Scars Don't Go Away

Drake had managed to make copies of the keys and put the originals of both in their proper places. He would have been infuriated and in fact he had been most of the night that Dane had taken Jade and not him to meet his grandfather if he had't seen how awful Damien looked that morning and heard the story of how Dane had to help him home. He hated it when Damien got hurt or was incapable of dealing with himself because he feared being roped into helping the man he wanted to avoid at all costs. It was interesting meeting his long haired granduncle though.


His eyes were very similar to Damien's, but his calm attitude akin to his own uncle those was the first things that he noticed. Yet it was Aldric who couldn't stop noticing Drake. His eyes never seemed to leave him and every time that Drake glanced at the man, he was staring right at him. He gave him faint smile and then looked away, but once Drake turned his eyes elsewhere he could feel Aldric's red hot glare return.


"Didn't bother changing your shirt?" Drake laughed, glancing at the ends of Damien's brown sleeves which had once been white.


They were all casually sitting in the living room, doing their own thing, which seemed to be reading as there wasn't much else to do in that world.


He glanced at Drake, but only raised an eyebrow in response.


"What happened to you any ways?" He continued to laugh as if it were some joke that Damien could be hurt. Damien smiled to himself in an irritated way, but still didn't respond until Drake sneered, "I hope it doesn't leave a scar."


"Do you want something?" He growled, scowling at Drake. "Why are you talking when you have absolutely nothing to say? God, you're a useless brat!"


Dane frowned at Damien as if the words meant something very significant and Jade glanced at Drake as he fell silent for a moment. The words had stung him, but he wouldn't let Damien know that. "Well, that hit a nerve," he smiled at Damien cruelly. Why was he lashing out though? He thought to himself. He hadn't done it in a while. It was probably because he was still annoyed that he hadn't been aloud to meet his grandfather. Whatever, it didn't seem as though Damien was in a fighting mood any ways.


Damien rolled his eyes and then landed them back onto the book in his lap as he took a sip of the steaming mug in his right hand.


"So what's he like?" Drake titled his head towards Jade, who was sitting in a blue cushioned chair at his right, "My grandfather."


"Terrifying," she spoke slowly as if she weren't sure that she was supposed to be speaking about the man. "He reminded me a lot of Damien even though he looked kinda like Dane."


Damien immediately spit out the coffee in his mouth out onto the stone, floor to stare at Jade in complete shock. In fact he almost dropped the mug all together with that mouth of his hanging wide open. Drake smiled his glare was void of any anger. "How on earth so?" He sounded offended.


"I dunno," she mumbled, twirling a string of her dark hair around her finger absentmindedly, "you both have this overpowering presence and have cruel smiles."


"You don't even know him, my darling" Damien laughed cooly, leaning back into his chair once more as if that confirmed that she was wrong. There was a small tint of anger in his voice now. "He's worthless gutter trash who is as poor as dirt."


Drake smiled as shivers ran down his body. How he hoped that Damien's father had given him half the amount of grief that Damien had given Drake over the years. "What do you think of him, granduncle?"


The man turned his eyes onto Drake and sighed, "Well, he is my brother, but I cannot excuse his behavior. I despise him."


"Really?" Drake laughed, "and Dane?"


"Drake, what exactly are you trying to prove?" Dane snapped at him, probably feeling as if Drake was trying to connect Malik and Damien and Dane and Aldric, implying that Dane should hate Damien.


"Just answer, uncle," Drake smiled, warmly.


"I hate him too!" He whispered, clenching his hands into fists under the pressure.


"What did he do t- ?" He began, ignoring all boundaries until Aldric almost gently stopped him.


"Drake," he muttered staring directly into his eyes, "let's just hold back on the interrogation for a bit, okay? I understand that you're curious about your grandfather, but really it isn't the time and you don't need to know him.''


He nodded slowly and then leaned back into his chair to observe the lot of them. Damien didn't have work for once and everyone was too exhausted to leave so there they all were grouped together, well except for Amon who was obviously hiding away with Clara.


