Scarlet
Title: Scarlet (One-shot)
Author: stupeur
Beta: cranperryjuice
Rating: R
Pairing: --
Summary: The life and demise of Scarlet Fitch.
Notes: My gift to mouette_lunaire for silentexchange. It has been more than six months and reveals still haven't been posted, so I'm taking the liberty of posting it here. :[ I have played Homecoming only once as I don't own a PS3 or a 360 or a PC, so I did my best to make this fit within the canon universe, but I'm really sorry if I ended up mangling the original story.
"Why don't you go and play elsewhere, Josh?" Alex gritted between his teeth when Josh's head suddenly appeared between his and Elle's from behind the bench where they'd been sitting. Thankfully, his arm hadn't yet touched Elle's shoulders, and he discreetly put his hand back on his lap without her noticing what he was up to.
Josh gave him a grin in response - a smug, shit-eating grin that Alex would have loved to smack off his face. "But I'm booored," he chimed, obviously all too proud of himself.
"Scarlet's right over there," Elle started with her infinite patience, "why don't you ask her to play with you?"
Josh made a face. "She never wants to."
"That's because you're too much of a brat," Alex taunted, earning himself a sigh and an eye roll, and, a moment later, a punch behind the head as Josh walked past him. At least that had rid them of him.
"So were you going to say something?" Elle asked as Alex rubbed the back of his head.
"... Erm, I forgot. It couldn't be that important," he lied, laughing nervously as he watched his brother heading in Scarlet's direction as she merely sat on a swing, a doll on her lap. "You'd think he's going to the gallows or something," he commented as Josh dragged his feet to Scarlet's swing.
Elle laughed. "She is a bit hard to deal with, though. Kinda creepy, actually."
"Really? How so?"
"Well, she stayed at our place for a couple of days once when Dr. Fitch was away at a convention or something, and she never speaks much. She's probably just really shy, but..."
Alex chuckled a bit. "But...?"
"I don't know," Elle started with a slight shrug. "She has these huge eyes, you see, and she just stares at you like this," she said, goggling at Alex.
He laughed hard at that. "All right, I see what you mean."
The two of them fell into a comfortable silence for a moment until Elle turned to him, her head tilted to the side adorably. "Say, how about going to the movies or something this week-end?" she asked, and Alex returned her smile.
"Sure." He was about to put his arm around her shoulders as he'd originally planned when a blood-curdling shriek suddenly echoed through the air, startling them both.
The swing Scarlet had been sitting on was swaying erratically, and Scarlet herself was curled up in the sand, letting out scream after scream. She was furiously swatting at her own head while Josh stood a couple of meters away from her, staring helplessly.
Elle had already rushed to Scarlet's side by the time Alex even thought of getting up. "Are you hurt?! What's wrong?!" She attempted to put her arms around Scarlet, but the girl was hysterical and it proved to be no easy task.
"Josh, what happened?!"
Josh shuffled his feet uncomfortably, keeping his eyes down. Alex heard Elle gasp audibly, and he followed her gaze to a considerably big spider that was lying on the sand next to Scarlet. It was obviously dead, underside up and legs curled up above it. Everything made sense all of a sudden.
"Why the hell did you do that?!" Alex spat out at Josh, grabbing his arm to make him face him, but he obstinately refused to do so.
"It's okay, honey, it's gone," Elle said soothingly, pulling Scarlet to her feet. Scarlet was still crying profusely, but at least she had stopped wailing, and she was clinging to Elle like her life depended on it. "Let's go home, okay? I'll see you later, Alex." She threw Josh a disapproving glare before guiding Scarlet to the exit of the park.
"So?" Alex pressed when both girls were out of earshot.
Josh still wouldn't look at him. "I just wanted her to stop ignoring me. I didn't think she'd freak out like that."
"What did you think she'd do, genius?"
"I just thought she'd get angry or something. ... Don't tell dad, okay?" Josh finally looked at him, eyes widened with fear at the thought.
Alex chuckled and shook his head exasperatedly. "Only if you apologize to Scarlet and give her her doll back." He picked up the doll that was lying on the ground, forgotten. "You definitely have a thing or two to learn about girls," Alex stated matter-of-factly as he wiped some sand off of the doll's face.
Josh looked at him, hopeful. "You'll teach me, right?"
Alex laughed, giving Josh a brotherly slap on the back before the two of them started to walk home. "Maybe in a few years."
---
Dear Dr. Fitch,
I apologize for not being able to bring up this issue in person, but I am aware that you are extremely busy, and I feel that this is too urgent to wait any longer.
