Noah immediately regretted his decision to come with Marie and Colton when they entered the boys' room. It was not because all the furniture was still in the same place, even a year and a few months later. It was not the prospect of potentially reuniting with En and Derek after their not so nice reunion previously. It was the choking aura of death that seeped from the three people already inside. It churned around them in a mass of warped blackness, covering them to the point that Noah could not make out who was who.
The gentle click of a door brought him back out of his thoughts. Colton turned the lock too, just in case. "Well, Marie," he said. "They're all yours."
Marie nodded, her throat bobbing as she swallowed. She wrung her hands together, hesitant. "I don't know where to start," she admitted, looking back and forth between the two beds. "They're all hurt so badly." Her voice dropped along with her gaze and a little something glittered in her eyes.
"Start with the easiest one," Noah suggested.
Marie rubbed her eyes with the heels of her palms, sniffling back whatever feelings had been brimming within her. She stood up straight, conviction settling into her faster than Noah could blink.
He and Colton watched as she set to work, retrieving a pair of scissors from one of the drawers and bending over the far side of the left bed. The only thing Noah heard was a quiet snip, snip and uncomfortable sounds of protest. Then, the haze cleared and Noah could see Karen; her red hair splayed across the pillow and her neck speckled with blood and a scar cutting across it. A tangle of surgical stitches spiraled between Marie's fingers as she unstrapped the blue brace around Karen's forearm.
When Marie came around to the other side, drafts of strong, cold wind slipped into the room. The blinds banged against the windowsill, clattering back into place. Noah pulled them up, reaching to close the window shut. But, he froze.
Outside, the evergreens stirred aggressively, whipping about in a violent fervor. The dark night looked darker still because of dense storm clouds roiling in the heavens. Somewhere in the distance, thunder rumbled, bringing tell of an approaching storm. But, it was the trees that really got Noah. Their branches stretched out, tangling into one another and reaching all the way until the window to fill up gaps they should not have been filling up. Gaps they had not been filling up just a few minutes ago.
"Close the window!" Colton smacked Noah's arm, causing him to push the glass shut abruptly.
The wind still whistled through the window, piercing into the room with a shrill persistence. It only seemed to grow as Marie stood in front of Noah, up to her arms in an inky fog only he could see. Colton had come over to sit next to the headboard, his expression blank.
This time, Marie took longer to finish. A much louder snapping sound resonated from her location and, every few seconds, she stopped to drop something onto the mattress and wipe sweat from her face. Her lips twitched into a grimace as she worked, shoulders tightening when the whistling intensified.
Whoever was on the bed lurched and Colton reached over to hold them down. His face still gave nothing away, even as the blackness dispersed to reveal Vince. "Can't you do it a bit more?" he asked, finger trailing above a large and puffy gash that ran across Vince's chest.
"No, I don't want to exhaust myself." Marie had already turned to the other bed, attending to the one who could be none other than Hayden. A flush of tiredness crept up her glistening neck, travelling to her face.
Perhaps she had already exhausted herself? Now that he thought about it, Noah did not know the true extent of her powers, nor the consequences of breeching those extents. Did they take some taxing effect on her body?
He could not dwell on the thought too long because just as it crossed his mind, the sound of grating pipes emanated from the walls. The ceiling and the floor joined soon, then a heavy patter of rain plodded against the window. Then, it faded. Marie wobbled backwards, arms falling to her sides like they were weighed down by lead. She puffed out an exhale, mopping her reddened cheeks once again. She had finished.
The cloud over Hayden cleared and Noah saw the scar on his back, cutting across a tattoo he, it stung to realize, did not know about. A shoulder sling dangled off the edge of the mattress, centimetres from the floor.
"Let's get out." Colton stood, pulling up the blinds.
The glass was streaked with droplets and still more dripped against it. In the murky outside view, trees whipped about and cast clingy shadows around the room. The squall conducted a symphony of high whistles and tapping rain, like some twisted choir.
Marie gasped, still catching her breath. "You think we can even reach the trees?"
Colton shrugged, sliding the window open. Immediately, a downpour fell inside, drenching Vince's face. He scrunched his nose and looked like he was about to wake up. Colton clambered onto the bed, using Vince's face as leverage, and shielded him. He stuck his head out. "There's a small jump to the porch's roof. We can make it without falling. I think."