"Seen Emerson lately?" Aldric broke the silence that he'd created.


Damien narrowed his eyes at him, "Of course not, why?"


Aldric shrugged, "I believe that he's been looking for the lot of you. He even asked me how he could get in contact with you."


"Just knock on the door?" Dane smiled. "It's not like we are hiding. We are about as unnoticeable as gold among rocks."


"True," Aldric nodded, "it's probably related to what he's after though."


Damien glanced up and nodded. "Should we do something?" He changed the subject, "It's not often that we see you."


"Like what?" Aldric laughed. Damien was being overly polite. Drake scowled, folding his arms across his chest.


Damien shook his head with a sigh, "I don't know. We-"


"Have you seen Miss De'vore recently?" He interrupted him abruptly and sharply.


Damien narrowed his eyes at him and made a point of not answering directly. "We've parted ways for a while."


"So sure about that?" Aldric laughed. "I've seen her around a lot."


"Yes, well we were all on the same train here. I'm sure that she had business here," Damien pursed his lips, "but why bring up all of these people from my past Uncle?"


"I don't really know anything about you Damien except for your past," he shrugged and then glancing at Jade muttered, "I don't know anything of the last fifteen years."


Drake smiled. They were the complete opposite. He knew everything of Damien's last eighteen years. He had been living with him throughout every single one, never being aloud to leave his side even for a moment.


"Then we're on the same page," Damien tilted his head, "but something's been bothering me."


"What's that?" Aldric smiled.


"Why were Malik and Victoria in Earthsea in the first place?" He grinned as if he had found some sort of hidden treasure. "They couldn't afford it even if they had the money."


"I paid for their tickets. They were visiting me," he spoke slowly as if questioning why Damien had the right to be suspicious of him.


"Right," he sighed, shaking his head, "I'm sorry I'm . . . frazzled."


"Understandably," Dane added, placing a hand on Damien knee. Drake smiled at the picture laid out before him. With Damien sitting on the sky blue cushioned couch, his uncle and Drake's uncle on either side of him like a pair of guards.


"I wish Amon were here," Aldric sighed, "I do love to listen to him playing."


Damien nodded slowly probably because he was deep in thought. Drake knew that Damien loved Amon's playing though. If Dane wasn't around it could calm his temper. Almost every single time that Amon played a piano in the house and there was one in each Damien would find his way into the room and lay on a couch gazing up into the ceiling. It was odd.


"So Jade," Aldric met her eyes. "How long have you been living with my nephews?"


She glanced at Drake almost instinctively. He smiled and thought to her, No harm in telling the truth. I think he feels sorry for you, but I also think that he dotes on Damien even more than Dane if that's even possible. He's of no use to you.


So she answered simply, "About half a month."


He nodded as if that made him understand something deep and intrusive about her, "Why Damien do you-"


Damien lifted his heavy dark eyes onto the man and he looked away, "It's my responsibility," he growled in a deep voice.


Well, that was a new one Drake leaned forwards placing his elbows on his knees. "I'm guessing that you don't really like being here, though."


She shook her head fervently, but sighed, "I'm getting used to it. Damien?"


Drake tore his eyes from the floor and directed them at her in shock as did Aldric and Dane. She was addressing Damien? She cared enough to speak to him. It was a first, but Drake knew she wanted something from him. Yet still she hadn't drawn his attention to her like this before.


Finally Damien looked up at her wearing a frown and titling his head as if suspicious asked, "What, my dear?"


"I want to know what's beneath your sleeves-"


"Who says there's anything?" He interrupted her half angrily and half mockingly.


"You're always wearing long sleeves," she commented and Drake wondered if Damien would show her. He hoped not because he knew what laid beneath that thin fabric and he didn't feel like seeing it.


Damien sighed deeply and looked away, "It really isn't any of your business, my darling and it isn't in your best interest to know. Is it?"


He turned to Dane who turned to Aldric who narrowed his eyes and pinched his lips together hard in thought.


