Saving Scout O'Brian (REMASTERED)

Two

Scout

I honestly couldn't remember a time where I slept as well as I did the first night in our new home.

After I got all our stuff inside, not that there was a ton, I ordered Chinese and watched a movie with Char. She passed out about twenty minutes in, and I carried her to bed, still a bit dazed as I pulled the covers up and laid her into her big girl bed. She'd been so excited, bouncing with energy and the promise of our new life. It was contagious, and I fell asleep with a smile on my face.

Until my alarm woke me at seven in the morning. I growled, reaching under the covers and slamming my hand on my phone. I blinked, my eyes crusty, slightly disoriented as I tried to remember where I was. It came to me a minute later, and I smiled, stretching languidly, a hum of contentment in my chest. Eventually, I pulled myself out of bed and headed into the bathroom to do my morning business. After showering, I stood in front of the mirror, staring at the girl staring back at me. Bracing my hands against the edge of the countertop, air whistled through my nose and the girl in the mirror exhaled too. Her dark eyes held a meanness and secrecy to them that alluded to the nightmares I so often had. Scouring my appearance, my lips lifted in slight smirk. I had a feeling I would definitely make quite the impression on this Washington town.

My entire right arm was covered in a sleeve tattoo, starting with a Chinese mythical creature known as the Zouwu, its jaws opened wide and large, almost feathered, tail wrapped around the entirety of my upper arm to my elbow. It was decorated with various Chinese flowers, as if it were peeking through them to roar at the unseen threat beyond. Past my elbow, a detailed forest fire wrapped around my arm, ending just above my wrist bone in a perfect line. My entire left leg was also tatted up, a very large and carefully detailed portrait of Medusa's severed head in Perseus's grip, but instead of triumph in his eyes, there was terror as her punishing gaze turned him to stone. The hundreds of snakes on her head writhed and hissed with vengeance. That one hurt like a motherfucker, but it was probably my favorite of all of them. Finally, the knuckles of my right hand titled the word, power, because I had all of it.

Oh, and I also had "Charlotte" tattooed a few inches below my left collarbone in wisps of cursive. I wanted her as close to my heart as possible.

I had a few more tattoos, and over five piercings, four in my left ear, two in my left, as well as a hoop in the right side of my lower lip. I always thought my features complimented them well. I knew I wasn't ugly by any means, with a strong face, pronounced cheekbones and jawline, and full lips. But I always thought my eyes were too large and too dark, matching my eyebrows and the deep mahogany of my waist-length curly hair. I was tall, almost five-eight, and slender, with muscled legs and arms from working out when I could. My stomach was missing the last two abs of a completed six pack, but that's fine. I was excited to start running on the beach again. I had missed it.

Sighing, I brushed my teeth and hair, leaving it to air dry. I didn't bother with makeup as I had never really needed it.

Shrugging on my best pair of skinny jeans over my boxers, black with holes ripped into the knees, I pulled on a grey v-neck shirt over my sports bra, grimacing as I caught the five inch scar that slashed across my left hip bone. The matching scars on my back aching in tandem. I willed my mind away from the memory of how I got them and pulled my shirt down, tucking the front into my jeans. I headed into Char's room to wake her up, and found her already dressed and playing with her toys.