"I don't like the way you ended that," Noah felt the need to point out. The rain continued to fall inside, pooling up on the floor and disappearing into the pillows. A flash of lightning lit up the sky momentarily, its rumble of thunder following not too long after. "But, whatever. Let's just go. I feel like we've been here long enough already."
Although he wanted nothing more than to stay and feel the familiarity of the house and roam the halls with a sense of nostalgia enveloping him, Noah knew full well that he could not. Despite all the memories he made in it, of him, En, and Derek playing tag and him, Hayden, and Marie drawing on the walls, he was no longer welcome. This was no longer his home.
It ached to admit that. But, Noah pushed the lump in his throat down, turning his back on the room he once slept in.
Until the dull thud of the attic ladder hit the ground outside the closed door and steady footsteps descended it. Colton, Marie, and Noah froze, not wanting to alert the one outside. Judging by the slow steps, it was Derek, likely with a laptop still in his hands. He paused before the door, his shadow appearing in the crevice beneath. Then, he was running to the stairs and yelling En's name.
Colton immediately hopped into the window. "Bye," he said, dropping out without another word.
Noah and Marie stood still, rooted to their spots. Even as the doorknob turned side to side in a fruitless effort. Even as En shouted profanities. Even as Derek made the hinges melt off. Even as the door, with nothing to support it, crashed to the floor.
It was a riveting sight to see them in the doorway, two black silhouettes outlined by the hall light and rigid with surprise.
"Sorry, Marie," Noah whispered. He pressed himself to the wall, ignoring the bite of the windowsill into his back, and cloaked himself in the shadows of the curtain. He felt suffocated just by looking at his siblings again. He remembered the last time he came, remembered the flash of the sharp metal near his neck, and remembered the hate in their eyes.
"Marie!" En rushed forward, relief washing into her voice. Jagged little shards of metal hung in the air surrounding her, ready to impale anything.
Marie trembled at the sound of her name, head lowered. She did not look up as her fingers bunched around the hem of her jacket.
En paused by the foot of the left bed. "Marie? What's wrong?"
Derek came over as well, placing a hand on the iron bedpost. He scanned the room, no doubt wondering if she had someone else with her. The window remained open, a clear sign of where she had come from.
"Hey," En tried again, gently this time, "where have you been?"
"I've...been around," she replied, her hair hiding her face.
Noah's sister smiled a smile that made his stomach turn. "Whatever, it's fine. You can tell us later." She stepped closer, holding a hand out. "For now, I'm just glad you're back."
Marie still did not move, but her grip on the jacket slackened. "I'm not..."
Panic rose up inside Noah like bile. He felt the black tears streak down his cheeks and the corruption climbing up his hands. Fear and anxiety pumped through his blood, giving that thing inside him a tingle of pleasure. He did not want Marie to leave. It was the whole reason he came to this place again.
What could he do to stop her? It was not as if he could control his powers. But, why? What was stopping him? Everyone else could do it without a problem.
And then, in that moment, it hit him. The problem, it was him. He was stopping himself. He always had been. From that first moment when he was four years old, hiding in the basement, and black smoke had seeped from under his nails. Even when he was nine and he woke up in the back field, covered in mud, with no recollection of getting there. And especially when he was thirteen and their blood was splattered across the kitchen walls and all over his hands.
Noah had taught himself to be afraid of what he could become. It was all pointless, though, because Derek and En would never care. He had torn their family apart all those months ago and there was no reason to turn back now.
There was a fine line between himself and the calls of the darkness. Over the years, Noah learned how to jump that line like a skipping rope. And, now, he could see it before him. He could hear the howls of the other side.
There had always been a place in his heart for the darkness. It belonged to him. He just had to show it the door in.
So, he did.
It poured out of him like it never had, no longer resistant, no longer fighting for control. The shadows listened to him. They filled the room, great and towering, like the fingers of a smoky hand.
Right at that moment, Marie spun around, her bloodshot eyes meeting his. She reached into the shadows, taking his hand and running.
En and Derek only saw Noah when he bumped passed them, but they were both too numb to speak, to frightened to breathe. They could only watch in dumbstruck horror as they disappeared around the threshold.
Marie gripped Noah with a desperate tightness, her nails digging into his hand. They stumbled down the stairs, knocking over the metal ornaments in the hall and sending them clanking across the floor. Buttercup watched them from the living room, her white fur standing out in the dimness. They left the house's door open behind them, dashing through the rain and through the front gate. Crows screeched at them from the shifting trees above with mocking and cackling calls.