Scarlet has been referred to me by her homeroom teacher Mrs. Williams, who raised some concerns about her. She has been showing complete disinterest in interacting with her teacher and other children in class, and her learning has obviously been suffering from it. It seems that her situation has deteriorated quickly over the past couple of months, and I suspect that there is more to this than mere shyness or antisocial behavior, and helping her is unfortunately above our competences here at Midwich.
As such, I would advise you to consult Dr. Glenn Williams at Alchemilla Hospital as soon as possible. He is a specialist in child psychology and I am confident that he will be able to provide Scarlet with the help that she needs. Please do so without further delay, and do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.
Best regards,
Helene Ford
Midwich Elementary School
---
The adults were speaking fast and loud, and Scarlet eventually escaped the consultation room without them even noticing. The hall was long, with high white halls and gray shadows, and she had always found it rather scary, but she felt a little braver this time around because she was not alone, exactly - dad had brought Magdalene along, and Scarlet's fingers were wrapped tightly around her small arm to give herself some courage.
However, she managed to feel more and more at ease in the unfamiliar corridor. There was no one in sight and the whole floor was quiet, except for the downpour hitting the windows and the muffled sound of raised voices from the room she had just left. She was starting to feel a little cold, and she opted to hold Magdalene against her chest to keep warm as she made her way down the hallway.
It was then that she heard footsteps and voices coming from the other end of the hall, and Scarlet's heart started to beat fast with the fear of being scolded for wandering around without permission. Without really thinking, she slipped into the closest room, the door of which had been left ajar.
It was a small, white room that resembled hers, and a man lay on the only bed. He did not stir an inch when she entered, however, and she figured that he was sleeping. He probably wouldn't mind if she hid in his room for a few minutes, so Scarlet quietly stepped towards the chair in the back of the room, but stopped dead in her tracks when she realized that the his eyes were actually wide open, staring expressionlessly at the ceiling.
"Please don't get angry," she whispered to the man's attention, instinctively tightening her hold around Magdalene's small body.
He did not react, however, and only then did she notice the leather straps on his wrists and ankles. She felt a strange feeling overwhelm her - something between sadness and pity - and she stood there without moving for a long moment before finally stepping forward and carefully laying Magdalene down on the bed next to the man's motionless body.
Scarlet then sat in the chair near the window and looked at the big drops of water crashing down against the glass of the window over and over again until her eyelids slowly closed by themselves.
---
Name
Fitch, Scarlet
Reg. No.
1180
Hour and Date Admitted
16:34 May 4, 2003
Doctor in Charge
G. Williams
Age
9
Gender
F
Occupation
Student (Midwich)
Habits
Lack of interest in people and surroundings, poor response to own name/questions, outbursts when upset. Prolonged and unusual interest in doll.
Homicidal
-
Suicidal
-
Heredity
Mother suffered from severe depression, committed suicide at age 34. Possibly unrelated to patient's condition.
No. Attacks
-
Duration
-
In Event of Death
Contact father.
Recovered
Improved
Unimproved
Date Discharged
Date of Death
---
Scarlet loved her dolls.
What the story does not tell is whether she loved her dolls so much because they looked like her, or whether she looked like her dolls because she loved them so much. Her large, brown eyes had the glint and shine of glass, her locks the luster of mohair, and her skin the white splendor of porcelain. The lace and ribbons and bows she always wore only accentuated the thinness of her limbs, and as if her appearance wasn't enough, she was as silent as the grave. The rumor around Shepherd's Glen had it that she was mute, but as the denouement had proven, she did have a voice, and it was clear and light like shards of glass breaking against the walls of the clinic room where she writhed in pure and absolute pain.
To complete the picture, she had - as yours truly believes - a beautiful name, evocative of poppies and fire and blood, just like the blood running out of her severed arms and legs, the blood swallowing the tears of her father sobbing above her as his saw plunged deep into the butter-soft skin of her neck. How sad is it that she seemed more alive at the instant of her death than she had in eight years of life, while she bled and bled and bled with tears of pain and terror streaking her face and screams gushing out of her throat, lying in several pieces and soaked in her own name?
Perhaps even sadder was the fleetingness of this rare moment of humanity. Her voice was long gone when the whirl of the saw came to a stop, and then all that could be heard were the miserable hiccups of Dr. Fitch and the drip drip drip of her blood trickling down the bed onto the cold tiles of the floor.
Poor, poor, pretty and dead Scarlet.
