The Calling (DrTrollinski & Zhai)

[Zhai]

Well isn't Carl the bold one, tonight? Not only had he been a complete smart ass at dinner but now he was dumping the contents of his dinner into the sink. Mia was tempted to do the same but when she glanced over to the living room area, Lydia's eyes were staring a hole in her. The woman had a bottle of something, probably liquor, and was fighting with the cap while staring at Mia. Or 'Mila', as she said. How hard was Mia's name to get? It was three fucking letters! No matter. They wouldn't be here long enough for Mia to correct her nor for Lydia to get it right. When Lydia wasn't having an eye full of Mia, she'd dump her bowl, too.


Until then she looked at Carl and listened to his question, once again going through a plethora of possibilities. Surprise cruise? No, their Mother wouldn't even leave the door to check the mailbox without letting someone know her intentions before and after whatever she was doing. Work couldn't have called because only their Dad worked and Mom wouldn't have gone with him. It didn't make sense. Kidnapped? When would that have time to happen? Why would they take the parents and not the children? There hadn't been a ransom note so if it was a kidnapping it wasn't about money then. Aliens? That's just stupid. The possibility of aliens coming to abduct their parents was as nonexistent as the surprise cruise idea.


Mia perked up in her seat, her mouth parting and her eyes going wide in realization. "I've got it!" She had in a hushed exclamation. "I don't know what I didn't think of it before. Really, all the signs are there." Mia smiled to herself like the answer she needed was right there all along, swimming around in the bowl of crappy soup.

 

[DrTrollinski]

"What?" He asked. He shuffled up right beside her and then took a long deep breath, he didn't know what to think, but he knew that Lydia was staring right at them. Did he care? No. Of course he didn't. He couldn't give a fuck - if she wasn't going to give him the time of day, he wasn't going to give it to her, either. She could shout, scream, and slam around all she wanted, but he wasn't going to give in to her, not a chance. He looked at Mia once again, and then looked over the bread on the table that seemed to get all the more stale by the minute.


What did Mia mean?


"What are you talking about, Mia? What signs? What do you know?" He asked, his face riddled with curiosity. He didn't know what Mia was going to say, but it was probably something he'd already thought over in his head. "You gonna' come up and say that fate put us in place here so that we can have an epiphany? So that we can come to the agreement that we need to be the ones that need to help them? Come on, sis. Tell me." He said, smiling a little.

 

[Zhai]

"No, but that doesn't sound half bad either." Mia smiled a little at her brother's failed guess on what she could be talking about. Surely, Fate could have put them in a better situation than this! Either Fate was cruel or fucking blind.


Mia leaned in closer to Carl, almost face to face with her brother; her eyes looked side to side, knowing that Lydia was still fighting with the bottle on the couch and Travis was outside doing...whatever Travis does outside after supper. Probably kill innocent rats and using their bodies as fertilizer for the garden. Eh. That grosses Mia out enough that she wanted to throw up, even though she hadn't even consumed a single bit of the vegetables.


Looking Carl square in his eyes - her eyes, Father's eyes - she whispered just so the two of them could hear. "It's so simple, Carl. Mom and Dad are spies. Secret agents that weren't supposed to fall in love and have children but they did. Now that they've been found out, they have to leave us behind and run to save all of our lives." Mia nodded slowly like she cracked the case, and softly headbutted her brother before leaning away to sit in her chair again. Lydia was still fighting with the bottle but staring at them. She probably thought they were plotting to kill her or kissing. It always bothered Mia when Carl and her got close and people assumed they were doing some freakish.

 

[DrTrollinski]

"Ha." He said, and then finally leaned back in his chair. "Yeah, right. Mom and dad are truly some sort of Special Forces Agents, sent to kill each other - then it turned into some sort of kinky bondage with lead to twins." He laughed loudly and then slapped a hand down onto her shoulder. It was nice to have a laugh with Mia again, it truly did mean a lot. Even if things were pretty fucking bad right now, he was happy that he was with Mia.


"Mia..." He took a long deep breath and took hold of her hand for a moment. ".. Thanks for being there to calm me down, or to cheer me up... I'd give up living in a mansion if it meant staying with you. I... I don't think I tell you that enough, because... Usually, you're always the one giving me credit for the stuff I do, and... I don't think I've ever done the same for you, so..." He took a long deep breath and smiled at her, and then leaned forward and gave her a hug. "Thank you." He choked out, rubbing her back ever so gently for ten seconds.

