She hated him. How could she not hate that sickening smirk that seemed to grow on his face whenever she was around, whenever he started to think about what he had done? What he had done to her.
How could she not hate the way that the thick brows on top of his head would rise ever so slowly, ever so mockingly whenever she tried to refuse, tried to stop him. It would seem that, possibly, this time he might relent and give her a break and have some bit of mercy, but those eyes, already so dark, had already dilated and grown darker. There was no going back. There never was.
How could she not hate every single thing about him, from his handsome but repulsive face to the darkness of his soul? From his teasing false smiles to the way that he moved, like a predator, stalking its prey: her. She hated him; there was never a time that she hadn't.
He came to her randomly at the worst of times, in the worst of places. When he showed up, it was never a surprise to her, but always a disappointment. His appearance sent her stomach to her feet, her eyes to the floor, and her spirits to the ground. Above all else, he terrified her. Whenever he showed up, her first instinct was to set to shaking immediately. Her vision became spotted and blackened before spinning quickly back into reality, to him.
Sometimes he wouldn't come to her for weeks at a time. She would see him only in passing when he wouldn't acknowledge her in the slightest. It was during times like those that she could imagine that it had never happened, that it couldn't happen, and that it would never happen again. She could think that maybe, just maybe, he had forgotten about her, that he had found someone else. At times she even started to believe it. In the end she was only being cruel to herself, offering herself a sliver of hope until it was snatched away from her when he eventually, inevitably returned.
He had been a part of her life for years, ever since they were young children and he a new neighbor and potential playmate for her.
Her family lived near a cluster of large homes on the English country side. When one house, within walking distance of her own, became vacant, it was only a matter of time before his family moved in and made themselves at home. It wasn't much of a family. He lived with only his mother. His father was out of the picture and he had no siblings or relatives that she knew of.
She remembered that day she first met him.
Her parents had been talking about new neighbors ever since the house went up on the market. She learned through them that there would be a child her age. She was excited by the prospect of a new playmate, someone to play dress up with and discus magic with. She had never imagined that the new neighbor would be a boy.
The day that the new family moved in, her parents, being the sociable people that they were, had invited them over for lunch the following afternoon. She spent the whole day thinking about her new playmate and imagining all the fun things that they would be doing together the next day. She had fantasies about adventures in the woods behind her home and becoming best friends with the neighbor.
When the couple arrived the next day and she saw that he was not a girl but a dark and quite spoiled looking boy, she was immediately crushed. She thought that he was quite ugly with crooked teeth and bushy eyebrows. Her father and mother welcomed them and asked the woman to join them in the sitting room for some tea. As an afterthought her mother acknowledged the two children, telling them that they could go and play in the backyard until lunch was ready. That was when he turned his dark eyes on her and for a reason that she couldn't understand, her blood chilled and she froze. All he did was stare until he smirked and flashed his crooked teeth at her.
Her mouth slightly agape she turned around swiftly, terrified for some unknown reason, to follow her mother. Before she could get two steps, a hand grabbed onto her wrist and a jolt went through her body. She looked up at his scowling face.
"Are you coming or not?" he asked while rolling his eyes dramatically.
She snatched her arm away from him and when he turned his back on her and walked towards the front door, she didn't follow, but stood there, too nervous to do anything.
He turned back around with his hand on the door knob, "Well?" he asked impatiently.
"I- I, um… yes. I'm coming," she stuttered and then slowly followed him after a glance behind her shoulder to where the adults had disappeared into the hall.
On the way to the backyard, she kept noticing how different he was from herself. He was taller, not much taller but he did have a good two inches on her. While her hair was light and long, his was cropped short and dark. His eyes were a color darker than brown and hers were a light blue color. He caught her staring and gave her a stern look that sent her eyes to staring at the grass for the rest of the walk.
They stopped at the swing set and she sat down on a swing, still not looking at the boy that inexplicably frightened her to her very core. Out of the corner of her eye she could see him standing and staring at her, she turned red and continued looking at the ground, barely swinging. After a long pause, he sat down on the swing next to her and spoke.
"Why are you always staring at the ground?"
Her eyes snapped up to his face quickly and then back down while she thought of an answer, "I…. like the ground," she said nervously.
"That's stupid," he told her bluntly.
They didn't talk for awhile after that. She barely swung at all while he slowly picked up speed until he was so high in the air that she thought he might disappear into the sky. She thought that she might be relieved if he did and maybe his mother would be so sad about it that she would move away and a new family would move into their home. Maybe that family would have a little girl that she could play with. One that wasn't dark and scary. He didn't disappear. In fact once he was so high in the air that she thought he might loop around he jumped off and landed skillfully on his feet.
He turned around to face her, "I'm bored. Let's do something else," he demanded.
"Like what?" she asked quietly from her place on the swing.
"We should play 'Rabbit and Hunter,'" he told her.
She visibly brightened, "That sounds like fun!" she said while getting up from the swing, "How do we play?" She imagined that they would go on an adventure to find rabbits and she loved rabbits.
"Well, you'll be a rabbit and I'll be the hunter. You run away and I have to catch you. Then I gut you and eat you for dinner!" he shouted in glee.
"You-," she started to speak horrified.
"If you get back to the swing set before I catch you, then you get to live another day, but I don't think you'll get back," he finished with a mocking smile.
