Scarlet was laying in her bed thinking about what had happened the night before, she had felt bad after the first few hours. Owen really had something wrong with him, she had also saw the tattoos or whatever was all over him. She knew that wasn't normal, even for witches. She sat in her bed thinking about anything demon that could explain it. If he had been cursed by another witch she assumed that could explain it, or damned by a demon. Yet as far as she knew he hadn't met anyone who wasn't a witch. She also recognized the dialect he had been speaking in, it was a very old language from the old world. Her grandfather had made her learn it, a lot of the old books in her library were in the same language. Owen still irked her to no end, he was so weak. She was always taught to never showed weakness but he showed it so easily.
"Scarlet, are you ready for school?" Mrs. Delgado yelled up the stairs. Scarlet groaned, she was so tired after last night but got up anyway. She got dressed slowly and walked downstairs, Owen was facedown at the table and his mother was making breakfast. Scarlet sat at the seat opposite to Owen. He peered up from the place he was at.
"How did you sleep dear?" his mother asked.
"I slept ok." She replied smiling at her. Owen rolled his eyes and sighed. His mother looked at him sad, then went back to cooking. She was cooking bacon from the smell and Scarlets stomach rumbled. She had worked up an appetite last night but didn't know the house rules about snacking. Owen's dad walked through the sliding door and glanced at Owen guiltily before sitting down. He must've been doing some type of yard work because he had dirt all over his shirt but his hands were clean.
"I expect your school day to go better today." Owen just nodded against the table. "Look at me and give me an answer."
Owen sat up, he had bags under his eyes and looked miserable.
"I'll behave." Owen said. His parents looked at him blankly and sighed and laid his head down again. Scarlet knew what he had said but wouldn't admit it. Last thing she wanted to be was a translator. Owens mom set breakfast down at the table and started to fill Owens plate before sitting down. Everyone else dug at the food while Owen slightly picked at his. The meal was silent and awkward, Scarlet felt like Mrs. Delgado was upset with her husband. The silence was interrupted by the doorbell ringing and then the door opening.
"Good morning Mac!" Mrs. Delgado called out before he had even walked through the door. Mac looked at the scene anxiously, clearly not knowing what the vibe would be.
"Good morning Helen." Mac smiled at her before giving her a side hug. Scarlet just stared at her plate and kept on eating.
"Morning Mac, I'm hoping you'll keep Owen out of trouble today." Mr. Delgado asked looking at him expectantly. Mac just nodded before looking at Owen who still looked pitiful. Mac grabbed a piece of toast before leaning against the counter.
"We should probably head out." He said with a mouthful of toast which disgusted Scarlet. Owen stood up instantly and walked to get his shoes on in the other room. Scarlet finished her meal before also getting up. Karen said goodbye and they all headed out the door. Walking to school didn't take long but it was nerve racking for Scarlet, she felt like they would say something but they didn't they just walked ahead of her and whispered.
When they arrived at the school they hung back at the front again, she assumed to avoid people touching Owen. She went ahead to find the people she had hung out with the day before, Which was easy enough because they were all huddled in a group.
"Scarlet! How was it when Owen got home last night?" The most likeable girl asked.
"Yeah! I heard his dad had to come all the way from the inner walls." All of them laughed, they knew about Owens dad being a knight.
"It was great, for me at least. I got to beat on him all night for 'training'." She laughed, they all did too.
"I knew he was a wimp, I mean look at what happened to his brother." They all laughed again. They had mentioned it the day before but Scarlet didn't know what they were talking about. She hadn't seen a brother or heard about him.
"What do you guys mean by that?"
"Owen and his brother were playing in the woods as kids, they were attacked. Owens brother didn't make it. Owen didn't do anything he just watched as his brother was mauled to death. By the time their parents got to them he was gone. And Owen didn't have a scratch on him. Owen claimed a giant monster came out of no where but they couldn't find anything not even tracks. I'm sure it was a bear or something. He could've easily ran for help earlier on and saved his brother but he was too weak to even get up or fight back." They laughed.
