A Sanguinary Rose

Time to Bleed: Part 1

THE SOUND OF THE EXPLODING GUNSHOT tormented my sleep for the next several days.

The whistling in my ears didn't go away for at least three days. The scene kept replaying in my head during idle moments, even in dreams—the blast of the shot, the smoking gun, Mom's shriek, Tobias' dazed expression as blood pooled in his shirt around the heart's area, how he keeled over. While paramedics lifted the corpse off the scene, it was already crumbling to dust, as though the wind ate away at his body on a molecular level. Once I dreamt of Dad turning the Glock on me and firing. I awoke in the middle of the night, panting, and with a cold sheen of sweat on the side of my face.

I avoided the subject. If Mom and Dad talked it through, it'd be in my absence. One time Dad broached the subject, he seemed to refer to Tobias as though he'd been human. But I know it in my heart he wouldn't have gone straight for the kill if that were true.

As days went by, we weathered through the shock and Marcus came out of his shell, saying something that made me dig my nails into my skin.

We were having dinner after school. Shutters were almost the whole way down at my usual insistence. I was pretending to enjoy Mom's juicy pork chops and fried rice when Marcus opened up about Halloween. It was such a relief that Dad was still at work.

"You know how in superhero movies, when bad guys harass the hero's friends, and he intervenes, tells them to get lost, but the bad guy puffs up, and the hero punches them across the room?"

"Neat. What about it?" Mom asked between mouthfuls, fork in hand.

"That's what happened on Halloween, when Scarlett stood up to that dude for me."

I nearly choked on my food as I swallowed.

"You stood up to him?" Mom looked at me with a mixture of admiration and concern. "He was bigger than you, stronger. It was reckless, baby."

I nodded. But Marcus had to keep at it.

"No, I mean. Mom, it was badass. Like, you have no idea. She literally sent him flying across the street. Ten feet into the air. Across the entire width of the street. It was so freakin' cool!"

"N-no, I simply shoved him away. He was getting under my skin. Besides, it was dark, doofus. You didn't catch the whole thing."

Mom crinkled her eyes in amusement.

"I SAW. I couldn't make that up," Marcus said. "I saw him staring weird at your friend and then you launched him into the air like he weighed nothing." He turned to Mom, eyes twinkling with excitement. "Scarlett's a freakin' superhero!"

Mom was frowning, on one hand disbelieving anything Marcus might've said due to his well-documented exaggerations. Still, she had only to connect the dots. I tried not to make my aversion to the sun too apparent, but sometimes I had no choice but to act weird to avoid getting torched before my family.

"Right, then I fired lasers from my eyes."

"Why do you gotta be like that? It was awesome."

"I don't wanna think about it, okay? Please, I want to forget the whole thing ever happened."

"Marcus, it was a very shocking incident for all of us. Scarlett's not feeling well about it. Just let it go." But I wouldn't forget the stifling silence after that.

Mom had agreed with Dad to set up a curfew for us to be back home before 6pm. Only now it wouldn't apply to me because I'd be starting work after school at the government offices downtown. Marcus wasn't so lucky.

To my parents' knowledge, I'd be interning at a tiny government office. The truth was, I didn't have an inkling of what the hell I'd do once there.