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Chapter Text

A soft hum escaped Blu's lips as she rocked the smaller girl in her arms. 

"You are my sunshine my only sunshine you make me happy when skies are grey."

"You'll never know dear how much I love you please don't take my sunshine away.." 

Xanthe watched silently as her older twin rocked their younger sister Cerise to sleep. Xanthe gaped her mouth open to say something, but was quickly shushed by Blu. The three girls knew better than to talk at midnight, espically if their mother, White was in the other room. So quickly putting Cerise to sleep was vital since the younger girl was a talkative stuttering mess.  A shiver raced it's way through Xanthe's spine as she recalled the pre-days of Cerise's stuttering. How the young girl could only say a few words clearly and the rest of her speech was a abouslute mess of undispherable words. Blu believed the constant smart remarks and brutal verbal abuse their mother, put their younger sibling through caused her stuttering, but their mother digressed that thought and just flatly said Cerise was absoulute dumbass and couldn't talk to save her life. Hurting Cerise even more, and whenever Cerise did try to defend herself a mess of so called words spilled out of her lips, causing a slender white hand to hit her across her cheek.

"Speak right!" Their mother would scream causing the smaller girl to cry and cover her face.

Xanthe bit her lip as she felt tears spring to life in her eyes. She knew Cerise met no harm by her stuttering, but the girl subconciously did do harm to everyone, to the family. Every arguement, every beating, every fight was caused by Cerise. Xanthe honestly wanted the burden of bad luck gone from the family. But she knew that wouldn't happen anytime soon, unless she took manners in her own hands?

No.

She couldn't do that to Blu, if there was one person who loved Cerise it was Blu. Xanthe hated their sickily sisterly love, there were times were Xanthe thought that maybe whenever her two siblings were left alone, they did things that only adults did.

Dirty things.

And sometimes in a blue moon whenever Xanthe was really deep in thought, she'd always wonder if maybe she could be apart of whatever Blu and Cerise did together, but then her rational thoughts came into play again at once. Shame on her sisters if they dared perform such disgusting acts on one another. 

"Xanthe, can you help me move Cerise to her bed?" Blu asked pulling Xanthe out of her thoughts.

"Yeah, yeah." She sighed, annoyed. Xanthe picked up the smaller girl, her body limp, making it harder to carry her weight. Blu helped Xanthe by bickering a on how she should handle the smaller girl, fussing on how Xanthe treated the smaller girl's body as if it was a ragdoll. Xanthe rolled her eyes as she dropped Cerise on her bed pulling the girl's covers up to her chin. The smaller girl honestly looked beautiful as she peacefully slept. Soft almost inaudible snores came out of her mouth.

 "Xanthe aren't you going to join me in the bed?" Blu asked causing Xanthe to whip her head around. "Um, yes, in just a second." Xanthe replied walking over to Blu, making sure to be quiet while doing so. It was no secret the two girls slept together, Xanthe did have her own bed, but she hardly ever used it, there were too many bad things that had happended to her while on that bed. Sleeping on it will only give her unimaginable night terrors that would haunt her until she returned back into non-existence. "Xanthe why do you look so tramatized?" Blu whispered making room for her younger twin. Xanthe slipped into bed with her twin and instantly felt bubbly inside, like a gazillon butterfiles just invander her lower stomach, causing her to feel somewhat sick. "I'm just...thinking is all, i'm not tramatized." Xanthe stated laying her head on her sister's pillow, whiffing in her twins rain like smell. 

"You know you can talk to me about anything, right?" Blu said resting on her elbow.

"Yes, but I like to keep my feelings to myself."

"Why?"

"Because even if I do tell you what's wrong with me it's not like you can do that much about it."

"Is this about Cerise?" Blu asked.

"Not everything has to be about Cerise." Xanthe murmured, agitated.

"Y'know she loves you dearly Xanthe, I don't understand why you don't let people love on you.."

"Can you shut up and let me go to sleep?" Xanthe asked through gritted teeth. Blu nodded and rested her head on her mattress facing the opposite side of her sister. Xanthe was honestly a mystery to her, there were days whenever the teen would hug and kiss on her siblings, then there were other days were she would terroize them. Her younger twin was like a bomb waiting to explode, and Blu feared that whenever she did blow, someone was going to end up dead. With a heavy sigh Blu closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep.

Rays of sunshine came through the thick window as someone played Moonlight Sonata on the grand piano. Xanthe shifted in bed and let out a groan, sitting up. Oh God how Moonlight Sonata freaked her out, but alas that was one of her mother's favorite songs by Beethoven, so she always forced any of the three girls to play it for her in the mornings. Xanthe climbed out of her sister's bed and unsteadly walked downstairs, it always took her body a long while to fully wake up and function properly. Cerise would always laugh and point at her sister and comment how she acted like a drunk in the mornings. As Xanthe entered the main living room she saw Cerise sitting at the piano while their mother watched the young girl play like a hawk. Blu was on the couch glancing at a sheet of paper as she mumured polish words to herself in a harsh whisper.

"Well hello Xanthe." Their mother said glaring at the blonde headed girl. Xanthe's mouth went dry as she gazed into almost too familar eyes, for a split second it felt like she was staring into her own. "Did you have some nice beauty rest?" White asked walking towards the blonde cupping her cheeks in her hands.

"Yes Mother I did.." Xanthe replied blandly as she felt Cerise look their way with a glimpse of Jealously in her eyes. "That's wonderful." Their mother stated as she placed a chatse kiss on her daughter's jawline. The blonde quickly fell ill to her mother's sickly kindness, trying her best to surpass a gag. 

"Is there something wrong, apple of my eye?" Their mother asked, squishing her child's face with a seductive look in her eyes. Cerise banged on the grand piano and abruptly got up from it. 

"I-i-i-i-i'm duh-duh-done puh-puh-playing th-this st-stupid so-song!!" Cerise Exclaimed causing everyone in the elegant living room to jump. The brown haired girl shedded tears of frustration as she walked hastily upstairs slamming their bedroom door shut. Blu quickly got up and tried dashing to the stairs. "Not so fast you stay here and practice your Polish!! I'll take care of your sister!" Blu and Xanthe's face turnt into a unnatural white color as they knew what was to come. Blu sighed heavily her breath shaking as she covered her ears to mute out the screaming that would come in the next few moments. Xanthe moved next to her sister as their mother stomped upstairs. She wrapped her arms around her twin's body holding her close as screams could be heard from upstairs.

"I hate her so much Xanthe..I want her to die.." Blu whispered as tears fell down her cheeks.

"I know, I know..So do I, but there's nothing we can do, but weigh it out until we're adults."

"Why can't we just leave..?" Blu whispered softly.

"Y'know we can't do that, we're not old enough, and that idea is dumb.." 

"It's not, we can plan it out, we'll get out of this house and see the world, we'll be free, all three of us, we wouldn't have to listein to her anymore.." Blu whispered excitedly as her sister beamed at her words.

"We'll see the world? All of it..?" Xanthe asked her voice rising with excitement.

"All of it..We just need to get out of here, are you comfortable to try and run away with me?" 

Xanthe bit her lip and then nodded. "Yes, we can try, but not right away." Blu nodded and hugged her younger twin.

"I love you."

"I....I love you too.."

The three girls laid in bed once again as the moon rose with pride in the midnight sky. Cerise trembled as her breathing became harder as a layer of thick dry blood stuck to her nostrils making it harder for her to breathe. A pin size hole in her bloody left nostril was the only thing helping her breathe. Her black eye throbbed as she closed her eyes and tried to sleep. Tonight she slept with Blu as Xanthe took her bed. Blu's arm wrapped themselves around her sister lovingly as she petted her younger sibling's hair. Her lips brushed against the younger child's ear as she whispered a lullaby in her ear.

"Sleep my child peace attend thee, all through the night.." 

Blu's honeyed voice sent chill's up Cerise's spine as her older sister played with her hair, twirling a lock of her brown almost amber gold hair around her slender index finger. As Cerise's chest rose in a even manner, the door creepily creaked open, the hallway light shining through their massaive room. Cerise peeked through her eyelids as she felt Blu's heart beat faster, their mother entered the bedroom and was shocked to see Xanthe sleeping on Cerise's bed. She quickly sat on her youngest child's as she stroked Xanthe's hair causing the teen to wake up in a dazed condition. A few angry groans coming out of her mouth as she furrowed her brows at the person who woke her up.

Cerise gasped as she saw their mom grip at Xanthe's nightgown, Blu covered her younger sister's mouth and squeezed her own eyes shut. A distinct noise of kissing filled the room like a nasty black plague as quiet murmurs could be heard from Xanthe and White. Soon the duo exited the room in a hastily manner, Xanthe closed the door shut and glared at her two other siblings. There was a look in her eyes that confused Cerise, it captivated her. Her eyes were glazed in helplessness as her glare begged for help, help from Cerise or Blu, for christ sake help from anybody. It stunned the younger girl that her sister actually needed help. Her strong bold older sister, that would one day take over the family buisness and become a noble strong leader. Was begging for help from her useless stuttering freak kid sister.

What has Mother done to us?  Cerise thought as the door painfully closed shut, the hallway light turning off.

"Buh-buh-blu, W-w-why Were w-we ruh-ruh-robbed of e-ev-everything?" Cerise asked as she pulled away from her older sister's grip, tears welding in her eyes. "Wh-why wo-would G-god D-do th-this to u-u-us?"

Blu glared at her amber haired sister and kissed at her bruised cheek. "I don't know Cerise...But i'm sure God will help us sure enough." Blu lied, God wasn't going to come and help them anytime soon, and Blu was sure as hell aware of that, to be honest Blu was convinced a God didn't even exist, but alas she had to give Cerise hope. Hope that maybe one day they'll leave this hellhole and find better lives for themselves, that Cerise will over come her stuttering, Xanthe will find someone and know what it feels like to be properly loved, and for Blu herself to finally be free from worrying about her younger siblings.

"H-h-he su-sure is ta-taking h-his suh-suh-sweet a-a-ass tuh-tuh-time." Cerise stammered as she wiped tears away from her eyelashes.

"Oh Cerise don't talk like that, you know God loves you and will take care of his children." Blu smiled embracing her younger sister. Cerise nodded and hugged Blu back as tears rolled down her weary eyes.

"B-blue wh-what d-does Mo-mommy d-d-d-do to Yuh-yuh-yellow...?" Cerise asked, taking Blu off guard.

"Bad things...Things you shouldn't know about until you get older..."

"B-b-but B-Blu-"

"No buts! Don't worry about such things, ok? Yellow...Yellow is just sleeping with Mom tonight." Blu lied.

"D-does M-mommy b-beat her? Y-yellow al-always h-has b-bruises on her n-neck w-whenever sh-she c-comes buh-buh-back."

"No, Mom doesn't beat her...Just don't worry about it my sunshine..." Blu whispered gently laying her sister down. 

"O-ok...N-night M-mo- I-I-I M-mean B-b-blu.."

Blu smiled and kissed her sister's lips.

"That's ok if you call me Mom." Blu said softly. Cerise nodded and hummed in respones. "Goodnight Cerise.." Blu whispered gingerly as she laid next to her younger sister wrapping her arms around her sister's tiny waist. Cerise hummed and snored softly.

As Blu tried to sleep, very faintly she could hear cries and soft moans, she covered her ears and sighed.

"I'm so sorry Xanthe.."

Chapter Text

"Oooohhhhhh wakey wakey!!" Cerise sang cheerifully. Blu groaned as she sat up. Then it hit her.

"You didn't stutter!" Blu exclaimed extatic.

"I-i D-didn't s-stutter c-cause i-i'm e-excited!!" The younger girl exclaimed practically jumping on the bed at this point.

"For what..?" Blue wondered as she tiredly yawned.

"T-the w-weekend o-of c-c-course! T-today is S-saturday!"

"Oh that's right! It's our freedays!" Blu said getting excited.

"Y-yep!! I-i'm g-gunna go o-outside and m-make n-new f-friends, d-do y-you w-want t-t-to c-come w-with m-me?" The amber haired girl asked. 

"No, I think i'm going to nap all day today." Blu stated with a exaggerated yawn.  Cerise giggled as she shoved her older sister playfully. "Y-you L-lazy!" Blu rolled her eyes and laid back down as Cerise picked out her clothes for the day.

"Do you think this would look cute?" Cerise asked holding a pair of overalls and a yellow long-sleeved shirt up to her curvy frame. "Oh dear God Cerise you're just going outside you don't have to be all fancy about it!" Blu exclaimed smiling widly.

"But i'm gunna make new friends I have to look nice!" Cerise protested. Blu rolled her eyes then nodded. "Yes that looks cute, now hurry up and get dressed so I cant put make-up over your black eye."

Cerise nodded and hummed in response as she started to undress, Blu felt a slight blush on her cheeks as she saw Cerise undress infront of her, God how she was disgusted with herself for gawking at Cerise in such a manner. 

"B-Blu are you ok?" 

"Huh? Oh! Yes! I'm j-just fine.." Blu blushed as she advioded her sister's gaze.

"W-werido.." Cerise mumbled playfully as she finished getting dress, going into the girls' closet she searched for her white chucks humming softly. She quickly grabbed them and slipped them on her feet double tying them to insure they wouldn't come undone. "B-blu I-I-I-I  fi-finished g-g-g-getting dressed, do you want me to go f-f-fetch the m-m-make-up?" Blu nodded. "Yes please go do so."

Cerise happily skipped to the restroom which was, luckily connected to the girl's bedroom. She searched the medicine cabinet for the nude colored make-up that matched her skin tone. For some reason Blu was a lot darker than all three of the girls. Which baffled a lot of people for some reason, but Cerise didn't really care about her sister's skintone, she was just happy to have Blu as a sister. She grabbed the make-up and make-up  brush and headed back into the room giving her sister the supplies. Cerise never really called make-up, make-up she always called it bruise remover, since that was the only fundemental purpose it generally served in their household. Only once or twice was it used for its intended purpose. As Blu opended the makeup case she gently swiped the brush over the palete. Blu steady her younger sisters head gingerly.
Cerise giggled whenever the brush met her pale like skin. Blu smiled as she continued to apply the make up on. "There we go, you're all fixed now, you just need to clean your nose and get that nasty dried blood off of it." Blu smiled giving her sister a kiss on the cheek. 

"Mkay.." Cerise hummed as she removed herself from her sister's gentle grip. Blu smiled as Cerise went back into the restroom and turned on the faucet, she damped a a piece of crumbled toilet paper and cleaned out her nose. Blowing out some of the crusted dried blood, she let out a quiet ew and flushed the crumpled piece of toilet paper down the toilet, exiting the room she let out a quick goodbye to Blu and raced down the stairs. As she headed towards the front door, it abruptly slammed open causing her to jump. Xanthe quickly entered the house carrying bags of grocheries.

"O-oh h-hi X-x-xanthe!" Cerise stammered, a bit nervous. 

"Yeah, yeah whatever good morning to you to." Xanthe mumbled carrying bags of grocheries.

