Chatterbox: Inkwell

I wrote this for my OC's birthday (It's the same OC I used in the OC SI about a month ago) and I think I did pretty good on it.  HAVE AT THEE.

((also maybe please recommend me what to call it???))

Tally came out of her room in a bad mood.  She had been expecting the rest of the people in the tower to throw her a party, but she knew she wouldn’t enjoy it.  She never enjoyed being in the company of people. 

    As she expected, Sam yelled, “Happy birthday!” in her face as well as most of the more outgoing people in the Castle.  Some of the people who were less accustomed to yelling in other people’s faces were standing around the sides clapping for her.

    “Good morning, Samantha,” Tally said flatly, already in an even worse mood.  She didn’t want to spend an entire day with these people, especially the closest thing she had to an enemy in the Castle.  She leaned against her door frame, raising her eyebrow.  She waited for what Sam would do.

    “Come on, Tal, let’s have some fun!” she cried, grabbing Tally by the wrist and dragging her out to the center of the room.  It was decorated silver and blue, the colors of her hair and uniform.  She blew her hair out of her face as she responded.

    “Don’t call me Tal.”

    “Aren’t you excited, Tally?  It’s your birthday!” Sam jumped up and down in front of her.  

    “Quit it with the fake excitement,” Tally pushed her way to her room.  “Now I’ll be in here.  See you later.”  She slammed the door shut.  Not a few seconds had passed before the first knock came.  Tally opened the door again to see a familiar face, one that she didn’t resent.

    “Come out, will you?” Vondredei asked pleadingly.  “We just want you to be happy.”

    Tally almost laughed.  “You can’t make me happy.”  It seemed like the entire room had heard her say that.  Everyone stopped talking, and everything was silent.  “No matter what you do, there’s nothing you can do that will make me happy.  I’ll always be like this, I’ll always hate you.  There is nothing, NOTHING you can do about it.  And there’s nothing you can do that will change the fact that I’m marked, that I’m a messed up human being.”  Without thinking, Tally made her way past the people to the nearest door that didn’t go to her room.  She willed it to take her to the outside of the Castle, and ran.

    She didn’t know where she was going, but she got there after a while.  It was probably a park at some point, but now the grass was intermixed with weeds and the bushes and trees had reclaimed the area that was once humanity’s.  She stomped down an abandoned path, kicking weeds every so often with her arms crossed.  She was glaring at the ground, lost in thought when she crashed into someone.

    Tally fell to the ground, looking up at who she had bumped into.  It was a boy with serious green eyes and shiny black hair.  He looked down at her wordlessly, seemingly taking in every feature of Tally’s face.  She got up quickly, not wanting too much awkwardness.  She was about to walk off in the opposite direction when he asked in a voice that sounded vaguely familiar.  “Do I know you?”

    “What?” Tally turned back to him.  “I don’t think so.  You look . . . a bit familiar, but I don’t think I know you.”  She looked him up and down again.  There was something about his face that seemed familiar.  Was it his eyes?  His hairstyle?  She wasn’t sure.

    “Might I ask what your name is?” he asked her.  She was reluctant to answer.

    “Tally.  Yours?”  Tally didn’t know what to expect from him.

    “Marcus,” he said.  Tally recognized that name.  But she only knew one person by that name.  It couldn’t be, he was dead.  Wasn’t he?  “Your name sounds familiar, too.  I wonder why…” His voice trailed off as a look of realization came across his face.

    “What is it?” she asked impatiently, almost angrily.

    “Three thousand, five hundred and twenty-seven.”  Tally’s eyes widened as she heard the dreaded number.

    “What -- why did you say that?  How do you know that number?” Emotions swirled around inside her head.  Too many.  Sadness, anger, and overwhelming confusion.  And above all, something she hadn’t felt in years.  Hope.  Excitement.

    “That’s...what she -- that’s what you said to me.  When I asked how many marks were on your skin.  Three thousand five hundred twenty-seven days, right?  That’s how long she -- you were at that building.”  Suddenly everything became clear.  The familiarity of his face, his name, and why he thought she was familiar too.  

    “I thought...you’re supposed to be dead, you were gone when I woke up everything was gone, it was only ashes, only --”

    “You weren’t supposed to be here either.  I woke up and I saw you weren’t moving and then I ran.  I thought you were dead, how could I --”

    “Marcus,” Tally said.  She hadn’t said that name in years, but it was so familiar.  “I missed you.”  Against her will, her eyes filled with tears.  In that moment, years of denial and grief and hiding caught up to her.  “I was alone.”  Her words were choked as she stood, shaking.  Tears streamed down her cheeks, she wanted them to stop.  No one would see her like this, not ever.

    Tally covered her entire face with her hands, trying to hide her emotion.  She was cold.  She cursed herself for being so stupid as to just run off without a jacket or anything.

    “Are you angry?” Marcus asked unsurely.

    Tally looked up, her voice catching.  “I could never.”  And at that, she hugged Marcus as tight as she could, sobbing.  She was shaking.  She couldn’t remember the last time she was this happy.  She felt Marcus wrap his arms around her, and they stayed like that for a while.

    When Tally had no more tears to cry for Marcus, she pulled away from the hug.  She looked up and was surprised to see that Marcus had tear tracks on his cheeks too.  He wasn’t one to cry.

    “So...Tally, where have you been since IUMH?” was the first thing he asked.

    “Well, it’s a long story but there’s a castle in the center of the city and I live there now.”

    “Why aren’t you there then?”

    “Today’s my birthday and I don’t want to hang out with the people there.  That’s why I came out here.  I’ve been . . . unhappy since you’ve been gone.”

    “Then I’m glad I’m back and you’re not like that anymore.”

    Tally sighed, and smiled.  “Thanks.”

Aaaaaaaand I copy-pasted it from Google docs so the formatting might be weird.