 

[Zhai]

Mia's mouth opened dramatically, acting offended by Carl's laughter at her proposal, but of course she had said it for humor's sake. Here they were stuck in this shit hole, and Mia felt proud to be able to still make a joke and Carl have a light enough heart to laugh about it. "Carl, you know if could be possible. Mom might be some actual bad ass." The thought of meek Alexandria Jackson being training in a hundred ways to kill a man, use a plethora of weapons, and still have time to look good - was enticing and probably impossible. The woman freaked out when the toilet paper was almost empty in the bathroom, if her children went somewhere she didn't know about or couldn't go to, and hated drinking water out of dark glasses. Their mother being a super spy would be when the World was ending.


Carl's words were much appreciated and Mia sucked in a deep breath, blinking furiously against possible tears. This situation would be a whole lot worse alone and having her brother here to suffer with her, however selfish it may seem, was a thousand times better than having shitty soup alone and sleeping in a creepy house with two people that potential hate her.


"Don't mention it. I'm available twenty four seven, seven days a week, all year long." Mia smiled, patting her brother on his back and sighing softly.


Man...this sucked.

 

[DrTrollinski]

He smiled and patted her back as well, and then slowly pulled away and blinked a few times. God, that was a tear-jerker. He quickly wiped his eyes with one hand and then smiled weakly at her, and then looked down at her bowl of soup before leaning over onto the table, resting his elbow on the surface of it, and then resting his head in his hand. He looked off towards Lydia for another second, and then looked back to Mia, smiling and shrugging a little.


Boy. Lydia really did look depressed.


"If mom's a badass, perhaps that means we're actually sleeper-agents, or something. One secret phrase and we'll be off, killing everything that stands before us." He laughed a little. "I bet that if that's the case, dad was her commanding officer, and he was the one that ended up breaking her out of the Special Forces base they were in. They came here, and fourteen years later after they changed their names, they were tracked down and taken." He chuckled.


"How long do you think we're going to be sat here?" He asked in a whisper.

 

[Zhai]

Mia smiled at Carl's addition to her story, nodding in agreement. "Or they were supposed to kill each other and instead...had sex." Mia shrugged, taking the spoon and dunking it into the soup repeating but never taking a mouthful. "The possibilities are endless." Yeah, like the possibility that if she ate the soup right now, it'll taste good. No, it'll still taste like salt water.


Looking around, Mia still didn't see Travis in the house. He hadn't come in through the front nor back door, the only two entrances and exits of the house. There were no noises outside, nothing like wood being chopped or grass being cut or the clanking of tools used to work on a car. There was only the sound of the dog outside, and inside there was only the whining of a television station that was half static half words and the floor boards shifting every so often from the weight of Mia and Carl in their chairs, and the Lydia moving on the couch. Where could Travis have run off to? Maybe he had some secret place he disappeared to in order to escape his mother and this house. Damn. Lucky him.


"Not long." Mia finally answered Carl's question, just as her hand rose up and slammed down on the edge of the bowl. The bowl tipped right off the table and onto the floor, the spoon going with it; the contents split across the table and dripped onto the floor, chunks and slices of hard vegetable scattered on both surfaces.


"Oh my gosh!" Mia jumped back in her chair and jumped out of the seat, her hands covering her mouth in mock surprise, her eyes wide and staring at the mess. She could tell Lydia was coming because she heard a faint curse and the floor boards whined in quick tune as Lydia came stalking out of the living room into the kitchen. "Mila! What in the hell, girl?! Clean this mess up! I guess you gonna do to bed hungry tonight! Get this mess cleaned up right now!" Mia could tell that Lydia was trying really hard to sound loud and pissed off, but the woman smelt like a bottle of liquor and her eye lids were barely open. Mia wondered if the woman could even see the mess with how low her lids were. Lydia disappeared out the back door, bottle in hand and a cigarette already being pulled out of a pocket on the side of her dress.


When she was gone, Mia regained her composure, smiling deviously at her brother and crossing her arms. "Told you."

 

[DrTrollinski]

"She's drunk. You know what I say?" He asked. ".. I say we get out now, while we've still got the chance." He said, and then pulled out his phone and quickly recorded a glimpse of Lydia as she stumbled out of the back, and then recorded the mess on the kitchen table. He stopped the camera, and then tucked his phone back into his pocket and took a deep breath. "We can sneak out the front if we get our stuff, and we'll be out of this place by midnight. We can get a cab out of this shithole, and clear off somewhere else." He whispered quickly. He had no idea where Travis was, either. He hadn't seen him come in via the front door or the back door.


He was probably out back, sharpening his axe, or something. He was going to hack Carl up in his sleep and then take Mia all to himself and--


Carl. Stop.





