By the Red Moon Part 2
"Duo," a voice called in the darkness. "Duo, it is time to come home now."
His violet eyes snapping open, the braided teenager woke from his strange dream to find himself lying on his side in his bed. Blinking a few times, he regained focus and gazed around anxiously until his disorientation cleared.
A hand reached up to wipe the sweat from his brow as his panting breath calmed along with his pounding heart.
Pushing himself up, Duo gazed down to see the results of his violent tossing and turning in his sleep in the form of his tangled sheets and discarded blanket on the floor. Finally breathing normally again, he whispered to himself, "What... the hell was that?" Never before had he experienced such an intense dream.
There were only vague shapes outlined in varying colors of light. Voices shouted things in the distance that could not be made out. About the only thing that was recognizable was the heat of fire and the smell of smoke everywhere in that dream. Fast as he tried to run to escape those terrifying things, they were always there.
And then that voice that ended the fear when it spoke, calling Duo home. It was difficult for him to ration with himself how that voice was one he had never heard before... and yet it seemed oddly familiar at the same time.
When that voice was there, some form had appeared along with it that was made out in a deep blue light, but the details were too hard to make out. But as soon as that presence came, all of his fears immediately faded and the rest of the terrifying things that he had been trying to escape from, vanished.
'It's time to come home.' That simple phrase from the voice repeated over and over in the young man's mind.
Home. The one thing he longed for the most, but never had. But maybe... maybe the dream was hinting that he could possibly be 'home' now.
Shaking his head to keep himself from going down that road, Duo untangled himself from his sheets and steadied his legs to support his weight when he rose from the bed.
He ran a hand through his damp bangs and grabbed one of his personal towels before heading out for the bathroom wearing only the red boxers and white tank top that he slept in.
This was the morning of his birthday. And he was bound and determined to enjoy this one.
* * * * * *
"Lucky for you that your birthday fell on the same day as the teacher's conference to give you the day off," Renee grinned across the table during breakfast.
It was certainly a nice thing, Duo thought as well. Already, his day was starting off very well. John was nice enough to wish him a happy birthday before taking off for work. Jasper and Rose had even taken the time to call from their campus dorms to extend their own pleasantries to the sixteen-year-old.
That was all a huge step up in improvement from other places he had stayed in where his foster families forgot his day. And it was beginning to make him wonder even more if he actually might be where he was going to stay.
Maybe this family would become his own and he could say that he had a mother, father and even siblings.
Sipping from her cup of tea, Renee asked, "So, do you have any plans for what you will be doing today?"
With a shrug, Duo looked up to meet her brown eyes and answered, "I thought that I might walk around for a while and enjoy the nice weather outside. Other than that, I don't have anything planned." In fact, he never was a planner of any sort since he came to learn that plans could have a way of falling apart.
He kept that little bit to himself.
Grinning, his foster guardian's head of brown curls nodded. "Well, you have a good time, then," she said while rising to collect the emptied plates. "Just be sure that you are back home in time for dinner and your birthday cake."
Unable to help it, the braided teenager smiled brightly. He'd only actually got to enjoy his own birthday cake on a few occasions. And it was a real sign of the kind of woman Renee was to bother making something like that for him.
Again, that hope that he was trying to keep in careful check was beginning to swell the slightest bit. By the time he stepped outside with his favorite red cap on his head a short time later, it did not show any signs of leaving any time soon.
* * * * * *
Duo's good day continued to get better when he happened to run into a few of his classmates gathering together at a diner where he stopped in for lunch. Against his usual protocol, he accepted their invitation to join them at their table and had a great conversation with them.
In the back of his mind, he began to wonder if maybe he could start letting down some of those walls he had set up to actually make some real friends. Some day soon, he thought to himself.
Finally, after several hours of soaking in the warm weather and bright sunlight, Duo decided it was time to return back to Renee and John's house. And it was their house, not his home, he reminded himself over and over. He was already becoming more attached than he had intended and he needed to rein that in.
It was for his own good.
* * * * * *
When the sun was in position to begin its descent below the horizon, Duo reached the suburban block where the white house sat in the middle.
