OKAY. SO. I DECIDED TO POST THIS EARLY, SINCE IT'S SO SHORT. Also, I don't want Phantoms Lil Waffle to cry. Expect Chapter Five to be up on Wednsday ;)

Chapter Four

Fire doesn't burn

"Erik?" I asked timidly, knocking on the door in the shadows. Erik had secluded himself in his room for the entire day, and it was becoming quite annoying.

I heard a latch click and the door opened a fraction. "Erik, what's wrong?" I blurted first, very different from the speech I had rehearsed.

"Work." Erik said simply, opening the door slightly more and stepping aside. "Please, come in."

I nodded slowly, walking in quickly and silently. I was glad to see that Erik didn't lock any of the many latches now exposed.

The room was bigger than I had expected. Though it only contained a full four poster bed, a small fireplace, and a few chairs, it was probably the biggest room in the house.

I sat in one of the chairs by the fire as Erik paced behind me.

"Have you finished your song?" Erik asked suddenly. I nodded, but realizing he wasn't looking at me added a small 'yes'. Erik sighed heavily, pouring some amber liquid from a tumbler into a glass and collapsing onto the other chair, hand covering his face dismally.

After taking a few sips, he sighed once again. "Care for a drink?" He asked quietly, not moving from his tired position.

"I'm not of age." I answered quickly.

"A sip isn't going to kill you." Erik stood quickly and poured me some of the foul smelling alcohol as well as refilling his own glass.

He held out the glass for me and I took it hesitantly, making a sour face at the smell. I rose the glass to my lips and took an incredibly small sip. First the drink seemed to rip off my taste buds, second, the vial liquid burned down my throat, stripping it of flesh, but third, it pooled in my stomach, warming my entire body and relaxing me completely.

I sighed contently before taking a slightly larger sip. Before I knew it, my glass was empty. I had stopped drinking, but the warm feeling didn't leave me. I felt completely at ease, as if I was in a dream state. My vision became extremely fuzzy and my thoughts and dignity seemed to vanish with each passing second. I closed my eyes, hoping to fall off into the oblivion of sleep again, when my own voice distracted me.

"My birthday's coming up." I said offhandedly, which was odd, because I didn't remember wanting to talk about birthdays. They reminded me of Kerry.

"Oh?" Erik asked, his voice slightly grainy. "What would you like?"

"Besides black cherry soda, I want Kerry back." I felt a blush rising to my cheeks, but the usual feeling of embarrassment didn't follow.

"Who?" Erik asked, leaning forward slightly.

"Kerry Walker," I explained. "my sister, she was adopted the day before me."

"I'll look into that." Erik said softly. I nodded and smiled. It was the first real smile I had made in a long time. Knowing I felt better, so much better than I had before. All the stress gone. I fell asleep almost instantly.

I cracked my eyes open, closing them immediately. The pain was too much. I had a splitting headache, and my stomach was doing summersaults. I opened my eyes again, forcing them to stay open as I stood up. My knees were shaky and I was very unsteady. I leaned up against the nearest ting for support.

The chair. From last night. I felt a hot stab of grief mix with my intoxicated stomach, twisting me even more. Grief, alcohol, and hunger were too much, and felt the sudden urge to up chuck. I turned my bloodshot eyes to Erik's sleeping form, at complete peace. It wasn't fair, why did he have peace when I had rage and pain? Half of me wanted to pull him off that chair and throw him out the only window in the room, where the other half of me wanted to at least put him off the bed so he wasn't too uncomfortable. He had to work a long boring job, unlike me, and it wouldn't do him much good to be sleeping in a chair with a hangover.

I felt a sudden slap of embarrassment. What if I had gotten drunk, and Erik decided to stay sober, just so he could mock me later on? I felt burning rage at that point, and I reached out towards his neck. I wanted to take out the rage I had been feeling my entire life on him. Crush his innocent sleeping form beneath my hands. Suck the breath from his lungs and bruise his neck until it was completely purple. I drew my itching hands back. No. Those were not safe thoughts for a sixteen year old girl to be having. Especially about their family members. I took in a rattled breath and walked to the bathroom, leaving Erik's door open behind me. I knew it would annoy him but I was past caring. I was still angry at him for getting me drunk.

I collapsed in front of the toilet; never had it looked so amazing. I sneered inwardly. Later on, I knew I was going to regret thinking a toilet was my hero. After retching for a few minutes a turned on the shower, stepping into it not bothering to see what the temperature was. I stood staring at the shower head for around ten minutes before taking the shampoo from the rack. It, of course, smelt like roses. As everything in this house seemed to. Either that, or the alcohol had lingering effects on my brain.

I heard pounding on the door but I ignored it. Luckily it didn't open, I probably would have passed out if it had. I turned off the freezing jet of water before grabbing a towel and wrapping it around me.

