RADIATING VIOLET| t. stark ✔️

TWENTY THREE: Strawberries

"Do you ever feel already buried deep

Six feet under scream

But no one seems to hear a thing"

"What's bothering you?" Alyssa asked as she took a seat next to her father. She sat a pink donut on his knee. Tony sighed and turned around to meet the eyes of a child. Her face was covered in chocolate and sprinkles that graced her baby cheeks.

He sniffed lightly and filed through the papers again.

"Please tell me." She said.

He groaned and messed up his hair with his hands.

"Hey..."

"I'm fine." Tony groaned.

Ok, sure...

"Please tell me what's wrong. I want to help you." Alyssa smiled.

Tony proceeded to angrily flip through more pages. The girl jumped onto the work bench forcing her father to face her.

"Let me help you!"

Tony grumbled incoherently and went back to work. He ran his pencil through the various equations on the paper looking for an answer. When he realized that the searching was useless, he threw the book in the nearby trash bin.

Howard continued to talk on the tv. The tape recorder was playing and Alyssa could hear the faint ticking of the machine.

"What's that?" Alyssa asked pointing towards the old machine.

Tony looked up from his drink and turned to give her a weird look.

"Its a tape recorder. It holds film." Tony said.

"What's film?" Alyssa asked again.

Tony sighed.

"You don't know what film is?"

The girl shook her head.

"Man, I'm old." He scoffed.

Alyssa giggled a large smile appeared on her chocolate covered face.

"You've got a little something-" Tony started pointing at her face.

The girl quickly wiped the excess mess on her sleeve staining the blue fabric. Tony smiled slightly and picked the donut off of his knee placing it on the work bench.

A lot has changed in the past day that Alyssa had gotten back home. Her father still remains as distant as ever. But, at least she didn't have to go to school. The weekend, well, being the weekend, has that effect. Tony still isn't telling her what's going on. It angers Alyssa more than ever that her father won't talk to her.

He doesn't always have to be so brave.

Alyssa flipped through to various items in the old boxes. She wasn't quite sure of what she was looking for, but, wanted to be helpful nonetheless. The brunette looked at her father with worry at his pain-etched face. Her eyes trailed down his face towards his ears and neck. Then she saw it. Purple and blue lines were starting to trail up his neck like poison ivy. Her chocolate eyes widened at the terrible sight. A small shudder grazed from her lips.

Tony noticed the young girl's action and quickly pulled his collar up, hiding the ominous streaks from view.

"What's that?" Alyssa asked gently reaching out at him with her small hands.

Tony jolted away and quickly got up from his seat. Alyssa flinched as well, the movement was rapid and she didn't expect it. He continued to wring his fingers through his short, messy brown hair. Tony paced slightly, jumping up and down he walked the room.