Smiling to himself, he walked for the estate when he spotted a silver car parked in the driveway behind John's car. It was a silver car that he recognized from seeing it several times since his arrival to town.
The clear-beaded rosary hanging from the rear-view mirror, the leather interior, the little stuffed bear in the back window with a shirt that read 'World's Best Mommy' served as the evidence that his hunch was right when he neared close enough to spot them. It was Iria's car.
Perhaps most people in Duo's position would have assumed that the psychiatrist was paying a visit to the residence to wish him a happy birthday... but that was not the initial feeling he had. Instead, a bit of dread was washing over him.
Biting his lip, he walked his way around the front of the house to move to the back for the patio overlooking the large garden there. Quietly climbing the steps, he stayed ducked down until he sat beneath the two opened windows of the dining room.
"I am sorry that I am putting the two of you in this position as you were both so good to be available to take him in on such short notice," Iria's voice traveled from the living room. "However, after my meeting with Duo this weekend, my supervisor and I both agree that he needs to be brought into a permanent situation as quickly as possible for his mental well-being."
Violet eyes widening, Duo pressed his back tighter against the brick wall while straining his ears. It came as both a surprise and not to him that the doctor was making such a statement. His stomach was quickly being worked into knots over the situation of once again having his life decided for him without his input.
And what would this mean for his current arrangements?
John's baritone voice followed up, "I'm just surprised by all of this. He seems to be just fine as far as we are concerned. There hasn't been anything in his behavior that has us concerned that anything is wrong."
"Everything really has been going quite well," Renee was quick to throw in.
Then, after a brief pause, she stated with a concerned tone, "However, I must admit that we're not exactly professionals in understanding his feelings the way that you and your supervisor are. Whatever you believe is best, we will accept as it being the right thing."
Iria replied kindly, "You both came into this situation fully intending that this arrangement would be a temporary one. If that is how you both still feel, I would need to know so that I can proceed to find a permanent arrangement for Duo until he becomes a legal adult in five years. He needs to have a real family that he can call his own before then, or I will worry for him."
Silence followed.
It was that silence that screamed out what the response was going to be and it almost crushed Duo to have to sit there and hear it.
Lowering his head, he lowered the brim of his cap down and reminded himself that he knew this day would come. Just as it had come so many other times before.
Finally, John spoke, "Well, we had a difficult enough time having to see our own kids moving on. That was why we wanted to be a temporary home. Duo is a good kid, but... neither of us was looking for this to become a permanent situation."
Without even a hint of sadness in her voice, Renee added, "I certainly hope that you do not think any less of us for not wanting to foster him for good. We will be here for him as long as he needs us, until you are able to find a family that can give him what he really needs."
Just like that, the book was closed.
Leaning his head back against the wall, Duo stared out past the patio to the garden and swallowed roughly. He knew how this was going to go now.
And he was well aware of how someone at his age constantly being moved around would look to any potential adoptive parents. They would assume that something was wrong with him when there was not.
The rat race would begin all over again, moving from house to house, for the remainder of his young life. In one set of lives and out again for another five years.
And it was all thanks to people like Iria who did not see the real effects of their over-involvement. They may sincerely care for him, but they did not have the first clue as to how he needed to be treated.
For Duo, there were no tears over knowing that he was going to be sent away again. He was far too numb to it all now. It would just have to be toughed out and dealt with the same way he had dealt with it for years now.
Iria's voice informed, "We can allow Duo to finish his school year here, if that is alright with you, before we move him. If it would be easier on you, I could also be the one to inform him of what is going to happen."
"He can stay with us until his summer break," John replied. "But as for telling him, can it wait until your meeting on Saturday? It is his birthday, after all." Bitterly, the teenager snorted to himself. How nice of the guy to think of that little detail while deciding his fate.
Unwilling to sit there any longer than he already had, Duo crouched and left the patio to round the house. When he approached the fount porch, he paused to straighten his back and lift his head while taking a deep breath. Up went his jester mast again as he smiled and walked up to the front door.
Without knocking, he turned the doorknob and walked inside. All three heads of the adults standing in the living room turned to watch the braided youth as he grinned and waved, "Oh, hey, Iria. Did you stop in to wish me a happy sixteenth?"
