Chapter 4: The Marker

Faster. Faster. Faster. Faster. Run. Run. Run. As fast as I can. Can HE catch me? Faster. Faster. Don't let him get you. Faster. Run. Faster! Run! FASTER! RUN!

I screamed and quickly buried myself into the blankets that surrounded my body.

"He's after me. He's after me and he's going to kill me. He's-,"

"Not going to hurt anyone." Interrupted a strong masculine voice. I felt someone's hand on top of the mass of blankets. They attempted to pat me, very comfortingly. "He's not going to hurt you at all. You're safe Charolette." The voice continued. I opened my eyes and saw a floral pattern looking right back at me. Peony, if I was correct.

I then slowly, carefully worked my way out of the blankets and saw Miles. His blue eyes were soft and concerned. His slivery gray hair looked so light. Like a halo or something… I sighed and simply laid back farther into the fluffy pillow on my bed. The curtains were closed so no sunlight, if it was indeed daylight, shown through.

Miles reached out to me and began to slowly stroke my hair. I breathed out slowly and closed my eyes.

"You okay?" He asked. I nodded slowly.

"Is there anything I can do for you?" I shook my head.

"Just stay here please." I requested.

"Alright." He said. And he must've stayed like that for the majority of the day, or night, or whatever time it was. But it was nice, just to lie there and feel protected. To feel like nothing could hurt me. Or-

"What are you doing here?" I heard Miles ask curtly. I felt the acidity in his voice.

"I wanted to see how the kid's doin' Miles. Do you have a problem with that?"

I recognized that voice. That was Scourge's voice.

I recalled last night, or morning… I remembered his eyes and the way he looked at me through his sunglasses. The way he pinned me down and nearly… ripped my throat… his breath… his teeth… my neck…

I kept my eyes shut. I decided to keep my eyes shut for now and let Miles handle him.

"Yes, I do Scourge. And were Charolette awake I'm sure she would to. You scared her half to death last night. You're a scary person Scourge, and to someone like her-" Miles said. I felt him stand up, his hand leaving my hair.

"Look Miles, I know what happened, and I wanted to check on her myself. You've been here since she got back in the castle, so why don't you go get some sleep?" Scourge asked him.

"Why don't you? I've heard you pacing up and down the hallway every hour. And you've been scaring the living daylights out of her beforehand."

Their voices were rising now. I slowly opened on eye. From the light of the hallway, I could see Scourge's leather jacket and the gold buttons on Mile's coat gleaming. Then I saw their eyes too. Both sets of blue eyes seemed to glow with malice. Trained on their opponent.

"Well at least I don't have the audacity to stay near her like you. The scent you give off is disgusting!"

"So? You're the same way towards any other female."

"But for me it's normal. For you though, it's something completely different. Just make sure that you keep yourself under control. You remember what happened to-,"

"I know what happened!"

I closed my eyes.

For a few brief moments there was nothing but Miles's breathing. In and out. In and out. Silent fury.

"Why don't you go for a while? I promise she'll still be here when you get back." Footsteps and a door slamming. Then, a few, slow, deliberate footsteps towards me. They stopped. I pretended to breath in deeply and readjust myself so I was facing the opposite way of Scourge. I heard him chuckle to himself.

"Ya know, you aren't too convincing Charolette." I felt him crawl on top of the covers next to me and begin to stroke my hair the ways Miles had been doing. "For being new to the game you did extraordinarily well. The Doctor was impressed that you'd managed to use some of the Chaos energy on your own. I was impressed. Not to mention, temporarily blinded."

At that, I burst out laughing. I didn't care. He knew I was awake anyway. I eventually turned around so I was facing him, and tears were still running down my face. I couldn't help it. I could see the straight look on his face which was dripping with sarcasm.

He was staring intently at me, and soon I too was staring back.

"What's the deal between you and Miles?" I asked eventually. He groaned and rolled so he was lying on his back facing the ceiling.

"THAT is a long story Charolette. One I don't feel like retelling."

"At least tell me what happened." He blinked and looked over at me. His sunglasses out of the way tucked up on his forehead.

"Let's just say, a girl happened. Someone he cared about. Then 'boom' she was out of his life. Like that." He said, snapping his fingers for emphasis.

"Oh. I see. And, he has similar feelings for me if I heard correctly."

He nodded.

"I wouldn't go returning it if I were you though. You see, after she was gone he became what he is now."

"What's that?"