Colton looked taken aback when they huddled into the rear seat of Yasha's SUV. He opened his mouth to say something.
"Just go!" Marie interrupted, letting go of Noah's hand. She panted, perspiration trickling down her forehead as she buckled her seat belt, missing a few times.
Colton obliged, pulling the gear shift a bit more roughly than intended. His lips flattened into a thin line, sealing his mouth shut.
The car hurtled through the storm, quiet inside despite the raging madness outside. For now, none of them felt like speaking.
~🐍~
Marie's adrenaline rush died down, giving rise to a dragging tiredness that clung to her eyelids. It reminded her about how much she hated being woken up early and she could not help but feel a surge of hatred for Colton. She glared at the car's clock, calculating how much she would have to sleep-in to catch up on everything she'd missed. A yawn interrupted her math and she blinked rapidly to stop herself from knocking out.
The trees whizzed by outside, only the sounds of the squeaking wipers penetrating the silence around her. Neither Noah nor Colton said a word. The storm subsided as they drove away from it; the rain letting up, then the lighting slowing down, and then the wind calming.
Her heart pulsed with sadness at the missed opportunity to go back. She wanted to return to En and Derek and she wanted to make sure Hayden, Karen, and Vince were okay. But, she had already decided to help Noah. Besides, she owed at least that much to him. After all, it had been her fault he left in the first place.
She looked over at him, gulping at what she saw. There was something different about Noah, something wild that she should have noticed way earlier. It was impossible for a person to be the same after one year. Marie cursed herself for thinking that it would not be so and for believing that Noah could still be like he was before. He was not. She saw it in his black and gold eyes. She saw it in the charcoal-like stains marring his hands, almost up to the wrists. He was no longer the gentle boy who used to hold her hand in the night, not because she was scared but because he was.
They reached the warehouses, parking right next to the door. Marie entered the dank facility, gratified to be back, even if the heater did not do its job. Yasha sat at a table in the centre of the room, tapping repetitively on his phone.
"Welcome back," he said without looking away from the screen.
Marie yawned again, trudging into the room she had slept in. Noah was already inside, barely visible through her heavy lids.
He held out his hand to her, much like his sister had. But, this time there was no intention of leading her back to a warm and safe place. Marie took it, using her powers for, hopefully, the last time that night.
"It's okay," Noah pulled his arm back after a while, "you don't have to do it all the way." A speckle of blackness still coated his fingers and his eyes were still that same inhuman colour.
This was not Noah, Marie realized. The normal Noah's cried inky tears whenever he used his powers and he did not have the ability to confine the shadows to a particular place like he had at the McLeods' house.
"Where's Noah?" she asked, venom inadvertently creeping into her voice.
He frowned at her. "I'm right here."
"No, you're not." Marie glowered, angry that he was so insistent this time. Not Noah had disappeared quite fast before. "You're the other Noah, aren't you? You're just trying to trick me again."
But, his expression changed into one of desperation and it made her heart sink with just the same feeling. "No, I'm not," he said with apprehension. For a second, it sounded like his words quivered with uncertainty. "It's me, Marie." He searched her face for some sort of acknowledgement, but Marie found herself too busy regretting her idiocy.
Oh, how could she make such a dumb mistake?
"Noah, I'm so sor—"
He stood up before she could finish. His mouth turned down in the sort of grimace that came before tears. He left her sitting on the hard bed, feeling every bit like a stupid moron for doubting him.
And the floodgates within her burst open, releasing a torrent of emotions that matched the storm they had just crossed. Marie cried for missing the McLeods. She cried for the homesickness she felt. She cried for walking away from En's welcoming hand. She cried for not doing a good job on her injured siblings. She cried for making Noah sadder than he already was. And, most of all, she cried for herself, for the ache of wanting to return to the way things had been all those months ago.
Through her sobs, she barely noticed the ring of a cellphone near her. She glanced at the image of a portly old woman on the screen and the name "Grandma Sorelli" above it. What she did not notice, however, was that there were two other people in the room with her. And that one of them, the owner of the ringing phone, had been awake the whole time.
~🐍~
A/N: Hello! How are you all doing? I would like to take this moment (after my almost four month absence) to thank all of you who are still here and reading this story. It's such a pleasure to write it, even though I've had re-write the plot like six times by now 😂
To commemorate this accomplishment of reaching 10 chapters, I have an aesthetic here:
vince & karen + childhood friends + sunshine
I hope you all enjoy the progress and characters and continue to give me your support! Once again: THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!