Escape [Summer]

[cujo]

Dareynn walked down the hallway, his hands balled into fists and a scowl marring his pale face. His sapphire eyes seemed to be on the brink of tearing up or bursting into flames; either way, he looked angry.

He didn't know where he was going; he was just walking. He'd ran into some jocks on his way to the cafeteria and they'd given him a hard time about something or other; he couldn't even remember what. He was too upset. They'd said some harsh things, though, and they burned in his mind.

He paused and squeezed his eyes shut, forcing the vile remarks from his mind. He opened his eyes halfway, looking to his left. There was a door... Without thinking, he grabbed the handle and shoved it open. It was unlocked; either the teacher didn't care if students went inside during the lunch break or they had forgotten to lock it.

Either way, it was an empty room he could hide in. With a sigh, he felt for the light switch. He flicked it up, letting the lights illuminate the room. It was the choir room; a beautiful grand piano was in it, along with music stands and other instruments. He let the door close behind him and walked to the farthest corner from the door.

He was sick of being here, being treated like he was nothing, a nobody... This was no better than being at home, with his vile step-father. He loathed this place... Couldn't they just all leave him alone?

Without realizing it, tears began to streak down his face, dropping onto his dark shirt. He leaned his head back against the wall, a sob shaking his shoulders. He wrapped his arms around his torso, wishing everything would just go away...

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[summerrain]

Again the halls were empty. The only noise ricocheting off the walls were Summer's own quiet wingbeats as she glided silently through the deserted building. More and more, she found herself on an inevitable path to the music room. When she had nothing better to do, almost without thinking, her feet... or wings, as the case was now... carried her to the one place she could get away from it all. Music was her escape.

Of course, it helped that music was her re-connection to her magical abilities. Without it, it felt like she shriveled up, like the very core of her soul threatened to go extinct on itself. Which was not a very pleasant feeling. But she took heart in what she knew could happen- like that one time she played with Akane. It was amazing.

As she flittered toward the room, she paused and set her feet down on the ground to walk the few steps to the door. Something was out of place... the door was standing open already. Slightly ajar. And from the open doorway Summer could hear the sound of quiet sobs. Her wings flicked closed of their own accord- a snap habit. Some people didn't take kindly to a pretty girl with wings.

Pushing the door open, Summer stepped tentatively into the room. "Hello?" she called quietly. She didn't want to intrude, but... since she was already there... "May I come in?" Without waiting for an answer, and without looking around for the source of the noise, Summer entered the room fully and sat down at the piano, tracing the keys with a slight loving smile on her face. "You might not want company right now," she spoke softly to the tearful person, "but I always find that it helps with music." And with that, Summer's fingers danced over the keys, barely touching them, her foot working the pedals, and quiet, beautiful music began to float about the room.

[cujo]

The second someone spoke, Dareynn fell silent. Expecting the harsh wrath of whoever had stumbled upon him, he slunk back, hiding beneath a podium that was set next to the music stands. Tears still streamed down his face and his heart slammed in his chest, making his ribs ache painfully. Couldn't whoever had found him leave?

Just as the thought crossed his mind, a light, beautiful-sounding melody drifted through the room, making his tears stop for a moment. He shifted silently so that his back was against the wall. His knees were pressed up against his chest, and his arms held them there. His sapphire eyes were pools of misery and despair as he risked a glance at the piano.

A girl was sitting at it, the source of the music. 'She's kinda pretty,' he thought for a moment, not really caring. The thought was an idle one, only placed in his head because of his ADD. He turned his face away from her then, so if she looked up at him she could only see the ebony hair that hid his tear-streaked face and downtrodden expression from view.

He listened to what she played, letting the music calm him. Dareynn had always liked music; it was his escape from the real world. Classical music had always calmed him the fastest; modern songs, like those sung by the band Skillet, either made him angry or gave him energy to keep fighting. Classical music he only listened to once in a great while, though he liked it more than the modern style.

