SOMEONE TO WATCH OVER ME - RETURN TO INNOCENCE
(The characters within this work of fiction are borrowed from the wonderful writers of One Life to Live and the talented people who give them life each day on the screen. While I have borrowed them without the written consent of those in question, I hope the fact that I bow down to them in eternal homage will reduce my felony charge! The candy coated author also wishes to note that this first attempt at fan fiction came about last February when things were looking a bit bleak, before Todd and Tea had found the ultimate trust within each other’s hearts. m&m gal )
Whistling like a strong wind through the trees, he could hear the belt cutting the air on its swift approach towards his body. Each powerful strike sent a fierce pain streaking through him, like a fire burning straight to his soul, erasing all the traces of the little boy with all his innocent hopes and dreams. Accompanying the pain were always the words….horrible, hurtful words….but long ago he had taught himself to tune out the insults that had the power to hurt so much worse than the belt. It was the words that left the deepest scar, one invisible to all except those who took the time to look deep in his eyes.
The steady torrent of criticisms from Peter Manning now melded together into one long yell of rage that seemed to rise from the depths of hell. He had also become immune to the sound of his own cries, which came from someplace deep inside him, and which might sound to a bystander like the thin wail of an animal long tortured and waiting for one of two things: a savior or a quick end.
Todd Manning had long ago given up on his savior. Someone, some controller of destinies, had chosen this cruel fate for him; it was his, and from this fate he felt there was no escape. He had stopped waiting for his personal guardian angel to float down from the heavens and wrap him up in her soft golden wings to take him to someplace safe….someplace of peace where the belt would turn to dust and where he could remember what it was like to be able to love and trust again. Now, he could only cringe against the pain and wait for the despair to take over and dull the physical and emotional ache inside him.
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Todd woke with a strangled cry in his throat and the sound of the belt still in his ears. He slammed his fist down on the bed and cursed himself for giving in to the deceiving peaceful allure of sleep. It was Sleep that allowed it to happen all over again in his mind, like some sort of time travel to his own personal Hell. He drew in huge gulps of oxygen in an attempt to shake off the remaining terror and bring himself back to the present. He wrapped his arms around himself, but only after letting his eyes dart quickly around his bedroom to be sure that there was no one to witness this moment of weakness. He rocked himself like he often rocked Starr when she woke up, afraid of The Monsters. He vowed each time he woke with his heart in his throat that she would never know that monsters do exist. He would always be there to protect her with the magic to send the monsters back to their imaginary world.
Pulling himself together, Todd disentangled himself from the sheets and walked out into the dimly lit hallway. He padded down to Starr’s room in bare feet. He desperately needed a dose of her innocence to remind him of the one good thing that his cursed life had produced. Peeking in the doorway, he found her in a deep sleep, and he could not help but smile at the protective grip that she held on her favorite bunny rabbit and the serene expression on her face. He saw a great deal of Blair in her delicate features, and he was reassured by that; if she was to look more like him, it might somehow draw his fate to her like some terrible magnet. Blair’s life had been no fairytale, but fate had smiled on her in comparison to the rain cloud that it had assigned him.
He brushed a stray lock of hair from her face and he left her to her dreams of The Little Mermaid and Elmo.
He continued down the hallway, but his steps became tentative and uncertain as he approached Tea’s door. Unbeknownst to her, it had become part of his nightly ritual to look in on her when she was lost to her own dreams. In those stolen moments, he would stand over her and study her as she was sleeping. She fascinated him, the way she would sometimes smile….or laugh…or even deny her usual Delgado etiquette and snore deeply. He was free to memorize her face down to the smallest details and the way her hair fell across her cheek as she slept. In these stolen moments, he secretly prayed that her dreams, too, were free from monsters. On those occasions when her sleep was uneasy, he hoped that her monsters did not wear his face.
Now, he squinted into the room, in an attempt to locate the familiar shape of her form curled up under the covers. In the split second he realized that her bed was empty, his heart lurched into his throat, and he had an uninvited vision of a celestial angel returning to the heavens, bringing an abrupt end to her cautious descent.
"Wait!" His voice was that of a small desperate child, one he failed to recognize from long ago.
She’d left him! Abandoned their trust to flee far from the clutches of the Monster! Without thinking, he ran for the stairs, desperate to stop her. He had waited for so long for her, and now he felt sure that he’d sent away his savior. He knew he needed to act fast….for the first time in his life, Todd Manning felt some sense of control over his destiny.
He was halted by the darkness on the main floor of the Penthouse. Usually the darkness carried with it the memories and the demons from his nightmares. This time something was different. He could almost sense something comforting in the dark tonight….a presence.
Even before he saw her, he knew. Tea sat huddled near the window, one hand pressed to the cool glass, lost in a reverie of sorts.
"Delgado….." His voice was questioning, but also full of more relief then he could ever have attempted to cover.
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Look for Part II: Someone to Watch Over Me: The Sunrise
