Violets and Ash
Chapter 6

I carried the consequences of my past on my shoulders for years.

I'd tiptoe downstairs and to fumble with the lock on the front door for a couple minutes beforecurling up in bed. That was what I considered a good night, and thankfully they happened ratherfrequently.

Last night, however, wasn't one of them.

My stomach was full but the conversation I had with Norma left me feeling anxious and jittery. Ineeded to make sure the doors were locked, that the house was secure from the inside out. It wasan urge I no longer questioned, and one I'd stopped fighting years ago.

The lock on my bedroom door was wrong.

It felt too flat between my fingers, nothing like the heavy thud of the deadbolt that was on the frontdoor of our cabin—the same kind downstairs. This one was one of those cheap locks that stuck outfrom the doorknob like a button. Even the click it made was wrong.

I face planted in my bed hours later, swallowed whole by exhaustion.

A soft knock sounded on my bedroom door, and instantly my eyes opened. The sliver of moonlightthat had bathed my room in an eerie glow was gone, replaced by early morning rays. I stared at thedust particles hovering in the air before remembering someone was at the door.

"Sorry, you know I wouldn't wake you if it wasn't important.” Elijah stood in the doorway, two to-gocups in his hands. “I come bearing gifts—caffeinated gifts.”

The earthy smell of his aftershave permeated my room, bringing on a wave of unexpected nostalgiathat I had to shove down. It reminded me of pine trees and cold mountain air—the only two things Iliked about home.

I sighed and used my brattiest voice, “...alright, I guess you can come in.”

"With a little more practice you'll fit in perfectly around here.” Elijah’s laugh was warm hearted andmade his eyes crinkle behind the rim of his reading glasses. “The princess attitude doesn't look badon you.”

“Well, we do live in a castle.”

The heavier of the two cups was full of chocolate milk, which I poured into the steaming espresso. Itwas the only way I'd drink my coffee and started when I first began home-schooling.

There had been a time were going outside felt paralyzing, and even the two-minute trip to thegrocery mart was impossible. I couldn't stomach the bitterness of black coffee, so I improvised andused what we had—and what we had was chocolate milk.

"Sylvia and I have to leave in a few hours. She has a meeting with some of the clinic's sponsors andasked that I tag along. It's supposed to be quick, but you know how these things can go.” Hiscrinkled-eyed smile was apologetic as always, even though he knew I wasn't angry. “I'm glad you'reeager to get out of your comfort zone—but Violet if you need to slow down, please let me know.The last thing you need is to become overwhelmed, which is easy in a town like this. I'm only saying,we can't have a repeat of what happened before...the people here, they won't take kindly tosomething like that.”

It was the first time Elijah mentioned the incident that led to me dropping out of public school andremoving myself from the general population of the town.

“Believe me, that will never happen again.” I reassured him, lowering my eyes to the cup in my handas I took another drink, using the chocolatey espresso to unwind my tangled nerves.

The flash of surprise on Elijah’s face lasted only seconds before he launched into what I hopedwould be a heart-warming approval.

“Between running EleaCorp and holding seats on both the school board and medical board, Sylvia'sinfluence here runs pretty deep. There's going to be events that I'll be attending with her, that herson's will also be expected to attend. People are going to expect the same of you as they wouldSylvia's boys...only they won't put you on a pedestal the way they do with them.”

I paused long enough for Elijah to shift his weight from left to right, “...so what you're saying is thisplace is exactly like that college mafia romance novel I told you about last month where everyone intown is super rich but also way deep in crime and all this other shady stuff. They're respectable andpolite in public, but when the sun goes down they sell drugs and torture—"

"What—no, that's not what I'm saying at all..." His eyebrows creased with worry, and he loosenedthe neck of his tie, “...who bought you this book?”

“Jackie.” 1 smiled behind the lid of my coffee cup.

“That figures.” He grumbled, unsurprised. “...everyone is rich, and polite in public—for the mostpart...”

“I'm just teasing you, Elijah.” I said, giggling as I let him off the hook. “I know what you're trying tosay, and I think I'd be open to it...as long as someone teaches me how not to embarrass myself.Sylvia must have a royal tutor somewhere in this mansion.”

“Not to worry, I'll have her procure the best one in the land. Dr. Maslin“s going to be stunned atyour progress.” He beamed at me, and the sight made my chest swell with pride. “...you sure you'realright with all of this?”

