Blood Rose

Chapter Ten: The Brother

Breathing heavily, the leaves and sticks brunches beneath her as she steadied herself. She was parallel to the ground, her head turned to the left, and she could clearly see where her lover and her friends were waiting for her. She looked down to make sure she had her bag, and she was not let down. Everything she had just done was not for nothing. She was safe.

Canaan rushed across the new, northern ground and crouched beside Ollie. Remmie fought against Lana's motherly iron grip to get to her new friend's side and make sure she was okay. Soon enough, the parents let their daughter see if Ollie was alright.

Water climbed up Ollie's lungs as she spat out what she fought against. Camana's soft hands lodged themselves behind Ollie's stomach and ribs, and she kept silent the whole time. Remmie held Ollie's hand, not caring that it was covered in wet dirt.

Joseph led Lana slowly over to their daughter, and they both stood silently over Ollie's numb body. Resisting everything she was just faced with, Ollie bent her frozen knees and held herself on all fours. With Remmie and Camana helping the whole way, she stood up and felt the twigs and dead leaves under her toes. Despite the cold biting at her from the waist down, she could feel the ground of freedom under her, just as Camana had done earlier.

At that moment she knew she would be okay. Her voice cracked as she felt the words crawl up her throat. "We're home."

☁︎◎☁︎◎☁︎◎☁︎◎☁︎◎☁︎◎☁︎◎☁︎◎

"Evian? Is it really you? What are you doing here?!"

"Calm down, sis. Give me a moment, I'll light a candle."

I rocked back and forth in place, and feel Lincomb slowly slip away. I waited for Evian to make his way back to me, with a lit candle stick. As soon as the light from the fire illuminated the space, I saw that Lincomb had slipped away to bolt the door, yet he was nowhere to be seen.

My big brother set the candle on what I now saw to be a table, and his thin fingers reached out to touch my cheek. I slowly backed away, not knowing if it was really my brother I was looking at. "Oh, Evy," he sighed. "You've changed in the past two months. Luckily for you, so have I."

"H-how do you know him?" I gestured towards the door, and any place Lincomb could have gone, without looking back.

"I sent him to you. The rose, Mrs Adana, the well, the stream. That was all him--er, me--er, us."

I tried to grab onto something, but nothing was there. I suddenly felt faint, my head spinning with disbelief. My own brother put a sixteen year old girl--his own sister--through that! I wanted to scream. I wanted to punch something. I wanted it all to stop. But I did none of that.

"You're supposed to be at war! How could you abandon your duties like that? Your fellow soldiers? Your country?"

This wasn't the brother I grew up with. This wasn't who I knew and loved. The brother in front of me now hung his head in shame, knowing what he had put his sister through. "I did what I thought I had to do. I wanted you to be with me."

I drew in a sharp breath, my throat attempting to force out a sound. "I-what-no-well-ugh, I wanted to be with you too! Just not this way!"

"Evelyn, please. Just give me three days, and then you're free to go back home to our sick mother." He said this with a tone that implied the notion that our mother was a burden, and I was filled with shame when I realized that I didn't disagree. She was getting harder to handle, and there are some things I just can't do by myself.

I once again breathed in, feeling my lungs fill up with the thick air around me. My eyes closed, and opened as soon as I said one word: "Okay."

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The first night, and Lincomb was still nowhere to be seen. Evian had done his best to prepare a proper meal for the two of us, and it was eaten in uncomfortable silence.

Just as I finished my dry chicken and nearly-raw potatoes, Evian slid an envelope to my side of the table. He didn't speak, or even make eye contact. I pressed my dirt-caked nails under the seal and pried it open. Unfolding the parchment, I was greeted with a layer of dust and a moldy smell, followed by a familiarly smudged handwriting.

ᎠᎬᎯᏒ ᎿᎻᎬ ᎠᎯᏉᎨᎠᏕᎾᏁ ᎰᎯᎷᎨᏝᎽ,

ᏯᎬ ᏒᎬᎶᏒᎬᎿ ᎿᎾ ᎨᏁᎰᎾᏒᎷ ᎽᎾᏬ ᎿᎻᎯᎿ ᎷᏒ ᏕᎿᎬᏢᎻᎬᏁ ᎠᎯᏉᎨᎠᏕᎾᏁ ᎻᎯᏕ ᎰᎯᏝᏝᎬᏁ ᎠᏬᏒᎨᏁᎶ ᏨᎾᎷᏰᎯᎿ. ᏯᎬ ᎿᎻᎯᏁᏦ ᎽᎾᏬ ᎯᏁᎠ ᎷᏒ ᎠᎯᏉᎨᎠᏕᎾᏁ ᎰᎾᏒ ᎽᎾᏬᏒ ᏕᎬᏒᏉᎨᏨᎬ ᎿᎾ ᎾᏬᏒ ᏨᎾᏬᏁᎿᏒᎽ.

ᏕᎨᏁᏨᎬᏒᎬᏝᎽ,
ᎶᎬᏁ. ᏒᎾᏰᎬᏒᎿ Ꭼ ᏝᎬᎬ
(Dear the Davidson Family,

I regret to inform you that Mr Stephen Davidson has fallen during combat. We thank you and Mr Davidson for your service to our country.

Sincerely,
General Robert E Lee)

I sank lower in my chair as my heart fell to the bottom of my chest. I felt dizzy and in shock. Not for myself, but for my mother. I knew that this news would send her into an even bigger pit than she's already in.

I looked up and Evian and expected to see his comforting blue eyes, the color of the calm sea. But instead I met unfamiliar eyes, gray and stormy. His eyes were corrupted by the spirit of war, giving him scars unthinkable to the innocent of heart. I could see the pain in his eyes, but behind there lurked stone-hard toughness. He changed, and I was scared of this... new Evian. I was scared of my own brother.

I coughed and excused myself from the table. My flats clicked on the hardwood floor all the way to the guest room. The house in itself had an 1812 aura, and the stench only added to the feeling. The room given to me had only a small, child-size bed and a cupboard for my clothes. Sadly, I had none besides what I was wearing.

As I prepped myself for sleep by merely stripping to my pantaloons and corset. I hung my skirt and shawl on the top of the cupboard, only to realize I had left the letter with Evian. Technically it was both of ours, but I needed it to give to our mother once I got home.

I put my weight onto my blistered toes and found my way to the dining room. It was dark, and I couldn't light a lantern. I only had my sense of touch to lean on. Literally.

I felt the plates underneath my ashy fingers, and soon found the seal of the envelope. I slipped it into my corset and tried to follow the path I had taken before. I felt the familiar wood boards, but the flower vase I used as a landmark halfway through was no longer there. A few more steps and I realized I was lost.

I sat down where I was and figured I could find my way back at daylight. I tried to find the softest thing nearest to me, and found something hard yet squishy. I settled my head onto the surface, only to feel the all-too-familiar substance coating my ear. I wiped the substance onto my fingers and smelled the iron content. It was blood. Again.