[summerrain]

As soon as Summer started playing, the sobbing quieted. She knew the effect her playing had on people; how many times had she felt it herself? She didn't claim to be talented, didn't even think the talent was her own; she was always humble about it. It wasn't her, she would insist. It was the magic within her. There was nothing she could or couldn't do about it. But as she played on, Summer's skill began to flow from her fingers a little more experimentally. She played a few chords that shouldn't have sounded right, but did. A few notes that shouldn't have belonged, but somehow, they did.

And with her progressions, her bridges, her prolonged notes and her odd chords, Summer began to sing, to blend her voice in harmony with the piano.

"Let the music sweep you away
Ne'er to see the dark of day

The pain will go
The day will break
Your joy will flow
Your sorrow take...

Flight, as soft as wind
New days begin
To take the pain
To touch the flame
Your heart will soar
To height galore...

You never know
The pain to grow
As long as you

Let the music sweep you away."

Summer ended the song on a final note and sat on the piano bench, her head bowed over the keys, tears of her own slipping down her face. Her wings, which she had held pinned against her back and covered by her long, silver-blond hair, now flicked free of their own accord and began to open and close gently. Feeling the extra appendages moving on her back, Summer sat up and gasped, a light color flushing her cheeks. She didn't know what to do about her wings... and there was no way she could hide it from the other person in the room now.

[cujo]

When the girl began to sing, Dareynn's tears fell again, reminding him of how upset he'd been. He liked the song, however; it had an enchanting melody, and the girl sang it beautifully. He turned and looked at her almost shyly, half expecting the ridicule that so often comes when a girl sees a boy cry.

But when the song ended, the girl herself was crying, her head bowed over the ivory keys. When something fluttered behind her back, his ADD drew his eyes to the...wings?

'No,' he thought, 'they can't be wings! That's impossible!' But the girl before him did have wings; there was no way around it. He couldn't turn his face away when she looked up; he was transfixed by the fluttering appendages.

His sapphire eyes were still watery and morbid-looking, his face still tear-streaked, and he was too scrawny for a boy of his age; all those things normally concerned him. Now...he just wanted to know why this girl--if she was, in fact, a girl--had wings. How was it possible? Was he dreaming? Had those jocks roughed him up and knocked him out, was he comatose? A thousand possibilities ran through his mind, muddling his thoughts and causing his features to fall into uncertainty.

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[summerrain]

Self-conscious, Summer looked up to meet the astonishingly blue eyes of the boy who had been crying. With an odd, sheepish smile on her face, she introduced herself, quietly. "I'm... my name is Summer Rain," she intoned softly. "I... see you're looking at my wings... yes, they're real..." she blushed. Cheeks burning, Summer looked back down to stare at the ebony and ivory keys in front of her. She could feel the young man's stare...

Summer sighed very quietly. She was used to people staring, but each time it happened in a one-on-one situation like this, the fear of being rejected washed through her strongly. "Please, don't run away from me," she said in a small voice, still avoiding his eyes. "I don't want someone else to run. I hate it when they run." She stole a quick glance at him, her silvery gray eyes shimmering with unshed tears. "I usually hope that my music can make up for my appearance, but..." she gestured helplessly with her hand as a hardened glint shone in her eye, her face set. "People will be people. They decide to judge without knowing. That is the worst thing anyone can do. Life sucks, and humans are cruel."

Remembering the boy, Summer blushed again. This was quickly becoming habit for her. "Sorry. I tend to rant about the human race... This is why I prefer home, with my animals, in the woods." Her voice was more than a little wistful. "But come, enough about me." She patted the piano bench beside her. "What is your name?"

[cujo]

Dareynn realized he was still staring at the girl when she blushed; he forced his eyes down, studying the fabric of his faded and torn black jeans. He needed new ones... Not that he could afford to get some. He could hardly afford to feed himself; how was he supposed to get clothes?