"D-d-d-do y-y-you n-nee-"

"No I don't need help, hurry up and get outta of here before Mom makes you do some chores or some shit on your freeday." Xanthe said walking past Cerise.

Cerise nodded and hopped outside closing the door. Cerise loved the salty smell of the city they lived in. The air always smelt tasty here, though her mother and Xanthe hated the salty smell of the beach, Blu and Cerise loved it both, sometimes they even went to the beach together. As Cerise walked to the beach she felt people stare at her like she was a walking diamond. In a weird since she was, she was Cerise Diamond, the town's richest resident's daughter. And it was no secret the only reason why their mom chose to stay in Beach City was so that she could be the wealthiest person there. Cerise looked down and broke into a sweat as she left the neighbor, the sun beaming down on her viciously. The beach's salty smell getting stronger with each step, the sound of waves crashing got louder as she started to practically sprint to the beach not caring if she bumped into someone. It felt like forever since she had last been to the ocean, so getting to feel the uneasiness of sand under her feet was almost overwelming. Without any hestitation she untied her shoes and kicked them off, taking her white socks off and putting them inside of her white chucks. The sand under her feet felt warm and grainy causing her to chuckle a bit. She watched the waves crash and tumble over eachother, as she gazed into the vast sea she spotted a girl playing by herself in the dark blue, almost green water. The girl had brown hair that was almost golden like in the beaming sun she had visible curls that resembled Roses, and her skin was a nice white tanish color. Overall the girl looked perfect, almost too perfect. With a new hue of red planted on Cerise's cheek she walked steadily into the water, longing to talk to the other girl.

"U-um H-h-hi m-my n-name i-is C-c-cerise!" Cerise shouted as she waved kindly at the stranger.

The girl peeked up and almost lost her balance in the fit of waves, shocked to see a wild haired girl with now wet overalls running towards her in water. 

"W-whoa hey you're getting your overalls wet!" The girl exclaimed as Cerise was now waist deep in the water. Cerise shrugged and glanced at the curly haired girl, getting a better view of her. She had to stop herself from whispering a whoa at the girl's beauty. "You're not even in a bathing suit, what are you doing at the beach?" The girl asked in a calm tone.

" I-i-i S-saw y-you i-in th-the w-water a-and w-w-wanted t-to p-play w-with y-you.." Cerise stammered, getting flustered at her stuttering.

"Play with me? You could have just called me over from the shore instead of getting your overalls all wet." The girl said letting out a giggle. Cerise laughed nervously back and scratched the back of her head. "W-well I-i j-ju-"

"Shh, there's no need to explain youself, c'mon let's go to the shore, i'm sure your overalls could use a good dry anyways."The girl said smiling. Cerise nodded and followed the stranger out onto the shore.

"S-so u-uh wh-whats y-your n-name?" Cerise stammered, utterly embrassed at her speech, if only she could talk like a normal person!

"I'm Rose, Rose Quartz." The girl stated taking a seat on the grainy sand.

"I-i'm C-cerise.." Cerise stated her overalls pincing at her thighs in a uncomfortable manner.

"I know you already told me, remember?"

Cerise laughed at herself and smiled dumbly. "O-oh r-right!"

"So what are you doing at the beach by yourself?" Rose asked as Cerise took a seat next to her. 

"T-t-today is m-my fr-freeday! So I decided to m-make s-s-s-s-some new friends today..." Cerise mumbled blissfuly.

Rose smiled and leaned against the girl. "Do you not have any friends?" Cerise shook her head and nodded, gloomy. Rose then smiled widly. "I can be your friend, if you want me to." Rose said. "R-r-really?" 

"Mhm.." Rose hummed as she glanced at the wild haired girl. "O-oh t-thank you! Thank you!" Cerise exclaimed hugging the curly haired girl. Rose laughed blissfully and smiled. "No need to thank me! C'mon i'll race you to the big donut. I bet your fur I can get there first!" Rose challegened with a toothy grin.

"I B-bet y-y-y-y-your f-f-fur y-you can't!" Cerise exclaimed as she started running.

"Hey no fair you cheater!" Rose called trying to catch up with the amber haired girl. Cerise just giggled manically as she raced up the sloped leaving Rose in the dust.

Xanthe set the grocheries on the kitchen counter and grumbled curses to herself as she absent-mindly grabbed at her neck. Her neck and body throbbed from last night, and embrassment and uneasiness was still in her like snake venom. Audible footsteps could be heard from the stairway causing Xanthe to whip her head around. 

"Oh hey Blu.." Xanthe mumbled as her elder sister approached her. Blu placed a slender hand on her sibling's neck brushing it against the visible purple tint hickies. "What are y-"

"I'm so sorry Xanthe, I feel like this is all my fault.." Blu cried as tears welded in her eyes. 

"Shh, shh, this isn't your fault alright? Don't feel that way..Ok?" All Blu could do was nod in understanding as her younger sibling grabbed her chin. "Don't cry over me, you just worry about you and Cerise, I can handle it, I promise..." Xanthe whispered resuringly. "I don't understand why she does that to you..." Blu whispered as she pulled her sibling into a strong embrace.

"I don't know why either, but wondering why isn't going to stop anything, we just have to do with it until we put our plan in ac-"

"What plan?" 

Xanthe and Blu's hearts dropped as Xanthe intinctively held her sister in a protective grip. There's mother's voice was like a icy mist entering lukewarm comfortable air. "N-no plan Mother! W-we were just t-talking a-about a project we were thinking of working on! F-for you!" Xanthe stammered absentmindly stepping away from their mother.

"Oh really..? It didn't like you were talking about a project. Are you trying to leave me my pet?" Their Mother asked with a icy intimidating  gaze.

"N-no? Why would I ever do that..? Y-you know I...L-love...Y-you. I-i-i told you l-last night!" Xanthe said in chunks as she broke out into a sweat. Blu looked up at Xanthe in a dazed expression, utterly confused. 

"Xanthe, i'm not dumb, do you think i'm dumb? I heard what you two were saying from the second you two engaged in conversiation. Perhaps maybe you and Blu should spend sometime apart, hm? Or will I have to punish both of you instead and make Cerise watch, and Xanthe you know what type of punishment i'm talking about." Their mother said sternly, her voice bouncing off the walls.

"No! P-please don't h-hurt Xanthe like that! How could you do such a thing to your own daughter!?" Blu chimed in, causing Xanthe to glare at her, signaling for her to shut the hell up.

"Oh~? It seems like Blu already chose your punishment without your consent Xanthe...Fair enough though, Xanthe go get some clothes from your room and whatever you need because your staying in my room until you two learn not to go off and start planning shit together."

Xanthe nodded grimly as she walked towards the stairway, leaving Blu behind. As Xanthe walked up the stairs, Blu attempted to follow her sister but was grabbed by her mother and forced to look her in the eyes.

"If you tell anyone on what I do to Xanthe, I will do it to both you and Cerise, do you understand me?" All blu could do was nod and stare into their mother's icy cold stare. 

"Good, now go upstairs, and stay in your room. Is. That. Clear?" 

"M-mhm.." Blu nodded as her mother released her grip around her, without any hesitation Blu raced to the stairway and practically ran upstairs. Entering the bedroom she ran to Xanthe and hugged her tightly. "I-i'm so sorry Xanthe.." Blu whispered.

"It's my fault.." Xanthe mumbled. Xanthe spun to face her older sibling and held her chin tilting her head in a slight angle. Blu blushed a slight hue of red as her sister leaned in first, Blu leaning in to fill the gap of space bewteen them. Their lips met momentarily, but soon pulled away from eachother's as quick as they had come incontact with one another's. 

"I'm going to miss you Xanthe.." Blu whispered blissfully, still taken back by the kiss.

"So am I...Whenever I come back maybe we can...Do that..Again.." Xanthe blushed as she shrugged her shoulders awkward, smiling meekly.

"Of course we can!" Blu exclaimed embracing her sister again. "Be on your best behavior so she can let you stay in the room again.." Blu whispered her voice trailing off again. Xanthe nodded and pecked her sister's cheek one last time. Leaving the bedroom with a bundle of clothes in her arms. 'Tonight is going to be nothing but living hell...' Xanthe thought as she opended her mother's bedroom door.

"B-bye R-rose!!" Cerise waved as her face was currently covered in Chocolate icing from her donut she won, by beating Rose at the race to the big donut.

"Bye cerise, i'll see you tomorrow?" 

Cerise nodded and parted their ways, estactic to get to be with her new friend tomorrow. She walked to her house and opended the front door, see immediately saw her mom downstairs and ran upstairs going into her sister's bedroom.

"B-Blu g-g-guess wh- Blu..?" 

Blu was hunched over on Xanthe's bed and wept lightly. Cerise walked over to her sister and wrapped her arms around her.

"W-why a-are you crying B-b-b-blu?"

"Mother took Xanthe away..."

"W-why..?"

"W-we w-were planning on running away, and mother found out so she made Xanthe stay in her room.." Blu whispered.

Cerise forced a smile and hugged her sister gingerly. "X-x-x-xanthe w-w-will b-b-be fine and we'll see her s-s-s-soon enough, we just g-gotta b-b-be s-s-strong." Blu smiled and hugged her sister.

"Oh thank you Cerise you always know how to make me smile.." Blu whispered, Cerise smiled encouragingly.

'Oh if only you knew the things Mother those to Xanthe, Cerise..' Blu thought as she rubbed chocolate  off of her sisters face, smiling at the substance.

"How did this get on you?" Blu asked as she showed Cerise the chocolate on her fingers.

"W-well y-you s-see.." 

That whole night all Cerise did was talk about Rose, and oh how Blu wished she never had, had asked Cerise that question. 

Chapter Text

Hushed raindrops danced against the cool thick window as Cerise slumbered in her warm quilt. The raindrops seemed to form a calming spell, almost a hypnosis on the residents of Beach City. No cars nor pick-up trucks were apparent in the sleeply morning. Only the pitter patter of raindrops crashing to the Earth's surface and horns of voyaging ships were apparent that early summer morning. Cerise snored softly, as the rain poured on their mansion of a house. Soft breaths escaping her somewhat chapped lips as her brows twitched. Her face cringed as her body slowly woke up, the rain's morning hypnosis wearing off on her. A soft groan escaped her lips as she opended her soft autumn colored eyes. Eye gunk crested the corner of her eyes, causings discomfort. With a tired sloppy motion she wipped the gunk away from her eyes, quickly flicking it off of her fingertips. Morning grogginess seemed to bypass her body completely that morning. It felt like she'd been up for previous hours, maybe she was. Honestly she didn't really know, and didn't really care. Mindfully brushing a bang of of her face she sat up and strectched, sighing gleefully. Today was sunday, sadly, the last day of the weekend before it was back to the girls regular schdule of doing nothing but piles of schoolwork. Cerise honestly wished she could go to the town's middle school, it'd be a lot more fun than their mother's homeschooling. She'd could make friends and go on wacky adventures with them, just like in the movies and TV shows about middle school that aired on TV. Maybe one day..She thought blissfully as she slipped out of bed. The rain seemed to pour harder and harder by the second. Tip toeing to the window Cerise peered out of it, her heart dropping as she gazed upon the flooded streets. Cerise did not want to spend the rest of her freeday cooped up in her bedroom reading or gawking at the wall.

It's not that bad outside, maybe I can stay at the Big Donut or something. Cerise scratched her head as she thought quietly to herself. The young girl honestly despised planning, without a doubt, it was her sworn enemy, and most of the time whenever she did plan something out, it never really went as she planned. She liked living life not knowing what was going to happen next, the suspense of a new day was like a drug to her. It was exciting. So who was she to ruin the magic of a new day by planning it out?

With that cunning philosphy in mind she forgot about her thoughts and sneaked towards the girls' closet, her hand planted itself on the bronze doorknob, the sheer coldness raditating from the knob almost made her pull her hand away. With a quick twist of the doorknob the closet door noisily creakeed open, causing Cerise to painfully cringe. She turnt her head back to Blu, hoping she hadn't waken up her elder sister. 

"C-cerise..shusshh..." Blu whispered as she angrily tossed and turnt in bed.

Cerise responded with a slight whimper of acknowledgment and shuffled through the racks of clothes as quickly as possible. She pulled her yellow rainslicker out along with a matching yellow blouse and blue jean denim pants. Slipping out of her nightgown she tossed on her casual attire for the stormy summer day. All her outfit was missing was her trusty rainboots and a nice umbrella to shield her from the rain. Squating on the floor Cerise grabbed Xanthe's umbrella, she held the tool with care. 

Xanthe wouldn't mind me using it, she hardly uses it anyways. She thought as she brushed her fingertips over Xanthe's initals which were inscribed in the umbrella's fabric. With a firm grip on the umbrella's squishy handle Cerise grabbed her rainboots from out of the back of the closet, and slipped them on quickly. The rainboots were much too big on her feet, they felt like loose heavy weights on her small feet. Alas, that was the only pair of rainboots she owned so she'd have to make due. Walking carefully to the restroom she pulled out her toothbrush from behind the sink and grabbed the tube of Colgate toothpaste from out of medience cabinet. Smearing the blue paste onto her plain green transparent toothbrush she scrubbed her teeth in a hurry, eager to brush her messy hair and scram out of the eerie mansion.

Foam formed in her mouth, some of it slipping out of her mouth and dripping into the sink. Spitting out the rest of the foam Cerise rinsed her mouth out with the tap water and wiped her wet upper lip against her rainslicker's sleeve. Sighing lowly Cerise grabbed her brush from the countertop and tried to style of her hair a bit, making her bang do a odd flip that seemed to defy gravity just a tad bit. Putting some water through her hair (to make it look less poofy) Cerise sat the brush down and exited the restroom getting ready to leave the house and take on the stormy day. As she was getting ready to leave the massive bedroom Blu's chilling voice filled the eerie air causing shock to sweep its way up Cerise, her heart skipping a beat.

"Where are you going? It's storming outside." 

Blu's voice always had a aura to it Cerise could never really pinprint. Her voice seemed that of a ghost that had been mourning for millenias. It creeped Cerise silly sometimes whenever Blu spoke.

"I was going to hang out at the Big Donut for the day." Cerise responded wittly.

"Can't you just stay here?" 

"I d-d-don't wuh-wuh-want t-t-t-to b-b-b-b-b-be he-he-here." Cerise stammered.

"Oh c'mon on Cerise just stay here, we'll have fun we can even play that game you like, what is it called, Dungeons and Goblins?"

"It's D-d-dungeons and D-d-dragons, and I-I-I only like it whenever X-x-xanthe plays with me, plus i'm not in t-t-the m-mood t-to p-play." 

Blu sighed in defeat.

"Be back before sundown or Mom will have a bird."

"I will Blu, see you later!" Cerise said as she left the bedroom, walking sleathly downstairs. She promptly exited the front door and left the cold mansion, instantly being hit with the nasty weather. She opended up Xanthe's umbrella and adjusted the tool to sheild her from the rain.

The wind seemed to pull against her as she trotted out of the neighborhood. Her too big rainboots getting stuck in the water from the flooded streets here and there. Rain seemed to streamed down her cheeks like a river. Some of the rain water even got into her mouth.

