by Sarah Noffke
“Always,” I say, looking up at him.
“Oh, for the love of the gods, can we get on with this,” Tutu says from her place snug on the sofa. “I’m dying to find out what you want to know. Let’s get this show started.”
Chapter Seventeen
With a strange sensation in my chest I gaze out at the center of the room. Because Rogue made me practice so many times on him, I’m able to purposely leech my tutu’s gift. I have so much more control over it now, except under heightened times and then I leech without meaning to. Tutu’s gift flows into me like air into my lungs. Filling me with strength and power.
In the center of the room, squarely in front of me, a figure appears at once. Violet is transparent like Ronald, but also has a shimmer around her that I didn’t expect, a radiance. I gasp.
“Told you she was beautiful,” Tutu says, with a laugh in her voice.
Violet Vider wears an emerald green silk dress which flows elegantly over her curves and sweeps behind her. She’s regarding me with a thoughtful curiosity, giving me the opportunity to take her in before she speaks, as I sense she’s longing to do. Her black hair is parted down the middle, slicked back into a long braid which is wrapped around the crown of her head. Her eyes are more Rogue’s than I would have ever imagined. They’re large and almond-shaped like his, but brown. He has her high cheekbones and her alluring smile. I’m instantly endeared to the quiet soul who floats before me. Behind her I catch a smirk on Tutu’s face.
“Why do the spirits look like this?” I say to my tutu. “Is that how they remember themselves?”
“This is what she looked like before she died. On the night of the summer solstice ball, over twelve years ago. She was a gorgeous date, don’t you think?” Tutu says.
Violet flips around and snaps, “I can hear you, you know?” Her voice has a slight accent to it. Spanish, I think.
“Oh, believe me I know,” Tutu says, a smile on her face.
I turn to Rogue who has only witnessed what happened in the physical state. “I’ll tell you later.”
He squeezes my shoulders.
“Violet,” I say and step away from his hands, closer to his mother. “I’m sorry for what happened to you. I know the truth. I know that…he murdered you.”
Tutu sits forward on the couch, her eyes suddenly wide.
Violet attempts a smile twice and then shakes her head. “You may be the first to know I was murdered, except those who he had dispose of me.”
“I’m sorry,” I say. “Also, I know you died because you knew something.”
She confirms this with a nod and then steps forward, inspecting me with a sensitive curiosity. “I saw you here a few days ago, Em.” She says my name like it was last week that I played in this house. I remember Violet, but also not really. Only a murky shadow of her. “You were searching for clues then, weren’t you?”
I nod. “Yes. I’m trying to stop Vider.”
She unleashes a smile that if the world could see they’d feel as graced as I do now. She’s simply stunning. So captivating for her beauty, but more so for her innate purity.
“And this time you brought him,” she says, indicating Rogue, who’s standing at attention behind me. “My greatest treasure. I should have known you were here for him. I should have realized you were still connected.” She stares at her son with such heartbreaking torture. It looks like she wants to reach out to him, but is restraining herself. Then she shakes her head and seems to recover. “I’ll tell you what you want to know and then maybe you’ll tell my dear prince what he should have always known.”
Tears jerk in my throat. “Yes,” I say through the strain in my voice.
“I’d think your first concern is to know why Victor murdered me, is that right?” Violet asks.
I nod. “Yes, that’s the key.”
“I’ve confined myself to this room so I’m unaware of the state of Austin Valley. Has Victor been successful with his plans? I witnessed great pain in Rogue years ago, but I don’t know what caused that pain. Victor has always been harsh on him. I always worried for my son, but I worried more when he disappeared.”
“Rogue discovered some of Vider’s plans and fled,” I say.
Relief washes over her soft features. “My prince looks strong and healthy. My years of confinement here are worth it to know this and to finally see him.”
“To answer your question, yes, Vider has been mostly successful. He’s created a population of Defects,” I say, trying to shake off the strangeness this bizarre conversation is leaving in me.
Her eyes narrow bitterly. “And Rogue, was he…?”
“He was the first,” I inform her.
“Damn Victor. I should have been here to stop this,” she says, throwing her hands on her hips and pacing, her silk evening dress swaying behind her.
“But Rogue escaped,” I remind her.
She pauses. Nods. Lightens slightly. “I’m grateful for that, but what he did to my son is unforgivable. What he’s done is beyond redemption,” she says, venom in her words.
“I agree. That’s why I’m here. We’re trying to find out as much as we can so we can stop him,” I say.
“Good,” she says, stomping her jewel-encrusted slipper on the Oriental rug, but it doesn’t make a sound or unleash any dust. “You must stop him. You must make him suffer. He deserves to die for his cruelty, a slow and treacherous death.”
“We’ll do our best to avenge you and to stop him,” I say to Violet.
She shakes off the heartbreak that’s oozing to the surface, replacing it with a sturdy resilience. “You’re nothing like your mother, are you?”
“They have the same nose. Nothing else,” Tutu says behind us.
Violet turns and acknowledges this. “Nor her father, am I right?” she says to Tutu.
“Oh, she’s definitely as ornery as Damien,” Tutu offers again. “Her motives are better placed though.”
