Chapter II, Darkhearts

The first thing Scarlett noticed when she woke was that it was bright, blindingly bright. Secondly, she felt as though she had been drained of an unknown source-all she knew was that she felt weaker than before-and thirdly, the dogs were gone: this was what scared her the most. If those things had given up, what could have made them? What could have stopped them that couldn’t stop her?
She got to her feet, and immediately collapsed to the floor. Her body relaxed from its efforts, and within a few seconds she was bursting with energy. Okay, she thought, screw the dogs, what’s wrong with me? Crossing the small space inside the room quickly, she wound her hand around the handle, and pulled the bathroom door open.

There was nothing.

Quickly scanning the hallway, she trudged down it awhile making the least noise possible and covering as much distance as she could. Still, there was no sign of movement anywhere she looked. The panic room was locked, as were all the others, excluding the front & bathroom doors. It was the middle of the day, and there was obviously nothing out of the ordinary-at least not now-so why should there be something outside? She had trusted her common sense again, but this time she would be suitably shocked when she walked outside.

The road, the trees, the powerlines, anything you could possibly name, was gone. Everything she’d seen the day before was missing, except the house. She couldn’t see any other life for what must have been miles around. Scarlett called out many times, but no reply came; there wasn’t even an echo to keep her company. Judging from what she heard & saw, she was going to be alone for a while. She slid smoothly down the stairs one-by-one, making footprints in the dirt, and then on the grass, squashing in down like she would to a bug.

The outside of the house was now nothing but a clearing of sorts; a garden. There was only one type of flower-Bluebells-which drooped depressingly as their sapphire head faced the ground. They were awfully pretty, though. She dropped down on a knee, gently raising her hand over one of the flowers. It stilled for a moment-even though the wind was howling-and then flinched away, dropping its head towards the ground. She, unthinkingly, plucked it from the dirt, stroking its stem.

A large crack pierced through the silent air.

Scarlett froze for a moment, her brain paralysed by the unexpected sound. Somehow, her mind was already made up about what to do; she would very slowly and carefully back away from the area and return to the house. As it turns out, if she’d ran, then she wouldn’t have been surprised by how soft the ground had suddenly become, how little weight it took, since she wouldn’t have been paying attention. She might have tripped over, sure; but she could have gotten up and kept running. Still, she chose to stay on the ground, and that was most definitely her mistake.

See, the second she’d touched the bright blue flower, it’d died and there is no place for a dead flower in a garden full of its perfectly healthy brothers and sisters, nor is there a place for it’s killer.

***

There was a place that she was being taken, Scarlett was sure of that, for some purpose. If there was anything the could do to improve her situation, she would have done it by now. Even though she was currently being pulled underground by flower roots, she was still thinking straight. She would need to later on. Her feet momentarily touched a hard surface before it cracked and she fell straight through. Of course, it was dirt-nothing much else can be found underground-which crumbled below her feet and sent her tumbling, face-first, through to something that had roughly the same structure as a cave. Whatever it was, it was old, dark, and confusing.

Anything she touched turned to pieces. It was like the whole thing was about to fall in on her, to crush her into oblivion, and that was the sane part; since in todays society, seeing your brother lying underground, seemingly unconscious, isn't exactly sane. Adam was lying face-first, his body twisted at a sickening angle. SInce he didn't look as though he was breathing, Scarlett's mind immediately set into panic mode. SHe rushed towards, flipped him onto his back and punched him in the arm softly.

"C'mon, Mister Sleepy, wake up," she said calmly, trying to maintain her emotions. "Adam!" She suddenly lost control, and began shaking his arm as hard as she could. "Wake up, bastard!" Either he was dead cold, or she'd done something to severely piss him off. For once, she desperately hoped the latter was true.

"Having a bad day?"

She spun around, only to see nothing apart from herself Adam. The voice seemed to be coming from inside the walls, and it was definitely talking to her. She considered what might happen if she talked back to it, deciding that her day couldn't possibly get any stranger. Once again, she was wrong.

"Who are you?" She'd momentarily stopped shaking her brother, and was looking all around, searching for the source of sound.
"Wouldn't you like to know?" Scarlett grimaced. It seemed that the voice was mocking her.
"I'll tell you, if you can answer me a question. If you answer incorrectly, you'll have to figure it out for yourself. It shouldn’t be too hard, though."

Scarlett considered for a moment, her thoughts rushing through her mind at a hundred miles per hour.
"Deal."

"What do you want most in the world?"

She stopped for a second, taken back by the sudden response. There were lots of things she wanted. She wanted knowledge and to pass school, she wanted to see the world, but right now, she was worried sick about Adam. Looking down at him, she realized how much she depended on him, even though he'd only been unconscious for less than a few minutes. She knew what she wanted, at least for now. She wanted Adam awake and telling her she was going to be okay. If she was going to be stuck somewhere for any longer, there was no-one better than her big brother to keep her company.

"I want Adam to be okay."

"That's interesting."

"Why?"

"I thought you wanted to know who I was."

"I do."

The voice seemed to sigh.

"If you ever looked at me, even for a second, you'd know something was wrong with me: something unnatural."

Scarlett felt a chill creeping up through her spine to her arm, and she shivered.

"It wasn't something physical, like a missing arm or leg, or something mental, as if I was slowly going insane.”

Everything suddenly descended into darkness. There was something else in the cave now, and the voice was coming from it. It most definitely looked unnatural.

“You wouldn’t be quite able to put your finger on it: but then you’d be distracted, and forget about what you saw. That’s perfectly fine with me, see; I’m not supposed to exist anyway.”

The light surged back through the area, and the owner of the voice was in plain sight. Scarlett suddenly wished the lights would turn back off. It was a perfect copy of herself, Scarlett Rosémare, standing above her. Her eyes grew wider as her twin whispered a few last words to her as everything went as dark as dirt again.

“Welcome to Darkhearts.”