She was already backing away from him, "I don't like this game though… I don't want to play anymore!" she shouted.
"You get a ten second head start," he said, ignoring her, "Ten, nine, eight-," he started, but she was already running as fast as she could towards the forest. She was thinking that he had to be joking.
"He won't really gut me and eat me," she breathed to herself as she ran, "He's crazy!"
She reached the forest and seconds later heard him shout, "Zero!" Immediately she started to run faster. Branches reached out and hit her in the face and thorns scraped into her legs and tore at her dress, but she ignored it in the hopes that she could escape the horrible boy. She leaped across a tiny creek and took a left, hoping that she could elude him. Her heart pounded in her ears and she imagined that she could hear him directly behind her. She didn't turn around to find out if she could or not, she jumped at the nearest tree and started to climb.
When she had gone as high as she possibly could, she was hidden in the dense leaves. She was breathing hard but forced herself to stop as she heard footsteps approaching. Tears were slipping down her face but she forced herself to be silent.
Through a lightening in the leaves, she saw him appear, but he didn't stop, he sprinted by quickly, without stopping. He didn't expect her to be in the tree. She sat in the tree in silence for minutes before she decided it was safe enough to get down. As soon as her feet touched the ground she was sprinting even harder than she had before. She had to get back out of the woods where he was looking for her and she had to get back to the swing set before he caught her. As she reached the edge of the forest she heard a noise about sixty feet behind her. It was a splash. She didn't have to turn around to know that it was his foot fall in the small creek. She let out a startled yelp and pushed herself harder.
He was fast and it wasn't long before had almost caught up to her. She wasn't sure if she would reach the swing set in time, but she did. She grabbed onto a swing and collapsed to the ground while holding onto its rope. She sat there panting and whimpering while he walked towards her slowly, mockingly.
"Well that was quite a run you gave me rabbit, but now it's time for dinner," he said while baring his teeth menacingly.
She looked up at him and squeaked, "Wait! Stay back! I won, so that means the game is over! I am not a rabbit and you have to GO AWAY!" she ended with a yell.
He looked down at her and smirked, "Oh that's right," he paused as if deep in thought, "But… I think I want to play again!" he shouted. "You get ten seconds," he informed her and started to count swiftly, "Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five-,"
"No!" she screamed, "That isn't fair! I don't want to play with you anymore!" and she started to get up and run while he advanced on her.
"Jane! Marcus! Time to come in for lunch, dears!" shouted a voice from the backdoor. He stopped his advance and scowled up at the house. Jane didn't waste a minute and quickly sprinted towards the house while Marcus paused. She heard him mutter something darkly as she ran but didn't stop to hear what it was. She reached the house and stood panting for breath under her mother's disapproving gaze.
"What on earth have you done to your dress?" she asked.
Jane looking down at her blue dress with embarrassment and saw that it was ruined by the sharp thorns and branches from the forest. Scratches covered her arms and legs and some bled openly. For a moment Jane considered telling her mom about the mean game that the boy had forced her to play with him, but as she heard his footsteps behind her she froze up and simply mumbled to her mother, "I'm sorry. It was an accident."
Her mother sighed exasperated, "Look at you! You're a young lady, nearly eight years old and you can't even keep yourself clean?" she looked at the boy who was slowly walking up to them with a polite smile on his face, "Look at Marcus! Not a scratch on him and his clothes are perfectly intact! Why don't you follow his example and be a good little girl? Try to act more grown up like him. How old are you again Marcus dear?"
"Nine," he answered politely.
"See?" she asked her daughter, "Not much older than you and he can keep himself acceptable! In the future I would appreciate it if you were to follow his example. Hold out your arms," she told her.
Jane complied, her face burning in embarrassment and her mother healed the scratches on her arms. Jane did all that she could to avoid looking at him, but she could still feel Marcus's eyes on her. She could tell that he was angry that his game been cut short and she still considered telling her mother about it. But then, as her mother bent down to heal her legs, he did catch her eyes and immediately, she realized what an awful idea it would be to tell her mother. She quickly glanced away from the restrained fury in his eyes, vowing to never again look at those dark orbs.
Her mother finished and told her briskly, "Now, go up stairs and get cleaned up. After that you may join us at the dinner table. Follow me Marcus."
They went ahead of her into the house and she followed them until she reached the stairs that led to her room. Halfway up, Jane glanced behind her. Marcus Flint was staring at her as he followed her mother into the dining room. She unwillingly broke her vow as their eyes locked yet again, her apprehensive and his calmly menacing. She stared back silently and he smirked. With that smirk that she had come to hate more than anything in the world, he promised that there would be more, much worse games to come. She scurried up the stairs and hoped to herself that those games wouldn't be happening anytime soon and wishing more than anything that he would disappear.
….
This is my first serious fanfiction on this site, or any site for that matter. I've made another one before, but it is anything but serious. I hope that all of you have enjoyed the first chapter and will enjoy the ones to come. Feel free to review and even leave criticism if you want. I'm always working to become better. I will not be leaving this story without updates for months at a time because it annoys me to no end when people do that. I will be updating as often as possible and it I can't find time to write new chapters, I will MAKE time instead. I hope you enjoy Marcus and the OC!
