The Dawsons

Chapter 6 - Giuseppe's Café

Sunday, April 17, 1966

Four years had passed, and Derrick's plans to split his soul had worked to perfection. Half of him had been at war, and the other half was taking care of Francesco and Teresa, going to school, and working afternoon and night shifts. He'd been in two places at once all the time for three years straight, and it had been harder than he'd expected. He became very tired, but eventually he grew accustomed to it. Being in two places at once muddled his brain and he would often become distracted, but when he went to sleep at night his time between the two places would start to make sense, and he could focus on what he'd missed as he separated the two. Derrick had seen some pretty rough stuff out there on the battlefield. He'd seen a lot of witches die, and he'd seen survivors, some missing body parts, others plagued by nightmares. He'd seen it all. Derrick had saved as many soldiers as he could, even when he had been told to leave them behind. It haunted him, giving him nightmares to deal with, many more then he had had previously. Two years in, he'd lost his trusted friend, Connor Hall. He'd seen him explode after being hit by a grenade. Losing Hall was the hardest thing he had gone through in the field.

The war was over, and no one had ever found out his secret, not even Hall. At times, he wished he had told his friend about the split in his soul, but he knew it was probably best that he hadn't.

Finally, Derrick was released from the army and his soul was one again. He was back at home and life was getting back to normal. But he still had nightmares, terrifying, silent nightmares that kept creeping and crawling back. He kept a gun under his pillow nowadays just so he could sleep better at night, but not even that helped.

Derrick witnessed the death of Rufus, one of his abusers, in battle and felt nothing about his demise, other than wishing he could have made Rufus pay for torturing him. Derrick thought that he deserved what he'd gotten for having made him suffer more than he had to, for giving him scars that would never heal.

Derrick had gotten Harry Staines back for laughing at him by locking him in a cubicle for twenty-four hours. One night, somewhere in Africa, they were at war with the Portuguese, and a bulky fellow came down on Staines with a sword. Derrick saved his life that day. After that, Staines was pretty nice to Derrick, and they had kind of become friends.

*****

In Calatabiano, at the royal palace, Rose and Rosa were in their bedroom on a cold winter's morning. It had just stopped snowing, and the sun was starting to appear through the clouds. Rosa was spread out across her fluffy bed, reading a book about love and adventure; the novel was making her feel more depressed and more trapped. Rosa wanted her freedom so badly she thought she would explode. And that's exactly what the characters in her book had. They were free to do whatever they wanted and to go wherever they wanted. Rosa looked up over the top of her book and watched Rose, who was seated in front of their white dressing table. She was brushing her long, silky white-golden hair that had grown down to her slim hips. Rosa still couldn't believe how much she and her sister had grown in the past few years. They weren't children anymore. She knew that. So why their grandparents still treated them like they were she did not know. Rose had matured into a beautiful woman; they were told many times that they were the most beautiful girls in all the lands. Rosa didn't know about herself, even though she was the splitting image of her sister. Rosa noticed the white, soft skin on Rose's face, arms, and hands. She looked down at her own hand while she held the book in the other. Rosa's skin was white too, and it reminded her of what she had to do to fix that problem. It reminded her of her mission. Rosa was going to get out of this prison one way or another, and today was the day.

"Okay, that's it. I am so tired of this," Rosa said, slamming the book down on the bed next to her in frustration and then sitting up.

"What are you tired of?" Rose asked, startled. She turned around in her green, velvet seat to face her sister.