I must say I am most pleased with the results for this fic. Ten reviews for one chapter! Normally I'm lucky to get three. I must be doing something right. Basically I decided to go with describing the other twos life with hints at whats happening with Reid, then I'll make them find out in a really dramatic way. But you have to review first!
Tyler lay quietly on his bed. His room was dark, in fact the whole house was dark. He could almost imagine that he could feel the pressing against him. He was tired. So very, very tired. The darkness smothered him like a warm blanket. It weighed down on his eyelids and tried to push him under into the world of sleep. He was tempted. Tempted to let it pull him under and away into a place where everything was okay. Somewhere he could run to a mother's loving embrace. Somewhere his father was brave enough to face each day. Somewhere Reid didn't show up at the start of every week with cuts and bruises all over his skin, visible on his arms under his school uniform and more so when he changed for swimming competitions. But he always had some explanation or other. A fight over the weekend perhaps or a fall from a bike. Whatever it was Tyler was supposed to just stand there, gritting his teeth in a smile while Reid reminisced about his dangerous exploits. Sometimes he wondered if he was the only one who saw the desperation in his friends eyes as Caleb stood there and yelled at him and Pogue just stared. He generally dismissed it and tried not to show how much he cared.
He blinked and strained his ears as headlights from the distant road played over the ceiling but he didn't get up.
Long ago, when he was younger and still believed in happily ever afters he would eagerly watch every car on its lonely path. He would wait patiently for one to come up the driveway. But they never did. He didn't know why he waited any more. More habit that anything. Perhaps for the broken memories of love, or the warmth that haunted his dreams late at night. The memory of that little boy, peering so eagerly through rain and snow, was locked away deep inside. In a place Tyler never went anymore. A place that no one ever touched. He never touched the memories he kept locked in his heart. Never let them play in his minds eye. The good or the bad. Here and now was where he was stuck and no amount of wishful thinking would change that. He knew his father was downstairs somewhere. Sitting in the dark house watching memories on the insides of his blank eyes. But really he didn't care. He refused to become like that. To stay locked up in this house living with people he couldn't remember, in places he couldn't name. So instead he locked the memories away and threw himself into life outside. He studied for the grades he'd need to go to college when he graduated. He went out with the others and he worried about Reid. But still, every weekend, he found himself back here. Back in this dilapidated old building stuck staring at a locked door in his mind. His father had stopped leaving the house long ago. He had stopped exactly two weeks after Tyler's mother disappeared.
Tyler remembered it clearly, though he had only been thirteen at the time. It was just months before Reid's father had died and before Caleb's mother had started drinking.
He remembered car door slamming and his father's voice, broken and pleading. He remembered how beautiful his mother had looked. She was wearing a jacket that he'd gone with her to buy. Her red curls were fixed neatly under a matching hat. He'd shut his eyes quickly as she entered his bedroom but the smell of her perfume and the rustle of her clothes gave her away as she moved. He remembered the feel of her lips, cool against his forehead. And spot on his cheek where the chain of her necklace had rested just for a moment before she stood back up and turned down the hall.
The clicking sound made by her heels had long faded when he dared raise a hand to touch the skin there, still feeling as if the metal rested against it. Somewhere between his cheek and his fingertips. He had thrown off the covers and crossed the padded carpet on bare, silent feet, to kneel in the window seat. His face pressed against the glass he peered down as best he could. He saw the front door open and the light spill out. Saw his mother's form, all dress in green. Saw his father follow her, his dark suit somber against the snow as he fell to his knees. He remembered the slam of the car door, the crunch of tires on the snow and the slow drift of headlights across the lawn.
He remembered getting out of bed one night. The house was dark and cold and he was afraid. It had been like this for two weeks now and still no one came to light the lamps. Still he climbed into his parent's empty bed and shivered under the heavy quilt. He hadn't slept again that night. He had just huddled there, waiting for someone to come in. For the lights to turn on and his mother's voice to wonder,
"Tyler, you're far too old to be in here, go back to your own room sweetheart, we're just down the hall." And his father's strong arms would sweep him up and bear him away, back to his own cosy little room. And he would sleep safe the rest of the night knowing his parents would not let anything hurt him.
Tyler's happy fantasies were broken as the door slammed open. He heard mens voices and crept down the hallway. His father had come stumbling in, obviously drunk, a more experienced Tyler had realised much later, and supported by his two best friends. Mr Garwin carefully steered the man towards his study while Mr Parry flicked the lights on and lifted Tyler up like his own father used to and carried him back to his room. Pogue's dad had tucked him in and smiled, though there was a sadness behind it. He had left, the glow from the hallway illuminating the room. Tyler had quietly closed his eyes, not wanting to do anything that might make his father leave too. But he couldn't sleep. Everything was all wrong. There had been no story and no gentle kiss. Mr Parry's big hands hadn't ruffled his hair like his father's always did. There was no soft conversation or gentle laughter to fill up the hallways. There was only the deep rumble of Mr Garwin's voice down the hall with no feminine note to lighten it.
Tyler didn't know what had passed between the men that night but his father had never left the mansion again.
The next day a nanny came in and began to care for Tyler. She stocked the kitchen and it was her who tucked him back into bed at night. But he never crept to her room in the dead of the night. She raised him as best she could while his father just sat in the study, staring into the fire...
Damnit. Tyler threw himself off his bed and paced the room restlessly before leaning his forehead against the icy window and sighing. He watched as his breath formed a misty patch on the surface and he watched it fade away. He had promised he would not do this to himself. He would not let himself remember her this way, this year. But every year he made that promise and every year he broke it. He swore bitterly at himself. He refused to end up like his father, a dried up old husk sitting in the present but living in the past.
He grabbed his jacket. He was going out. He would call Reid and…
He slumped back down onto the bed. It was the weekend. Reid was always busy with 'other friends' on the weekends. No matter who he asked Tyler could never figure out who these 'other friends' were. Reid always waved him off and said it was nothing important. Tyler occasionally whimsically considered following Reid on these weekend trips. Perhaps he could find out who got Reid into so much trouble when he went home and beat them into a pulp. He rolled his eyes at himself. Yeah, that would be totally appropriate. And it would, of course, bring Reid to his doorstep with a bouquet of flowers. What Reid did on the weekend, and to himself, was his own business. It didn't matter that Tyler shared in his biggest secret. It didn't matter that Tyler would through himself in front of a speeding truck for the guy. Without magic. It was Reid's business and Tyler wasn't going to interfere.
He sighed again. Maybe it wasn't right anyway. Doing anything that might be taken as celebratory tonight. Though how going out and getting as drunk as he could didn't strike him as terribly joyous. Reid would be proud of the stupid impulses running through his mind. But, because he was not Reid Garwin, because he was Tyler Simm he dropped the jacket and, with another sigh, he lay back against his pillows and gave himself over to the darkness and a fitful night full of restless dreams of forgotten touches and merry laughter.
Awww, did that make anyone else feel somewhat sad? Now I wish to pose a question which I already posed to my sister...should I kill Reid? (You should have seen her face -cracks up laughing-) Now review and tell me what you thought. And what you think I'm going to do to Pogue. And if you think I should kill Reid. And how you think they'll find out about Reid. And...oh yeah...what you thought of the story! Thank you to all my wonderful reviewers.
Sammy