XPS Laptops
Author: stupeur
Beta: cranperryjuice
Rating: R
Pairing: --
Summary: The life and demise of Scarlet Fitch.
Notes: My gift to mouette_lunaire for silentexchange. It has been more than six months and reveals still haven't been posted, so I'm taking the liberty of posting it here. :[ I have played Homecoming only once as I don't own a PS3 or a 360 or a PC, so I did my best to make this fit within the canon universe, but I'm really sorry if I ended up mangling the original story.
"Why don't you go and play elsewhere, Josh?" Alex gritted between his teeth when Josh's head suddenly appeared between his and Elle's from behind the bench where they'd been sitting. Thankfully, his arm hadn't yet touched Elle's shoulders, and he discreetly put his hand back on his lap without her noticing what he was up to.
Josh gave him a grin in response - a smug, shit-eating grin that Alex would have loved to smack off his face. "But I'm booored," he chimed, obviously all too proud of himself.
"Scarlet's right over there," Elle started with her infinite patience, "why don't you ask her to play with you?"
Josh made a face. "She never wants to."
"That's because you're too much of a brat," Alex taunted, earning himself a sigh and an eye roll, and, a moment later, a punch behind the head as Josh walked past him. At least that had rid them of him.
"So were you going to say something?" Elle asked as Alex rubbed the back of his head.
"... Erm, I forgot. It couldn't be that important," he lied, laughing nervously as he watched his brother heading in Scarlet's direction as she merely sat on a swing, a doll on her lap. "You'd think he's going to the gallows or something," he commented as Josh dragged his feet to Scarlet's swing.
Elle laughed. "She is a bit hard to deal with, though. Kinda creepy, actually."
"Really? How so?"
"Well, she stayed at our place for a couple of days once when Dr. Fitch was away at a convention or something, and she never speaks much. She's probably just really shy, but..."
Alex chuckled a bit. "But...?"
"I don't know," Elle started with a slight shrug. "She has these huge eyes, you see, and she just stares at you like this," she said, goggling at Alex.
He laughed hard at that. "All right, I see what you mean."
The two of them fell into a comfortable silence for a moment until Elle turned to him, her head tilted to the side adorably. "Say, how about going to the movies or something this week-end?" she asked, and Alex returned her smile.
"Sure." He was about to put his arm around her shoulders as he'd originally planned when a blood-curdling shriek suddenly echoed through the air, startling them both.
The swing Scarlet had been sitting on was swaying erratically, and Scarlet herself was curled up in the sand, letting out scream after scream. She was furiously swatting at her own head while Josh stood a couple of meters away from her, staring helplessly.
Elle had already rushed to Scarlet's side by the time Alex even thought of getting up. "Are you hurt?! What's wrong?!" She attempted to put her arms around Scarlet, but the girl was hysterical and it proved to be no easy task.
"Josh, what happened?!"
Josh shuffled his feet uncomfortably, keeping his eyes down. Alex heard Elle gasp audibly, and he followed her gaze to a considerably big spider that was lying on the sand next to Scarlet. It was obviously dead, underside up and legs curled up above it. Everything made sense all of a sudden.
"Why the hell did you do that?!" Alex spat out at Josh, grabbing his arm to make him face him, but he obstinately refused to do so.
"It's okay, honey, it's gone," Elle said soothingly, pulling Scarlet to her feet. Scarlet was still crying profusely, but at least she had stopped wailing, and she was clinging to Elle like her life depended on it. "Let's go home, okay? I'll see you later, Alex." She threw Josh a disapproving glare before guiding Scarlet to the exit of the park.
"So?" Alex pressed when both girls were out of earshot.
Josh still wouldn't look at him. "I just wanted her to stop ignoring me. I didn't think she'd freak out like that."
"What did you think she'd do, genius?"
"I just thought she'd get angry or something. ... Don't tell dad, okay?" Josh finally looked at him, eyes widened with fear at the thought.
Alex chuckled and shook his head exasperatedly. "Only if you apologize to Scarlet and give her her doll back." He picked up the doll that was lying on the ground, forgotten. "You definitely have a thing or two to learn about girls," Alex stated matter-of-factly as he wiped some sand off of the doll's face.
Josh looked at him, hopeful. "You'll teach me, right?"
Alex laughed, giving Josh a brotherly slap on the back before the two of them started to walk home. "Maybe in a few years."
---
Dear Dr. Fitch,
I apologize for not being able to bring up this issue in person, but I am aware that you are extremely busy, and I feel that this is too urgent to wait any longer.