“I'm positive. I'm actually looking forward to starting school Monday.” I smiled. “Now if you don’tmind, since you so rudely woke me from my sleep, I'm going to take a bubble bath in the indoorswimming pool your girlfriend gifted me.”

"We'll be back tomorrow, just in time for you to start school on Monday. Sylvia will make sure youhave everything you need, and don't hesitate to ask her for anything.”

Only after I spent the better half of the day drifting languidly in the cooling salt-water did hungerforce me to get out. Chilly air wrapped around my naked body and made goosebumps sprout alongmy arms. The sudden heat I felt coming off the tiled floor made me jump.

'...the floor is heated, how strange is that?’ I laughed and placed a hand against the warm surface. ...this place really has everything."

Trying to sleep on my second night in this modern fortress was even worse than the first.

Tonight the wind refused to stop it's howling, seemingly intent on making the trees closest to thehouse groan and flex. With each passing minute, it's wail began to sound almost human-like.Before long I found myself wandering the halls, my brain on auto pilot as I padded down the stairsand through the swinging kitchen doors.

Norma wasn't on guard duty tonight, which was encouragement enough as I raced to the pantryand pulled open the doors. My hands knew what to grab even though my mind hadn't yet figuredout what I wanted to make. All my cookbooks were upstairs, and I hadn't thought to grab one sincecoming down here wasn't exactly a conscious decision.

About halfway through measuring out various amounts of flour, sugar, and milk, I finally figured outwhat I was going to make. The whole pineapple sitting on the counter, perfectly ripe and nearing itslast days, inspired me to make pineapple upside-down cupcakes.

I was so absorbed in my task of sifting the flour into the wet mix that I hadn't heard Norma's softfootsteps enter the kitchen.

“You tryin’ to run me out of a job, child?”

I gasped and with the sifter full of flour in my hand, turned in the direction of Norma's voice. Somewas flung against the wall and made little thud sounds on impact, but most exploded in a plume ofwhite powder that clung to the dewy parts of my face.

The second mistake I made was opening my mouth to apologize before the flour began to settle.Instead, I sucked in a deep breath and proceeded to cough and hack for the next three minutes.Norma stood silent until I finished, “...you do know that flour is imported from out of the country,right?”

"Oh, I didn't.” I looked at the wall where half the flour had splattered and wondered how manyhundreds of dollars I had just inhaled. My voice was an octave higher when I said, “...it's—it's notvery expensive...is it?”

“You're sure gonna liven things up around here, aren't you?” She asked, her eyebrow raised.

I set the sifter on the counter, slowly.

“Um, I hope so?"

Her lips twitched as she took in all the bowls and ingredients I had pulled out, “what're youmaking?”

“Pineapple upside-down cupcakes?”

"Kind of hard to do that without flour, isn't it?” She chuckled, leaving me standing there speechlessas she walked to the pantry and grabbed the container of flour I had just put back minutes ago.There was this look in her eye that reminded me of how the people back home stopped and stared.They too were curious about me and my scars, the only difference was they already decided that nomatter who I was, I'd always be damaged—a threat. The way Norma looked at me, it's like shehadn't decided yet.

Her eyes drifted to the scar along my neck, then to the one running down my shoulder, easily visiblebeneath the thin strap of my tank top. Without missing a beat she said, “...my momma made apretty good upside-down cake, made a banana foster one too when she was feeling nice...youputting any pecan’s in?”

“No, should I?" I frowned, measuring out another two cups of flour. “...I've never made an upsidedown anything before, so I'm just winging it. I'm open to suggestions though...”

“That's how my momma made it, but you don’t have to. She baked when she couldn't sleep too.”Norma's smile was bittersweet.

A nervous and excited tingle exploded in my stomach when she asked, “...would you mind if I joinedyou? I was looking for a reason to sleep in, and this way I get to earn myself a cupcake—or two.”"Of course you can help! Actually, could you show me where I can replace pecans?”

After an hour and a half of baking, and one sinfully delicious cupcake, I passed out face first on topof my bed. My sleep schedule was officially screwed, because I slept through Horace knocking onmy door not once, but twice.

The four of us had dinner together just like the first night, and I was sure Graham managed to sneaka cookie or two beforehand because he couldn't stop fidgeting in his seat. Every time he kicked hisshort legs the curls on his head would bounce.