“Can we focus here?” I say, mostly to Tutu.
“Of course,” Violet says, her tone soft. Patient. “Victor murdered me the night of the summer solstice because I had discovered what he’d been planning, what he was going to do. And I had been stupid enough to confront him with it. I couldn’t understand how the man I loved had been such a monster all along. And now, I feel betrayed by my emotions.”
“Violet, he had brainwashed you. Manipulated you into loving him. He’s captivating like that,” I say.
She nods. “I know this now, but then I didn’t. I had just discovered that the man I loved was responsible for despicable things.” Violet pauses, and her mouth pulls to the side. It’s a mannerism I’ve seen Rogue do when he’s stressed and reluctant.
“Please tell me why Vider murdered you,” I say, hating the question I’m forced to ask a tortured soul.
She continues pacing again. “It all started when I discovered that Victor had authorized the kidnappings of dozens of Middling and Dream Traveler children from all over the country.”
“What?” I say, stepping back and feeling Rogue’s hand on my back at once, steadying me.
Violet nods, her eyes flicking up to her son’s face first and then back to mine. “I’m afraid it’s true. I know it for certain.”
“But how? How did he kidnap these children?” I ask, my rational brain needing these logistical details first. Or maybe it’s because I sense I can’t handle the reasons yet. I flick my eyes at Rogue. His face is tight with confusion. To only hear one side of this conversation must be tremendously infuriating.
“Middlings,” she says flatly.
“What?”
“He ordered Middlings to abduct children, usually from shelters and government agencies,” Violet says.
My stomach rumbles with unease. This is not what I expected to learn, but it also isn’t so outlandish to believe. Not from Vider. I guess I expected that the information from Violet would be about things Vider did to his own people, not that he kidnapped innocent children outside our borders.
> “How did he get the help of those Middlings?” I ask. I think back to our fight in the lab. Vider had Middlings come after us there. And they were strange then, like zombies, doing whatever he asked. Even Dean, who I’d worked alongside for years seemed indifferent to me.
“Victor’s brainwashing and mind control is strong on Middlings. It works usually without fail but if it does fail then he employs subliminal communication using his words,” Violet says.
“Subliminal communication?” I say, mostly to myself.
“Yes, but he’s also had another control mechanism, which I never figured out,” Violet says, sounding regretful. “As Dream Travelers, we’re able to break out of his control if we learn the truth and want an advantage he can’t offer, but this same equation doesn’t work on Middlings. I’m not sure why. When I was investigating for this information I discovered that Middlings were reluctant to be persuaded against Victor. No matter what I said, they believed in him. Needed to believe in him. This was in contrast to the few trusted Dream Travelers who I was able to pressure against Victor so I could gain help and information.”
I nod at her, having encountered this resistance. “So these children he kidnapped, what did he do to them?” The question feels all wrong, too casual to ask, but that’s why we’re here.
“He tested on them. Experimented,” she says, her eyes not meeting mine. Maybe unable to.
“What?” I say, gulping for air. My chest suddenly tight. Heart hammering wildly.
She nods, a bitterness to the movement. “The first thing I learned was Victor planned to subdue rebellious personalities by classifying them as Defects. Then he would do something to suppress their gift, starting before its onset. Does this all sound correct?”
“Yes,” I say with a solemn nod.
“Well, I watched him for a long time after I learned this, trying to figure out what he was going to do next and also the best way to stop him. I loved Victor then and believed the stress of the presidency was too much. I believed he’d gone delusional. And I convinced myself I could persuade him to stop if I just knew what was going on completely. But then I started to really get a glimpse into his plans and I discovered he wasn’t stressed by the job or delusional. He was a psychopath who had strategized to great detail. Victor had plans to create a drug that would suppress gifts. By the time I learned this it was all too late.” Remorse weighed heavy on her accented words.
“So he experimented on children to figure out how to create the drug, didn’t he?” I say, piecing this together. Of course there had been experimenting that went into creating cerevitium. I should have guessed.
“Yes.”
“But why did he kidnap children outside our borders? Why not use Reverians?” I ask.
“In Victor’s well-formed plan he knew he couldn’t do the experimentation on his own people,” Violet says, her voice cold. “Not without drawing attention, so he had the children taken.”
Taken. The word and the implications and the idea that my father knew is too much. Bile coats my throat and nothing I do washes it away. “Other people’s children,” I say and wrap my arms around my midsection. “He took other people’s children?”
“I tried to find them,” Violet says in a defensive tone. “I scoured this city when I could. Questioned. Threatened everyone I knew would keep my investigating a secret, but it never mattered. The lab techs who told me what I’m telling you now wouldn’t share the locations of where the children were being held. That’s when I decided to confront Victor. I had to stop this. It had gone too far.”
“But you said it was too late. What happened to those children?” I ask and immediately from the look on Violet’s face I regret the question.
“They all died,” she says in a cold whisper. “Every single one of the children Vider kidnapped died. Dozens and dozens of children were murdered.”
Behind her Tutu’s face turns dark, a menacing anger written in her always pleasant eyes.
Chapter Eighteen
“What?!” I say as Violet’s last words sink in. Dozens and dozens of children were murdered. The questions surrounding this are now streaming through my head too rapidly.