"I-" Aldric began after a few minutes of thinking.


However Damien seemed to have come up with his own answer and muttered, "I wish that you would stop talking to me, I swear you're the biggest nuisance. You don't have any need to know, but I know that you'll keep nagging me about it so forget it Jade."


He commanded her. Drake bit his lip and glanced at his uncle's brother. He'd been refraining from using his power for so long. He smiled, amused that all of his hard work had been put to waste.


And yet it wasn't more than a week before she did see what was beneath his sleeves. It was while they were on the train to EndWorld. Amon had in fact left Clara behind which didn't surprise Drake in the least bit since Amon repeated the same process every time he saw the girl and so the five of them were able to sit in one booth all snug together Jade playing with a small orange tabby kitten she had found and somehow convinced Damien to let her keep with an overdose of winning and begging. Well, really there were only four of them in the booth since Amon had mysteriously wondered off.


The trip to EndWorld was far shorter than their last train ride and that was probably why Damien was allowing everyone together or at least that was what Drake reasoned.


"I think she's following us," Damien mumbled from his place by the window. He was biting on his finger nails absentmindedly and seemed anxious to get off the locomotive. Drake smiled. The man was nervous wreck.


"There's nothing that you can do about it if she is and she isn't Damien" Dane sighed looking up from his book and peering at his brother through silver framed lenses. However when Damien sent him a smirk he rephrased his words. "Well, you shouldn't. I think that you're just being paranoid," he looked back down, "as usual."


Suddenly the little kitten squirmed out of Jade's arms and pounced onto the table top knocking over a porcelain vase of sunflowers and spilling water all of Damien's chest and lap.


"Remind me how you got me to let you keep that thing," he spat at Jade, patting his shirt with a napkin Dane provided him with.


Jade quickly grabbed onto the animal and drew it close to her chest, stroking it gently. She really loved it, Drake rolled his eyes. "Sorry," she muttered.


"You know that you can't keep that thing forever," he growled, looking away from her.


"Why?" She spoke slowly and Drake knew that she had finally learned to try and cool Damien's temper as well, but she was wrong he wasn't in a mood. Actually that little conversation was calming his nerves subconsciously. Jade had simply seen the worst of Damien's anger and now thought he was angry at all times. He really wasn't normally like that at all.


"Well," he smiled, "you can't buy it any food and I'm certainly not going to. There are no rats or mice for it to eat in EndWorld. So unless you want it to starve . . . "


She scowled at him as Amon slid open the door and slipped into the bench with Dane and Damien, muttering, "Guess who's on their way back home with us on this train." Damien glanced at his brother through very narrow eyes, probably expecting to hear her name. "Malik."


Damien grimaced and turned his eyes out the window again. His finger nails found their way back to his lips. Drake allowed his eyes to follow the scrapes formed around his moth from where he had dug his nails into his flesh previously. A bad habit he had when he accidentally commanded someone.


"Are you all right?" Jade asked, but Drake knew that she was simply being curious


"But of course my love," Damien turned on her with a grossly sweet smile, dripping with sarcasm if you knew where to look.


Just then the little kitten jumped out of Jade's arms again and back onto the table where it slipped on the slippery wet surface and was thrown towards Damien. The poor creature scratched Damien's left cheek as it passed by to flop down into the couch with all hair staring on end.


"Goddamn it Jade cannot you not keep that thing under control?" He snapped and now Drake realized that his temper was actually rising as the three streaks on his face drooled with blood. The presence of his father on that train set that into motion. However Jade was looking away, because the blood would put her into hysterics.




"Look at me," Damien growled at her and so she had to.


Her lips began to tremble as her face drained of all living color. Drake's eye widened as his own vision became her's he felt as though he were soaked in warm sticky sap-like blood the smell of rotting meat and rust mixed together overwhelmed his senses and a pressure began to build on his chest like he couldn't breathe and he would have stopped breathing if he had not shaken himself from her mind. However she began to wheeze and cough. Drake new that Damien had released her long ago and was now scowling out the window, but she was still stuck in the nightmare. He grabbed a hold of her shoulder and shook her hard.


