Scars | ✔

Chapter 6

"Welcome to West Virginia!" Timothy cheered as he pulled into a forest. Marshall sighed angrily as he crossed his arms.

"Come on, don't be like that, bucko." Hugo teased, nudging Marshall.

"Leave me alone, Hugo." Marshall said, pushing Hugo away.

"You boys stop the fightin!" Timothy yelled back to his son and best friend.

"Sorry Pa." Hugo mocked. Timothy laughed nonetheless and and got out of the van.

"Much more game out in these parts." Timothy commented, having looked around.

"It's gorgeous out here, sweetheart." Tayla said, landing a kiss on Timothy's cheek.

"Yeah. You haven't even seen inside yet. Must'a been home to some lunatic, cause lots of weapons in there. Perfect items to teach disrespectful kids a lesson with." Timothy added, shooting Clem a death glare. Clem looked down and played with her wrist nervously.

. . .

Clem walked into the house and felt her skin shiver. Bugs were crawling over all of the torn up furniture, crawling out from inside of the hole filled wall, and crawling all around everyone.

"If you're scared of bugs, best be time to get rid of er' fear." Timothy said with a laugh, squeezing Clem's shoulder a bit.

"I'm not.."

The window panes had all the glass shattered off of it, and boarded up to keep wild animals and such out. Barely any light shone in through the boards, and the smell.. oh god. The smell was horrible. The smell of death.

Black mold was growing everywhere, and trash was littered across not only the inside of the house, but the surrounding yard as well. Horrible, terrifying weapons cluttered the place, making the air stale and scarce.

"It needs some work, but we can take that time to do so.." Timothy said as he thought.

"It looks AMAZING!" TJ yelled excitedly, running over and jumping on one of the dirty, ripped up couches.

Clem closed her eyes and, once again, wished she was with her mom and dad. Or her Grandma and Grandpa. She just wanted to be with familiar faces. Faces she knew and loved. She wanted to be in her clean home. She just wanted to be in a place that wasn't here.

. . .

After a few days of sleeping in the van, and barely eating, everyone had finally finished tidying up the house. It didn't look brand new or anything, but it was nicer than before.

"Family picture in front of our new home!" Timothy said, bringing out a Polaroid and getting in front of the house. Everyone went over; all except for Marshall and Clem.

"Come on, kids." Tayla said through gritted teeth. Marshall and Clem shared a glance, before slowly going over.

"Smile!" Timothy said happily, holding the camera up. Clem gave a forced smile.

Snap!

Timothy shook the photo, waiting for it to fade in. Clem held her wrist nervously. She had a horrible feeling in her gut, but she knew she had to stay strong for Marshall.

. . .

"I miss the birds." Marshall mumbled, holding his head in his hands as he looked out the small, shattered, and mostly boarded up window.

"Y-yeah.." Clem muttered, careful not to wake anybody up. Marshall and Clem had to sleep on the couch, due to lack of bedrooms. Marshall looked over to Clem, and gave an obvious forced smile.

"Sorry. Rude of me not to ask; how are you today, Clem?" Marshall asked, his once bright blue eyes now dull and tired.

"Not good." Clem muttered again, looking at her lap, and sighing.

"It's okay. We'll be okay." Marshall said, sitting next to Clem and wrapping his arm around her neck.

"I hope so."

"We don't need hope. We have each other."

"Yeah." Clem smiled up at Marshall, and closed her eyes.

"You're a good sister." Marshall said quietly. Clem smiled, eyes still clenched shut.

"I am?"

"Yeah."

"You're a good brother."

"I'm glad. I try to be." Marshall smiled at Clem. Clem smiled back up at him, sighing as she remembered her old cousins or friends.

After a bit of silence, Marshall decided to speak up again.

"Have you ever had a brother?"

"No."

"A sister?"

"No."

"So i'm the first." Marshall smiled as he said those words. He liked seeming like an older brother to Clem. He felt like he had to protect her with everything he had.

"What if.." Clem went to say something, but cut her off so she could think for a moment more. She sat up and looked at Marshall, parting her lips to say something, only to decide against it. She sat in silence for some while longer, trying to put her thoughts into words. She didn't know how, but she knew she had to let him know somehow.

"What if.." Clem said again, regaining her thoughts as she took a deep breath. Marshall looked at her questioningly, raising an eyebrow.

"What is it?" Marshall asked. Clem thought.

"What if we run away?" Clem finally asked, playing with her wrist.

"What? Clem, that's.. well, that's.. that's a death wish, Clem!" Marshall whisper yelled, making Clem look up at him with pleading eyes.

"Marshall.. They don't.. They don't know their way around this forest. We could run until we find a car, and then we could tell them about the others!" Clem said, nearly crying.

"I know.. I.. I want to leave too but.. It's dangerous!" Marshall said, trying to convince Clem to drop it in the most polite way he can.

"Marshall, pleaseeee..." Clem's eyes grew more glossy by the second, a horrible feeling in her gut. She just wanted out of this place, and running away would be the best option.

"I.. Fine. We can.. We can do that."

"Really?"

"Yes."

Marshall took a deep breath, grabbing Clem's bag for her and giving it to her with a sad smile.

"I hope this works." Marshall muttered, creaking open the front door.

"Me too."

Marshall quietly shut the front door.

"Follow me." Marshall said, starting to run. Clem followed, running as fast as her legs would take her. The cold wind blew against her face, making her loose her breath more easily. She held the top of the hat, careful for it not to blow off.

She followed Marshall down the dirt path. Their shoes hit the ground unevenly, clattering loudly in the dead of night. They both soon grew tired, but they didn't stop running. They couldn't. They had to get far away from that house. Lord knows what Timothy and Tayla would do if they found out they ran away.

Clem became tired. Her chest was heavy and her eyes barely stayed open.

"You doing okay?" Marshall asked, clearly out of breath and getting tires as well.

"I'm.. yeah. Okay.." Clem muttered to Marshall as she started to slow down. Her vision grew fuzzy, and slowly went black. She could feel herself tripping to the ground, before finally hitting it out of exhaustion.