When the girl, Summer, introduced herself, she reminded Dareynn of her presence. Summer Rain. 'What an odd name,' he thought, though it wasn't as odd as his own. Dareynn Payne. Some higher being must have thought it was quite a joke, naming him that.

Upon being asked not to run away, he scowled. Where would he run to? People would laugh at his current appearance and they'd laugh harder once he mentioned a girl with wings. They'd commit him to an insane asylum; "The poor little emo kid has finally cracked," they'd say, then walk off, laughing amongst themselves.

Once she had finished, ending her small speech by asking his name, he didn't answer for a moment. The silence hung heavily in the air, wrapping around him like a thick, suffocating blanket. "Dareynn," he finally whispered. He ignored her invitation to sit with her on the bench; sure, he wasn't comfortable in his current position, but he didn't know the girl's intentions. He's stay right where he was...

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[summerrain]

Summer looked at him with interest. "Dareynn..." she repeated aloud. "That's a nice name." And since he didn't want to move to sit next to her, she got up. Crossing the room, she stood right in front of Dareynn and sank to the ground gracefully, fluttering her wings to keep her balance. She crossed her legs, taking care to be modest as she was wearing a dress, and looked into his face. "Dareynn." She spoke his name, not as a question, or just trying it out earlier, but rather as a demand to look at her- she commanded his attention.

"I can tell you have been hurt. Deeply. If there is ever anything I can do, let me know. I would like to be your friend, regardless of your scars- physical, emotional, mental- because every and I mean EVERY human being is worth knowing." She sighed and leaned forward slightly, placing her elbows on her knees and resting her chin in her hands. "I have been hurt too. It's just about how to deal," she said in earnest. "Would... would you believe me if I told you that I have probably been hurt more than you have ever known? Because I can bet you that I have."

Suddenly, she was hovering in the air at the window, staring wistfully out into the fading afternoon light. "I have seen more pain than anyone should ever know in a lifetime," she whispered quietly. Her head whipped around, staring at Dareynn with intensity. "Tell me, Dareynn, who has caused you pain? Anyone here? I shall hunt them down and repay the favor..."

[cujo]

If Dareynn had been able to back up when Summer came over, he would have. When she sat in front of him and mentioned being hurt and scars, a light blush worked its way across his pale face, and he bit his tongue to keep from snapping at her. She seemed genuinely nice; he didn't want to be rude. Which confused him; normally, he didn't want anything to do with anyone. Why did he care? Maybe it was because of the girl's fragile appearance...

Hurt more than he was? He would have scoffed, had he cared enough to. When she drifted to the window, he pulled himself from his hiding place to sit against the wall. The girl asked who had "caused him pain" then... Did he really want to tell her, a complete stranger? "Dunno 'em," he grumbled. After a moment, his thoughts went to his step-father; had she meant, literally, anyone? The temptation to tell her was so great, but only his step-father's threat kept him from speaking: he had told Dareynn that if he were to tell anyone about his abuse, he would kill him.

Unconciously, Dareynn wrapped an arm around his torso, his thin hand gripping his side tightly.

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[summerrain]

"Dareynn?" Summer asked hesitantly, concern coloring her voice. "I won't ask if you're okay- first off, I'm pretty sure that you've heard that question about five thousand too many times. Secondly, I'm pretty sure the answer is no- you're not okay. But... I sense a great hurt in you, and it runs deep. I don't believe that you 'don't know' who hurt you... that's quite impossible, see, and I know you're lying about it. But I won't press you for details. Instead... how about I tell you my story?"

Without waiting for an answer, but taking note of the way Dareynn wrapped his arm around himself, as if against pain, she began her tale. She had never actually told anyone all of it before. A few people knew bits and pieces of it, but... no one had ever actually gotten the whole story.