Scarlet has been referred to me by her homeroom teacher Mrs. Williams, who raised some concerns about her. She has been showing complete disinterest in interacting with her teacher and other children in class, and her learning has obviously been suffering from it. It seems that her situation has deteriorated quickly over the past couple of months, and I suspect that there is more to this than mere shyness or antisocial behavior, and helping her is unfortunately above our competences here at Midwich.
As such, I would advise you to consult Dr. Glenn Williams at Alchemilla Hospital as soon as possible. He is a specialist in child psychology and I am confident that he will be able to provide Scarlet with the help that she needs. Please do so without further delay, and do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.
Best regards,
Helene Ford
Midwich Elementary School
---
The adults were speaking fast and loud, and Scarlet eventually escaped the consultation room without them even noticing. The hall was long, with high white halls and gray shadows, and she had always found it rather scary, but she felt a little braver this time around because she was not alone, exactly - dad had brought Magdalene along, and Scarlet's fingers were wrapped tightly around her small arm to give herself some courage.
However, she managed to feel more and more at ease in the unfamiliar corridor. There was no one in sight and the whole floor was quiet, except for the downpour hitting the windows and the muffled sound of raised voices from the room she had just left. She was starting to feel a little cold, and she opted to hold Magdalene against her chest to keep warm as she made her way down the hallway.
It was then that she heard footsteps and voices coming from the other end of the hall, and Scarlet's heart started to beat fast with the fear of being scolded for wandering around without permission. Without really thinking, she slipped into the closest room, the door of which had been left ajar.
It was a small, white room that resembled hers, and a man lay on the only bed. He did not stir an inch when she entered, however, and she figured that he was sleeping. He probably wouldn't mind if she hid in his room for a few minutes, so Scarlet quietly stepped towards the chair in the back of the room, but stopped dead in her tracks when she realized that the his eyes were actually wide open, staring expressionlessly at the ceiling.
"Please don't get angry," she whispered to the man's attention, instinctively tightening her hold around Magdalene's small body.
He did not react, however, and only then did she notice the leather straps on his wrists and ankles. She felt a strange feeling overwhelm her - something between sadness and pity - and she stood there without moving for a long moment before finally stepping forward and carefully laying Magdalene down on the bed next to the man's motionless body.
Scarlet then sat in the chair near the window and looked at the big drops of water crashing down against the glass of the window over and over again until her eyelids slowly closed by themselves.
---
Name
Fitch, Scarlet
Reg. No.
1180
Hour and Date Admitted
16:34 May 4, 2003
Doctor in Charge
G. Williams
Age
9
Gender
F
Occupation
Student (Midwich)
Habits
Lack of interest in people and surroundings, poor response to own name/questions, outbursts when upset. Prolonged and unusual interest in doll.
Homicidal
-
Suicidal
-
Heredity
Mother suffered from severe depression, committed suicide at age 34. Possibly unrelated to patient's condition.
No. Attacks
-
Duration
-
In Event of Death
Contact father.
Recovered
Improved
Unimproved
Date Discharged
Date of Death
---
Scarlet loved her dolls.
What the story does not tell is whether she loved her dolls so much because they looked like her, or whether she looked like her dolls because she loved them so much. Her large, brown eyes had the glint and shine of glass, her locks the luster of mohair, and her skin the white splendor of porcelain. The lace and ribbons and bows she always wore only accentuated the thinness of her limbs, and as if her appearance wasn't enough, she was as silent as the grave. The rumor around Shepherd's Glen had it that she was mute, but as the denouement had proven, she did have a voice, and it was clear and light like shards of glass breaking against the walls of the clinic room where she writhed in pure and absolute pain.
To complete the picture, she had - as yours truly believes - a beautiful name, evocative of poppies and fire and blood, just like the blood running out of her severed arms and legs, the blood swallowing the tears of her father sobbing above her as his saw plunged deep into the butter-soft skin of her neck. How sad is it that she seemed more alive at the instant of her death than she had in eight years of life, while she bled and bled and bled with tears of pain and terror streaking her face and screams gushing out of her throat, lying in several pieces and soaked in her own name?
Perhaps even sadder was the fleetingness of this rare moment of humanity. Her voice was long gone when the whirl of the saw came to a stop, and then all that could be heard were the miserable hiccups of Dr. Fitch and the drip drip drip of her blood trickling down the bed onto the cold tiles of the floor.
Poor, poor, pretty and dead Scarlet.
XPS Laptops