Seeing Red

Chapter 6

The next two hours seemed to tick by as slowly as possible. Brandon came back into the room to inform us that Darrel was okay and safe, as safe as people were getting, since a group of werewolves had attacked the city he was in. Even though Brandon was trying to sound optimistic, I couldn't miss the despair in his voice. After that, it was just sitting around, some questions from Grace about werewolves, or what happened to us.

I couldn't stop thinking about my kiss with Mark. A small part of me wondered what our relationship would be in the future, if we had one. I was sure that I wanted to get to know him better, especially since I had spent the last year hoping he was okay, but considering everything going down, it could have just been likely that he could get himself killed.

I pushed those thoughts away. I wasn't going to let anyone hurt him ever again. I was forced to leave him behind once, and that was never going to happen again. I resolved to make sure Gwen paid for everything she had done to me, and then, I would track down every person involved in Packington and made sure they received their just dues. I counted myself lucky that I had taken out the corrupt asshole warden that horrible night.

There was a knock at the door, the secret knock that indicated it was someone in the rebellion. Simon immediately went for the door, and I heard the sound of Lisa already going down the stairs. Within seconds, I heard Mark's voice call out.

"Scarlet?!"

"Mark!" I called back, rushing out of the room with everyone else in tow. Mark was halfway up the stairs when I exited the bedroom, and the two of us met halfway through the upstairs hallway in a hug. Mark leaned in and planted a kiss on my cheek, causing me to blush a little.

"Scarlet?! Grace?!" I heard none other than Paige O'Hart calling from the bottom of the stairs. Sure enough, when Grace and I peeked over the railing, Paige and Elliot next to Becky, looking just as relieved to see us as we were to see them, and we both ran down to hug them.

"We were so scared that something might have happened to you two!" said Elliot as he shifted the backpack he was wearing for some reason so he could hug the two of us, "I was about to get my shotgun and start fighting my way back to the two of you!"

That was just like Elliot, acting like we were the farmer's daughters and he was keeping us safe like we were his own. I appreciated that more than he would probably ever know.

"Hey, I have this for you," said Elliot as he took off the backpack, "I had some time to grab your things, but I could only get a couple of them."

He handed me the backpack and I opened it, immediately greeted by bright red.

"My jacket..." I said as I slipped the thing out of the bag.

"You still have that thing?" said Becky, "I would have thought you would've burned it by now."

"Never could," I said as I tied the jacket arms around my waist, "I just couldn't bring myself to wear it again. I'm still not comfortable doing it, honestly."

Just keeping the jacket on my person was bringing up some old, painful memories, but I did it anyway. The jacket was still a part of me.

"Scarlet... I have something for you too," said Paige, "I was hoping to give it to you as a big surprise, but I guess it's now or never."

Before I could ask Paige what she was talking about, she pulled an envelope out of her handbag and handed it to me. It took me a moment to register the envelope had the word "Yale" on it.

"Oh my god..." I whispered as Mark came down the stairs to peer over my shoulder along with Becky. My hands were trembling just holding the envelope, let alone slowly ripping it open. My mind was blank, my hands were numb, and everything around me no longer mattered except for the letter.