"I know that if an animal were after my brother, I would fight arm and tooth for him." a guy chimed in. Scarlet laughed with the rest but felt disgusted and confused, why wouldn't he fight the animal? He clearly had the skill to. And how long ago did it happen? She was also disgusted at the words from their mouths, his brother died and they felt no sympathy. Yet she smiled along with them to keep up appearances. She had only today left before her father would be king, she didn't know how long she could stay hidden so she would have to run away. She didn't want anyone expecting anything so she tried to make it look like she made friends and was having fun.
Throughout the day she caught glimpses of Owen throughout the school but he was affectively avoiding her, she could hear the kids talking though. She also heard about kids touching him just for fun and to see if he would react. She could only imagine how sore he was from last night and how people touching him would feel today. Yet she didn't have time to think about anyone else, she had to pull off her plan of escape. Because of her fight with Owen his dad would be home for a while which meant she could take his car, she would take it out of the kingdom before anyone noticed. She also needed to take some food and her clothes. She figured she would have to run when she first got there so she didn't spend any of the money her grandfather gave her. Her plan had to work because her life basically depended on it.
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Scarlet went about the rest of the day at school normally, as normal as she could muster. When she got home she acted as polite to the Delgado's as possible even though Owen ignored her existence. Owen hadn't wanted to eat dinner but since Mac (who was staying the night) was hungry, Owen had suffered through it. No one had suspected anything strange going on with Scarlet, she excused herself to do homework and headed up to her room one last time. She started to pack essentials, clothes, soaps, food she had taken from the kitchen the last couple of days. Anything she thought would be important, when she was done she had two bags full of stuff. Scarlet set her bags in the closet and laid in her temporary bed. She would be on the run from her father now. She didn't know how long she would last considering he was about to start an all out war between the kingdoms. She checked the time on the clock in the room, it was midnight. Packing had taken her longer than she hoped but it was good since Owens's parents were already asleep. She hadn't expected Mac to stay over but it wasn't like his presence changed anything. After about another half hour Scarlet took action, she grabbed her bags and opened her window to climb out. When she got all the way out she tried to situate her bags and almost slipped off the roof. she grabbed onto the window and sat quietly for a moment. Listen to see if anyone heard her hand slam against the window. When she was sure she was in the clear, Scarlet headed down the roof carefully. When she landed on the ground she let out a sigh of relief. She put her bags in the back of Owen's dad's car before heading into the garage to get the spare keys. She figured out they were in there the first day from snooping when everyone was asleep. She smiled as she grasped the keys in her hand and ran to get into the front of the car. When she put the key in the ignition and it started, she almost cried in victory. Her plan had worked and she was going to be free.
She backed out of the driveway using the cameras and took off down the road, when she was sure she was safe she speed up. She had studied the routes to take to avoid any other cars and still get out of the kingdom within two hours. She had been driving for about 20 minutes when she heard rustling in the back. She got confused and looked into the rearview mirror but didn't see anything. She turned around and saw Owen sitting on the floor behind the passenger seat.
"Uh...Hi." He gave a little wave. Her jaw dropped but she turned back toward the road.
"What the fuck are you doing in here?!" She yelled, Owen stood up and pushed his way into the passenger seat while Mac popped up from behind Scarlet's seat.
"You do realize this is a crime right Scarlet? Stealing a car, let alone a knight's car. Where are you going?" He asked while leaning forward and smiling. Scarlet kept her eyes on the road but gritted her teeth.
"I'm well aware of what I'm doing, what I'm wondering is what you are doing here?" Scarlet asked angrily. Mac laughed.
"Making sure you don't take off." He stated grabbing the emergency brake and yanking making the car swerve a bit before stopping.
"What the fuck! Mac! I told you we would just talk." Owen stated turning around. Scarlet scoffed and turned around in her seat to glare at Mac.
"Get the fuck out of the car! Both of you." Scarlet pushed Owen toward the door which led to him yelping loudly and clutching onto himself in pain against the door. Mac grabbed Scarlet's hair in retaliation.
"I don't care what kind of spoiled little princess you are! You keep your hands off him! You hear me!" Mac screamed in her ear, Scarlet yelped and tried to wrestle his hands off her. Mac let go without much of a fight to touch Owen on the knee, Owen relaxed and sighed.