"Come on, Mia... She's too wasted to even notice. We can get right out of here, run to the forest. Take a long walk around the woodland and then go into town, hop on a bus or get into a cab, and move up to the next nearest town and work our way up, eh?" He grinned. "Come on. Travis ain't here, and neither is Lydia. This is our chance. Pack all of the stuff we need to take into our backpacks, and clear off." He urged.

 

[Zhai]

Carl was right. If there was ever the right moment, it was now or never; well maybe 'never' but now or later. Lydia was already drunk and drinking more, so she'd be too drunk to probably make it upstairs to her bed. Chances are she'd chose to sleep on the couch instead of trying to get up the stairs in her drunk stupor, and if that happened, then Mia and Carl couldn't sneak downstairs and get past her to the door. Travis wasn't in the house either and Mia didn't feel like he was even near the house anymore. Maybe he really did disappear somewhere.


Mia kept her eyes shifting between Carl and the door, knowing he was right about seizing this moment while it was at their feet. "Let's get out of here." Mia quickly stepped around the mess on the floor, trying to ignore the protesting floor boards under her feet that creaked from kitchen to the living, up the stairs and into her room. She was quick, her suitcase laid on the floor, unzipped, and her hands quickly grabbing at stuff. Her school baf was emptied, all of her books and notes put into her suitcase in place where she'd taken clothes out; underwear, socks, shirts, and an extra pair of jeans. It wasn't enough to make her school bag heavy but it was a good supple of clothes. She could go a couple of days in these clothes and change later. She took a jacket, put it on, and then her bag. It wasn't chilly outside but she didn't want to leave it to chance they get caught in freezing rain or something.


Done with her bag she went over to Carl's room, lingering his doorway, her eyes looking down the stairs to the living room. "You ready?"

 

[DrTrollinski]

".. Oh, yeah. I'm ready." He smiled as he slung his backpack over his shoulders and then took a deep breath. He did pack something else, come to think of it. It was something he thought he was going to need - It was a little pocket knife that his father gave him for his thirteenth Birthday. Why did he bring it? In case he ended up in a place with a rapist or an abusive parent. Which is exactly where they were. As soon as he was done packing - which wasn't really that much, seeing as his suitcase didn't have much in it - he went out of the room with Mia and crept towards the stairs.


They were only up there, what, two, three minutes? By now, Lydia could have been on the floor outside, on the floor in the kitchen, or passed out in the living room, either on the floor or on the couch. She was hammered, and now Carl had video evidence of it. That wasn't all, though. He knew that there was more that they had to do in order to cover up their escape. They needed to make everyone believe they were terrified of the woman and her son. They needed people to believe that they had a reason to do it.


And he knew the perfect way to do so.


"Lead the way, Mia... I can't hear any movement downstairs, so that means that Travis has... vanished, I guess, and Lydia must be out in the back yard still. This is our chance." He whispered. "Out the door, and run straight to the left. We don't stop until the house is out of sight." He whispered quietly, and then looked down the stairs.


Still no signs of anyone. They had to act now, even if they got caught going out of the front door. He knew that they'd be on permanent watch if they didn't escape now. He knew a way to make the dog lose their tracks if it gave chase. If he needed to, he'd kill it, but right now, that wasn't going to be necessary. They just needed to get out first.

 

[Zhai]

Mia hesitated, thinking her brother was going to go first; but when he pulled the old 'ladies first' card, her eyes shot a glare in his direction. Goddamn why did she had to go first?! Groaning low in protest but eventually creeping towards the first step down, Mia looked down the short length of stairs to what little of the living room she could see. The television was still fading in and out of static and a show, and the couches as far as she could see, were empty of anyone. There wasn't noise from someone walking or weight shifting on the floor, so she assumed no one was down there.


Okay, here goes.


Taking the first step down, Mia froze when it creaked louder than usual. Damn it. Her eyes closed and she waited for something. Anything. Lydia's barely screaming voice, Travis to catch them in the act, or even the damn dog to come peeking around the corner, barking like an alarm. Nothing. Exhaling her held breath she quickly stepped down the rest of the stairs and into the living room, looking around the place. Empty still. Good.


She looked up the stairs to Carl, nodding and ushering him to come down.

 

[DrTrollinski]

Carl gulped and nodded at her, and then stuck close to the wall and slowly made his way down the stairs, step after step, but still went as fast as he could manage. Once he got to the bottom, he moved along the wall once again, making very little noise because of this. He kept going, and going, and going, right up to the point where they were only a few feet away from the door. He could smell fresh air that was calmly penetrating the horrific smell of terrible soup, smoke, and booze.