"Jade," he swiped his hand across the watery table top quickly, sending a spray of water into her face.


She shook her head as her eyes began to clear. "What is the matter with you?" She sputtered. "Why are you so evil?"


"Evil?" Damien muttered, shaking his head as his eyes left the window. "Over exaggerated much?"


She shot him a hideous look and then turned away from him, which didn't really improve his mood.


Really wanna make him mad, dearest? He thought to her, hoping to get some amusement out of that train ride. Mention his father.


And as she was mad at him and wanted to get back at him she followed Drake's instructions, unwisely. "Just like your father."


"You don't even know him," Damien laughed, casually. "You don't even know me and yet," he laughed harder this time, "I know you far too well for my liking." He shot his narrowed eyes directly at Drake, "Nice try though."


He knew Drake was thinking instructions to her. Drake bit his lip, his temper was cooling off quickly as usual. She had said it wrong, but that didn't matter because things would all be going wrong from that point forwards. Suddenly there was a loud boom from outside their door, directing all of their eyes and attention to it. There was screaming and shouting. With eyes still narrowed Damien shot out of his seat just as the door flew open.


"Please we need any articles of clothing or cloth, anything that can be used as a bandage that you can spare," a sweaty uniformed man said as he gasped for air.


Damien eyes him cooly and almost suspiciously, "But of course. What for?"


"Um," the man looked like he was about to faint as he blinked had, "there was an explosion and a lot of people have been seriously injured we need something to stop the bleeding. We can't get out of our train car the explosion caused too much damage."


All of the men except for Damien immediately began to remove their shirts and Jade reached for her own, but the man spoke hastily, "No we aren't asking the ladies . . . just yet."


"This is becoming something of a problem," Damien growled, "these explosions are happening too often."


Jade rolled her eyes and slouched back into her chair to watch Damien. Now she'd be able to see what was beneath those sleeves. He turned his eyes on her darkly like this was her fault somehow and then slid off his shirt and handed it to the man with his brothers and Drake. Jade immediately cringed and looked away, sucking hard on her lips. Over a dozen horizontal cuts striped the each of the insides of both his arms. They were deep at least an inch and the skin around them was mutilated and mostly red, but white in some places and even a sickly brown in others. She actually vomited into the empty flower vase when looking back she noticed that the white parts were actually bone. Seeing those scars seemed to affect her the in a mild sort of way that blood did. They were horrendous though. They looked more painful than anyone could stand.


"Well, there you have it my love," he growled, sitting back down, glaring at her as she sat back up. Drake scowled at her vomit and scooted away.


"W-wha," she couldn't find her own voice, "what happened to you?"


He stared at her coldly, almost blankly as if he didn't understand what she was asking. He finally looked away all together. Sitting even straighter she gathered her courage.


"Show me then," she crossed her arms the moment his confused eyes met her's.


"You just vomited, my doll," he mocked her.


So she reached across the table to where his arms lay and grabbing his hands flipped his arms so that his palms were facing upwards. He didn't object. Jade didn't feel as nauseous this time. She wasn't as surprised. Carefully she placed her hand to the raw skin, but before she touched it she muttered, "D-does it hurt?"


"No," he growled deeply as she ran a finger across the inch deep ridges in his left arm. He watched her closely, without moving a single muscle.


"They're cuts?" She was really musing to herself than asking.


He smiled, quickly drawing back his arms and hiding them underneath the safety of the table top, "Not at all, my dearest."


"Then-" she began.


"They're burns okay," Dane spoke for his brother. He wouldn't look into Jade's eyes and she knew that he was beyond upset about the whole situation.


Yet she dared to ask, "How did you get them?"


"You're so nosy," Amon hissed from Dane's side.


Damien rolled his eyes though as if it didn't bother him too much, but in Drake's mind it clearly disturbed him. "It really is a long story, my dear."


