each other, hopefully we can get hitched soon.

But, since it's Valentine's Day, I asked Markie if we could write our own vows, he agreed.

"Markie"? Since when have I been "Markie"?

It's my pet name for you, in my notes, MARK.

Ah. I see.

Below is what took us several hours to come up with, but hopefully, when we do have our wedding (if he'd ever propose!) [I'm working on it, woman!] (You are?!) [you may never know now.] (Damn you.) I hope we can say these vows...

It doesn't matter how rich we are,

how poor we become,

how rough things can be,

all that matters, is "I love you".

It doesn't matter what our families say, or what the world does,

how they treat us,

how we treat them in response,

we will always love each other.

For better or for worse,

for rich or for poor,

in sickness or in health,

let nothing come between us,

'till death do we part,

We will always love each other,

I will always love you.

* * *

Stevie's eyes widened, the words: "how rough things can be", "how our families treat us or what the world does", and "how we treat them in response", echoed in her mind. Then she pieced things together.

"Daryl, they never got to say these. Where did you find this?"

"Behind a picture of Mom and Dad from '97, check it out."

Daryl handed Stevie a picture of the two, they held each other and each formed half a heart with their hands.

"They made a heart..." Stevie whispered.
"Yeah, and the caption behind the picture says: "Mark and I, 2/14/97"." Daryl replied.

"Daryl, this is what we need! They put it behind here for safe keeping and forgot about it!" Stevie replied.

"YES! YES! YES! YES! OH MY GOD! YES!" Daryl shouted.

Stevie did her own little celebration but Daryl suddenly said: "How are we going to get this to them? I doubt Mom's coming home anytime soon, and Dad won't be back for two weeks at least."

"Damn...You're right. I guess we'll have to figure that out. And, we have to photocopy this."

"Why?"

"Because we need to keep the original behind this picture. For safe keeping." Daryl stated.

"Oh. I see. Let's do that now, and I think it's dinner time already." Stevie said.

"It took us five hours just to go through all this junk? Ugh, who's cooking, you or me?" Daryl asked.

"Let's just have sandwiches, OK?" Stevie replied.

"Sounds good with me."

After photocopying the document in full, Stevie returned it to it's place behind the photo.

"Don't worry, we won't let this crash and burn. We're going to remind you how much you truly cared about each other. To you guys, it didn't matter what Grandpa did. All that mattered was your love for each other. And we're going to restore that. I promise."

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