Chapter 2
VIOLET ROSE
Normally, if Violet ever woke up next to a person she didn’t know, not to mention a boy, in a place she didn’t know how she got to, she would have freaked out. She would have really freaked out. But strangely, not with him. For some reason, she felt an abnormal sense of comfort around this boy. Maybe it was because her instincts told her he was protecting her, or maybe it was his hollow, yet gentle silver eyes, but she couldn’t find any sense of fear she felt toward this person. If anything, there was an unknown part of her that urged her to trust him.
His short black hair was smothered across his forehead from fighting the Kinaran government agents - exorcists, as they called themselves, since their job was ‘eliminating curses’ -, and he sighed as he put his gun away. He wore a tattered top that Violet could tell used to be a formal white shirt with brown leather gloves. He had gray pants that matched his eyes, and dangling on his neck was a small, golden locket that glistened in Violet’s vision.
“So, what’s your curse?” she asked again when the boy didn’t respond.
He sighed again.
“It’s not a good idea to reveal what your curse is so easily, you know. Just from the fight against the exorcists just now, the government could have found out that your curse is t-”
He stuttered.
“Teleportation.”
He wore a much lighter expression than before, perhaps because he knew they weren’t in any more danger for now.
“Ah, that’s true,” replied Violet, a playful grin forming on her face. “Then what about your name? I told you mine, so it’s not fair if I don’t know yours.”
The boy raised his eyebrows as the tip of his lips inched upward to form a small smile.
“My name is Kade.”
“I see. Well then, nice to meet you, Kade.”
“Likewise.”
Violet nodded.
“Alright, now that introductions are out of the way, let’s get out of here.”
“Just a second,” said Kade, walking toward the exorcist corpses.
Violet tilted her head.
“What are you doing?”
Kade looked back and said in an obvious tone, “What do you mean? We need to clean up the bodies.”
Ah.
Right. She had almost forgotten since she hadn’t needed to do it in so long, but of course they would have to get rid of the bodies. Usually, she would skip this step since she usually wore gloves that masked her fingerprints - like Kade right now - but she didn’t have any at the moment. Plus, there were just too many ways the government could track her DNA with these bodies. Then her cover would be blown, and more importantly, they would find out about her sister…
“Here, let me help,” Violet volunteered, taking hasty steps toward the bloody sea of bodies.
“No no no no, it’s fine. I got it. You go on. I’ll catch up soon.”
“But-”
“It’s fine, it’s fine,” he repeated.
Suspicious.
“You sure? We can get this done a lot faster, you know.”
“Yup, you don’t need to worry about it,” said Kade, putting on a smile that Violet didn’t find entirely convincing.
But once again, there was the gut feeling that told her to trust him.
“Well, okay then,” she said finally. “I’ll walk slowly so you can catch up.”
“I appreciate it.”
Just before Violet turned around to start walking, however, just for a split second, she thought she saw Kade’s eyes glowing as he approached the dead agents.
***
It really didn’t take him that long to catch up. Violet was walking slowly, just like she said she would, when she heard steps coming from behind her. She looked back to see Kade running toward her in a light jog, wearing a slight smile on his face.
“Done already?” she asked.
“Yeah. Told you I’d be quick.”
“Heh, you weren’t kidding.”
“By the way,” started Kade. “Do you know where we are?”
“I think I might have an idea. We’ll have to walk a bit more to be sure, though. But either way, moving around is better than sitting in one place, right?”
Kade gave a small shrug.
“Can’t argue with that.”
The two of them walked for what felt like a few hours before Violet finally shouted, “Oh! I know this place!”
“You do?” asked Kade, his hope audible in his tired voice.
“Yeah, I used to come here a lot as a kid. It used to be kind of like my hiding place from home.”
“From home?”
“Yeah. You can probably guess, but I didn’t exactly have the best relationship with my parents growing up, me being cursed and all. And it certainly didn’t help that my twin sister was cursed, too.”
“Your sister?”
“Yeah, her name is Iris. She was the one the exorcists from just now were talking about, actually.”
“So that’s why…”
“Yeah, I’m sorry about that, by the way. I couldn’t help getting aggressive when I heard who they were after.”
“Don’t be. It’s a good thing that you want to protect your family.”
Violet found herself grinning without realizing. Even if they were just kind words, it felt good hearing them.
“By the way,” started Violet. “Why were you crying earlier? When I woke up, I mean.”
Kade turned his head and stayed silent, and his hand held a firm grip on the golden locket around his neck.
“Sorry,” responded Kade. “I can’t really…”
Violet decided not to pry and quickly changed the topic.
“No, no, it’s fine. Sorry for asking. Anyway, I know how to get out of here now. Just follow me.”
Kade nodded.
As they walked, Violet pondered the same question over and over inside her head: How did the exorcists find us?
She knew they said it was because of an energy signal, but it didn’t make sense. There was no way anything they did could have produced energy powerful enough for the exorcists to be able to track them. Usually, pinpointing someone’s location was near-impossible with their sensors.
These “energy” traces were produced from someone using their curse, but for the energy output to be that high, the extent to which the ability was used had to have been massive. She racked her head to remember anything at all, but she couldn’t recall anything from before she woke up. How did she even end up like that in the first place?
She had no idea. Kade was a complete mystery, too.
But before she got the chance to think about it, they were out of the forest. The sky was dyed orange from the setting sun, and Violet immediately recognized the road they were now standing on.
“We’re finally out,” Kade said.
“We’re out,” repeated Violet, realizing it as the words left her mouth.
She flung her arms up and jumped in celebration.
“We’re out!” Violet yelled again, her wide smile already back on her face. She decided not to think too much about what happened and just enjoy the fact that they managed to escape the forest.
Her eyes went wide with excitement as an idea suddenly formed in her head.
“Hey, do you live far from here? Actually, it doesn’t matter. I have a place I want to show you. You can sleep there, so don’t worry!”
Kade opened his mouth to protest, but Violet grabbed his wrist and started running before he could say anything. She couldn’t believe she didn’t think of this earlier.
“You’ll get to meet the others!” she shouted. “It’s a safe place for phantoms! Trust me, you’ll love it!”
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