He put his hand on the latch. He unbolted it. He looked at Mia, took a deep breath, and then reached up to the door handle. He slowly pushed it down, and the door quietly clicked as it opened up. He nodded at her and slowly stepped through it. Now, it was just the screen door left to go, and they'd be free. Free from this shit hole. If the got caught now, they'd have no choice but to run. Run far away, run as fast as they could (let's face it, Travis wasn't exactly going to be able to catch them, and Lydia was too drunk to walk or drive) until they were sure they were safe.


"Ready, Mia...?" He asked, putting his hand on the door handle of the screen door. "As soon as this opens... We run." He said in a whisper. The adrenaline was rushing through him, that was for sure. He'd never done something like this except when he was avoiding punishment from his parents back at home, but it never went this far.

 

[Zhai]

Mia's breath was already quickening as she nervously shifted her weight from left to right, her eyes shifting from Carl to the door and back into the living room. "This is really happening." Her voice was small but she knew Carl would hear it. Taking in a deep breath and exhaling it quickly, Mia nodded to Carl. When the door opened she moved quickly as she presumed Carl wanted her to, running out of the door, across the short porch, down the stairs, and through the circle drive way. The truck was gone, Mia noticed, and she couldn't remember anywhere else they could possibly park the car except in the drive. There was no else to park the car and she started thinking that Travis maybe took it.


It's hot outside but she couldn't tell if it was because she was running, if it was the jacket, or it was actually hot out here. Mia didn't slow down, trying not to think about the heat or her breath that felt like it was already failing her. God, it was hard to breath. She was once again reminded why she never did sports.


The path was nearly all rocks mixed in with softened dirt. Mia thought it was all mud but that was when they were driving in the truck on the way here. The driveway also seemed twice as long as it did on the drive here and that 'small' hill was a bitch to run up; but she kept going, knowing her brother only wanted her to keep running.


At the end of the drive, finally reaching it, Mia couldn't help but stop and fold over, trying to catch her breath. That was hard. Just running from the house was hard and they still had to run further away and possibly even run home. Standing at the edge of the rock and dirt mixture driveway that met with the asphalt road, Mia looked left and right, turning in a small circle. Where the hell do they turn? Which way do they go?


"Which way?" She was trying to remember the drive over here, mentally sitting back in the seat to thinking about which direction they were going when they turned into the driveway. Was Mia on the turning side or was Carl on the turning side? Which way?

 

[DrTrollinski]

"Left... We need to go into the forest in case someone comes looking for us." He said, and then quickly took hold of her shoulder and dragged her off to the left where they had to climb up a rather steep hill, but once they'd got there, Carl was certain that they were safe. They were finally leaving that wretched house but were now essentially walking in on a perfect horror setup.


The forest. Dark. Gloomy. Damp.


But safe.


For now.


"We've--.. We did it..." He burst out into quiet but manic laughter as he did his best to regain his breath, sticking close to Mia's side as they ventured further into the dark woodland. He'd been through plenty of forests when he was a kid, but he never remembered them being quite this frightening. Right now, he wanted his nice warm bed - he wanted to wish mom and dad and Mrs Greene goodnight, and then snuggle up in a comfy double bed and drift off to sleep.


He wanted to wake up the following morning to a nice hot breakfast, but it didn't look like it was going to be happening. This was the best he had. And he felt sick. Very sick, but very happy. All of that running made him feel like that salty water that Lydia called 'soup' was going to be revisiting them again soon. All they had was the moonlight, and the light from his phone if he planned on taking it out.


"We'll walk a little further so we're out of view of the house... Then we need to stop. Our escape isn't over just yet." He sighed.

 

[Zhai]

"Yeah, yeah." Mia agreed with her brother, hearing him speak but not really hearing is words. She was too busy dodging..well, everything. There were spiderwebs the size of windows woven between trees - a ton of them. There were holes or dips in the ground hidden by leaves, and Mia was tired of stepping into them. Noises were coming from every direction of the forest, up and down, and it was impossible to pin point what or where it was coming from; howling, barking, screeching, hooting, chirping, scratching, and even little rodent noises, like a squirrel eating a a piece of bark or something. There was light from the moon was the tops of the trees were so thick there was barely any open space for the light to really reach into the forest.


Goddamn it. She was almost wishing they'd just go back to the Nelson's house and stick it out until the morning. At least then there'd be some real light to walk with and not this inky darkness they were blindly struggling through.