She started by slipping her dress off of her shoulders. "Don't worry, I'm not undressing or anything," she assured Dareynn. "I just need to show you something, to help you understand." Summer continued until her back was bare, but she still held the dress up over her chest, being modest. She turned for Dareynn to glimpse her back. "There, at the base of my wings," she said softly. "Do you see them...?"

And there, where her wings jointed her shoulder blades, was a layer of thick, ropy skin, circling the membranous appendages. The scar tissue appeared to have been pulled at again and again, until her back was positively teeming with scars- jagged ones, straight ones, very old ones, some a little newer... As it was, it looked like someone had tried to rip her wings out, cut them out, saw them out, drill them out, over and over and over and over. Which was exactly what had happened.

Still keeping her back turned to Dareynn, she spoke quietly. "I told you not many people take kindly to a pretty girl with wings," she said, an unfathomable emotion coloring her voice.

[cujo]

Dareynn fought the instinct to yell at her that he wasn't lying. Part of what he had said was true. He didn't know the jocks that had roughed him up before he came here.

Even if he did give her his step-father's name, she couldn't do anything about it. He had no idea where he was; he had no contact with his mother and step-father at all. They only sent him money every once in a while...when they remembered. This posed a problem sometimes; if he didn't have money, he couldn't get food. If he didn't have food... Well, he tended to faint from lack of nutrition.

Dareynn was staring at the arm across his torso when he heard cloth rustle. Then Summer said she wasn't undressing; against his will, his cheeks turned a light pink. When the girl told him to look at her wings, he had to force himself to turn his head.

She had scars, not unlike his own, near the base of her wings. Had he been anyone else, he would have pitied her. Being who he was, he just figured she knew how much little things like that hurt.

He lowered his eyes to the floor after a moment, his modest mind too embarassed to let him stare at her while she was half-naked.

'I wonder if it's as hard for her to show someone her scars as it is for me,' he mused, almost feeling bad about not sharing something about himself.

"Not many people take kindly to those different from them, period," Dareynn replied quietly with a small sigh.

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[summerrain]

Summer pulled her dress back into place. She turned her calculating gaze on Dareynn, who did not seem to be shocked or even surprised. She pursed her lips, thinking. "Dareynn. Why don't you tell me about your scars?" she asked gently. It was obvious that he had scars too. His mannerisms, the way he spoke, how he wrapped his arm around his body, protecting himself... she knew he had scars. Maybe similar to hers. But she didn't want to press him about it, so she quickly amended herself. "You don't have to. Never mind. Let me continue..."

Summer sat down next to Dareynn again, being careful not to crush her wings against the wall. "I was born about sixteen years ago, I think. I never knew my mother or my father; however, it is a common tale among the forest creatures who raised me as to my parentage. They say my mother was a wood sprite, kind of like a fairy, named Butterfly. When she was young she was always gazing wistfully at the moon, telling everyone she knew that she would reach it some day. But she was always scorned. Until, one day, she took flight off into the moonlight and didn't return until years later. She was bearing a bundle, which she left in the hollow of an old oak tree; the bundle was me, wrapped protectively in cloths. A raccoon said he saw my mother touch my face, my cheek, just once, wistfully, and then fly back off into the sky, never to be seen again." Summer paused. "I'm not sure if the story is true. But as I grew up, it became obvious that I was not a normal human child. First of all, I had wings. My first scars came from those who loved me; the animals who cared for me tried to pull my wings off, not realizing that they were attached to me. I screamed in pain, and they understood... I am fortunate to have some knowledge of the arcane, and I was able to heal myself and grow my wings back..."

Summer stopped for a moment to gauge Dareynn's reaction. She knew that her story sounded like it belonged in a book on a shelf among fiction; and if she had not lived it through, her life would seem a joke.

[cujo]

Dareynn's grip on his torso tightened ever so slightly when Summer suggested that he tell about his scars. He'd never had someone ask so blatantly about them before. (He'd never even really had a full conversation with anyone since leaving Louisiana, much less talked about his life before he came to the Chocolat Academy.)