I gotta get to the big donut fast.

Her trotting seemed to slow down as she spotted the massive donut in the misty distance. She was actually impress with herself on how fast she ran. Maybe all that running from Mom made me so fast. I don't know maybe I can be a track star one day, and whenever im running I could just pretend Mom is chasing me. That thought alone would make me run faster than the speed of light, maybe even faster than Sonic! Cerise thought morbidly as she gazed down at her rain covered boots, walking in a steady pace. As she neared her way to the big donut she glanced at the beach. The waves seemed more violent today, they crashed and rammed into eachother like bulls. 

Reminds me of whenever me and Xanthe fight. No, whenever Xanthe fights me.

As she gazed into the vast roaring sea with a new found sadness, Cerise spotted a familar sillhoutte sitting on the sand.

Rose? The heck is she doing out here!?

Sprinting towards her curly haired friend Cerise shouted and waved at her friend.

She's not even wearing a jacket! 

"R-r-rose!! Wuh-wuh-what are you doing out h-here!?"

Rose seemed to jump and cock her head towards Cerise in a frightful manner.

"Oh, Cerise. Good morning."

"Buenos Dias to you to ro-rosie, t-the h-heck a-are y-you going o-out he-here y-y-you don't even have a jacket or rainslicker on." 

Rose simply shrugged as Cerise took a sit next to her, setting Xanthe's umbrella next to her. 

"Oh shoot R-r-r-rose you're g-gunna c-catch a c-c-cold out h-here!" Cerise mumbled as she took her rainslicker off and wrapped it around the curl haired girl.

"Doesn't your parents look out for you?" Cerise asked as Rose stared at her with amusement.

"My parents?"

"Yeah you're parents."

"My parents are bad."

Cerise froze a bit at Rose's sentence, glancing at the girl with concern.

"W-w-what?"

"My parent's are bad and they were working with bad..things...so I had to run away from them. And now i'm here."

"So you're homeless?" 

Rose just simply nodded as she snuggled the rainslicker for warmth that wasn't there. Cerise was honestly baffled and flabbergastered by this new information, comically scratching her head as she let out a sigh as cool rain drenched her clothes.

"W-why d-d-didn't you tell me this yesterday..? I could have found somewhere for you to stay at, where did you sleep at  last night?"

"The Library, they kicked me out this morning though." Rose stated as she stared into Cerise's soft autumn colored eyes, she could honestly get lost in them if she really wanted to. But their conversation held somewhat of a importance to it that made her focus on Cerise's words, more than her face.

"Ah s-s-s-sheesh R-rosie..I-i-i don't want you living on the s-s-suh-suh-streets!" Cerise exclaimed dramatically, causing Rose to laugh.

"W-w-w-w-what's s-s-s-s-so f-f-funny!?" Cerise yelled her cheeks turning a dark crimson.

"You, yah silly! You look like a toddler throwing a temper tantrum and all."

"I...I just feel bad you don't have no where to go..What are you going to do?" Cerise asked biting her fingernails.

Rose scooted close to Cerise, uncomfortable close, she then wrapped the rainslicker around the two of them and grabbed the umbrella from the other side of Cerise, using the tool to sheild them from the rain. "I'm going to spend the day with you, and not worry about anything, and just enjoy having a pretty girl with me today." Rose said, flirtatcious.

Cerise turned a new sort of beet red and smiled witly as her heart seemed to skip a beat. Never has anyone flirted with her. The feeling was so vague, so odd to her it made her sick in a sense, she wanted to hurl.

"Well, i'm still worrying about you, I can't just leave you out here." Cerise stated looking down at the wet sand thoughtfully.

"Maybe I can sneak you into my house, it's really big, you can stay in the attic."

"You think so..?"

"yeah, but my mom isn't really..nice. So i'm going to have to sneak you in while she's still asleep so we need to go now." Cerise said standing up. Rose sighed then stood next to the amber haired girl. 

"Ok, you don't have to do this though."

Cerise shook her head then smiled.

"I want to though."

"Ok..Ok, let's go, escort me my lovely peasant!" Rose exclaimed in a joking manner, holding out her arm for Cerise to take.

"Yes m'diamond~!" Cerise yelled with a old fashioned accent. Causing another laugh from Rose as Cerise wrapped her arm around Rose's. Making sure to grab her rainslicker and Xanthe's umbrella before they left.

*   *   *

Cerise shakily opended the front door, praying to God their mother was still asleep and Blu was reading. "Shh...Follow me.." Cerise whispered as she let Rose in, closing the front door after her. Rose couldn't help but gawk at the mansion. 

"whoa..it's so..big.."

"W-w-wait u-u-until you see tha a-a-a-attic." Cerise muttered as she led Rose to the attic. She opended the Attic's wooden door and turnt on the light switch. "C'mon." Cerise breathed tiptoeing on the attic's stairs. Rose followed the amber haired girl and couldn't help, but feel..odd. There was a prescence she couldn't pinprint in the house, a familar prescence that creeped her out and haunted her.

"Here R-r-r-r-r-r-rose, you can stay on the couch in here, there's books n' stuff, if you get bored, and i'll bring you lunch at twelve-"

"Are you ok..?" Cerise asked as she saw Rose hesitate coming into the attic.

"y-yes i'm fine.." Rose said as she walked down the attic's stairs.

"Mkay, i'll be back at twelve with lunch." Cerise said as she started to leave the room.

"How will I know it's you..?"

"I'll whistle. See you later Rose." Cerise called out as she climbed up the attic's stairs.

"Bye cerise."

The wooden door closed softly leaving Rose in almost complete darkness, the attic's dim light being her only lightsource.

Cerise breathed as she closed the attic's door. This is going to be fun. She thought as she headed back into her bedroom.

Chapter Text

Xanthe let out a groan as she lifted her head from the softness of a pillow. She blinked and looked around her surroundings in a dazed state. She was in, her room..?

How?

She slipped out of her bed in confusion.

This wasn't her room..It looked different, she couldn't put her finger on it, but she could tell it was different, she could feel it was. Walking sleathily to the bathroom she looked at herself in the mirror. She was fully clothed, her eyes didn't have their bags underneath them, instead they had a weird line on the top of her eyelids. Touching the black line, she noticed it smeared on her fingertip. She was wearing eyeliner?

What the hell is going on?

Backing away from the mirror she raced out of the bedroom and dashed downstairs.

This is some weirdass dream, i'll wake up and be in Mom's room.

"Whoa Xanthe save the energy for the track." A familar voice laughed, a peppy voice, Cerise's voice. Xanthe steadily entered the dining area and saw Blu, Cerise, and their mother eating Breakfast together. There was no tension in the dining area, Cerise lazily slumped in her seat as Blu sat unusual close to their mother.

"Cerise will you not put so much damn syrup on your toast?!" Blu nagged as she snatched the brown plastic bottle out of Cerise's hand.

"Hey give it back, you wetback!" Cerise cried as she reached over the table.

"Mom!!" Blu whined.

"Cerise leave your sister alone, and eat your food before you miss the bus!"

This isn't real, i'm just dreaming, this is all in my head. No way is this reality, Cerise isn't even stuttering!

"Good morning Xanthe." All three of them said in eerie unison. Then for a split second a second world revealed itself, the room got dark and the air chilled. Cerise's smiled decayed into a frown as blood began to drip out of mouth in a steady stream. Xanthe's face turned a sickily white, she could only mingle a shallow groan. Her heart skipped a beat as fear rose up in her body.

"Whoa? Are you okay?" Cerise asked as the first world seemed to come back into play.

"U-um y-yes, i'm gunna skip breakfast today.."

"What why? I made your favorite." Their mother stated with a smile.

Xanthe gulped then shook her head.

"I-i'll pass."

"Well ok then Xanthe, see you after school."

"Hey! Don't forget to come to my volleyball game again!" Cerise hollered as Xanthe left the house.

"I...Won't?" Xanthe shouted back with finality, closing the door behind her. She gazed outside, it looked normal? Yet it was different, it smelt funny outside. It smelt like the inside of casket. Walking down the street Xanthe wrapped her arms around herself.

Why is it so goddamn cold?

It felt like as the seconds went by the air chilled a bit, and soon her breath caused white mist to appear in the air, but despite that, the sun was still shining. Shining like the way it usual did during the oven hot summers Beach City got.

This is fucking weird. What the hell is this?

This was all a bad dream, a weird odd dream that didn't make sense. Cerise wasn't stuttering, Mom was being nice, Blu and Cerise weren't lovely dovey to eachother.

And Xanthe did track?

She hated running, and if she had a chance to play a sport she would most definetley do Basketball or Wrestling. Not track.

Though, even if this dream seemed weird and unnatural, she liked it. She liked not hearing Cerise repeat the same syllable or letter five fucking times in a row. She liked how Blu and Cerise bickered, she even liked their mother's warm smile and the lost of strong tension in the air.

Then it dawned on her.

That was the way she wanted things, how she longed to have that type of family. A normal family. In a normal family the oldest sibling and youngest always fought, instead of loving eachother. In a normal family your Mom didn't hurt you, or forced you to do things you didn't want to do.

Gulping non-existant spit she wiped off warm fresh tears. This was all just a fantasy world her brain made up while she was sleeping.

It's all fake.

The 'fantasy world' she was in suddenly came to a halt. The second world shown itself again, but now the second world was here to stay. The sun was soon a bloody color and the blue sky was a dark nasty black. The air was freezing cold to the point where it burned.

A girly shriek escaped Xanthe's lips as she jumped and looked around in confusion.

She looked at her hands and noticed they were decaying. She let out a fearful moan, she was so scared she couldn't even let out a scream.

"Xanthe.."

She turnt around and saw Cerise.

Xanthe tried to speak, but her mind was moving too fast for her mouth.

"Cuh-cuh-cuh-rise..?"

Cerise smiled, her lips were chaped her eyes big and round, her skin a gross pale color. This was her Cerise, the Cerise she grew up with, and almost raised at one point in time.

"You don't like me? Do you?" Cerise asked pouting.

"Y-y-y-y-you a-a-always c-c-ause p-p-problems!" Xanthe stammered, as Cerise came closer to her.

Cerise's bottom lip trembled as big bloby tears left her eyes, a loud sob escaped from her lips. The tears turnt into a thick goop that almost looked black, but when the blood red sun shone on the liquid, it had a crimson shine to it, just like blood. The steady stream of tears left red stains on Cerise's pink cheeks. Xanthe watched in horror and sadness, she had always seen Cerise cry, but it was different this time. Cerise looked so hurt. "I'm s-s-sowwy." Cerise sobbed. Xanthe bit her lip, she pulled her little sister into a hug. Cerise rested her head on Xanthe's shoulder, her bloody tears staining Xanthe's shirt. "It's o-o-o-o-okay..." Xanthe whispered kissing Cerise's head. Cerise went limp in Xanthe's grip and blood fell from the twelve year old's mouth. Xanthe jumped and felt herself being pulled down by Cerise's sudden weight. They both fell on the cold pavement, Cerise coughed up blood getting it all over the concerte, causing it to turn a dark black. Proping Cerise's head up, Xanthe watched in horror as Cerise's veins turnt a sickily blackish blueish color. Heavy coughs came from Cerise as Xanthe tried desperately to make her stop bleeding, going as far as to covering up the child's mouth. She sounds like she has whooping cough..Xanthe thought bitterly with a few tears rolling down her cheek. "W-what's wrong w-w-w-with you?" Her younger sister didn't respond, she was in so much pain. "H-hey y-y-you're g-g-going to b-b-be ok..Just buh-buh-breathe." Xanthe stuttered. Stop stuttering. Cerise started to writhe and wail out in pain. It was like watching a baby scream or cry, you didn't know what was wrong with them so all you had to do was watch in horror. Her screams sounded so deranged, she didn't even sound like herself. Then out of nowhere Cerise's head shot up and a black liquid seeped out of her mouth. The matter of the liquid made it apparent that it wasn't blood, blood was thick, but not that thick. More of it came out and Cerise's screaming just stopped.

"Cerise..?" Nothing. She could see Cerise staring up at something with a pale face. Xanthe followed her gaze her mouth became dry as she saw a dark cloud coming their direction then shadows of things formed. Everything was quite only the silent roars of clouds being heard. "R-run-"

Xanthe woke up and shivered as she sat up. She was awake, thank God she was awake. For the dream being so vivid she'd already forgotten the majority of it, only remembering Cerise's screams and the lovely dream life her mind made up. Sighing softly she glanced besides her and noticed their mother wasn't there. That's strange.. Getting up she picked up her clothes from the previous night and threw them on. She quietly left their mother's room and went into the girls. "Blu.." Xanthe hissed. 

Blu jumped and glanced at Xanthe, she was on her bedside covering her arms. "What are you doing in here?!" Blu asked furrowing her brows. "Mother isn't here...I just wanted to come by to see if you were ok..What are you doing..?" Xanthe asked, there was a certain tone in her voice that only her and their mother could really do, it was one mixed with pitty, but also confidence, it was like they were talking to someone beneath them and they were highly aware of it. 

"It's nothing ok..? You shouldn't be in here.." Blu said her voiced filled with sorrow. 

"I don't think it's nothing, what are you hiding?" Xanthe asked taking a seat next to Blu, Blu hid her arms and looked away. "Oh it's nothing Xanthe.." Biting her lip Xanthe pulled Blu's arms away from her and examined Blu's arms in horror. "Why would you do this to yourself?" Xanthe asked looking into Blu's ocean gray eyes. "I thought it'd make me feel better..I know it's stupid b-" "Yeah it's stupid, you think it'd make you feel better? You know Cerise is going to be able to see them, and who knows how'll she'll react to it." Xanthe nagged placing a hand on Blu's cuts. Blu winced and furrowed her brows. "I know..This is why we shouldn't speak of this ever again.." Xanthe bit her inner cheek then sighed. "Okay, fine, but don't be so fucking pathetic to use cutting as a coping mec-" Blu had sighed and closed her eyes. She's just like Mother, exactly like her, I hate that I love her, especially like that. "Blu did you hear that?" 


"Hear what?" Xanthe quickly got up and instinctively Blu followed. Faintly they could hear voices, they both looked at eachother and paced out of the bedroom running down the stairs.

Blu's mouth went agaped as they bumped into a rain drenched Cerise. The water on the young girl's shirt made her bra more apparent, and her pants stuck uncomfortabley heavy on her legs. Cerise's mud covered rainboots left a track on the marble floors and wooden staircase. Blu almost fainted. Cerise was stunned to see Xanthe and Blu, same went vice versa.

"Um, hi?" Cerise smiled sheephisly.

"What did you do?! You told me you'd be at the Big Donut! Not playing in the rain!" Blu snapped. Xanthe glanced at Blu then Cerise.

"I'm S-sowwy there was b-b-b-begar a-and I just had to h-he-help h-"

"You helped a Beggar!?"

Cerise looked at Xanthe, begging for her older sister to save her from Blu's bitching. Xanthe only shurgged and bit her lip, like hell she was going to start getting bitched at, she already got bitched at by their mother. No way was she going to have, or even allow Blu to talk to her in such a manner. And she was still shooken up by that...dream. It took a lot out of her not to cry or hug the hell out of Cerise.