"How much fur-" Mia was in the middle of questioning their next rest stop after what seemed like several hours of walking, but she was interrupted. By what? By the thickest spiderweb she'd ever touched - ever! It was a thick, uncomfortable mask over her face and she immediately, for lack of better terms, starting freaking the fuck out. Her hands flew to her face, furiously trying to get the stick threads out of her face and her hair. Mia was surprised she wasn't screaming but instead settled for furiously jumping in place and a lesser panicked scream.

 

[DrTrollinski]

"We haven't been walking for that long. We've got a while ahead of us." He gulped. Carl had looked more and more green with every passing minute. He didn't look well at all. Maybe she had poisoned him. Who knew. Regardless, he knew that there was one thing left to do. His eyes had adjusted to the dark now, so that was a good start, but--


Oh god. He felt it coming.


"I don't feel so good." He said. God, he sounded like such a kid again. The last time he said that when he was younger, he threw up all over Mia. ".. I need to just sit down for a minute, Mia... I'm gonna' throw up, otherwise." He took a long deep breath and turned to face her, only to see that she had a cobweb coating her face. Oh dear. He had to hide his laughter, so he just walked over to a tree not far from where they were and sat down against it, setting his head back. He just needed a breather for five minutes. They'd never find them in the darkness-coated forest, especially after their twenty minute walk they just had.


He rubbed his stomach with one hand and covered his mouth with the other for a few moments, and then took a long deep breath of fresh air. He felt more sick from that at first, but in the long run, it made him feel much better. He looked up at Mia and then shook his head a little. He pulled out his phone. No service, obviously. Once they got back into town, they'd have service, but right now...? Not so much. His contract cellphone could only serve them so well - he almost had full battery, too.


"We need to do something, Mia. Something to make it look like we really ran away." He sighed. ".. Sit down." He patted the ground beside him and then set his head back again.

 

[Zhai]

Mia didn't even realize Carl was feeling sick nor that he'd made himself nice and comfortable on the ground. Meanwhile she was doing the jig and scratching at her face and hair, still having a meltdown. It still felt like there was a ton of the web on her but she figured that five solid minutes of doing everything was setting herself on fire was enough time to have gotten the web off. Or least a good portion of it gone. Now all she had to worry about was if a spider was on that web and where that little sucker was now. He could be crawling through her hair, ready to make a nest in her locks. Immediately a shiver radiated from her scalp down her entire frame. My fingers started digging into her hair, the ponytail loosening the more she messed in her hair, trying to find the possible spider creeping over her scalp.


"Argh!" Mia finally stopped, standing in front of Carl after her little show, and groaning loudly. Fuck this place! Mia hated this place already. Everything wanted to kill them out here and she was already fed up by almost being suffocated by a web thicker than Lydia's homemade quilt.


"Carl, I don't think I can do this." Mia started pacing again, this time her eyes shooting around wildly, looking for the next spiderweb trap. Half an hour in the woods and she was already flinching at everything, feeling like an abused, used, and exhausted.

 

[DrTrollinski]

"Mia." He said, a little sternly. He reached up and grabbed her hand and then pulled her down beside him. Once she was sat, he dropped an arm around her shoulders and hugged her close and defensively. Nothing in this forest was going to be causing any harm to his sister, that was for sure. He knew that she was strong enough to do this - she had to be, after all, but he knew that she could do this, as much as she didn't want to. She just needed a few minutes, just like he did. Right now, he would gladly eat a chicken burger or even a cheeseburger and some fries at a little diner. Anything's better than that 'food' Lydia was serving.


He took a glance around the forest while he had his arm around her. Yeah, this place was horrifying, and it reminded him of some Creepypasta he'd once read online, but if he pushed that thought into his head, he'd be done for. The last thing he needed was to be looking over his shoulder every ten seconds to see if there was an urban legend following them.


"It's okay, sis." He held her close with the one arm and gently rubbed her furthest shoulder. "You can do this... Just take a breather with me for five minutes, okay? Gather your thoughts, calm yourself down, take some deep breaths... You're fine. We're fine. We're gonna' get out of here... As soon as we arrive in the next closest town... I'll buy you something proper to eat, alright? My treat." He winked at her and then set his head down against her own, taking a long deep breath.


Oh shit. The plan.


"Mia..." He started, sighing a little. ".. While we're here... We need to do what I said we need to... I--.. I'm going to need you to rip your shirt, from the neck towards the chest... Please, just don't ask questions - This is what's going to cover us from going to prison, alright?" He said, gulping a little before looking around for a rock. He found one, and then held it at his side. God, what he was going to have to go through was going to be far worse than Mia ripping her shirt, that much he knew.