"Cherry?" The voice was muffled from the door. I looked at my reflection in the mirror. I look completely disastrous. My eyes were ringed with black and bloodshot. My hair was dripping wet and darker than usual, which was odd considering how dark it usually was. I padded silently over to the door, hugging the towel tightly around my form before opening it just a crack, just enough so Erik could see my horrifying face.
Erik stepped back from the door, opening his mouth to speak. I held a finger up.

"It's okay," I croaked, my voice harshly scraping my throat. "just, don't do that again." I placed my hand against my throat, massaging it gently.
"I won't," Erik whispered, placing a hand on my bare shoulder. "I promise." He led me out of the bathroom into my room. "Stay here, I'll get you some tea. Get some rest." He ordered quietly.

"Don't you have to go to work?" I asked quietly. Erik made a wounded expression. His lips pressed together slightly, but not too hard as if he was pouting and his brows drew together. "You got fired." I said. It wasn't a question.

"Get some rest." Erik's voice nearly broke and he slammed the door behind him. I sighed heavily, regretting it immediately as my throat stung. I collapsed onto my bed, sucking in a deep breath slowly as to not injure myself further. My eyes closed and I felt as if I had just swum a 4k. I sunk into the bed completely boneless, not even realizing Erik had entered the room before I was propped up against the bed frame and a mug was pressed up to my lips. A spicy herbal concoction eased down my throat, snuffing out my pain instantly. Once the tea was gone I sighed contently. I cracked open my eyes but failed to see anything but the fuzzy swirling world. I held a hand up to my head, hoping to steady my vision and groaned when it failed to work. Erik soundlessly left me, leaving me only seconds before I fell asleep.

"Up!" A command raced through my ears. I groaned and rolled over, only to fall off the bed on Erik's feet. He stepped away quickly, leaving me winded and exhausted. My headache was dimmer now, and my throat had heeled completely.

I opened my eyes, pleased to find them fully functional. I sat up, pleased once again when it didn't ache to do so.

"Come on, you need to work off the last bits of alcohol in your system." Erik said, holding out a hand for me to take. I stood without his help.

"But I feel fine." I whined. I really didn't want to exercise right now, especially at-I looked at the clock-seven thirty in the morning.

"Just...come with me." Erik ordered me outside. The air was sticky and warm and the grass was short and manicured. Erik led me down a small hill towards a beach.
"We live on the lake?" I asked stupidly. Erik covered his face with his hand, mumbling something to himself.

"Yes." He said finally, as we stepped on the beach. He handed me a bag with what I suspected to be a bathing suit inside. "Five laps should do it."
I nodded and Erik left, practically running to the cottage.

That's how it went for the next few weeks. I had gotten over the thought that it was to get me out of intoxication when Erik told me to repeat the same thing the next day. I figured it was a way to get me into shape or something. I actually was concerned when Erik woke me up at my usual time on my birthday. I thought he had forgotten.

I walked back to the house around an hour later, drenched and dripping cold morning water. I was looking forward to the warm showers I took every morning, being on a schedule always made me feel better.

After spending all the hot water, I towel dried my hair, then, deciding to 'spice it up', blow dried it. I wasn't as shiny or as silky but it was still a nice change. Perhaps Erik would see something different and realize what day it was. After all, it was a day worth celebrating as a national holiday.

I pushed open the creaky door to my room and nearly screamed. There, sitting on an extra bed in my room that wasn't there this morning, was Kerry Walker.

"Kerry!" I practically squealed. She looked up from her book and gave me a hug.

"Happy birthday!" She shoved a pair of socks in my hands. There were, of course, orange with that special glittery thread spun through them.

"I'll treasure them forever." I said dryly, tossing them behind me. "But how? WHY?"

"It's a long story." Kerry said, jumping up and down on the balls of her feet. "Hey," She said quickly. "You remember that-that thing you did? At Shirley's?" Kerry pleaded, making a puppy face. I rolled my eyes at Kerry's odd look and nodded. I sucked in a deep breath and started to run in circles and talk very quickly.

"Gotta run around, gotta run around in circles. Gotta run around in circles and talk to myself." I tripped over a soccer ball, causing it to 'backfire' and hit me in the face. I clutched my hands over my nose. "What is it with you and Erik and wake up calls?"

"Come! You haven't had breakfast yet!" Kerry pulled me out of the room, causing me to sigh. It was going to be a long day.

Erik was, as usual no where to be found.

"So, wanna explain everything now?" I asked, shoving a piece of funnel cake into my mouth. Kerry shook her head.

"Wait until Erik gets back," She gorged on an orange for a few seconds. "oh, and I'm still going to the soccer camp next week."

"What? Why?" I demanded, dropping my fork on my plate.

"I already paid for it and the camp doesn't give refunds." Kerry said over a mouthful of fruit. I sighed deeply.

"Thanks." I said genuinely.

"For what?" Kerry asked, swallowing the last of her orange.

"Coming home." I whispered, tears filling my eyes.

Feels, guys.

Lots and lots of feels.

I love you all 3