"Go take a shower and wash your own clothes for once!" Blu ordered, causing Xanthe to jump in shock, and a pained expression to fall on Cerise's face. Xanthe watched as Cerise walked past the both of them, heading into the girls bedroom.

"Are you ok..?" Xanthe asked looking at Blu.

"She just..She never uses her goddamn head, she just does things just to do them! She never plans or thinks things out, and it's like I always have to look out for her! I just wish I didn't have to worry so much about her, it feels like since I know i'm probably the only one who actually cares for her, I have to look out for her or no one else will! I'm only sixteen Xanthe, and I already feel like a mother a-and I shouldn't.." Blu vented tears threating to leave her eyes.

"Blu I-"

"Just shut up Xanthe, go back to Mom's room before she pops up out of nowhere and gives me more hell." Blu winced wiping off her tears.

"Gives you hell?! You don't even know what I go through everyday! You can't even corrpehend what I go through!"

"Oh really..? At least Mom doesn't hit you! At least Mom says she loves you! She never says that to me or Cerise! At least she actually cares about you!" Blu yelled tears coming down in steady streams on her cheeks, lightly punching Xanthe's shoulder.

"Blu stop, please..." Xanthe whispered as she forced Blu into a hug, Blu tried to fight her sister's embrace, but eventually gave in and started to weep in Xanthe's shoulder wetting the shirt she was wearing. "Screw you.." Blu harshly whispered.

"Yeah, well screw you too.."

* * *

Cerise prepared a PB&J sandwich for Rose, oddly their mother wasn't there which made the amber haired girl suspicous and more cautious of her surroundings. Blu was in the main living room reading The Great Gatsby, and Xanthe went out to go buy more toothpaste and shampoo for Blu and Cerise. 

The peanut butter jelly sandwich was poorly made and some of the grape jelly dripped down the side of the sandwich in a gross manner. Feeling bad, Cerise cut up a few apple slices to make up for her shameful PB&J sandwich. Quickly tossing the sandwich and apple slices on a plate Cerise went into the refridgerator and grabbed a YooHoo carton.

I don't even know how Blu likes these, it's not even milk its just chocolate water..

Brushing that thought aside Cerise grabbed the plate with her free-hand and rushed to the attic. Making sure to remember she let out a quick whistle.

"Rose it's me, Cerise."

"What took you so long..?" Rose asked as Cerise closed the door and walked down the attic's stairs.

"I'm sorry, my older sister made me shower, here I brought you some food." Handing the dish to Rose Cerise sub-conciously unbuttoned the first three buttons on her blu button up shirt.

"What's the occasion?" Rose asked as she glanced at Cerise's attire taking a bite out of the PB&J sandwich.

"Oh..This is the way my older sister dresses me..It's embrassing actually.." Cerise blushed scratching the back of her neck while looking away.

"Hey speaking of attire..Do you think you have any extra clothes you could spare me?" Rose asked.

"Of course, I think you can fit into my clothes actually, wait right here i'll go get you something to change into so you won't have to be in those wet clothes anymore." 

"Okay. Thank you Cerise." Rose responded taking a seat on the family's spare couch they stored in the attic.

Rushing out of the attic Cerise quietly shut the door and raced upstairs.

"Cerise stop running up those stairs before you trip and bust your chin open!" Blu hollered from the living room.

"Sorry!"

Going into their room Cerise went through the racks of clothes and pulled out a vanilla button up shirt and a maroon sweater with a Rose patch on the left breast.

It's like it was meant for her.

She then grabbed a pair of Khakis and some old loafers she long forgotten about. Going back into the attic Cerise handed the clothes to Rose. "Here, I hope you like it."

"Oh, thank you." Rose said as she started to undress, almost stripping down to her underwear.

"WOAH, WOAH!" Cerise squeaked, she quickly pulled Rose's shirt down, her face was beet red and her cheeks were hot.

"w-what?"

"You u-u-undress w-w-without me looking..Y-y-you know..p-p-p-p-privacy?"

"O-oh..I'm sorry.."

"It's f-f-f-fine, just y-y-y-yeah, i'll close my e-e-e-eyes." Cerise said as she covered her eyes with her hands.

Still red, Cerise could hear the shuffling of cloth and a frustrared groan. "Cerise I need your help with this shirt. The buttons are weird." 

"W-what..?" Cerise uncovered her eyes and saw Rose's vanilla button up shirt buttoned up all weird. Letting out a laugh Cerise smiled and went up to Rose, she unbuttoned Rose's shirt and smiled.

"How the h-heck d-did you d-do this?"

Rose shrugged and blushed as she felt Cerise gaze at her body here and there as she buttoned up the vanilla shirt.

"I-i-i-i-i u-use t-to be bad at this too m-my o-older s-sister B-blu use to help me out with stuff like this all the time. But I-i c-caught on eventually."

"You talk about her a lot."

"I-i d-do?" 

"Yeah, even at the Big Donut you talked about her, how her favorite donut was the cherry filled ones with the chocolate icing."

"Well, she's the only person I really know, of course there's my other sister Xanthe, but I think she hates me. I can understand w-why t-t-though i-i-i'm a p-p-p-problem m-mom s-s-says s-s-so."

"You're not a problem, you're a person..."

"I-i..I guess so."

"Don't listein to your mom, you're wonderful."

Cerise shrugged then sat on the couch.

"Don't forget to put your sweater on, it gets really cold at night down here." Cerise mumbled.

"Ok.."

Xanthe walked into the convient store and wrinkled her nose at the strong smell of cheap cleaning supplies. Bleach and a sort of sour smell could be smelt throughout the whole store.

I hate living in this town so much. Xanthe thought as she went to the personal hygenine section, throughout the store, posters and ADS for Flu vaccines could be seen almost everywhere, as long with a anti-drug ad with a cheesy catchphrase. 'Up with hope. Down with dope!'

Xanthe couldn't help but smile at the childish ad. I ain't on dope so why do I have no hope? Xanthe thought to herself, crudely mocking the poster. Dragging her attention elsewhere she looked through the selves for Colgate toothpaste and a small bottle of shampoo. She got the toothpaste, but she had trouble finding the right smelling shampoo. Even though she knew she wouldn't be using the shampoo so her prevence on the smell didn't matter, she still found it nessceary. Because Blu was going to be using it, and she wanted Blu to smell the way she wanted her to smell, she wanted her to smell nice and beautiful.

Finally picking on a cherry blossom smell Xanthe quickly walked to the cash register and handed her things to the cashier. The cashier was a tired old man that had a mixture bewteen gray and orange hair and his heavy eyebags and bloodshot eyes made him look ill. Xanthe almost felt bad for the old man, and she could tell she was making him nervous by the way he scanned her items.

"You're total will be 6.25 Miss Diamond." 

Xanthe jumped at her last name, she handed the money to the cashier and mumbled a simple thanks and grabbed the plastic bag the cashier stuffed her things in. Walking out of the convient stores she could hear a faint yelling noise and loud stomps on the pavement.

"YOU BETTER GET BACK HERE YOU NERD!!" A deep voice screamed as a nasially voice screamed.

Xanthe peered up in confusion, her brows furrowed. Then out of nowhere a strong force rammed into her causing her to get knocked off of her feet, the plastic bag leaving her grip and falling on the ground.

"What the hell is wr-"

"H-help me, please!!" A girl with wild haired begged as she got off of Xanthe. 

"No more running you little freak, now where's my fucking homework!" A muscular girl yelled as she approaced Xanthe.

The girl gulped and clung onto Xanthe as she trembled.

A nightmare, a arguement, and now this.

Xanthe sighed then got up and grabbed the muscular's girls leather jacket.

"Leave her alone, you're obviously bigger than her, she's a ant compared to you so don't waste your time on her."

"Move it before I smash your face in, and cut off all those pretty curls off of your head." The musuclar girl growled.

"No."

Before she knew it Xanthe felt a strong fist ram into her face causing her nose to bleed. Falling back Xanthe accidently bit into her inner bottom lip causing blood to suddenly flow out of her mouth.

"You're so fucking dead." Xanthe growled.

Chapter Text

Xanthe pushed the girl down with all her body weight, this motion caused her to fall down and let out a surprise gasp. Xanthe fell with her too. She could feel blood flow down her left nostril, but she didn't care, not at the moment she did, but she knew as soon as she looked in the mirror she would. Sitting on the girl's upper body she socked her jaw and nose. Xanthe's punches at first, came in a fast blur, but quickly her arm started straining with pain causing her punches to come in lazy swishing motions. Making Xanthe look drunk and pathetic. 

"I said leave her the fuck alone, did your parents drop you on the head too many fucking times as a baby!?" Xanthe screamed grabbing the girl's collar. The girl looked at Xanthe in horror, but with a odd admiration and excitement. This gesture shook Xanthe up a bit, why wasn't the girl terrified of her? This shock caused the perfect moment for the muscular girl to grab Xanthe by the shirt and headbutt her. 

Xanthe's head flung back and she felt her body crash on the ground with a loud THUD! She felt dizzy and the world seemed to spin. She blinked a few times to try and get the world to stop spinning. The girl got on top of Xanthe and right hooked her nose causing it to bleed even worse. The girl laughed manically as she grabbed Xanthe's shirt and banged her head against the pavement causing the world to become even more blurry and distasteful.

"What the hell is a pretty girl like you trying to fight..?" The girl sneered as she stopped the abuse to Xanthe's head, grabbing Xanthe's hand abruptly and laughing.

"Look at how girly your hand looks! All nice and pretty, I bet your Mom payed a pretty penny for them to look like this." She sneered as she clutch Xanthe's bruised hand in a painful grip.

"Now what if I did this to them..?" The girl bent Xanthe's hand in a wry postition causing a gasp of pain and surprise from Xanthe. The girl smiled as she bent her hand more, eventually pulling back her fingers as well. Letting out a cry Xanthe stradled her legs and kicked profousely.

"Jasper stop! Leave her alone, she has nothing to do with this!" The girl that Xanthe 'saved' cried.

"Shut it, Peridot before I break her hand then knock out every last one of your teeth!" Jasper yelled as she stopped her torture.

The girl, who Xanthe presumed as Peridot then shuffled through her brown oil stained bookbag and grabbed out a crumbled piece of paper. Straighting it out on the pavement she gave it to Jasper.

"Here just take it and go.." Peridot mumbled as she re-adjusted her brown rimmed specs. There was a look of shame and pity in her eyes.

Grabbing the paper, Jasper got off of Xanthe and wiped her bloody nose. She glanced at Xanthe then at Peridot.

"Nerd you're dead at school tomorrow, and you Blondie...Get a haircut, that style is too fucking innocent for you, it looks like something my little sister would wear." Jasper grumbled as she stalked off.

Resting on her elbows Xanthe subconciously ran a hand through her hair. She did hate this style, but her mother liked it.

"Hey are you ok..? I'm so sorry about my..friend there."

"Goddamn that's your friend..? Listein kid i'm not a expert on 'friends' but you need to make some new on-"

Xanthe stopped mid-sentence as she glanced at Peridot, she didn't really get a chance to fully look at her, but she was happy she did. The girl was really, really pretty. Everything about her seemed imperfect yet perfect at the same time. Xanthe felt her cheeks grow hot. 

Peridot snapped her fingers infront of Xanthe's face.

"Hey!? Are you okay?!"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine i'm just light headed." Xanthe stated as she got up, she stumbled a bit and almost fell. Catching Xanthe by the waist Peridot helped the bruised girl stand straight on her feet, she even grabbed Xanthe's bag and put her items back in there for her.

"Here, the shampoo bottle fell and squirted everywhere and the toothpaste box is a bit damaged, but I can buy you new toothpaste and a shampoo bottle if you like." Peridot said as she handed Xanthe the plastic bag. Xanthe didn't hear Peridot's offer as she stared at the dirty blonde's face. Her freckles were evenly placed on her cheeks and her eyes had a nice brown tint to them that almost made them look dark hazel. Her eyelashes were long and curled with beauty, and her small pointy nose gave her a cute quirk that Xanthe honestly loved.

"Hey, hello!? Can you hear me!?"

"U-uh, uh! Yes, no it's f-fine it's just shampoo and toothpaste."

"Listein i'm really sorry about jasper I didn't me-"

"It's fine."

"Are you sure, I mean..She did a good number on you. My advice is you tell your Mom or Dad you ran into a tree."

"Yeah i'm fine, and thanks for the..advice." Xanthe smiled wryly. "Hey, how 'bout I walk you home to make sure that girl, Jasper doesn't cause you any trouble again?" Xanthe offered as she took the plastic bag from Peridot.

"Oh, um yeah sure, i'd like that. I can even patch you up at my house if you like." 

"Yeah, that'd be nice, lead the way?" Xanthe asked smiling with her busted lip that Peridot thought was quite funny in a morbid sense. Peridot nodded and took Xanthe's hand and led the way to her house. 

Cerise glared at Rose, there was a awkward silence that Cerise didn't like but this silence gave her the oppurtinity to take in Rose's beauty. The girl was noteabley taller than Cerise, but only by a inch or two. Cerise was use to people being taller than her, she was barely 5 feet so that brought in tons of possiblites of people being taller than her. But there was something about Rose that caught Cerise's eye countless times. She was different, she'd never seen anyone like her before, maybe it was because she only really sees her sisters and mother and no one else. But the way Rose's hair curled to the way her skin seemed to compliment everything on her body, Cerise was wonderstrucked on how someone can be so naturally pretty. Her eyebrows were naturally even and thick and her eyelashes were curled, just like her hair. She didn't need concealer or blush because her skin was clear and she seemed to have a natural blush on her cheeks all the time. Then her eyes seemed to sparkle in any light, they always seemed to give off a pretty chocolate brown color.

Cerise felt a weird sensation in her lower stomach as she glanced at Rose that she couldn't quite pinprint, but whatever it was, it was making her feel lovedrunk. 

"Cerise are you okay? You look ill."

Cerise snapped out of her daze and blinked at Rose. "Yes i'm fine just..M-m-mystified a bit."

"About what?" Rose asked as she stared into Cerise's eyes.

She has really pretty eyes. Rose mentally noted.

"About...w-why..you r-ran away from your puh-puh-parents. W-what made them so bad?" Cerise stammered. 

Rose quickly got uncomfortable with Cerise's question, but gather up all the courage in her to talk about it.

"I..have something bad..in me, a monster and my p-parents wanted to use the thing in me for bad..b-but this monster is everywhere. It's in this house and in this town, I...I don't know what it is, but it-"

"Rose that's not f-funny." Cerise said with fright in her eyes.

"I'm not being funny Cerise, i'm being serious." 

The thought of a monster living in this house made Cerise sweaty and..Scared.

"P-prove it."

Rose bit her lip then searched her old clothes for the razorblade she kept in one of her pocket. A bum on the street gave it to her and told her to kept it in her pocket just in case a pedophile tried to do anything to her. She then grabbed Cerise's right hand and cut a small but deep cut on her palm, causing a loud squeak to come from Cerise.