 

[Zhai]

What? Rip her clothes? Mia leaned out of Carl's arms, squinting at him through the darkness and trying to search his face for clues to what he's thinking. If he was trying to make them look roughed up from Lydia then she felt she already looked rough enough; her hair was a mess, there was probably smudges on her face, she was starving, her lips had cracked and bled at some point, and she was pretty sure there were some scratches on her. Ripping her shirt would be overboard.


"Carl, what are you.." Mia's voice trailed off, noticing he had gripped something in his hand. What was he about to do? Why wasn't he ripping up his clothes, too? "Listen, Carl. I know you've got this plan and everything but that's a bit much. What if you really hurt yourself or something?" Her hand reached to cover the hand he was holding something in, and she squeezed tightly.


Mia stared into Carl's face, this time clearly seeing his eyes and his expression, knowing what he was about to do next. It wasn't that important to make Lydia look like she'd physically abused them. The woman had only had them for less than a night, and surely even the police would be skeptical of their injuries because of how little time it'd been. "You don't need to go this far. We're gone. No one is going to find us."

 

[DrTrollinski]

"And if they do, we end up in a detention center. We become criminals." He took a long deep breath and looked away from her to stare across the forest. He shook his head a little and then closed his eyes. "We don't have enough, Mia. I have evidence of Lydia being an over the top alcoholic. I've got a video of her stumbling around all over the place, the soup thrown about... It's just--.." He took a deep breath and then looked down at the ground whilst reaching across with one hand to take hold of her own.


".. She was drunk, Mia... People do crazy things when they're drunk - She's more likely to attack us when she's drunk, and now we have a video to prove it. We aren't allowed to risk it. It's--.. It's not worth the risk, alright? Kids can't just walk out of their foster homes because they 'don't like it' - If we don't do this, we're gonna' be--.. We'll be wanted. They'll paste our pictures all over the news and we won't be able to trust anyone!" He panicked, quickly shaking his head a few more times. ".. Everything we've ever cared about. Everything we've ever been to other people... It'll be gone. If we ever end up back at school, we'll be known as convicts. People will avoid us. Mrs Greene will be horrified... and... We can't do that to people." He closed his eyes and bowed his head towards the ground again, but then leaned over and set it down on Mia's shoulder.


".. I don't think a video of her being drunk is enough to justify us running away like that." He added, finally, his voice a mere whisper.

 

[Zhai]

Mia stared at her brother knowing that he had made up his mind to carry through with self inflicting pain in order to further the story that Lydia was an abuser, drunk Foster parent. In some ways his resolve made sense - if they didn't look the part, the part never happened; can't claim Lydia hit them with no bruises, cuts, or broken bones to prove it. The video showed her stumbling out the back door with a rather large bottle of Whiskey in her hands but it didn't show that she ever knocked the soup over. They could explain that to whoever wanted to know what happened with the soup.


Going to prison? Mia thought it unlikely they would send fourteen year old children to prison but the juvenile detention center did seem probable. However why would they send them there? They would probably be placed back into the Nelson's house or even in a different foster home. To think that Carl was going to bash his head in just to prove a point about Lydia, when the outcome could possibly be them being moved to a better home.


What about Travis? It was Travis's mother they were trying to send to prison. Even if she wasn't the best mother or they didn't have the fanciest house or the best tasting soup in the whole damn world - it still his mother. Mia thought about her own; even though the woman was bat shit crazy sometimes, worried herself to death, and was overprotective - she was Mom. The one and only.


Another thing she thought about that Carl said was what people would think of them - criminals. Mia would rather have been thought of a criminal than being pitied for everywhere she went. If they just explained themselves, in her mind, they would be in no trouble.


But Carl was older. Mia had to listen to Carl.


"Okay." Mia stood up and put some space between Carl and herself, unstrapping her pack and dropping it to the ground, hearing leaves and weak twigs crunch under it's weight. Turning away from Carl, she started ripping down the middle of her shirt, making holes randomly through the fabric that would have resembled someone grabbing her. There was already a burning sensation where a scratch was on her chest. Probably from a branch that caught her while they were running. She kept her back turned, not wanting to watch Carl do whatever he was going to do to himself. "I'm done." She called over her shoulder.

 

[DrTrollinski]

He was glad that Mia had decided to listen to him, even if it was quite a horrific plan. What he had planned for himself wasn't quite as bad as what you'd imagine him to do. He wasn't going to be losing any teeth or getting any dents in his skull, but it was definitely worse that what Mia had to do. He looked down at the rock in his hand. Christ, when did his hand start shaking? Oh well, he knew that this needed to be done. He took a deep breath, and then looked at Mia, whom of which had her back turned to him.