When Norma placed Graham's bowl in front of him, I heard her whisper something in his ear.

"You eat this étouffée and I'll give you a cupcake later.” Her hushed voice was stern, but the emotiondidn't reach her eyes. Even her heavy accent seemed to soften as she spoke to the youngest ofSylvia's sons. “...got it?”

Graham didn’t nod yes or respond, but quickly proceeded to shovel obscene amounts of rice andshrimp into his mouth. Small bits tumbled past his lips like sailors abandoning ship.

“Graham, what did I tell you about eating like your brother?” Sylvia paused her conversation withElijah, which was the only reason she hadn't heard Norma whispering to Graham and gave him adisapproving look.

Graham stared at his mother and shrugged, pointing to his full mouth.

"Oh, you can’t answer since your mouth is full?” Sylvia deadpanned, and just when I thought shewas completely immune the dimpled grin that made me swallow my laughter in between bites ofNorma's étouffée, she leaned forward and smirked. “...Graham Ashford, you eat that food like awell-mannered wolf, or you won't so much as get a whiff of that cupcake Norma was bribing youwith.”

Graham quickly swallowed his food, let out a long and very drawn-out groan, then said, “...yes,mother.”

As we resumed eating, I ended up sucked into Sylvia and Elijah’s conversation.

There was fierce determination in her eyes when she said, “...let them try to slow things down for us,they'll see how quickly their supply of wolfsbane is cut off.”

“What about those potential clients you were telling me about? Have you heard anything back fromthem?” Elijah asked, and the sound of their voices faded as I lost myself in thought.

No one knows when wolfsbane came into existence, but the writers of our history books assumed itappeared around the same time as the gene. The mention of it caught me by surprise since it wasnotoriously hard to replace and also very illegal.

Seconds before Sylvia's eyes lifted to meet my own, they were on the bow! of étouffée in front ofme.

“Let me guess, Norma gave you the meat water and rabbit food speech, correct?” Her face wassmooth and blemish free, but also unamused.

This was the end of Norma's career. I was sure of it, even more so when her voice sounded from thekitchen, “...you're just mad she’s not sufferin’ with you!"

Sylvia's eyes narrowed and I was positive she had the same thought, “Remind me why I keep youemployed when you talk to me like this, Norma?"

I counted eight of her soft footsteps until she appeared behind the kitchen door, “...you don't payme nearly enough for the work I put in—and there's not a single cook in this pack that can makethe things you ask me for.”

As Norma walked back into the kitchen, I could hear her grumbling about low calorie, zero carb,gluten free dinners.

Before dinner came to an end, Sylvia gave me what must've passed as a speech of encouragement.Truthfully, her words only gave me more anxiety. The entire town was eager to meet her partner andhis adoptive daughter—the one with the scars and forgotten past.

For the second time in my life, I found myself famous for all the wrong reasons.

The night before my first day of school was undoubtedly the worst. Every pinch of giddyanticipation I'd been feeling evaporated when Horace knocked on the door around eight o'clock atnight.

The stack of clothing he handed me still sat untouched on the bed. I couldn't even bare to look at it.Not the plaid skirt or knee-high socks, which were folded and tucked beneath a button down topwith the Academy's crest embroidered on the front, nor the crisp blazer that looked as though itbelonged on a runway and not on some random college student.

For two hours, I stared at the raven on the breast until it's proud and elegant form was burned intomy head. Every stitch on every obsidian feather, even the single branch it carried in its claws wereburned into the deepest parts of my memory.

Without once glancing towards the kitchens, I slipped into the foyer and made a beeline for thefront door. The deadbolt was cold in between my fingers and gave no resistance as I unlocked it.Just to make sure, I gripped one of the handles and tugged. It slid open a crack, revealing a sliver ofnight sky and barren street.

Now that I knew locked from unlocked, I let the door click shut and started counting.

For some reason ten was the only number I could stop at, and only if I didn't lose count in betweenDr. Maslin had some long drawn-out name for my affliction.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

Even now I wrinkled my nose at the sound of it. Unfortunately, doing so made me lose count.Twenty or so minutes later, I turned on my heel and felt my heart stop dead in its tracks. The rest ofme had no choice but to follow, because standing twenty feet away with a head full of pink curlerswas Norma.