"What the heck R-"

"This is the only way I can show you without hurting you too badly." Rose stated, Cerise nodded in understanding and watched as Rose swiped some dust particles off of the blade and but them in her right eye. Cerise tried to stop her but, it was too late. Tears left Rose's eyes in a slow steady pace. 

Taking Cerise's wounded hand she wiped Cerise's palm against her tears. Some of Cerise's blood smeared on Rose's soft cheek. She retracted her hand and glanced at her cut that was no longer there.

"W-wha...H-how d-d-did y-you.."

"If it's possible for me to heal your cut with my tears, then it's possible for a monster to be here and in me."

Cerise gulped and took in a shaky breath, then took in a rough gulp. She held Rose's clean cheek with her left hand, then dabbed her right thumb against her tongue and tried to rub off her blood she got on Rose's other cheek. 

"I-i-i b-believe y-you a-and whatever this thing i-is and w-whatever your p-parents are trying t-to do to you, i'll t-try my b-best to protect y-you from it." Cerise stuttered as she gazed into Rose's eyes. 

"O-okay..?"

"Yeah o-okay.." She rested her head on Cerise's shoulder. "Thank you, Cerise, for everything."

"Your welcome.." Cerise whispered as she hugged Rose. Cerise was terrified.

As They walked to Peridot's house, Peridot told Xanthe stories about the highschool she attended and how hard it was to be a freshmen while being short. Some of the stories earned a hearty chuckle from Xanthe and others..Not so much. Apparently Peridot was known as the 'Techie'  and 'nerd' around school. Countless kids would bother the small teen for answers to various papers or test, and if Peridot refused, the small girl got some type of beating or punishment.

"Jesus christ that's the shit my mother does." Xanthe remarked.

"Your mother beats you?"

"Oh no, not me, she mostly beats my little sister." Xanthe stated.

Peridot widen her eyes a bit and opended her mouth to say something but closed it immediately. It was none of her buisness what happended to the blonde's sister, and she didn't really want to make it hers.

Xanthe didn't really say much about herself, other than the remark about her mother and some things about her parents being divorced and how she was turning 17 this December.

"Wow you're turning 17, you're practically a adult!" Peridot exclaimed causing a blush from Xanthe.

"I suppose so, it's all kind of weird, I guess i'm a bit worried about becoming a adult, my little sister, Cerise she's 12, well she's turning 13 next month, but I worry something bad will happen to her if I leave whenever I get to 18." Xanthe admitted, trying to be as vague as possible. 

Honestly, all she said was true, as much as Cerise pissed her off she did worry about her, it was her job afterall as her older sister. Xanthe keenly remembers her father telling her that the day Cerise was born.

"No matter what you protect my angel, do you hear me? That's your responsiblity as her older sister."

"Yes Daddy I know."

Xanthe looked at the concrete with thoughtfulness that freaked Peridot out a bit, the dirty blonde just scraped up the conclusion that her new friend was still a bit wry and shooken up from the fight, she knows she still was.

"Well she'll be 14 whenever your 18 i'm sure by then she can handle herself just fine." Peridot stated as she pushed her glasses up to the bridge of her nose.

"Yeah, I guess so."

The rest of the walk was quiet, they were entering the 'ghetto' side of town where most of the fishermen and poor people lived. You could tell it was the poor side of Beach City because there was a obvious decrease in quality in the homes. Some of them didn't even look feasble to live in. Peridot stopped at maybe one of the worse houses in this part of town. It looked more like a shack than a house, the roof was made up of rusted metal and the 'bricks'were slanted in the most oddest positions, and mildew and various weeds grew on the side of the house like a fungi taking a host's body.

"Th-this is where you live..?" Xanthe asked trying to hide her disgust.

"Um..Yeah.." Peridot answered embrassed and hurt, she quickly went to the front door and unlocked it with the key she kept in her oil stained bag's front pocket. Whenever Peridot opended the door she ushered in for Xanthe to come inside. As soon as they entered the house they were both hit with the smell of grease and bacon, causing both of them to wrinkle their noses.

"Hi Lapis." Peridot greeted as she shut the door. A tall hispanic girl came from the kitchen, she had some pancake batter on her left cheek and was wearing oven mitts with blue polka dots. She had a messy haircut and her bangs covered most of her forehead, some of it even covering her eyes. You could tell she was poor, but her smile and overall proportional face could trick you otherwise and make you think she was a celebrity or model that was undercover trying to hide away from the press.

"Hey Peridot. Whoa! Who's the eye candy..?"

Xanthe blushed at Lapis's comment, Xanthe was use to people complimenting her on her beauty, but the people that generally complimented her were her mothers friends or various sons or even daughters of her mother's co-workers that wanted to get with Xanthe so they can get various riches from the family. The thing that made Lapis's comment so different was that she was sincere, she wasn't complimenting Xanthe to get money, she really did think she was pretty. Which flustered Xanthe greatly.

"Oh this is....Uh..." Peridot's voice trailed off as she glanced at her blonde friend. She didn't even know her name!

"Xanthe. Nice to meet you." Xanthe said, offering a handshake.

Lapis smiled and took Xanthe's hand. 

"Nice to meet you as well, i'm guessing you helped Peridot out with a bully?"

"Oh uh ye-"

"It wasn't any bully it was Jasper! She attacked me by the docks and I had to run and thank God I ran into Xanthe or I would have, had to get plastic surgery." Peridot nearly yelled surprisingly Xanthe a bit.

Lapis's face turnt red as she heard Peridot's story. "Next time I see that, that bitch again i'm going to give her a piece of my mind!" Lapis exclaimed as she angerly took off her oven mitts. "I'm so sorry Xanthe we're dragging you into all of this mess."

Xanthe smiled wryly then shook her head. "Um it's fine, Peridot agreed to patch me up a bit so it all works out in the end for everyone."

"Yeah and we should patch you up right now actually, i'm sure your Mom or sisters are worried about you and where you've been." Peridot smiled wryly, dragging Xanthe to the bathroom.

She pulled Xanthe into the restroom and closed the door behind them. "Sorry about her, she gets emotional whenever someone talks about Jasper."

"Why? If you don't mind me being nosy."

"They kinda had a bad romance from the very beginning, then something happended bewteen Lapis and Jasper's younger sister, Malachite, that made Jasper livid to the point where she almost killed Mallie."

Xanthe widened her eyes a bit, mostly out of the realization that Jasper could have killed her if Peridot didn't give Jasper that paper. Since Jasper was so keen on killing her sister over some drama, why wouldn't she be keen on killing Xanthe over a paper?

"Like what?" Xanthe asked, she hated getting into other people's buisness, but Peridot's vague wording played with her curiosity.

"They slept together." Peridot said quickly as she toyed with her hands in a nervous manner.

Xanthe choked on her spit then had to stifle a laugh. Jasper and Lapis's drama sounded like something straight out of those over-dramatic Mexican romance TV shows Cerise use to watch whenever she was first learning Spanish. She tried to play off the stifle laugh by coughing afterwards.

"Don't choke on your spit, that's not even the worst part, from what i've been told, Lapis didn't tell me everything that happended. Even though I should know because I live with her.." Peridot said, inaudibly whispering the last part.

"Yikes." Xanthe remarked as Peridot turnt away from her and towards the medience cabinet.

"Tell me about it." Peridot mumbled as she opended the medience cabinet and searched through it for the dark brown alcohol bottle and mini bag of Johnson cotton balls. Finding them, she quickly took the items out and placed them on the sink's countertop. She untwisted the white cap to the alcohol bottle and place it down, then she went through the plastic bag of cotton balls and pulled one out. 

As Peridot prepared the cotton balls Xanthe looked around the small bathroom. The floral wallpaper was peeling and cracking and the bathtub looked old and rusted. The cobblestone used for the bathroom floor was starting to grow worn and loose. But a small window just above the bathtub allowed for a glorious ray of sunshine to shine throughout the entire restroom, giving the once ugly room a now odd beauty. 

Out of nowhere Peridot held Xanthe's chin and tilted her head to make the taller girl face her. She gently rubbed the alcohol drenched cotton ball on her right cheek, causing Xanthe to wince. As Peridot rubbed the cotton ball against Xanthe's wounds she had time to take in Xanthe's features. She had the look of a authoriative figure, someone you knew to stay away from. Her cheekbones were high and define, almost intimidating, freckles were faintly sprinkled on her cheeks and temples, which somehow lessended the initmidating effect her cheekbones gave her but, not by much. Her eyes were a honey brown and her eyelashes were thick. Then came everytime she smiled. She was beautiful whenever she smiled, her eyes would light up and her dimples would show greatly on her cheeks. She was a fine beauty.

"There i'm done, how are you feeling?"

"Shitty, but not as shitty, thanks Peridot." Xanthe smiled, her hair looked golden in the sun's light.

Xanthe ruffled Peridot's hair as a way of saying thanks then opended the bathroom's door.

"Maybe i'll see you again..?"

"Yeah, sure, hopefully without Jasper being there." Peridot said sarcastically.

This earned a laugh from Xanthe. "See you around Peridot."

"Bye.." Peridot waved sheepishly as Xanthe closed the bathroom door.

She made a new friend.

Cerise and Rose both laid together on the spare couch in the basement. Rose was fast asleep on the couch, while Cerise stayed awake in a distressed state.

There's a monster in here.

It can kill me.

It can kill Blu.

It can even kill Xanthe.

Cerise gulped down her spit as she nervously picked at her nails. She nearly jumped out of her skin whenever she heard the front door to the house slam open. She quickly got up and looked at Rose wearily. 

She'll be fine. Cerise concluded as she quickly left the basement.

Cerise quickly walked to the main living and was shocked to see a beat up Xanthe.

"Is Mama here..?" Cerise asked as Blu looked at Xanthe in horror.

"I got the shampoo and toothp-

"What happended to you!?!?" Blu shreiked as she dropped her book and rushed to Xanthe, she held her sister's face in her hands as she examined the various wounds on her cheeks and nose.

"I ran into some trouble, that's all.." Xanthe mumbled as she gave Blu the plastic bag.

"Trouble?! Mother will see these bruises an-"

"Blu, calm down, i'll tell her I ran into a tree or something, okay?"

Blu sighed then nodded. "Ok."

"Nice lip." Cerise remarked, for once she could actually pick on Xanthe for something.

"Oh, shut up Cerise! Atleast she actually has lips, unlike you!" Blu replied bitterly.

Cerise's mouth went agape as she furrowed her brows. "Go suck on a cookie!" Cerise yelled as she stomped upstairs and slammed their bedroom door shut. 

"Cerise Penelope Diamond! Don't you dare slam that door shut!!" Blu screamed, irritating Xanthe.

Cerise re-opended the door. "Go suck on a big fat cookie Blu!!" Cerise screamed as she slammed the door closed again.

"That little girl.." Blu grumbled.

*  *  *

Just as Blu expected their mother went ballistic whenever she saw Xanthe's face. They were all at the dinner table whenever their mother noticed the various bruises on Xanthe's face. She immeadiately looked at Cerise with anger as the young girl picked at her green peas in disgust.

"Did you have any part in this!?"

"No, m-mama I-i didn't." 

"I ran into a building, on my bike Mother." Xanthe reassured.

"I can't even reach up to her chest how am I suppose to beat her up. Common sense.." Cerise grumbled inaudbly as she ate a piece of her steak.

"What did you just say lil' missy..?" Their mother hissed.

Blu gave Cerise a look, then her mother. Cerise took in a whift of air, then exhaled. She knew what was coming next, if she was going to get beat then so be it, she just wanted to get beatten for something logical that any parent would beat their child for.

"I-I said! I-it d-doesn't make sense for me to b-beat up X-xanthe!! N-not everything is my f-fault!" Cerise screamed as she abruptly got up, her chair falling to the ground from the sudden burst of energy.

Blu facepalmed herself and sighed heavily. Their mother quickly got up and pulled Cerise by the ear upstairs, the twins looked at eachother in horror. Until Blu started crying. Xanthe rushed to her side and comforted Blu as she wept.

"Shh it's okay don't cry...Don't cry."

Rose woke up and noticed Cerise's was gone. Sighing glumly she sat up and got up from the couch. She didn't get a chance to explore the basement so why not do it now when she had nothing else to do? As she glanced around the basement she saw a wooden toy chest that was missing both of its bronze latches. She hadn't played with toys in awhile, maybe too long. She walked over to the toy chest and quietly propped it open On the inside of the chest was a engravement of two names and a short saying.

Xanthe and Blu's first toy chest. ~To my two angels, Mommy loves you!~

How sweet. Rose thought as she smiled at the engravement.

She shuffled through the hundreds of toys with care and was amazed at how well taken care of they were. Whenever she had toys she'd end up breaking them the day she got them. As she started reaching the bottom of the chest a familar foul stench raised up from it. Slowly uncovering a few toys she was met with a black gooey substance. She blinked a few times and hoped what she saw wasn't reality, but it was. Touching the substance Rose retracted her hand immediately as the black goop stung her hand.

The monster was in this house.

Chapter Text

Blu and Xanthe awkwardly sat at the dinner table hoping their mother would come back down soon.

"It's been a hour Xanthe!" Blu yelled abruptly, breaking the awkwardness in the air.

"I-i know but there's nothing we can do about it, we just have to sit and wait."

"Sit and wait for what?! For her to be done with whatever she's doing to Cerise!?" Blu exclamied suddenly getting up. She started heading for the stairs but Xanthe grabbed her by the arm and stopped her in her tracks.

"Listein, barging in the room and trying to act like a hero isn't going to help Cerise, it'll only make things worse. What ever condition Cerise is in right now, she'll...manage she always does. Do you understand?"

"No I don't! We always sit around and do nothing! That's all we do is nothing!" Blu cried as she pulled her arm agressively away from Xanthe's grip.

"Yeah we do nothing and both of us stay safe!!" Xanthe yelled causing Blu to jump. "One day..One of us is going to do something stupid that enrages her enough to actually kill one of us, and I don't want that day to be today. I can't loose you or Cerise, and I know you two can't loose me either. I'm going to get us out of here but, if you keep on butting into arguements or beatings that are none of your business, you're going to make it hard for me to get us out of here. For our sake please just stop getting into things that don't concern you."

Blu bit her lip and looked down. "O-ok..Ok.."

"Thank you, now let's go sit back down in the dining area and chill down a bit." Xanthe smiled as she held Blu's hands in her own. Blu only nodded wittly. Xanthe frowned at her.

Cerise buried her face into her blood-stained pillow and let out a silent sob. What seemed like a eternity their mother was finally done with her. Her whole face throbbed and her body ached in pain. Tears and dried blood were smeared all over her cheeks and chin.

Maybe their mother was the monster.

Cerise turnt on her side, was she the monster Rose felt in the house? She toyed with the thought as she rested her eyes. It made sense the more she thought about it. Their mother was mean and hateful. She tried to make people feel terrible about themselves for her own personal gain. She even beats her own children and does who knows what to Xanthe whenever they're alone. Surely she was the monster.