".. Thank you... Give me twenty seconds..." He said, he raised his other hand that was shaking and then pulled his top lip away from his teeth by shoving his finger in his mouth, and then hooking the inside of his lip with it. He was no idiot, and he certainly didn't want to knock any teeth out by doing this. He took the rock, lifted it, and then held it in front of him, a foot or so away from the tip of the lip he was holding out - he was going to cut the side of it, not the center. Cuts on the center of the lips were painful.





He pulled the rock back and slammed it onto his flesh. It didn't hurt that much. It was more of a sharp and sudden ache, but then the pain hit as soon as he tasted the iron-like warm fluid as it struck his tongue, and boy, it felt like there was quite a lot of it. He instantly tossed the rock aside and let out a shocked gasp of pain, clutching his mouth with his hand.


"Fuck!" He yelled, tilting his head right back as he slammed one fist down into the dirt a dozen times over. "Fuck me! Jesus. Fucking. Christ!" He cried out, and then quickly curled his lip inwards. He could tell it was already swollen. He knew it was already swollen because of how numb and hot it felt. The blood was still pouring out onto his tongue and making its way down his throat, and that was only making him feel worse. Oh well. It didn't matter, that was the worst part out of the way. Now came the easy thing. The phone came out, and the flashlight feature went on, and then the camera as he slowly rose to his feet. The blood and the strike to the lip really did make him feel the slightest bit faint, but he slowly walked ahead and drifted on to be in front of Mia and then turned to face her.


The blood started flowing from his lip again. It was no big deal, and would most likely only leave a small scar. It still looked pretty nasty, though. At the current time. And then the camera went on.


"This--.. This is what happens when you put your trust into someone like Lydia to give foster care for two kids..." His voice was fake sadness, but it didn't sound fake. It sounded really real. Alright, fine. It wasn't fake at all - he was on the verge of tears after he hit himself in the face, and the feeling of blood running down his chin and dripping onto the ground made him feel worse. ".. The torn shirt... The abuse... The alcohol... and this..." He turned the camera to front mode and videoed his bleeding lip. "This is what happens when you do that... You take us away from someone who cares for us like family, and this is what happens..." He said, and some tears finally broke out of his eyes and went down his cheeks. ".. I... We couldn't stay there. We couldn't... I--.. I'm sorry." He said, and then quickly stopped the recording and tucked the phone into his pocket as he turned to face away from Mia. He started crying, but silently. He wiped his eyes a few times to try and calm himself, but it wasn't working.


He just wanted to go home.

 

[Zhai]

Mia managed to keep quiet and composed during the silence after turning her back to Carl and accepting that he was going to beat the hell out of himself with a rock. There was a long pause. No leaves crunching. No twigs snapping. There was the almost silent huffing of her breath and she watched the cloud rise from her lips while she exhaled, trying to concentrate on that and ignore whatever was coming next. Then - she heard it. The sound of the rock hitting flesh, breaking the silence and halting Mia's next breath. She stood there with wide eyes, barely breathing, searching the darkness in front of her. God, what had he hit? Must not be bone, there was no crunching or cracking.


Still turned away from Carl, there was a mass of ideas on what Carl has chosen has his abuse injury. Mia got her shirt ripped and Carl got, what? Black eye? Broken nose? Gash on the corner of his eye?


When he finally comes forward she gasps and her hands rise to cover her mouth, the urge to be sick suddenly hitting her. Ah, God! All the blood that was coming from around his mouth! It's hard to tell where the injury is because the blood is...everywhere. There's literally a beard of blood slowly and thickly covering Carl's mouth and chin, forming a stream down his throat and soaking into the collar of his shirt.


"Jesus..Carl.." It looked bad. Goddamn, it looked really bad. If he were going for the Wow! factor, this was definitely going to get the crowd going. She could already imagine the pity party forming when someone found them and heard their story, especially just looking at Carl's face.


Her hands reached forward, hovering close to his face but not knowing where to touch and not wanting to touch with all that blood on his face. Damn it. The anxious sickness that was swimming in her gut wouldn't go away. It was a good idea she didn't eat the soup but maybe that stale bread she ate was going to come up.


