Chapter Nine: Memories

Ben storms back into the house and runs up the stairs to Violet's bedroom. He bursts into his daughter's room to find her attempting to climb out of her window.

"What do you think you're doing?" Ben grabs Violet by the back of her shirt and pulls her into the bedroom. He shoves her on her bed and takes a good long look at her face, the black eyes and cuts.

"What happened to you?" Violet looks up at her Dad with wide eyes trying to look afraid of him, hoping to diffuse the situation by reminding him of what she went through with her Mom. Ben leans down to cup Violet's face in his hand and she purposely flinches.

"I'm sorry Vi I didn't mean to scare you. Did this happen during that fight at school?" Ben indicates to her face and Violet averts her eyes from her father. She gives a slight nod. "I can't believe that Principal was trying to blame the whole incident on you. He even said you came away from it without any injuries, which is obviously not true."

Well my arm did hurt a little where that bitch twisted it.

"Just wait until I get into that school, he won't know what hit him." Ben sighs, "Was that boy the one who was in the fight with you?" Violet doesn't move to nod or shake her head.

"I'm going to take that as a yes." Ben gets up to leave Violet's room but he turns back before he gets to her door. "A few notes; don't fuck boys on the kitchen floor or ever actually and you're grounded." Violet frowns at her father. "Don't try that, you skipped most of the week at school and your therapy sessions, and then started a fight on school grounds. Oh and you aren't seeing that boy again."

Ben opens Violet's bedroom door and Hayden is standing outside. She jumps when the door opens and tries to compose herself, pretending that she wasn't listening to the conversation between father and daughter.

"Um Ben one of the dining room chairs is missing and the fire poker." Ben turns to look at Violet.

"Do you know anything about that Vi?" Violet widens her eyes and shrugs.

No idea. Have you tried the basement next to the rotting corpse?

"I'm sure they'll be either returned or replaced." Ben looks Violet in the eyes then motions for Hayden to move backwards so that he can leave the room.

"What would she have done with them?" Violet hears Hayden ask.

"I have no idea what that girl does. I'll buy you a new chair and poker; if you like we can go shopping later." The voices retreat down the hall and Violet lies down on her bed.

After spending some wondering what Tate was doing and when she'd next be able to see him Violet decided to distract herself from her new infatuation by reading. She rolls onto her stomach and reaches onto her bedside cabinet for a book but there isn't one there. Instead she drops onto her bedroom floor to search through a tower of books there.

The tower appeared after her recent online shopping spree just adding to Violet's collection of second hand books. She had found some beautiful books to add to her collection from children's fiction in the form of The Neverending Story to an exploration of the politics and theology of Mythology in The Implied Spider and over to quick wit in The Hound of the Baskervilles According to Spike Milligan.

Can't say I don't have an eclectic taste in books.

Violet peruses her collection finally deciding on Peter Singer's Practical Ethics. She picks it out of the tower and settles down on her bed to read with her drinks bottle. After a few chapters Violet feels the need for a cigarette. She checks her bedside cabinet but there are none on or in it. She checks all her usual hiding places then remembers she has a pack in her school bag. She empties the bag on her bed and finds her pack and lighter as she lights one up Violet sifts through the mess on her bed. A broken pen is thrown into her garbage can along with an elastic band and an empty pack of gum. She finds a few scraps of paper and is about to throw them all in the garbage too when she remembers that Tate scrawled his cell number on a scrap of paper on Monday and she shoved it in her bag, completely forgetting about it after Leah attacked her.

Violet flattens all of the paper she has found and on one of them is Tate's writing. She grabs her cell phone and quickly taps out a one word text sending it to the number on the piece of paper. After several minutes of staring at her phone Violet remembers the old adage that a watched pot never boils, and presumably a watched cell phone never receives texts. Then her phone signals a text has arrived and Violet looks at the message.

'It's ok not ur fault let me kno wen coast's clear we can go 4a drive'.

Good idea let's not discuss the car we need to dispose of or its dead owner in texts. They get checked by the cops and we don't want to build a case for them if they look at us for his murder.

Violet lies back down on her bed and tries to read, but all she can think about is Tate. How his hair falls, how his hands feel on her skin, how his voice sounds when he speaks to her, how much she wants him to hold her right now.

