Eyes of Scarlet (Dolan Twins)

III

Uncle Jack repeats the question and Ethan looks up at him, his cruel mouth, his cruel eyes. Ethan's hand goes up to his bloody nose, and it feels warm. It drips against his lips, tasting coppery and he wipes at it.

He gets up and lunges at the open door but Uncle Jack grabs him by the waist and yanks him hard, and it causes him to hit against the hallway wall. It moves on of the picture frames hanging there and nearly causes it to fall. The breath is knocked out of him and he coughs, bending over slightly, collapsing.

He can hear as Grayson is forced to the bottom of the basement steps. There are their father's sharp foot steps up the stairs, pounding up to the top.

Their father slams the steel door behind him, and turns the industrial lock, pocketing the key quickly. He is turning to his other son, a glare etched on his face, and he says, "Why did you go out?"

He has Grayson's phone in his hand, clenched so tight that his knuckles are turned a white like bone.

Ethan is still on the floor and suddenly there's the sharpness of his boot against his side as he kicks him. Ethan gasps, and Father grabs him, pulling him upwards and takes a fistful of his hair, yanking his head back, making Ethan's back arch slightly.

"This is your fault; do you understand me? What did I say about going out, huh?" He snarls, letting go and pushing him, and Ethan is against the wall, a panic attack filling him. He can feel it in his whole body.

He needs Grayson. He needs him right now.

-

28 days.

The more venom in the blood stream, the quicker the loss of control, the quicker the turning, and the less painful it is. Grayson is in an unspeakable amount of pain, and he rubs at the blood on his neck, as it is already drying.

He's cold, but not cold in the sense of the flesh, but internally, like his temperature is dropping. He thinks it's probably all in his head. He shivers and lets his hand go on the freezing steel door. He thinks about banging on it especially since he can hear the struggling outside. He screams instead, yelling obscenities at the air, and he knows that they can hear him as clear as day.

When they were ten, Ethan had accidently locked Grayson in the basement.

They were playing hide and seek, and the door was open. Like any child, he knew that he wasn't supposed to go in places which were usually closed, but he had entered through the door anyway, and closed it behind him. It locked, and he heard Ethan on the other side, yelling, "Gray, where are you at?"

"Ethan, open the door," Grayson had said as he yanked at the knob, and finding it locked, his young started to pound. It was dark and scary down there and the stairs were sharp at a slant. He pounded on the metal, screaming.

"I can't, it's locked!" Ethan had yelled back, and they knew they were in trouble then, especially when Father or Uncle Jack found them. Ethan decided to rush up to their mother's room and knock on her door. She answered it, opening it to Ethan rapidly telling her about what happened. She had looked down at him, and raised her hand in a dismissive gesture, closing it back in his face.

Ethan would sit on the other side the whole day talking to Grayson through the door, knowing that his twin was right there on the other side. He pictured Gray as they talked as a kind of comforting gesture, and he didn't move to get lunch or even use the bathroom. Whenever Gray seemed to say something about how dark and scary it was on the other side, Ethan reassured him everything was going to be alright. It was going to be just alright because he was right there, and always would be.