“Victor took Middling and Dream Traveler children so he could create the drug from one group and test it on the other group,” Violet says after taking a series of steadying breaths. “At first it wasn’t successful, many children were lost in testing, or that’s what my sources told me anyway.”
I gulp at her words. At this reality. “He sacrificed children?” And she doesn’t have to nod for me to believe it. Vider will stop at nothing to gain control. He murdered his wife, brainwashed his people, stripped gifts away from children, and now he’s having them converted to Middlings by severing their dream traveling abilities. Of course he’d have no problem kidnapping children. But to sacrifice them? This brings a new degree of chill to my association with this vile man.
Violet’s aura dims a bit, reflecting her darkened mood. She nods. “Yes, children. He sacrificed them. It was hard for me to believe he had done what he had. Harder was the cold indifference he treated them with. He used them. Felt zero sympathy for their lives or the families he’d taken them from. But he only ever had to give the order. He’s the puppeteer. He’s always made himself so removed from the deceit he commanded. It makes it worse that he is a cruel and cowardly leader,” she says with a disgusted sigh.
“The children. How many?” I ask, afraid to learn the real answer and also compelled to know all the truth.
Violet shrugs, calloused now by her own history. “Dozens. Probably fifty. It’s hard for me to know. Maybe more. Maybe way more. As Victor failed with test subjects, he had more kidnapped, until he realized he needed Middling babies and he took those.”
“NO!” I say, my voice trembling.
“Yes, Em. Babies. He used them. Tested on them. And I’m certain he felt no remorse for it,” she says, shaking her head. “And so many babies didn’t even survive testing. So many,” she says, her voice cracking. “And then suddenly, his scientists figured out the right formula and I found out too late that I had waited too long. The night I confronted Victor, the night I made threats, was the same night he had completed the experiment and had gotten rid of all of the test subjects.”
“Gotten rid of?” I say, sure I’ve heard her wrong. I want to believe I’ve misunderstood all of this.
“They were euthanized,” Violet says with a burning stare.
I gulp out a sob. “What?! How could he…”
She shakes her head. “Too many years that question has run through my mind. He’s pure evil is all I can guess.”
“I don’t understand though,” I say, shaking my head, denial tunneling into my thoughts, trying to blanket them. “He shut down the experiments because he found the right formula, right?”
She nods.
“But there were flaws in the procedure and the formula,” I say urgently, thinking of the Middling babies they withdrew spinal fluid from too early and didn’t survive. Dean’s baby was one of them. Twelve babies died when they first began synthesizing cerevitium. The injections first given to Rogue.
Her expression is one of quiet composure. “I’m not sure of much after my death. I never even knew if it worked or if he was ruling this continent by now. I sensed he was still here, though.”
Vider must have thought at the time that they had the process right, but then later realized the babies they synthesized the injections from needed to be older. It was an oversight in the experiments.
Revulsion fills my being, coating all my organs in a disgust so pure I want to crawl outside myself. Somehow I force out words. “He euthanized…” I stop, unable to say the rest, the specifics.
“Yes,” Violet says, her tone gentle now. “It’s the worst possible thing a person can do. And the fact that my husband could make the orders without a scratch on his conscience disgusts me even now. He really believed he was justified. He believed he was creating the perfect society.”
>
“He believes it even more now,” I say. “And he has a great deal more power than he used to.”
“He was powerful then too,” she says, her eyes distant. “I was foolish. I threatened to expose him the night I died. I said I was going to take Rogue and run. I thought he loved us enough to stop and change. In my naïve heart I hoped he’d pay penance to the gods. I was done and I told him that.” She laughs, one that’s cold and lacking any humor. “I thought I’d stroll out of my office and take my son away. I never made it to the door,” she says in a tortured whisper. “And my greatest regret is that I was so naïve and that I left Rogue alone to deal with that monster.”
I look at Tutu, whose usually cheerful face is slack and absent of any joy. She swallows, raises her chin to me, and so I follow suit.
“You couldn’t have known that he was going to murder you,” I say.
“I’d recently learned he sanctioned genocide to gain power, Em,” she says in an angry hush, totally not wanting or accepting my sympathy. “Of course I should have known. I should have taken Rogue and run away, but I wanted to stop Victor and to expose him.”
“You’re right,” I say, not giving her any empathy this time. “There’s no point in dwelling on these mistakes though. And with what we’ve been working on and what you’ve told us we stand a chance of finally stopping him. We can expose him as you always wished.”
“But it won’t be easy,” she warns. “Not if his power has grown.”
“I know. His power is elaborately built now, but we are learning his tricks.”
She nods, looking impressed. “I think you might stand a chance then. And if you succeed a great burden will be relieved from my heart.” And her eyes finally fall on Rogue, stay pinned on him.
“You had a message for him you wanted me to relay.”
“Oh, I have so many, but I want to leave him with only one,” she says, her accent flaring with her emotions. She appears so young in her preserved state as she nears her son, who is unaware of this all. And he may feel the chill she carries with her, but if he does, he doesn’t shy away from it as she lays her hand against his jaw, marveling at his greatness.