Time moves slowly as the light fades and the darkness creeps into her bedroom. Violet hears her Dad and Hayden a few times in the hall but they don't disturb her. She eventually hears them move into their bedroom and after waiting around an hour Violet leaves her room to check if their light is out. Seeing that it is Violet texts Tate, then grabs her water bottle and cigarettes, and heads down to the basement.

Making it through the crawl space to the cavity Violet sits on the edge of the space and stares down at Jared's body. As Violet continues to drink she remembers the last time she saw Jared, before this recent unfortunate incident.

Violet lay in the hospital bed watching a soap opera on the TV with the sound turned down. She was propped up on the bed with pillows her Dads girlfriend had brought her and had an IV in her arm administering painkillers.

"How are you feeling today Violet?" Violet turned her head to look at her Doctor who was standing in the door way to the room. She had a nervous smile on her face and was clutching a chart to her chest. She shuffled into the room slowly and revealed to Violet that Jared was standing behind her; he smiled and waved at Violet as the Doctor closed the door behind her.

"He would really like to see you." Violet's Doctor pulled up a chair and sighed. "He's told me about the problems between you both and I really think he wants to explain himself." With her teeth clenched and her face set Violet turned her head to stare the Doctor down. "I'm convinced that if you face your problems you will release these demons inside you and be able to talk again." The Doctor flipped through Violet's chart and checked over her heart monitor before tending to her arm. She un-wrapped the bandage on Violet's left arm and checked the wounds making sure they were healing then re-dressing them. Violet looked up at the ceiling as the Doctor checked her over so as to avoid looking at Jared standing on the other side of the glass door.

The Doctor left the room and talked to Jared for a few minutes, Violet could see him getting more and more angry at their conversation. He ran his fingers through his hair and pulled at it then shouted at the Doctor who held her hands up at him in a sign of submission. Jared turned away from the Doctor and she signalled to someone on the other side of the corridor to come over. A security guard appeared next to the Doctor and started to talk to Jared. Violet couldn't hear what was being said but she guessed Jared being asked to leave and knowing him he wouldn't like or do that.

The security guard backed out of Violet's vision and all she could see was Jared's back getting closer to the door, and then he was backing into her room. When Jared was fully in Violet's hospital room he closed the door and turned, pointing a knife at Violet.

"Come on Vi why don't you want to talk to me?" Jared advanced towards Violet. Although she had her eyes trained on the knife in her boyfriend's hand Violet could see several people rushing around outside her room out of the corner of her eye.

"I've been missing you, the cops kept me for nearly two days asking me questions about your Mom. I told them again and again how she hurt you and how I saved you. I did you know you would have died if I hadn't killed her. Are you happy I killed her?" Jared climbed onto the bed next to Violet and moulded his body next to hers all the while keeping the knife in his hand pointed in her direction. As he curled up with her Jared traced the knife down Violet's cheek. Violet stared at the ceiling and wondered if it would hurt to drown in her own blood as Jared moved the knife down to her neck.

She heard the hospital door open and a voice urged Jared to drop the knife and move away from her. Jared responded by informing the voice that if it tried to enter the room he'd slice Violet's throat. As she had done when her Mom had attacked her before Violet disassociated from the situation and after what seemed like several hours she pulled herself back to the room and realised that Jared was asleep next to her. Being unsure whether she should try to escape or not Violet weighed up her options, if she tried to move and he woke up he'd most likely kill her, if she stayed there the police would eventually get him out, he'd be arrested and she wouldn't have to worry about seeing him again.

Violet attempted to move under Jared's weight to see if he would wake up which he didn't, so she slowly reached her right arm up to take the knife resting on her throat from Jared's hand. When she had it in her grip she pushed the blade harder against her flesh feeling it break underneath the pressure. She felt Jared's hand snake over hers and add more pressure, and then a rush of noise filled Violet's ears as the room filled with police and hospital staff. Jared was dragged from the bed and out of the room screaming that he loved Violet as gauze was applied to her new wound.

"All your vices?" Violet starts at the voice that brings her out of her memory. She looks up to find Tate standing nest her; he sits down next to Violet with his legs swinging over the space like hers.