"A mastermind who's only thought pattern is how he can bend a situation to his will. He's not a fun guy to play around with. Trust me on this okay?" Scourge asked as he looked over at me. "He likes to mess with people's minds. He probably wouldn't do anything to you, at first… but one slip up, and your mentality will fall."

I shook my head, unbelieving that Miles could do something like that to someone.

"How do you know?"

"Because of Alicia. She and Miles had a relationship going for a while some time ago, and then she did something that didn't fit into his plans. Ever since then, she's been a little puppet to him. So, be careful."

I nodded and slowly nudged my head over so it lay right next to his chest. I could faintly hear his heart beat. I was somewhat surprised at this since I thought he didn't have one….

"So, do you think that my training will speed up the process so I can go home sooner?" I asked cautiously. I felt Scourge shrug.

"I don't really know. It all depends on how things go from here. A bunch of stuff could happened. Why? You miss your mom?"

I thought about this for a second and then nodded my head slowly. I felt his chest jump up and down as he chuckled.

"What?" I asked as I sat up on my elbow. He looked at me and smiled, his teeth still gleaming like before…

"Nothin' Charolette. Nothin'. Why don't you change and then we can go downstairs before Miles gets back?"

I nodded and slowly began to crawl out from under the covers on the opposite side of the bed when I realized just how cold the room was. I pulled the covers with me, Scourge also slowly going along for the ride. As he was about halfway across the bed I stopped pulling.

"Will you get off please?" I asked. He looked at me with one eye. Shook his head.

I fumed, gathered up the covers I had in my arms and ran towards the wall. I started slowly, but once I gained enough speed I didn't stop until I nearly hit the wall. The only thing that stopped me from doing so was the big wad of body on top of the straining material. Then I heard a groan from behind me. I turned around and saw Scourge on the ground, picking up his sunglasses and his eyes wide open in shock. Then they trained on me and he quickly scrambled up. I guess I hadn't heard him fall. Oops.

"What did you do that for?" He asked.

"I asked you to move." I answered, walking over to the dresser. I assumed since he was talking and could stand that he was perfectly fine.

"Well you could've warned me that I would've fallen five feet to the floor."

I shrugged, letting the excess cover fall to the floor around my legs, creating a small canopy of warmth. Now what to wear, what to wear….?

"You could've warned me that you would've nearly chewed out my jugular." I retaliated, glad that my argument had some sort of validity in it.

"Then, you should've listened to Patches." He said as he walked up behind me. I felt his arms wrap around my waist and his teeth once again at my neck. The night before came to mind and I immediately struggled out of his grasp and turned around to face him. His mouth was turned into that same unfamiliar, cruel smile.

"I play to win Charolette. Which means losing isn't an option. I expect you to play the same way."

I stared at his eyes, and only when he finally blinked, I looked away. I felt the warmth of his arms leave me and I continued to pick out a pair of clothes. The creak of the bed alerted me as to where he was.

"You do know I wouldn't hurt you on purpose Charolette." He said. I didn't say anything as I brought out a fluorescent lime green top and an old pair of cut jeans.

He sighed. Then I too sighed. There was no way I could change if he was in the room. Not easily anyway. I hunched over and began to undress myself under the cover of the blanket. Soon I was changed and I let the blanket fall away. I turned and saw him get off the bed.

"What?" I asked. He smiled once more and shook his head.

"You've changed a lot since I've meet you already… That's all." He motioned to the door. "Shall we?"

I nodded and followed him out. He closed my door.

"So, what does Finitevus want to do today? Play mad scientist or have me go through some more training?" I ask.

"He'll always want to play mad scientist Charolette. And probably even more so now because he knows that you can use the Chaos powers."

"But that was an accident. I mean, who knows if I could do it again?" He stopped in the hallway and stared at me straight in the eyes again.

"Because you were scared. And you can become scared again at any time. I, at the very least can make sure of that until you're able to do it on your own."

He then turned around continued to walk. I wasn't sure whether to feel even more threatened or not, but I still followed him anyways.

When we reached the doorway to the lab, there was a note indicating us to meet by the forest entrance.

"Signed Finitevus." I said looking at Scourge. "Do we have to go?"

He looked down at me and sighed.

"Yeah, because if I don't take you up there, then I'll probably fall victim to some sort of fur-loss potion. Let's go shorty." He said walking away. I stood in shock for a brief moment before I ran to catch up to him.

"That was rude." I stated.

"I know, it's what I do." He replied nonchalantly.

I nodded in recognition of his trait.