Getting lost in her morbid thought, Cerise hardly heard the door creak open and Blu's soft voice asking if she was ok.

"Cerise..Are you even awake?"

Sitting up Cerise glanced at Blu. "I'm in too much pain to s-sleep." Cerise whimpered as Blu closed the door softly.

"I'm sorry I didn't stop her..Was she wearing her rings today?"

Cerise nodded as she grazed her fingertips against a deep cut on her cheek.

Blu sat next to Cerise and cupped her left cheek, causing the smaller of the two to wince.

"Don't, it hurts." Cerise whined as she removed Blu's hand from her face and layed back down on her bed, resting her head back on the pillow, she could faintly smell the blood on it.

"Blu, why does everybody hate me? I don't even know what I did wrong for everyone to be so mean to me. It's not my fault I exist, it's like everybody just looks at me and comes up with the conclusion that i'm a waste of space and treats me horrible!" Cerise vented as she gripped at her button up shirt.

"Cerise that's not true, and you know it." Blu whispered frowning.

"I do know it's true! You always tell me 'everything is going to be ok!' and nothing ever becomes ok, everything just gets worse and worse as the years go by and you know it! Maybe it's easier for y-y-you to say it's going to be okay because nothing ever happens to you! I-i-i-i t-try to believe everything is going t-to be okay but, i-it's hard. It's so, so hard.." Cerise cried as she felt her tears roll down her cheeks and burn some of her cuts.

Blu bit her lip and tried to prevent herself from crying but, it was too late, she already had waterworks streaming down her cheeks.

"I know..I'm so sorry Cerise. Everything is so horrible. I'm trying to make things better for you, I really am." Blu sobbed as she embaced Cerise into a tight hug.

"Just get off of me! No you're not, just leave me alone! Go run away with Xanthe already and leave me alone.." Cerise sobbed as she pushed Blu away.

"Cer-"

"B-blu i'm telling you to leave me alone, so. Leave. Me. Alone!" Cerise shouted as she laid back down.

Blu looked at Cerise with pity and sorrow then got up from her bed and laid in her own. Cerise bit her lip and sighed, instead of falling asleep to Blu's singing, tonight she fell asleep to her crying.

The stars beamed and bounced in the midnight sky and the moon became the night's subsitute for the sun. There was a endless sea of stars and lights in tonight's black sky as Peridot gazed out of the hole in roof. Lapis had a arm lovingly wrapped around Peridot's shoulder as they both laid in bed.

"We should really fix that." Peridot blurted.

"Whenever I get my next paycheck i'll hire someone to fix it." Lapis mumbled as she closed her eyes, sleepiness making them feel heavy.

"hm, ok..Lapis?"

"Yeah?"

"I miss you being at school, it sucks." Peridot frowned as she turnt her gaze to Lapis.

"Yeah, I know but, we need money, we can barely afford this hunk of a place and, I was failing all of my classes but P.E, It was about time I dropped out and started doing something more productive then spending forty-five minutes in a classroom learning shit that went through one ear and out the other." Lapis grumbled as she pushed her hair out of her face.

"Maybe I can dropout and get a job somewhere and help out."

"No, you're staying in school."

"But why? If we both work we can actually afford food and maybe even move out of this house." Peridot argued as she sat up.

"No, you're staying in school, I'm not going to let you waste that brainy head of yours for a lousy job that only pays 5 to 9 a hour." Lapis said as she sat up and ruffled Peridot's hair.

"Your brainy head is the thing that's going to get us out of here, that's why you need to stay in school and earn schloarships and go to college. You dig, Peri?"

"Yeah, I dig."

Lapis smiled and kissed Peridot's forehead. "Get some sleep dork."

Peridot smile then laid back down. "Night Lapis."

"Night Peri."

Morning light beamed through the hole in the roof and caused discomfort for Peridot. Her face scrunched up as the light hit her in a almost agressive manner. They really needed to fix that if Peridot hoped to sleep in during the summer. Getting up Peridot went into the bathroom and washed up in the bathtub. She made sure to scrub away any dirt or grime on her skin. Peridot hated germs and could be a extreme germophobe at times, which didn't go hand-in-hand with her living conditions.

This damn dirt won't come off!! She thought bitterly as she scrubbed profousely at her forearm, she almost facepalmed herself whenever she realized she was trying to scrub away a birth mark. I need to stop being so paranoid with things like this. But I can't afford having dirt on me and have the possiblity of getting sick! After her wash she got out of the tub and grabbed her beige towel, and quickly dried off. She was always more prone to being late for school whenever she showered in the morning but, to her it was worth being clean than being on time to a class period. 

Peri wrapped the beige towel around her and went into her and Lapis's closet. She took a pair of blue jeans off of their hanger along with a navy T-shirt and a red pullover jacket.She quickly put her undergarments on from the prevous night and then threw on her outfit for the day. Even though it was the second week of June and scroching hot outside, Peri still insited on wearing a pullover, something about covering her arms made her feel secure. She felt too exposed without her jackets or pullovers on. After she put her outfit on she quickly slipped on her white adidas and walked out of the closet. Nearly, forgetting she grabbed her glasses from the nightstand and book bag from under the bed. She left in a hurry, only saying a quick 'bye' to Lapis before she closed the front door.

Peridot took in the fresh morning air with a dramatic whift. Now the day has begone, she would make her way to her unbearable highschool and spend most of her day with a bunch of idiots until school let out.

Thank God there's only four days of school left. Peridot thought cheefully as she made her way down to the highschool.

It was apprioxmately a 15 minute walk from her house to the highschool, which gave her ten minutes to spare as she opended the two heavy doors to the school. With these ten minutes Peridot would go to her locker and get her textbooks for her first four periods then maybe eat breakfast in the commons if she had time.

As she walked to her locker she felt people stare at her. People always stared at her, maybe it was her weird hair, or the odd triangle birthmark on her forehead, or maybe people were just rude assholes who liked staring at people who let's just say aren't the most attractive people around. Probably so.

Taking a right down a narrow hallway Peridot stopped infront of her red rusty locker, number 237. There was something about locker number 237 that made almost every student at her highschool lucky they didn't have it. It supposedly belonged to a girl who commited suicide because a shadowy creature kept on stalking and harrasing her. At first, Peridot thought it was one big joke or a bad urban legend the students at her highschool came up with, until weird things started happening. Her locker would open out of nowhere and dump all her belongings out of it, then sometimes various words written in a red substance would appear inside of the locker,she later on found out the substance was blood, and boy did that terrify her. One time she even found a dead rat in there with a black mysterious substance on it, whenever she reached out to touch it, she noticed something inscribed on the rodent's belly, three words with no for sure meaning,  but could make anyone terrified, I DID IT. That was all it took for Peridot to race down to the principal's office and request she move lockers, sadly, her request was declined and she was forced to use that locker until the school year ended.

Four more days with you Carrie, thank God. Peridot thought bitterly as she opended the red locker, she named her locker Carrie after Carrie from a Stephen King's book when one day Carrie decided to hunk Peridot's Science Textbook in her face one nice afternoon. This dead bitch has been using her satanic powers to fuck with me and my shit all school year. I am more than overjoyous to pass on this lil' cunt over to someone else thank you very much. The locker gave off a violent rattle at Peridot's hateful thought. "Yeah, yeah fuck you too Carrie." Peridot said loudly as she grabbed her textbooks and stuffed them into her brown bookbag, causing students around her to look at her in a confused or creeped out state. Peridot flicked the students off and slammed the locker shut.

Despite her and Carrie's bad history, the demon bitch had grown on her oddly enough. Though she didn't want to admit it, Peridot knew she'd miss the ghoul. She would miss Carrie's rattling, or agressive book tossing. She'd even miss seeing words appear on her locker at random times. But one thing she definetly wouldn't miss at all was the ghoul's ability to read her mind and sometimes talk back to Peridot in a very small shrill voice that would appear in the back of her head. She hated whenever Carrie did that.

"Yo! Peridot! Are you talking to your ghost girlfriend again?" Peridot turnt around and saw her rowdy no good friend, Amethyst.

"Carrie is not my girlfriend." Peridot grumbled as she started walking off.

"Peridot that's freaky you named it, does it like have magical powers or something? Can it read your mind or somethin'" Amethyst asked as she caught up with Peridot.

"No, Carrie can't read my mind or do magical powers, the only thing Carrie can do is piss me off." Peridot said, lying about Carrie's mind reading ability.

"Dude, you're talking about her like she's real." Amethyst said as she followed Peridot to her first period.

"Because she is real!" Peridot shouted, obvouisly getting frustrated with Amethyst.
Peridot wasn't going to lie, Amethyst could get annoying really fast at times, but Amethyst was the only friend she had for the longest so in a way, Peridot was already prone to Amethyst being a annoying idiot at times.

"I thought it was just a myth?"

"It's not, trust me." Peridot mumbled as she heard the warning bell go off.

"Aw, shoot! The bell! I better go, catch you later at lunch Peri!" Amethyst said patting Peridot roughly on the back.

"Later.."

"Oh also, tell Carrie I said hi and have a nice day." Amethyst remarked, letting out a shrill of laughter as she walked off. Peridot only grumbled and rolled her eyes at Amethyst as she entered her classroom.

* * *

Finally first, second, third, and fourth period ended. She just need to attend lunch and her last three periods until the school day would be over. Walking to the commons Peridot noticed how nice it looked outside. 

Maybe afterschool I can catch a train to the countryside and spend the rest of the day out there. Peridot thought as she glanced out of one of the many windows around her school. She pushed passed the common's frontdoors and searched the cafeteria for Amethyst. Her searching stopped whenever the short hispanic girl came rushing towards Peridot, pulling the even smaller girl into a warm hug.

"How was your day with Carrie..?"  Amethyst smiled as Peridot frowned.

"We had a great time actually, we might even go out on a date this evening." Peridot said sarcastically, causing Amethyst to laugh.

"Oh cheer up Peri, i'm just teasing you." Amethyst smiled. 

"Fine, whatever...We should get out seats before someone steals them, is Pearl sitting with us today?" Peridot asked.

"Yeah, she's not doing too well today." Amethyst frowned.

Pearl was, overdramatic and bossy. She use to be over-demanding and boastful at times, but she had her reasons, she was smart and almost good at literally everything, Peridot even envied her at one point, until now. A few weeks ago Pearl's younger sister, Doli was killed by a freak accident, her body was found in a cave near the beach, it was in horrible condition to the point where she was barely idenified, yet the police still ruled it off as a freak accident and immeadiately dropped the case. And ever since then, Pearl was different, she spoke less and started failing her classes she started developing eyebags and her eyes were often pink and filled with tears. Everything seemed to stop for her, the world was still spinning and continuing but, Pearl just stopped, she just stopped functioning, the old Pearl was gone and everybody knew it. But Amethyst still tried to bring the old Pearl back, tried to make her laugh or smile, Amethyst even did dumb things on purpose so she could just hear her yell. "AMETHYST!!" In that shrilly elegant voice she had. It killed Peridot but, Amethyst was her friend, so she tried to help Pearl out too, even though she knew Pearl was out of it.

"Um, hey guys." A small voiced mumbled, Peridot and Amethyst barely heard it over the laughter and screaming of kids around them. They both turnt around to see Pearl hunched up with her arms folded. She looked pathetic like that.

"Wazzupp P!" Amethyst chuckled as she punched Pearl's left shoulder gently. Pearl smiled meekly and nodded. 

"We should go find some seats." Peridot said, already feeling awkward tension building up in the trio.

"Yeah, c'mon Pearl, we can sit wherever you like." Amethyst smiled.

"Can we sit outisde, away from everyone, I-i-i..n-need to tell you g-guys something." Pearl whispered. Amethyst nodded and took Pearl's left hand in her own. "C'mon Peridot, you're holding hands too." Amethyst smiled as she took Peridot's right hand into her own. 

"We look queer!" Peridot shouted blushing.

"We are queer." Amethyst said blunty as they walked outside. The air was hotter and more muskier than usual, causing Peridot's nose to twitch.

"It smells sweet out here." Pearl commented as the hand-holding trio sat underneath a tree. The shade was nice against their skin and the gray tint of the shade caused all three of them to appear in a darker hue. "Yeah it does.." Peridot sighed as she leaned back against the trees bark, the roughness and various bumbs of it hurting her back a little.

It was slient until Pearl opended her mouth. "Guys, they re-opended Doli's case." She whispered with morbidity in her tone.

"They did, why?" Amethyst asked as she laid her head on Pearl's lap.

"They..Looked over her autopsy report and I guess changed their minds about whatever happended to her, and my parents requested the case be re-opended." Pearl muttered as she subconciously ran a hand through Amethyst's dyed purple hair.

"Oh.." Amethyst mumbled looking down at the green grass, she spotted a ladybug with five black spots on it, crawling on a long dropy strand of grass. She gently picked it up and showed it to Pearl. "Look it's as red as a apple." 

Pearl glanced down at Amethyst's hand and looked away. Amethyst frowned then sighed, the ladybug sprouted its wings and flew towards Peridot, it landed on a branch that was above the short girl's head.

"I'm sorry Amethyst, I know you're trying to make me feel better, i'm sorry for..Everything." Pearl whispered as tears threaten to leave her eyes, she covered her mouth then shook her head in a way that made Peridot think the girl might be going insane. Amethyst sat up and placed a hand on Pearl's left arm. "Hey shh, it's ok P, no matter what me and Peridot will always be here for you, oh and maybe Carrie if she's in a good mood."  Amethyst said flashing a toothy grin at Peridot.

Peridot cupped a hand to her left ear acting like she heard something from a distant place. "Oh~! Carrie says she'll help Pearl feel better!" Peridot said with sarcastic ethusiasm that caused Pearl and Amethyst to laugh. Pearl let out a quick sob as she laughed and wiped her tears away.

"Who the fuck is Carrie..?" Pearl asked in a weak giggly voice.

"Peridot's ghost girlfriend."

"She's not my girlfriend for the fifth fucking time!" 

Pearl and Amethyst laughed and Peridot's frustration, God how Amethyst missed Pearl's smile.

"It's not funny! That dead bitch literally throws books at me that weigh a quarter of my body mass!"

"Carrie is so in to you." Amethyst remarked as Pearl giggled. Peridot rolled her eyes at both of them, though she was happy Pearl was smiling and not being angsty.

After lunch, Peridot's next three periods flew by fast and before she knew it she was out of school. She walked out of the builidings two front double doors and walked down the street. She walked down the same pathway to get to the railroad tracks, there was no way in hell she'd walk the whole way down to the countyside of the outskirts to the small quiet town. 

The silver train was moving at a moderate pace, not too fast nor too slow. Yet everything always seemed too fast for Peridot with her short legs, so Peridot had to get a running start before she tried to attempt to hop on one of the train's wagons. She landed face first on the wagon's wooden boards and got some hay in her mouth. She spewed it out and sat up. She noticed haystacks on the far side of the wagon and walked over to them, she pulled out bits of hay and made a small pile for her to lay on. She used her bookbag as a pillow and her pullover as a blanket, as she laid on the pile of itchy hay. Sighing Peridot shut her eyes as she grew content. The air smelt so nice outside, chirps of grasshoppers and birds were apparent, and the chugging  of the train acted like a white noise. Everything was so nice and peaceful, she wish she could stay out here forever, in this dreamland. Closing her eyes, Peridot fell asleep, it would be a long ride to the countryside thirty minutes to be exact, so she decided to take a twenty minute nap, until she reached the golden beauty she wished she could call her home.

