Okay, this time around, I have decided to take a journey back in time to when the twins were, well, let's say about six. I thought, since I've been focusing a lot on Deidre that it was time to give Delia the spotlight again, just the way she likes it. Only, since I'm having trouble with her teen psycho self, I thought I'd go back for a little fun, before she went off with her own head.
This chapter is dedicated to Black Midnight Moonlight Rose, who is putting something that I requested together for me (bless her heart) and CM Aeris for one of her reviews that kind of inspired this to happen (fresh inspiration is always something to be grateful for).
Rose Red and White-:-
Their house was completely out of sight, they couldn't even see that giant, ugly yellow tree that Delia loved to play on to annoy and get a reaction out of Nanna. Just perfect. A real adventure to have while their old guardian was distracted and baking those delicious chocolate chip cookies that weren't ever the same twice.
Their bare little feet run over sharp and biting twigs and dead leaves still slick with water from last night's heavy rainstorm. The sun isn't exactly shining, but peeks through and about the clouds hanging overhead and occasionally dot their arms and faces, making them look like fairies. Delia's ruffled red dress especially looks fantastic as they run, she thinks.
"Why do we have to run so fast?" Deidre asked, winded and out of breath already and finally stopping with Delia when the older twin finds that little creek she had seen a few days ago and wanted very much to explore. Deidre bends down, hands bracing her knees as she tries to breathe again, her own white dress that nearly touches the ground with the one bowed ribbon on her shoulder is a little muddy around the hem, while Delia looks perfect. Always perfect Delia.
"Duh," Delia laughs, jumping around some clovers and over to the bank of the creek, "So Nanna can't find us too soon. She'd ruin our adventure!"
"I…guess."
"Ah, come one, Dee Dee! We've been cooped up in the house for a week and summer's just started! Don't tell me you didn't want to come out here?" The rambunctious twin questioned, hands on her hips and so sure of herself that Deidre blushes for a reason that she can never understand. Why does she always get embarrassed so easily?
Deidre ducked her head a little, mumbling as she always did, "But, won't Nanna get mad?"
"We're still on our property," Delia started, bored with Deidre's shyness and already wiggling her toes into the mud of the creek's bank, squatting down to snatch at some little fish spinning in circles in the water like little black commas and question marks, "And it's not like we're going in Arkham again, or playing on the yellow tree. We'll be back before she notices, anyway."
Deidre sighed in defeat, maneuvering around some slick stones-with lots of gross green and yellow moss on top-to stand near her sister. She really did like the woods they lived in, she did, it was just that Delia had this knack of getting them—both of them, no matter the circumstances—into lots of trouble. And Deidre didn't want to miss out on the still warm cookies Nanna was cooking.
Delia snatched at the closest, and apparently slowest, black question mark fish that was in her line of reach and sight. Its scales rubbed and slimed her palms as she brought it up from the water, thrashing its tail as hard as it could to get away. She sort of thinks of that mythological creature in that old bestiary book Nanna always reads to them…what was it called? It was either a Kraken or a Kelpie. She was sure she was thinking of the ugly one, but she couldn't remember its name and her frustration lead her to tighten her grip on the fish, until it no longer struggled. Much better. Kraken, that was what she was thinking of.
"When did you find this place?" Deidre asked curiously, trying to avoid the water since when she put her fingers to the surface it felt like all the blood in her fingers froze and it kind of hurt.
Delia shrugged, taking the fish in one hand and tossed it like a baseball five feet further into the creek, its body making a pitiful smack against the water on impact. Deidre didn't see it, too busy picking up small, round and smooth stones, all a sort of dull purple or black or even occasionally a light red.
"Found it when you and Nanna were asleep last night."
That got Deidre's attention enough for her to fix into a right strait up position, hands dropping all the stones (exactly seven that Delia could count as they impacted the mud and sand) she had gathered and a sort of horrified look on her face, "You snuck out of the house again?"
"Yeah, so?"
