Red Discord

Chapter 10

Trevor’s scent was unmistakable. It was something along the lines of Febreeze, Windex, and a hint of cigarette smoke, even though Kassy had tried many a time to get him to stop (Because of which, he always hid it from her, though he never cared if she found out as long as she never directly saw him smoke). His scent always made her wrinkle her nose, though she’d become so accustomed to it, it was something of a comfort to have around. Waking up to his scent was like waking up in his arms from a long sleep.

Kassy blinked. Her head was rested on the desk, her mouth opened wide so drool fell out of the corner of her mouth into a small puddle that formed on the desk from hours of drooling. She sat up and rubbed the corner of her mouth, cleaning both the crusted and uncrusted parts of her drool. Kassy rubbed her arms together. A cold breeze had filled the room since she had fallen asleep, leaving the room in a chilling atmosphere. She spun the chair around several times in a slow manner as to not get motion sick, letting her eyes absorb the outlook of the room. It felt like forever since she had been in there; since she never had much of a reason to come into the room for Trevor aways kept it exceptionally clean, another one of his odd tics, she never went into the room on a regular basis, maybe about once every two to three months to get something (a cleaning product or paper or a reference book on one of Trevor’s small bookshelves in the back of the room that housed nothing but dictionaries and large reference book she didn’t even know why they were there or why Trevor would have them as they had no relevance to anything he liked to do or did as one of his many professions through the years).  

If everything right now was a dream, how wonderful that would be, thought Kassy as she stared at a picture of her, Trevor, and Amie. She knew how much he loved them both, how much that family meant to him because his family was broken from the start. If anyone should have lived, it should have been Trevor. If he hadn’t have fallen in love with her....  Kassy let the guilt rest on her heart, piercing the now feeble walls until they crumbled. Trevor might not be alive, but James still was. She looked to the closed mahogany door. What had happened to James after she had left him there? Perhaps, thought Kassy, it would have been a better idea if she had just stayed with him, after all, there’s more power in numbers. She knew she wouldn’t be safe—not in this house, anyways—and that she couldn’t stay forever in Trevor’s office. She had to do something. She had to free herself, find a weakness in her foe; something, anything to tip the balance of the scales.

There was a lighter on the right most corner of Trevor’s desk. It was a sterling silver lighter, square with rounded edges, and engraved with the letters T and M (respectively, Trevor Mitchell). It was still that “little habit” he just wasn’t able to break. Kassy knew he smoked before he met her, though she’d thought that he’d quit after they’d talked about it with each other. Though, she’d also thought he’d resumed a long time ago when she’d sometimes smell the distant smell of smoke on him when he’d come home from work and bear hug her while she was in the middle of making dinner, disrupting her entirely. It really was a shame she couldn’t break him.

Kassy picked up the lighter from the desk and slipped it between her fingers, twisting her hand to the back, she kissed the lighter between her fingers. “If I’m going to go to hell anyways, why not set it off with a big bang? I do love parties.”

.

James stood motionless in the hallway where Kassy had left him, running past him in a full out sprint for some unapparent reason. She’d been gone almost two minutes already. Rather than worry, he just continued to stare at the floor.

Bang!

That was the second time James had heard loud noises coming from upstairs. He had absolutely no idea why in the world there were such loud noises (honestly, he really didn’t care), but probably guessed that Kassy had worked herself into another weird, life-threatening situation like she had always done in the past. Perhaps it was a secret talent she had. That, though, didn’t pertain to James. He looked up with glazed eyes like marbles, as if in a trance. His eyes were outlined in dark purple circles as if he hadn’t slept in ages. He cranked his body forward and walked to the side door that lead into the kitchen. His movements were like a water-sprayed robot.