Her jaw slacking slightly, the psychiatrist blinked before quickly recovering to smile, "Well, of course. Happy birthday, Duo." Wrapping an arm around his wife's shoulders, John smiled along with Renee as they took on their own act that all was perfectly fine.
Swallowing back the bile that had jumped into the back of his throat, Duo only smiled all the more. One thing that he could not take was the lies. But the Harrison's were not the first couple to lie to him and they would not be the last.
No, he was not going to let this all ruin the day that had started off so well... the day that he had been determined to enjoy when he woke up earlier that morning.
He was going to take it all in his stride and let the others have to cope with their deceiving. Smiles did not hide the swirl of discomfort moving behind their eyes.
"Well," Duo grinned as he rubbed his hands together. "I'm just going to freshen up before dinner then. Looking forward to that cake you made for me, Renee." The woman's smile grew but there was definitely something in the air around the three fate-holders that spoke of how thin their forced happiness was.
Turning on his heels and heading upstairs, the sixteen-year-old smirked to himself. Wrong as it may have been, he took a little enjoyment in their awkwardness. At the very least it told him that they had some kind of consciences.
And, really, why should he be the only miserable one in this?
* * * * * *
Dinner and cake was shared in relative silence at the table. Following the meal and desert, the Harrison's presented Duo with a gift of an MP3 player already loaded with some of his favorite songs and a few packs of batteries.
Sincerely appreciative of the present, the teenager offered his thanks and decided to call it a night earlier than usual for him.
The relief on both John and Renee's faces was plain as day when he announced that he would be heading up. Obviously, they had been waiting anxiously for the chance to be on their own after their earlier meeting with Iria.
For Duo, he also needed a break to be alone with himself and his thoughts. Closing himself away in his room and not bothering to turn on the light or shed his clothes beyond his cap and shoes, he moved for the bed to lie on his back.
As he placed the headphones of his player into his lobes, he hit the 'Play' button to have the music drone out the many, random thoughts running in his mind until they became one steady stream of thinking.
How much longer was he going to be able to take this constant shifting? Maybe his mental state really was coming undone without his realizing it. A person could only deal with so much rejection before they snapped, no matter how strong a person they were.
Funny thing was... Duo never felt sorry for himself regardless of how frustrating the situation was. It just was what it was and he needed to roll with the punches.
After about an hour of just lying there and thinking to himself, he had had enough of trying to get to sleep. Rising from the bed, he went to slide his gray sneakers back on.
Readjusting his black top and smoothing his jeans, Duo grabbed his cap to replace it on his head just out of habit. As he turned his player off, he placed it and the small headphones in his pocket.
Opening the door, he found the rest of the house dark in a clear sign that John and Renee were in bed. Without making a sound, the braided teenager moved down the stairs while grabbing a light, red windbreaker on his way through the front door.
Closing the house up behind himself, he stepped down from the porch and just started walking the empty sidewalks on autopilot.
* * * * * *
In the light of the full moon, it was relatively easy for Duo to navigate himself through the woods just beyond the sleeping town on the path that he'd come to know by heart. Breaking through the thick cover of the trees, he went right to the hill of rocks where he usually would sit.
On a large, flat bed of stone, he lay back on the ground and stared up at the star-filled sky peering through the opening.
Taking a deep breath, he whispered to himself, "I don't need anyone besides myself. For some reason, maybe I'm just meant to always be alone."
Even as the words left him, Duo reached for the cord around his neck to remove the pendant from under his shirt. Staring at the shimmering coin for a while, he frowned. For years, he had held out hope that the charm had meant someone cared... that someone missed him.
But, in reality, he had to come to grips with the fact that the person who gave him the necklace had abandoned him as well. Same as everyone else in his life to follow.
His eyes narrowing, he briefly thought of breaking the necklace free and just tossing the coin into the lake.
...only he couldn't bring himself to do it.
Sighing deeply, Duo closed his eyes and folded his hands over his waist. The thought in his mind became more and more distant as sleep claimed him.
Overhead, the full moon shimmered a shade of red that faded in a blink.
And the young man sleeping soundly beneath it was completely unaware that when he woke his world was never going to be the same again.
TBC...
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