"I have zero clue what weird shit is going on between you two but I have to get out of here." Scarlet went to release the emergency brake but Mac stopped her. She gritted her teeth again, she was losing time.
"Why do you need to get away?" Owen asked. "What have we done to you?" Scarlet looked at Owen who just looked exhausted, even though he had been he had still gotten in the car to see what was going on with her. Or to stop her from stealing his dad's car.
"Listen, my dad becomes king today...I just need to go somewhere far away and preferably very hidden." Scarlet answered putting her head on the steering wheel. Mac and Owen looked at each other quizzically.
"My dad isn't exactly an upstanding citizen. He plans on taking over, everything. Starting with me, if he comes to get me and I don't have my fire, it's basically a death wish. He'll lock me up until he decides to kill me." Scarlet let out, it felt good to actually say it out loud. The car was silent for a long while.
"Why didn't you say anything? If your dad comes here and you're not here won't he just attack? We could have warned the king, and protected you. We still can. My dad is a knight we can convince him to get the kingdom to arm." Scarlet shook her head at the words. They didn't understand how this would work.
"They are coming here first anyway, they plan on taking your kingdom first. This will all be gone in a few hours, gone. Whether your people were armed or not. My dad has it all figured out."
"You don't know that! You don't know how powerful we are." Mac stated.
"Well count out every fire user, it won't touch anyone in the kingdom. And demons are known to be powerful, far passing the witches. You guys are the easiest to take first, plus with the already known relationship between demons and witches, he's hoping you guys just join him." Mac and Owen stared at Scarlet like she was crazy.
"You know what this sounds like..." Mac started. "The prophecy..."
Scarlet looked at him in confusion.
"What prophecy?" Owen laughed.
"A big evil villain will try to take over and one chosen one from each kingdom will save us all. Basically put in short terms." Scarlet laughed.
"And you believe it?" She scoffed, nobody would be able to stand against her kingdom. Her father had been planning this for who knows how long.
"And what we are supposed to be the starting crew searching for the rest of them to save everyone. Here, in your dad's Toyota." Scarlet laughed. Mac looked at Owen seriously.
"This could explain the birthmarks, Owen," Mac stated, Scarlet looked at him incredulously. He was actually considering this.
"Mac, you and I know it would be crazy to consider that I, out of all people would be a part of a mystical prophecy." Owen laughed. Scarlet nodded.
"Owen and Scarlet, really think about it. Fate works in mysterious ways. Scarlet who knows of the plan just happens to land herself at your house. With your very mysterious birthmarks and an obstacle of touch to get over. It's the perfect setup." Mac ranted. Scarlet's brows furrowed in thought, Mac could have been on to something. Everything in the last three days had led to them being in that car together heading away from the kingdom with the knowledge of an upcoming war.
"For a movie yes, for my very real and incredibly pathetic life. No." Owen chuckled in a disbelieving way.
"He's got a point," Scarlet added thinking about it some more.
"What.." Owen stared at her. "If any witch was to, I think it would be Mac to be the prophecies winner."
"Sure, he has a major part to play as your guardian but overall it would be you, Owen." Scarlet reached for the emergency brake and unlocked it. She quickly took off. Owen yelped as he was thrown a bit by the sudden start.
"Where are you going?" Owen asked quickly buckling up. "Do you even have a license?"
"Yes I do, I'm considerably older than you. We are leaving. We have to find the others before it's too late." Scarlet navigated the street she had memorized.
"Why would I go anywhere with you? You bullied me in my own home. You were straight up a bitch." Owen said angrily. Scarlet smirked.
"Yeah...that's not changing anytime soon. But we have to work together on this. Your dad will be front lines, which means a chance of death. Unless we prevent that by leaving right here right now." Owen gulped and looked at Mac, who looked like he was already ready to leave.
"Text your dad Owen, and let him know what's going on. That way they can gear up and warn other kingdoms. It starts now." Scarlet said as she drove, when she had first arrived she hadn't thought anything of Owen but now it seemed his presence could help her out of the very large war coming their way.