When he didn't respond, Summer told her story. Dareynn found himself wrapped up in her story; for some reason, he had always liked fairy tales and stories of similar origin. They distracted him from the horrors of his own life, and most had happy endings.

Hers, though, wasn't exactly happy. Dareynn was still silent, unsure of how to react. Part of him wanted to laugh, another part wanted to tell her she was crazy, and just the smallest fraction of him wanted to believe her story. He couldn't really deny the fact that she had wings; that, at least, was true. But growing up with animals? After some consideration, he decided that it was possible.

His neighbor had owned a small, lively cat named Izzy; they had played with her often. She always materialized when he was outside alone and stayed until he went inside. She had always favored Dareynn over Anthony, her owner; it had almost been like she knew Dareynn needed her more than Anthony did. Anthnoy had never cared; he had even offered to let Dareynn keep Izzy.

Dareynn had refused, claiming that his step-father would never let him keep the cat. Anthony, knowing Dareynn's step-father, agreed that Izzy would be safer at his house.

'I should probably tell her something about me. . .' Dareynn thought, wondering where in his hectic life to begin.

Gritting his teeth, he leaned forward and yanked off his shirt before he could convince himself otherwise. The knuckles of the hand that held his shirt were white; it went against every thought in his head to show someone what he looked like.

"My step-father made me do this," he said quietly, somehow managing to throw bitterness, hate, resentment, and anger into the short sentence quite passionately. He was referring to the abundance of scars on his chest, arms, and back. Most were small; the most prominent one was just above his navel and about two inches long.

That one had been an accident; Dareynn had fallen while holding his step-father's pocket knife--the pocket knife he now had in his own pocket--and it had gone through his stomach.

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[summerrain]

The light coming in through the window faded as the two of them sat there. Summer quickly flitted to the light switch by the door and flipped on the overheads, wincing slightly at the brightness. Before six seconds had passed she was back in her position next to Dareynn.

It was her turn to be slightly surprised (although not embarrassed- growing up with animals had taught her to be comfortable in her own skin) as Dareynn pulled off his shirt. She took in his thin physique, making a mental note to start giving him some good food later. And over his whole torso and his arms, front and back, wherever she could see them, were small scars. They appeared to have smooth edges, as though caused by a small blade.

Summer tentatively reached out and traced the largest one on his stomach lightly, her eyebrows raised. "He... made you do this?" she asked inquisitively. "I mean... I suppose I could see him doing it to you himself... but, he MADE you do this? To cut your own skin open?" Her hand trembled as the path of her fingers moved up on his chest, touching the scars with the barest of contact.

She sucked her breath in through her teeth. "Dareynn... this is preposterous. There is no way this should happen to you, should happen to anyone. The sanctity of life is, well, sacred; it is an aberration of eternal consequences to do this to someone else. But... to force someone to do this to their own self, to mutilate their own skin?" Her eyes grew wide as she stared into his. "Dareynn..." she whispered. "What happened to you?"

[cujo]

Goosebumps rose on Dareynn's arms as Summer traced the scars on his stomach. He nodded in response to her question, though he was fairly sure it had been at least somewhat rehtorical.

When she said it was "preposterous" he almost laughed; if only she knew how much he wanted--no, needed to see his own blood run from his skin, she would probably hit him.

He shifted slightly, reaching his hand into his pocket and drawing out his pocket knife. "A lot has happened to me," he mumbled. He drew the blade ever so lightly across his forearm, the hairline cut barely bleeding. "It doesn't hurt anymore," he said, more to himself than to Summer.

He dragged the blade up to his elbow, the thin cut reaching from mid-forearm to where he stopped. He pressed harder, making sticky red blood well up around his blade. It flowed sluggishly; he hadn't hit any major artery. He had good aim; he'd never hit a vein or artery that might kill him.

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