Drool fell out of Peridot's mouth as she slumbered. The train's loud horn was the thing that woke her up. She let out a sharp scream, the horn had scared her nearly half to death. Wiping off the drool on the side of her mouth, Peridot was greeted with the scenery of the countryside.

"Wow..." Peridot breathed, astonished as she basked in the countryside. It was even more beautiful in the setting sun's light. Wildflowers grew everywhere and the sight of crops the size of grown men were a common sight. Grabbing her bookbag and pullover, Peridot jumped off the train. She was a bit cramped up from laying on the wooden planks of the train wagon but, theefeeling quickly wore off as she started to walk around. She hadn't been out here since her and Lapis's 'incident'. A tinge of red appeared on her pale cheeks as she thought about it, it was so stupid. They were being stupid, Lapis was being stupid.

Peridot was tipsy from a drinking session at a senior highschooler's party and Lapis was drunk out of her mind. Somehow Lapis convinced Peri to ride the train with her to the countryside, which ended in both of them kissing eachother and by the time they reached the countryside they couldn't help themselves. They both laid in the soil as they did perverted things to eachother neither one of them would be proud of whenever they would break out of their drunken state.

Peridot remembered that morning when they both woke up on the dirt.

"Let's just forget about this ok? We'll never talk about this again, we aren't meant for eachother,I was being dumb."

"Yeah, ok..."

They never did talk about it again but, Lapis's words left a hot sting in Peridot's chest, a sting Peridot later idenified as a heartache from her bestfriend's words. She wanted that night to mean something. The kisses, the strokes, the groping, she wanted it all to be real but knew it wasn't and never would be.

Sighing Peridot wiped away tears that had formed at the corners of her eyes. As she walked through the endless amount of crops trying to clear her head she notice a sticky substance stuck to her left foot causing a delay in her walking. She examined the substance and found it similar to the stuff that was on the dead rodent Carrie had put in her locker that one day. As she looked at the ground more of the sticky substance was present in the soil, causing a trail down to God know's where. Curiosity taking the better of her, she followed the trail of sticky matter. Maybe it would lead to a dead corpse? Or more nasty diease infected rodents, she hoped not. As she neared the end of the trail what she least expected was to see a a pumpkin with the top half of it missing. With a cocked brow Peridot examined the pumpkin and noticed the trail of black matter let inside of it. Peering inside Peridot jumped at what she saw.

"W-what in the world.." 

A gray slimey small creature glared at her with deep black eyes. A severe cut across it's belly caused the small thing to bleed out the black matter everywhere, creating a trail towards the injured creature.

With curositiy Peridot reached a finger out to the creature, as soon as she did this she saw the poor critter's chest rise in a uneven manner as fright to over its body.

"Hey...Hey it's ok lil' buddy i'm not going to hurt you." Peridot cooed as she kneeled down, putting down her bag and pullover.

The critter sniffed at her Peridot's finger then put a petite slimey hand on it. Peridot giggled softly at the almost ailen-like creature's gesture.

"See..? I'm nice.." Peridot whispered as she picked up the creature. It was so silmey and gross feeling but, it had the most cutest face ever. She gently wrapped the small creature into her pullover and put back on her bookbag.

"Don't you worry lil' guy, imma take you home n' get you all patched up, how does that sound?" Peridot cooed as she petted the critter's head with her index finger, the critter growled with pleasure at Peridot's gesture. She smiled, she always wanted a pet.

Cerise sat in the study room as she worked on various Math equations her mother had given her to work on. She was mentally exhausted with all the work she had done throughout the day, and as she looked at her two older sisters, she could tell they were too. 

As the girls slaved away with their work their mother had came in dressed fancy. Cerise was the first to notice their mother's prescence and attire.

"Mama, what's the occassion?" Cerise asked as she pulled her attention away from her work and focused on their mother. 

White put a hand on Cerise's shoulder and kissed the girl lightly on the head. "My, my how observant you are Cerise, unlike your elder sisters." White smiled as she purposely pinched a bruised part of Cerise's right cheek, causing the small girl to whimper. Blu frowned at their mother's action as she set her pencil down and gave their mother a death stare. White ignored her daughter's stare and gently massaged at Cerise's shoulders, causing the girl to jump and become flustered at their mother's action but, soon grew to be comfortable with it. Eventually relaxing into her mother's touch.

"Tonight we are attending a ball, I would have told you three sooner, if someone didn't have a slip up last night." Their mother said as she glared at Cerise. "At this ball you are to look and act your absolute best, do all of you understand?"

Xanthe and Blu solemly nodded but, Cerise gazed up at her mother with wrryness.

"What about my face?" 

White smiled. "You see Cerise, I can easily fix up Xanthe's face but yours, there's no way in hell i'll be able to fix it, so for tonight, you are to stay here and be on your best behavior, you will finish ALL of your work and clean the house by yourself with only the supplies I give you."

Cerise's face scrunched up in a manner that indicated she was about to cry.

"Daw my little Cerise, don't look like that, I wasn't even finish telling you everything yet, if you can do all of this before me and your sisters get back, i'll give you a treat."

"A treat?"

"Mhm."

"O-ok! I c-can do it all!" Cerise smiled, suddenly motivated to do her work.

Their mother kissed Cerise on the head. "Good girl..C'mon you too, before we're late."

Xanthe and Blu got up, both horrified with the deal their mother had made with Cerise, Xanthe wanted to warn her about what the treat really was but, she couldn't she would just have to talk their mother out of it. Somehow.

Chapter Text

The sound of Peridot's Adidas running against her run-down neighborhood's sidewalk was the only thing evident that early night, despite the sound of a few cars passing by and the rugged breathing coming from her. Peridot's fears were coming true, the poor little critter might not make it. The thing's blood was soaking through her pullover at a dangerously fast rate, and she was pretty sure its blood was the equivalent to a acid-like substance because after awhile of it being stained into her pullover it started burning through the cloth effortlessly, causing a bad stench Peridot could only compare to what she thought a burning corpse smelt like. "Just hang in there Lil' bud, we're almost home." Peridot cooed breathlessly as she looked down at the mystery creature, she found herself slowly fearing the unknown animal, she had read on reptiles and amphibians ever since she was in Kindergarten, and yet she had never read or seen a reptile or amphibian like the one she was holding so dearly in her arms. It  dawned on her that maybe she had discovered a entirely new species of reptile. That thought alone suddenly caused immense cupidity and joy to wash over Peridot, her and Lapis will become rich off of this abstract creature, they could even live in Empire City with their riches! All she had to do was keep this creature alive for just a little bit longer.

She slowed down her running whenever her and Lapis's house came into view, embrassing the mess of a house was, but there was nothing Peridot could do but be content with what her and Lapis had. Sighing she walked through the house's front lawn and briskly took out the house key from the right front pocket of her book bag as soon as she reached the door. Shoving the bronze metal object hastily in the house's keyhole, she twisted the key in a blunt unelegant manner that would worry any bypasser that she might accidentally break the bronze metal object. Faintly she heard the bottom lock unfasten, she pulled out the key and then subsequently pushed the door open with frantic force, swiftly closing it behind her and locking both locks. She raced into the Bathroom and turnt on the light. Walking to the bathtub she pushed back the light blue shower curtain, this is where she'll perform the operation. Setting her pullover and the mystery creature down in the tub, she rushed to the bathroom's sink bottom cabinets and pulled out two beige towels from underneath them, she then went through the medience cabinet and got the supplies she needed. Lapis's sewing kit for closing the wound, hydrogen perioxide to clean it, and cotton balls to dab away any blood or any excess perioxide.

"Okay Little guy, this is going to hurt, but i'll try to make it fast." Peridot croaked as she carried the supplies in her arms like a small infant. She kneeled down on the bathroom floor, and took the two towels from out of her grip, placing them down inside the bathtub. With much care and delicacy she placed the creature on the towels with her free hand, its skin felt like slime aganist her sweat glands which undoubtly made her cringe in disgust. A small growl came from the creature as she settled the other supplies down. Before she started the surgery she whiffed in a bunch of air and exhaled deeply. "It'll be over in a instant." She opended the brown bottle of perioxide and dabbed a cotton ball in it, with much hesitation she placed it on the animal's wound. God, please help me save this creature.

Cerise moved her pen around a sheet of graphing paper as she studied her current  textbook equation, she tried to piece together the numbers and letters, but found she couldn't, it was too hard and complicated for her immature mind.

Maybe I can divide the four by 1.2 and then add the 5?

No, that would lead to a whole other answer that was far from correct, after trying another failed attempt at solving the near impossible equation, Cerise gave up and bawled a small fist, she then took it and hit herself on the forehead.

"Why am I so dumb..? Why can't I be smart like Xanthe and Blu..It's not fair." Cerise growled as a bad headache sprang up, she felt herself grow frustrated really fast as she agressively ran her hands through her hair.

Massaging her temples Cerise put a random number down where a answer was suppose to be in her textbook, and sighed with unconfidence. It's not like White checked her work anyways, but there was always a urge to impress her mother in some fashion. Sighing Cerise closed the math textbook that lied all her daily work and reclined back in her chair, her eyes strained heavily, but there was still work to do, she still needed to practice on the piano, then clean the whole entire mansion. Cerise hoped that the treat that White had prepared for her was worth the amount of distress she was feeling right now. Maybe Rose could help her with the cleaning, if she was up for it that is.

"Hey, are you doing okay Cupcake?"

Cerise turnt around and saw Blu wearing a long sleeve white dress that was awfully short for something Blu would normally wear. Cerise eyeballed Blu's legs then quickly gazed up at her sister's face. "No, I don't feel good." Blu smiled wearily and sat down in her chair, she patted her lap indicating for Cerise to sit on it. Cerise obliged and embraced her older sister, Blu smiled and played with Cerise's curls. "What's wrong baby?"

"My head hurts..." Cerise stated as she rubbed her eyes.

"Is it a migraine?"

"N-n-no I-i don't think s-so..I think I-i d-did too much work t-today."

Blu frowned then rubbed Cerise's arm. "I'll go get you some advil, maybe that will make you feel better." Cerise nodded in agreement and got off of Blu's lap. "I'll be right back, Cerise just sit down and relax a bit ok?"

"Okay.." Cerise sat on Blu's chair and curled up in it, she might need to take a whole bottle of Advil to get rid of this terrible headache. Pinching the bridge of her nose to try and stop the unbearable pain, Cerise  slowly turnt her head to glare outside the Study room's grand window that was once hidden with floral white curtains. The sun was already setting for the day, and awaited for the moon to take its place in the never ending sky. Lilac purple and honey gold colors invaded the once baby blue sky as the sun gave out its last glow of deep orange, causing everything in its course to appear with a tanned orange hue, and unknowingly to Cerise, her eyes twinkled in the sun's dying rays, emphasizing the young girl's pre-mature beauty.

"Here's a glass of milk and two tablets of Advil." Blu announced as she sat the two items down on the study room's table. "Thank you Blu." Cerise said before turning her head away from the outside world. She took the  two advil tablets and dowsed them down with the milk. Putting the glass of milk down she wiped the excess liquid from her upper lip. "You look really pretty Blu." Cerise smiled as she longed to start a conversation with her older sister before she left. "Oh, um thank you, it's not too revealing, isn't it?"

"No of course not." Cerise lied as she took another swig of milk.

"Mother made me wear this." Blu stated as she lightly scratched at her arm, taking a seat next to Cerise.

"Why?"

"You're guess is as good as mine, you should see what she made Xanthe wear, yikes."

Cerise laughed at Blu and smiled through now cracked lips as a milk mustache dried on her upper lip.

"It's awfully bright in here, is it okay if I close the curtains Cerise darling?"

"Oh, Of c-c-course." 

Blu got up from the chair and went to close the white curtains, but before she did she looked outside. She smiled, the Earth and its beauty surprises her once again. "Well it's not so bright in here anymore now isn't it? Maybe the sunlight was giving you a hell of a headache, y'know it can do that sometimes." Blu stated as she sat back down.

"Maybe.." Cerise muttered as she drank the remaining milk in the glass cup.

Blu smiled at Cerise and gently grabbed the young girl's face. "You're such a poor eater Cerise." Blu laughed as she wiped Cerise's upper lip. "How do you even manage to get milk on your neck?"

"It m-must h-have dripped down from my mouth." Cerise mumbled, clearly embrassed.

"And you didn't feel it?"

"N-no.." 

Blu laughed again and rested her forehead on her little sister's, she momentarily pressed her lips against the younger girl's and tucked a loose strain of hair behind the others ear. "I don't know what i'd do without you Cerise." Blu breathed before she rested her head on the younger girl's shoulder. 

Cerise smiled at her sister's words. "I'm so s-s-sorry for yelling at you last night, I-i w-was being a b-brat.." She admitted as she picked at her scabbed lips.

"Oh, it's okay Cerise, you were wounded up in the moment, I would have been just as upset as you were, maybe even worse.."

Cerise toyed with her hands and looked down, she felt Blu lift her head from her shoulder, she knew Blu was staring at her, but Cerise didn't dare to stare back, it felt morally wrong to her. "Cerise, look at me." Blu turnt Cerise's head to face hers, she cupped her cheek gently and then cupped the younger girl's neck, stroking it with her thumb. 

"I would never, ever leave you behind and run away with Xanthe, do you hear me? I love Xanthe, but the love I have for you is much greater, I...I don't think i'd b-be alive if you weren't here." 

Tears slowly coursed their way down Blu's tan face as she spoke, her posture started to loose itself as Cerise could tell her sister was becoming emotionally unstable. "Don't cry Blu.." Cerise whispered as she kissed her sister's tears away. Blu wiped off the rest of her tears and embraced Cerise tightly. "I love you so damn much.." 

"I l-love y-you too Blu." Cerise breathed as she wrapped her arms around Blu's waist, they stayed like that for a few moments as the sun's rays went through the white curtains and gave the couple a orange hue, making the world and their sorrow a bit more brighter. In that moment, Blu had completely forgotten about what her and Xanthe had discussed, she was suppose to warn the young girl about her 'treat' since Xanthe knew she couldn't talk White out of it. 

***
Cerise opended the front door for Xanthe and Blu and waited for White to give her the cleaning supplies. 

"Here, I'm sure this is enough to clean the house." White smiled as she gave Cerise two rags, and a bottle of bleach. "T-....This is it..?" 

"Of course that's it, I did the exact same thing to Xanthe when she was around your age, she cleaned the whole house and everything, i'm sure you can do the same." White said as she ruffled Cerise's hair. "Don't kill yourself while i'm gone Cerise dear, your sisters and I will be back around mid-night, and when I do get back this place better be clean." 

And with that White was gone. 

