Sinister One Shots

Milo/Dylan Meeting

"Um, hi?", Dylan asks, his face a mask of confusion. This house is miles and miles away from anything, even the grocery store his mother had taken both him and his brother to this morning was quite a drive away. So how the heck did the tweenage boy on his front lawn get here?
"Hi.", the boy greets him, nonchalantly, as if this was his own house.
"Uh... Can I help you?", Dylan prompts.
The boy chuckles. "More than you know."
'Oookay then...', Dylan thinks. 'Weirdo shows up at house, says weird things. Great start to a new life in a new place.'

"My name's Milo.", the boy introduces himself, still totally relaxed, like this was completely normal to him.
"I'm Dylan.", he warily responds. Why he gives his name to this odd boy, he isn't sure, but it just feels... natural. "Nice to meet you, Dylan.", Milo smiles. his glance shifts behind the old farm-house to the church behind it, and a gleam of the kind one gets when remembering something pleasant forms in his eyes.

"Have you ever been inside there?", he asks Dylan.
"The church? No. Mom works in there, we aren't really supposed to go snooping around, we might mess up the paint on one of her antiques or something-"
"Do you always do what she tells you to?", Milo asks, interrupting. The question catches Dylan off-guard.
"I- I guess so.", he shrugs.
Milo smirks mischievously. "Why?", he inquires.
"Um... I don't know.... I mean, she's my mom, doesn't she know what's best?" "Adults like to tell us that. But how many times has she not known what was best for you?"

A memory shoved it's way into Dylan's mind of being on the floor, his father drunk, screaming at him, kicking him over and over, and his mother cowering in the corner.... Her eyes terrified but not doing a thing to try to stop it. Dylan finches, snapping back into reality. "She.... That's different. It's just a stupid church, it's not the same thing."
"You're right, Dylan. It's just a stupid church. What could possibly be in there that wouldn't be 'best' for you? You're responsible, it's not like you're going to go break anything, anyway.", Milo reminds him, smirking.
"I guess....", Dylan starts to agree, something about Milo's smirk gets to him.
"You could just look around, for a second.", Milo offers.
"Okay... Just for a second.", Dylan repeats.

Milo smiles. "Let's go, then." He strides confidently toward the rickety old church building. Dylan finds himself watching the strange dark-haired Milo walk for a second before following. The rational part of his mind nags that letting a stranger walk around on the property and talk him into things was not a good idea, but the part of his mind that was still charmed by Milo's charisma and smirk tells his rational side to shut up. And so, he follows the oddly well-dressed boy towards and into the church.

"Wow...", he lets out a small gasp as he walks in. The stained glass windows, although half boarded up, sparkled in the sunlight and made the church look beautiful in a haunting kind of way. Milo nods in agreement with Dylan's wonder.
"See, what'd I tell you? It's cool in here.", he says, spreading his arms and walking further into the spacious chapel.
"Yeah... It is nice.", Dylan smiles softly, looking up at the rafters and around the room.
"Do you want to see the rest?", Milo asks, already heading towards a doorway in the back wall, off the side of a large stage under a statue of Christ and the cross hanging on the wall. Dylan silently agrees to this with a nod of his head.

The two boys walk through the hallway, Dylan following Milo past a couple of doors, before stopping at one that had a painfully colorful 'Sunday School' sign on it. Milo makes a face at Dylan that seems to say, "Dumb, right?", and enters the room. The inside is even more ridiculously colorful and childish than the sign on the door, but everything is a bit of a mess, with rocks, broken glass, and some things that Dylan didn't really want identified on the ground.

"Wow.", Dylan says again, but this time it's a lot less starry-eyed, and about as sarcastic as the gentle boy gets.
"Yeah...", Milo looks around with disdain. "I spent more time than I would've liked in here.", he cringes. "What?", Dylan looks confused.
"I ran Sunday school unfortunately... My sisters should have been the ones to take over that job, but my father insisted.", he rolls his eyes, annoyed.
"What are you talking about?", Dylan asks, taking a step back away from Milo.
"This was my home. Well, not the church, but the house next to it.", Milo explains.
"You- you lived here before we moved in?", Dylan questions.
"Yes.", Milo says, casually sitting down in a pastel-colored chair that was quite a bit too small for him.
"But.... Zach told me the family here before us was murdered.... All- All except for one boy who's body was never found....", it dawns on Dylan as he speaks, and the color runs out of his face.
"That's true.", Milo agrees, tapping his fingers on the matching pastel table. "You- you're supposed to be dead....", Dylan stutters. "That, or you killed them all....", his face is stark white.

"Ah, well... both are technically true.", Milo admits, without a hint of remorse in his voice. He looks sympathetic for Dylan as he tries to make sense of this, but he doesn't look remorseful.
"Why?", Dylan squeaks out. "Why did you...?"
"It was the right thing to do.", Milo replies simply. The way he says this, so matter of fact, paired with how charming he is makes Dylan want to believe him about this. It was the right thing to do. A horrible, awful, cruel thing spoken like the absolute truth out of a 14 year old's mouth. Dylan is speechless a moment, then, "Please don't hurt me..."
"Why would I do that?", Milo asks, laughingly.
"Um- Why wouldn't you?"
"Because you're special, Dylan."

Milo stands up, and his face is very close to Dylan's now. A moment passes between them, heavy with the danger of the fact just discovered, the absolute confusing calm of Milo's demeanor, and the words he's just spoken. Dylan opens his mouth to speak, and Milo raises a pale finger to his lips.
"Shhhhhhhh.", he quiets softly.

And suddenly, a small blonde boy with a face that Dylan would always remember as one that forever shows up at the wrong place and time, appears in the room.
Milo groans. "Hi, Ted."