Forever Crimson

Chapter 36

TW: BLOOD

JAKE'S FACE WAS BARELY visible in the dark of the night when he offered to take her home. But they were in no hurry whatsoever to leave their bubble of pure ecstasy. They stalled and lingered around the poppy field, holding hands and whispering sweet nothings into each other's ears. Scarlet, bold and pumped with adrenaline, even pressed soft kisses on his cheeks, hoping that every peck would allow them more time to enjoy each other's presence.

They danced around the other, as if they finally heard the song in their souls that sang in the same way.

Scarlet didn't want their night to end, but reality waited for no one. Jake drove her back home, keeping one hand on the steering wheel and the other intertwined with hers. Her heart somersaulted inside her chest whenever he looked at her. Even with his bruised up face, she melted every time.

He walked her to her door, fingers holding onto hers loosely, as if he didn't want to let go but knew he had to.

"Thank you for tonight," she said, wrapping her arms around his neck.

"Hope we can do it again sometime," he responded, weaving his hands around her waist and pulling her closer. She took that as her cue to kiss him. Her movements were languid when they separated.

"Drive safely."

Jake pressed one last kiss on her lips before turning around for his car, looking back every few seconds. She got inside her house as he started the engine.

The house stood still, and she fought hard to bury her smile. Her mother would be teasing her for the rest of her life for it. Scarlet blinked, a thrill traveling down her spine, and scratched the back of her head as silence greeted her.

Her mother should've been watching reruns of her favorite shows in her pajamas by then. Unless she had an emergency. What if she got sick and had to go to the hospital on her own? Her stomach knotted.

"Mom, I'm home!" she cried out. Lingering by the doorway for a second, she waited for a response from somewhere in the house.

But there was nothing.

The reasonable part of her brain whispered that maybe she was napping in her room. Sometimes all of her medication drained her out and she needed to rest more than usual. But that still didn't bring her peace of mind.

"Mom!" she called out again, barging into the living room.

Nothing was out of place. Their couch remained untouched, with every throw pillow tucked in their respective corners. The TV faced the rest of the room. A stack of fashion magazines occupied most of the coffee tables around.

But it was the feet that stuck out from beside the couch that brought her heart all the way up her throat.

"Mom?"

Scarlet screamed so loud her throat was raw. Her knees buckled under her and she dry heaved onto the carpeted floors. She grasped onto her mother's face, turning it towards her.

Her mother bled out from wounds all over her chest and stomach, drenching her favorite light pink pajamas in the deepest crimson until it spilled from under her. Her eyes remained open, but the life had been sniffed out of them. That once warm stare was ice cold, gazing into nothing.

"Mom, wake up," she pleaded. Her eyes held nothing. Eyes that were teasing her for her date hours before. "Mom," she cried.

She hugged her cold figure, staining her upper body in blood. Her mother didn't respond, lolling her head back and forth as Scarlet shook her to get any reaction. With shaky movements, she placed her back on the ground, wailing and pleading for her mother to respond.

Nothing happened.

She scooted back on her butt until she knocked the back of her head with the edge of the coffee table.

"MOM!" Scarlet cried. Her voice didn't even sound like hers. It rasped and cracked, but she kept screaming.

The front door burst open, but that didn't rattle her. "Scarlet, what's going on? Are you—" Jake didn't finish his sentence.

His eyes widened, jaw unhinging, at the scene. He opened and closed his mouth, as if wanting to scream his head off like she did, but unable to. Scarlet overcompensated for his silence with her own maddening shrieks.

Jake kneeled beside her after getting rid of his initial shock, and scooped her off the ground.

She sobbed, pointing to her mother. "No, no, let me go. I need to be with her." She fought against his grip, almost falling on her face. He held her tighter, pulling her back towards him. She cried harder.

"Scarlet, please." He tried to make her see reason, but she was beyond that. "Scarlet, no, please, let's get you out of here now." He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her towards the front door.

"My mother!" she bawled.

He didn't say anything else and picked her up. She kept thrashing and screaming, tears running down her cheeks. The mental image of her mother, stabbed, plagued her as she was dragged outside.

"What do I do? What do I do?" Jake repeated, voice edging into panic. "Police. I'm calling 911," he hurried out, scrambling for his phone.

Scarlet barely paid him no mind, and fell on her knees on the driveway beside her car. Her voice lagged from all the screaming, but sobs ruptured inside her chest with every inhale.

Bile and spit fell from her lips, along with snot to accompany her tears. She didn't even care to wipe it all away. Crimson blood stained the ground under her, and she hiccuped as she sat back to inspect her arms and rest of her body.

All of it belonged to her mother.

Jake sat beside her, rubbing insistent circles over her back. An attempt to calm her down, but there was no calming down after what she had witnessed.

"Help is coming," Jake whispered in her ear. His voice faded in and out as she focused on the opened front door. Her vision blurred with heavy tears, and she fell back onto his grip. "Help is coming."

Scarlet pulled at the roots of her hair, wanting so desperately to rip it all out. Sirens wailed in the distance, all coming to her house, but it all hazed together. Her vision went dark as multiple footsteps echoed onto her driveway.