Cerise locked the front door, and sat on the living room couch, putting the cleaning supplies on the floor. "How am I suppose to clean this WHOLE place with three cleaning supplies!? That's like telling someone to fight Jackie-chan without any protection! Oh my cosmos! She's insane! Why did I have to be born into this hellhole of a family..?" Cerise sunk back into the couch and sobbed. This had to be one of the worst days yet. Though, no matter how much she wanted to sit there and cry, there was still work to be done, tremendous work. Getting up she went to the basement's door, as much as she felt bad for asking Rose to help her clean, it was necesscity to get the whole house cleaned.

Cerise knocked on the door in a rhythmic pattern. "Rose it's me, Cerise, it's okay for you to come out!" 

Rose opended the door slowly, and did a double take as she looked at Cerise's face. "W-what happended to you..?"

"Oh...uhm y-yeah m-me and my mom got into a r-really b-bad f-f-fight." Cerise stated as she looked down. 

Rose furrowed her eyebrows, "Let me heal you." 

"What? No, I-i- can't my mom would notice my cuts and bruises being gone." 

"Right..Well, whenever they scar, I can make the scars go away." Rose said as she traced a finger of a cut on Cerise's cheekbone." 

"Really? Thank you Rose.."

"No problemo Bobo." Rose replied snapping her fingers and making a gun with her hands.

Cerise cocked a brow at Rose and laughed. "You're a w-weirdo." 

"Literally and figuertively." Rose smiled as she closed the basement door, the mansions air smelt like vanilla, a smell she wasn't necessarly fond of.

"Um, I hate to ask t-this o-of y-you, but can you h-help me clean t-the house?"

"Of course, it's the least I can do for you, but can I take a shower before I do so? I feel really grimy." Rose stated.

"Y-yeah, you can u-use m-mine i-in me and my sisters' restroom." 

"Okay."

"Here, follow me." Cerise showed Rose the way to her room, she climbed up the mansion's stairs at a face rate that made Rose worry she might slip and fall. Once she reached the upstairs Cerise took a sharp right down a hallway and opended one of the hallways doors. The first thing that popped into Rose's mind whenever she entered the bedroom was how massive it was, it was the equivalent to size of her old house's living room. "Why is it so big in here?" Rose asked as she spun in a small circle trying to catch all of the room with her eye.

Cerise shrugged. "I don't know, I guess it was just the way they mapped the house." Cerise stated as she opended the restroom's door, Rose subconciously followed her into the restroom, even the restroom was big. 

"I saw that you're house has other rooms, how come you share a room with your sisters?" Rose asked as Cerise started the shower, putting her hand against the sprinkling water to make sure it was the perfect type of lukewarm. 

"My mother s-s-says we aren't worth the s-s-space." 

"Oh.." 

"When you get done showering, grab the pink towel on that rack over there and use that to dry yourself off, my clothes are in the closet in my bedroom, make sure to get the clothes that have my intials on it." 

"What are your initals?" 

"C.P.D, well i'll leave you to shower.." Cerise said as she started to walk off.

"Wait! How do I turn off the shower?" Rose asked.

"Oh, i'll do that."

"Well, okay then.." 

Cerise smiled at Rose then closed the door, she had a lot of work to get done, so she shouldn't loli-gag around. Leaving the bedroom Cerise walked downstairs and sighed, she should get her piano playing out of the way first. Going to the main living room Cerise sat at the midnight black grand piano and flipped to a random page on the Piano's music book. Comically cracking her knuckles Cerise skimmed through the music, she was half surprised to learn it was a Yiruma piece, her mother did have some taste in music after all. The song was called River Flows in You, she tried to learn it earlier that year, but found it too diffcult to learn as her unskilled fingers moved across the piano keys. Now, with new skill she tried to play the exquisite piece. 

Rose quickly bathed herself in the lukewarm warm water, she wanted to stay in the luxurious bathtub forever, but knew she couldn't, she still had to help Cerise clean the house. After she washed the excess soapy foam from her body she felt embrassed to see she'd stained the white tub with her dirt and grim. She knew her and Cerise were going to clean it, but it still felt embrassing to know how dirty she really was, did she smell? Did Cerise notice the dirt on her? Did she perhaps. disgust the other girl? She honestly didn't want to know. She pushed the shower curtains back and tried not to get the restroom's floor wet with the water that was dripping profusely off of her body. She went to silver rack and took the pink towel off of it, she dried herself off with the pink towel, then she put on her dirty underwear and bra, she didn't have enough courage to ask Cerise for undergarments, after she put on her exterior clothing she left the bathroom, closing the door quietly behind her. Walking over to the closet she pulled back the doors, feeling the immense coldness of the bronze doorknobs sent shivers up her arms.  She silently shuffled through the almost endless racks of clothes. She hurridly tried to look for Cerise's initals on the clothes. 

X.M.D..B.E.D..Ha! One of Cerise's sister's initals is bed! Rose giggled quietly to herself as she shuffled through the racks, finally she stumbled upon Cerise's initals. C.P.D, Rose honestly wondered what her middle name was, Piper, Phoebe, Pamela? She'd only have to ask her to find out. Grabbing the clothing that had Cerise's initals on it she saw it was a adult small white Rock Cafe shirt that looked a bit worn out judging by it's faded, cracked logo. Throwing it on, Rose pulled out her hair from the shirt and was more than relieved to wear something other than that itchy button up. As she look through Cerise's clothes for pants she found a pair of capris, she took the clothing off of its hanger and put them on, this was much better attire, Rose felt bad that Cerise wasn't able to dress herself, she was missing out. Stepping out of the bedroom, Rose could hear someone playing the piano, it sounded very symphonious, and as she walked downstairs she couldn't believe Cerise was the one playing. 

"Um, I finished showering.." 

Cerise's head jolted in a way that alarmed Rose, that perhaps the girl had walked in on something sacred to the other girl. "O-oh, okay." Cerise quickly got up from the grand piano and walked upstairs, Rose took Cerise's spot on the grand piano. The piano fascinated her, she played a key, it was low and deep, almost like a giant's voice. Then she pressed on another key, it was high and squeaky, almost like a mouse's silent voice. Once ever Cerise heard the keys of the piano go off she quickly raced back downstairs.

"You like it?" 

Rose turnt around. "Oh, yeah, it's a cool instrument." 

Cerise sat next to Rose. "You know how to play?"

"Um, no maybe you could teach me a little or..?"

Cerise's face went bright red, "I'm not that great of a teacher, I kinda play by ear a bit, but I can guide your hands." 

"Okay."
 
Cerise scooted next to Rose, she intertwined her fingers with Rose, she didn't even notice she had wrapped her arm around Rose to reach her other hand. "Can we play the song you were just playing?"

"Sure, the piece i'm playing is River Flows in You by Yiruma, have you heard of him?"

Rose shook her head, her wet curls bouncing.

"He's one of my favorite pianoist, i'm sure you'll like his music." Cerise stated, she started playing taking Rose by surprise for a second, but soon grew comfortable with Cerise moving her fingers around the piano. Cerise silently hummed the note names to herself and as she did Rose couldn't help but stare at her face. Even it being in its current state,she still looked beautiful, and sharing this type of closeness with her was almost the equivalent to having intimacy with a goddess. Cerise had turnt to face Rose and was half-expecting to catch Rose staring at her, the look in her eyes was almost embrassingly intense. 

"W-what?"

"Oh, nothing, well we should start cleaning." Rose smiled sheeplishly.

"B-but we only s-s-started working on the piece.."

Rose smiled again then kissed Cerise on the cheek. "We can work on it later, if we clean now, we can spend the rest of the time playing."

"O-o-Okay!" Cerise stammered feeling her words get stuck in her throat, she was beet red and her ears felt scorching hot, she had not expected that. Rose got up before her and was already off to clean, Cerise slowly followed.

White tapped her index finger on the steering wheel as she drove, they had left beach city approximately ten minutes ago, and now were driving in the middle of nowhere. The car was awfully silent, Xanthe and Blu were asleep in the backseat Blu here and there giving off barely audible snores. The only thing that brought noise to the cold ghostly car other than that, was the radio that was playing very faintly. A ad for car insurance was currently playing, this car ride couldn't get any duller. White had almost regretted not bringing Cerise with them, surprisingly the young girl had enough balls to talk to White even though the older woman had beaten her brutally to the point of near unconciousness countless times. It was almost like dealing with a old ex who no matter how much you showed you despised them, they always came running back to you. It was almost charming to say the least, but the amount of Love and passion Cerise had for her was almost unreal. Or perhaps it was too real for her.

Why does she even love me? I hurt her, so much. 

White brushed the thought off, the quietness was already taking a toll on her.

 White hated the quiet, it gave her mind too much freedom to think, think about all the dreadful things that have ever happended to her in her life. White subconciously chewed on her fingernail as she turnt the radio off, no longer wanting to hear it anymore. She couldn't remember the last time it was ever quiet like this.  

So quiet.

Mind numbingly,
Quiet.

The mental hospital was as ghostly as a Cemetery, the only noise present was the breathing or crying of other patients in the mental faculty. In fact, the Mental Hospital was much like a Cemetery, it was a place where a human being lost their significance and where others left never whole again. Where dreams die and hatred for the world blossomed, well, that's how White felt about the establishment. Though she wasn't far from the truth, the quailty of life in the hospital was piss poor even though the mental faculty was suppose to be a luxurxious one, the walls were paper thin and the beds were more spring than mattress it was more like a prison to White. 

 She couldn't draw, because the bitchy nurses took away her pencils and pens after she stabbed this arrogant prick in the neck with a fountain pen after he stole her bracelet right in front of her face. She couldn't even be around people either because the nurses and staff were too worried that she might try to kill or violently attack the other kids, so she had to stay in this room of solitude. The quietness and detachment of the room was what she hated the most about the hospital, she  hated  being alone she wanted attention she  craved  it, she craved noise and  self-worth , to know people liked her even though her feelings for them were all  fake . A  manipulator , that's what her mother had called her, and a psycopathtic child who was  defective . It was true she was defective, though her defect gave her superiority, she felt nothing, she was  numb , meaning she could do anything in the world and not feel remorse for it, that was a neat power to have. Though, thinking about it now, she could hardly remember the diagnosis the doctor had given her, what was it? If she remembered correctly it was anti-social personality disorder with psycopathetic tendencies, and whenever her mother was told of this diagnosis she lost it and went ballastic on White, like it was all  her  fault why she was like this. 

"It's not my fault." White said aloudly, she blinked a few times to re-connect with reality, that's right she was driving, she wasn't there anymore. She was driving to Empire City to attend a ball with Blu and Xanthe. She sighed as she re-focused her attention to the road, small splatters of water started to appear on the car window, then more abundantly showed up, White instinctively turnt on her windshield wipers as more of the water came down from the dark purple and orange sky. The silent rain relaxed White, and the gloomy gray clouds made her not feel alone in her current state of mind. White re-positioned the rear mirror to see if Blu and Xanthe had woken up, still out cold. White had asked herself countless times why did she even keep her hastile of children around, she didn't love them, she felt nothing for them, they were only useless mouths she had to feed because the state told her so. The more she contemplated with the thought she slowly began to realize why.

They were the only things she had left that reminded her of when she knew how to act human.

White turnt on the car radio as she felt a sharp pain rise up in her neck, it was like a large lump had formed in her throat. She tried to gulp it down, but it would never go, wetness streamed down her cheek, she wiped at her flesh and looked down at her hand, tears. She was crying.

She was sad.

More tears came and White was quick to wipe them off.

She couldn't remember the last time she was genuinely sad like this, and she couldn't help but wonder why? Why would such a puny thought like that make her upset?

She didn't know, she didn't want to know.

Just keep driving White, they're just thoughts.

***

Xanthe looked through the Car's dashboard and gazed up at the building the ball was being held at,after an almost three hour drive they were finally here, in Empire City! Her mouth went silghtly agaped as she saw how towering the building really was compared to the ones around it, though her tiredness from just recently waking up may had made her mind think more of the building as she would in her normal state of mind. 

 "Wooww..The building is really, really big.." Xanthe breathed. 

"You like it?" White asked as she placed her right hand on Xanthe's left. Xanthe simply nodded with a big smile on her face. "This building has been here since 1945, and is still up and running, it even looks the same as it did almost sixty years ago." White informed . "What is it?" Xanthe asked as they drove into the building's parking lot.

"It's a resort." White said rather flatly.

 Sitting back in the passengers seat, Xanthe wondered what the resort was like sixty years ago. Things like these always brought child-like fascination to her adolescent mind. Possibly new German-Americans and the richest Empire City citizens came to this resort after the brutal war, celebrating the survival of such a grim warfare that woefully killed millions. And now was being used to host a very pretigious ball, that I, Xanthe am so fortunate to attend.

White pulled into a free parking space and then put the Lexus in parking mode, she turnt her attention to Xanthe and Blu. "This is a very big ball, since there's only the two of you, I trust that both of you can handle yourselves without me looking after you, both of you are to report in the main ballroom at twelve on the dot, got it?" Blu and Xanthe nodded in understanding. White took out the car's key from its ignition and got out from the driver's side, she closed the car's door rather loudly and waited for Xanthe and Blu to do the same. Relucantly Blu got out from the Car still overwelmed with grogginess and closed the car door gently, she hated going to things like these, especially wearing such revealing clothes, she just wanted to go home and finish reading her book.

It will only be for four hours. Blu reminded herself as Xanthe joined her side, a loud honking noise came from the car as its lights flashed momentarily in the now dark day.

In four hours from now, i'll be driving home or hopefully be at home, with Cerise in my arms in my cozy bed and then maybe I can read aloud that scary book we never finished. Then we'll cuddle and talk for the rest of the night.

Blu smiled at that thought, the thought alone brought motivation for her to partake in this stupid ball, even if she didn't want to.

She just hoped that she'll be able to survive the damn thing.

Chapter Text

Hi everyone!

So, i've taken some time to really think about this story and what I really want to do with it, and though there are some loose ends for this story, I now have a better idea of what I want this story to be and become. And with that comes tweaking the story a bit to fit what I want to do with it, I will not change much only a few minor things (spelling errors, grammatical errors, etc.) that really shouldn't affect this story too much since it's still in its infancy, Though I will be deleting the filler chapter I made for this story since some things do change with one of the mystery charaters in the chapter. I hope this doesn't come to a inconvenience for some of my readers and main audience of this story and I hope all of you understand my decision! 


Oh, also go subscribe to my editor bittybittypowow, she's a really nice person and one of my best friends and i'm so happy she wants to help me with this story even though she thinks it's extremely fucked up and cringy.


Leave any suggestions or comments for this story, and have a good day, take care!

Chapter Text

After six long months I have finally published the new chapter of OLTJ or rather the new chapter of this story's remake, 'Dollie'.

If you are sincerely invested in this story and charaters please go check out the new chapter and story here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15224213/chapters/35311025


I put so much time and effort into the new story and I would really appreciate it if any of you went to go check it out! And before I go I would like to say sorry for such a long wait, and thank you so much for patiently waiting for new chapters to come.


Thank you all for reading.