When Carl started making his video, Mia dropped her hands and pulled the ripped sides of her shirt together, crossing her arms. Maybe she'd ripped it too much. The tear was nearly down to her navel and it flew open across her chest and exposed a little of her bra. He could make his video but she wouldn't show that just to sell the story. Watching Carl cry and his voice started cracking with overwhelming emotion - fake emotion - Mia watched; not being able express the same mock grief that her brother could. If anyone asked her why she wasn't crying like her brother, she'd just say she was...shocked? Shocked was believable. Shocked abused Mia was believable.


At the end of his video, Mia finally spoke again, slowly as she searched for words. "Carl...that...looks bad." It looks fucking terrible. What would he say Lydia hit him with? A rock?! Surely her fists, comparable in size and power to rotten, soft plums - couldn't have hit him hard enough to make that injury.

 

[DrTrollinski]

He didn't particularly like filming that video, and right now, he was still facing away from Mia and pretty much crying his eyes out. He just wasn't showing it. At first, the emotion on the video was fake, but it spiraled off into something that was in fact real. He felt so upset and traumatized, and the blood dripping down his lips weren't helping, either. He didn't want to think of what it looked like, so he just turned off the flashlight feature on his phone. Before he forgot, he took the rock off of the ground and shoved it into his pocket.


Just in case sniffer dogs came out and found it, or something.


He was crying, and listening to Mia's words about how his lip 'looks bad' wasn't helping at all. The taste of the blood was making him feel really sick again. Really sick. He felt like he was about to fall to his knees and pass out. The blood was dripping everywhere. It wasn't a deep cut, it was just in a sensitive and fleshy area, meaning that there was going to be a lot of blood.


But this... This was a lot.





"It's okay, Mia!" He sobbed. "It's only a little cut!" He whimpered. Oh god. No. It was happening. He quickly ran to the tree beside him and put one arm around it while he bent over towards the floor, and then he vomited everywhere. It was continuous, like emptying a bucket of water out of a window. He got the same salty taste come back to him as the hot acidic-like liquid traveled up his throat and out of his mouth, which only made him vomit more. Stale bread and shitty salt water. That's all it was. And my god... It actually smelt better than the food before he'd eaten it, and that was saying something.


He was hunched over and throwing up for about a minute, but when he was done he was shuddering and shaking. He quickly wiped his mouth, putting a long smudge of blood down his arm, and then realized something else. He needed to pee. Was it shock that brought that urge on? Must have been. Regardless, he was still crying, but not quite as much anymore.

 

[Zhai]

Okay - a lot is happening right now. If Carl was trying to hide his crying, it wasn't working; his sobs were loud and they filled the empty space in the forest where they were. There was a constant rise of steam from his catching breathing in the chilled air, that was another sign to Mia that Carl was crying his eyes out. That, or he was hyperventilating or something, maybe from all the blood he was losing. What does she say? Mia didn't know what to say to Carl at that moment and when she was about to reach to touch his shoulder, give him that physical comfort in place or her loss for words, Carl's body escaped her.


Then he was against a tree, the sound of retching following soon after. Ugh, it sounds bad. Mia's hand once again rose over her mouth, the sound of Carl throwing his guts up making her sick, too. There couldn't be two of them out here throwing up all over the place, and she sucked in a deep cold breath to keep the nausea at bay. Stepping behind her brother and pressing her hands on his shoulders, she rubbed across his back and patted it. They didn't have any water for Carl to rinse with, or at least Mia didn't put any in her bag and she couldn't remember Carl having a bottle of water with him.


When he was done she stepped back to give him some air, looking into his face. "Are you okay?" Of course he's not okay, but what else could she say to him? Maybe that injury he gave himself was a little too much. She considered that maybe he wouldn't have thrown his guts up if he hadn't smashed himself in the face with a rock. Hell, with how bad that soup and bread was, maybe it was only a matter of time before it came back to haunt him.


Once again the whole 'this is a bad idea' vibe came back, and she was once again considering that - obviously - this was a bad idea. Carl's maybe bleeding to death. He's throwing his guts up. Mia looks like she escaped an almost rape. They didn't have any water. No medicine. No bandages. Nothing. She was beginning to doubt that Carl even had enough money to afford a night in a cheap hotel, let alone food, water, and bus tickets home from wherever the hell they were now.


"Wait, wait. Don't move. Goddamn it." Mia cursed as she struggled to find her pack in the darkness. When she did find it, she dug to the bottom, pulled out a tee shirt and ripped it up. Rushing back to Carl, she grabbed his shoulder and angled him to face her, then pressing wiping his face with the shirt. "Damn it, Carl. You look like shit." She smiled at her brother, still gingerly wiping away the blood that had slowed down but had kept coming. Jesus, his lip was fat. It looked like he'd been injected with botox way too many times.