"It was raining! You could have gotten sick with pneumonia or struck by lightning!"
"Lord, you sound like Harley," Delia snickered, hiking up the hem of her dress and jumping into the water.
"Yeah, well…" Deidre pointed, finger rising dramatically as she searched for a good come-back. As she came up with nothing, her finger curled inward, along with her sudden attempt at bravery. She just sort of sighed and bent to pick up the stones, "Okay, so I sound like Nanna—but she is right!"
"Ha!" Delia replied, taking her foot and thrusting it up through the water, splashing around and sending a little squirt of water into her sister's face, "I wore thick, dry socks last night, so I wouldn't get pneumonia! And anyway, lightning hits the tallest thing it can find, or anything with metal in the area. I'm not that tall yet, and was empty handed."
Using the hem of her dress to hold her stones like a nap-sack, Deidre used her hand to wipe the water from the splash out of her eyes, her bangs sticking to her face, "So you didn't even take an umbrella, either."
Delia grinned, dropping her dress hem, the fabric spreading over the water like a blood stain in their sink at home when she skinned her knee too deep and had to wash the dirt out of it, "Nope. Nothing but my pajamas otherwise Harley—"
"Why can't you call her Nanna?"
Delia flicked some water again, this time with a little mud, at Deidre, the clod hitting her twin's open hand this time, "She's not around, so I don't have to. Anyway, if I wore anything else, she would wake up. Remember when we tried to sneak into the kitchen last month to get more cookies and she was waiting at the bottom of the stairs?"
"How could I forget," Deidre replied, a little shiver running up her spine from the memory of seeing a shadowed figure and then a blinding light from a flashlight and silver-blue eyes from that incident. She could see Delia's point. Even if Nanna was a million years old, she could hear and see a lot better than most old people. It was scary.
Delia waded further in, the water coming up to her waist as she got her point across to her sister. It was fun to watch the tiny fish from a moment ago flash and swim away from her and under some lily pads further in.
She heard some shuffling and turned to find Deidre sprawled out on her knees, hands still clutching her dress. The two large stone she had been stepping on had parted, making her little sister do a sort of splitz before her knees gave out. She looked a little like the Indian Princess in one of their fairy tale books, just before her wedding when she was captured and painted on the page having fallen down, hands clutched together and holding her pet monkey. Except, Deidre never looked so dignified when she messed up.
Delia let out a laugh at the look on her sister's face, but it quickly was silenced at the sound that came over the ridge, yards from their location.
"Little princess! Darling! Where are you two?"
Deidre quickly hobbled up, attentive and alert and motioning for her sister to get out of the water and—hurry, hurry, or Nanna would be really mad! They were going to be in so much trouble!
Delia walked at a leisurely pace out of the water, and made it to the bank just as the old woman made it over the ridge. Her wide blue eyes settled on them and she gave out a little noise of surprise and gratitude to the heavens. One for her obviously finding them un-harmed and one for how the two of them looked. Delia was pristine, aside from being a little wet, but Deidre—as always from her escapades with her sister—was dirty and had scrapes along her knees, along with a little blood.
Her eyes narrowed on Delia, but she addressed the both of them, as usual, "Deidre, Delia! What have I told you about wandering off without telling me?"
Delia remained tall and proud and looked directly at Harley, but Deidre ducked her head and averted her eyes in shame as they both answered at the same instant, "To not to."
Giving them each a sort of look that could not really be discerned, Harley sighed and motioned from them to get of the hill so she wouldn't have to come down, "Well…come along. Let's get back to the house before the cookies get cold."
That had them running up beside her in an instant. Actually, Delia ran a little ahead, while Deidre sidled up beside Harley. The younger twin showed the elderly woman the rocks, saying they were for the garden, to make it looked prettier, while Delia rolled her eyes at them, though without actually looking back over her shoulder. She could always sneak back later again.
Delia wanted to see if she could catch more of those question mark fish.