"Why do you wanna know?" Drake looked up at her in disgust. Starting to care about him?


Absolutely not! "It's just bizarre," she muttered, "I've never seen anything like it before."


"I would hope not," Dane shivered.


Damien rolled his eyes again and let out a loud sigh before muttering, "Talk about something else."


It wasn't a command though, "Is this what you're always talking about?" She began, "Is this your great sorrow?"


"Jade!" Dane hissed.


"What is the matter with her?" Amon scoffed in disbelief. "Why is she so nosy?"


"In fact no," Damien turned on her, allowing his anger to show just a bit. "It's something much worse than that. Now leave me be."


"Why don't you want me to know?" She began to raise her voice.


"She's so-" Amon began furiously.


"Immature," Damien finished the sentence darkly, his eyes rooted deeply in her's.


"Jade, just drop it," Dane sighed.


"Why do you treat me like a child?" She snapped and Drake almost felt pity for her because she really didn't understand and that was because she was so childlike, but he ended up laughing over it instead.


"This is isn't about you at all!" Amon yelled, making Drake stop his laughter. "If someone has been through something terrible they shouldn't have to tell you about it Jade. Not only is it none of your business whatsoever, but you simply have no right to-"


"Demand things of others?" She finished his sentence slowly catching him in a small trap while she acknowledged her own. "I just want to understand all of you better," she muttered laying her head in her hands, defeated. "I want to understand so that I can stop infuriating and causing all of you pain."


Drake felt her frown at her own words like she couldn't believe what had just slipped out of her mouth.


"What did you just say?" Damien suddenly snapped, not angrily but almost in shock. He immediately gave back all of his attention to the conversation.


"I'm sorry! All right?" She cried out. "I shouldn't be sorry. I should be angry and despise all of you for treating me the way that you do but . . . but I do care okay! I cannot deny it anymore and I keep screwing up and hurting everyone, frustrating all of you." She sighed deeply and with a lowered head muttered, "Maybe it is my fault that you treat me so terribly maybe I leave you with no other option. So I am sorry."


"Stop pitying yourself," Amon spat, indignantly, but she wasn't Drake realized. She was actually concerned about hurting the lot of them. Hurting them? He stifled a laugh and then frowned wondering if Damien had planned this out.


"You do care," Dane smiled gently as Damien frowned and stared incredibly hard at her.


"Do not apologize to me, idiot," Damien growled, surprising everyone, "for what I do to you. I have already once apologized for hitting you and . . . over stepping set boundaries. Therefore I have already said that it was my fault and my responsibility." He sighed, "I don't want you to apologize for causing me pain either because you don't choose to be here to inflict it, but," he smiled, "I will accept your apologies for infuriating me."


Why the sudden change in mood? She wondered.


Do you still not get it? That is how you make him happy. By doing what he wants without having him force you. He despises fighting and drama and anything that requires his attention or energy, Jade. He tried to explain it to her because he finally realized that she honestly didn't understand still.


His idiotic uncle was beaming at the newly made amends. Maybe things would be more peaceful from then on? He doubted it. Jade spoke out of place too often.


She laughed at his side and then shot out an open hand across the table at Damien, who stared at her with wide eyes filled with shock. "Come on," she urged him, "I'll make a deal with you. I will try my best to do what you need me to if you try to control your temper when I don't."


A smile twisted around his handsome face as his pale eyes lit with a fiery color. He laughed gently to release it. "I don't make deals, my love."


She withdrew her hand in embarrassment. "Okay then-"


"What are you trying to get?" He sighed contentedly, through a softer smile as he leaned back. "If it's that damn cat I wasn't really going to make you do away with it."


Drake laughed making Damien's smile vanish. "Can't you see? She feels sorry for you and who wouldn't with those scars?"


"Really?" He snapped at her. He was commanding her now.


"No," she spoke concisely.


Amon laughed hard at that. "She really fucking cares? How is that even possible?" He smiled devilishly as he rolled his eyes, "Oh, right."

Comment