No Surprise?

They had been given a name. No, they had tortured out a name.

She had killed the man, one look and she knew, he was useless anyway. They only needed her.

As the bloodied and tormented woman cried out, enraged at her own betrayal, Violet had turned and curiously watched Kieren as the name sounded by their ears.

His face had hardened and momentarily Violet had wondered if he would believe the name, her worry passed quickly as resolve set in his eyes. "Travis helped raise me, why exactly does he want me dead? My death would not bring him the crown. As a surrogate for the true, dead prince, it seems pointless for him to wish me death. What's the angle?"

A bloodcurdling scream sounded as they watched unamused. She attempted to grip at her head, desperate to claw out her own skin.

She had at one point, perhaps even earlier in the day been a decent looking woman. Now, her body hung limp, her skin cast sickly glows around the room, and mounds of dried blood in her hair cast upon her a look of utter madness. Her lips were cracked and open in a never ending panic induced scream. The true tell, however, was set in her eyes: dark, overly dilated, listless, and unseeing.

In a last act of defiance, enraged at her own lapse of judgement, the women had bit off part of her tongue as the ghastly sobs continued.

Violet tapped Kieren's shoulder softly, "I've broken her, she won't speak anymore. Would you like me to finish her off?"

For the second time today Violet watched his face as her words registered. It was true that Kieren alone had often seen past her facade, he seemed aware of the storm always brewing within her. In such moments where she uttered phrases as these Violet wondered if he would come down to truly discerning what she was and more important what she wasn't.

Kieren stroked her cheek absentmindedly, then in a moment of decision strode forward to cut her head off. "No."

The stench of metal and the steady drip of liquid filled the air as they looked to each other silently.

After a few moments Violet broke the silence,

"Well Kieren, what are you going to do now?"

They walked back to the vehicle, Violet hummed comfortably in the silence as Kieren made sense of his jumbled thoughts. Right as Violet moved to open the vehicle's door he closed it and began with a sigh, "there is still much I do not comprehend. Travis could have killed me many times as a child, a few more as a teenager, and maybe…maybe a rare few times as an adult. I'm compelled to say that a younger me almost viewed him as a father figure, he's the last one I would have suspected, which makes all the more sense. How do I expose this Violet? How do I kill a high member of the Ruenen?"

Violet leaned against the vehicle in deep thought, "I finished reading the second book, 'The Day I Died.' Geintry is most definitely a moron." Violet sighed, "and a genius… you were right, it is much better than the first. That stupid text is full of symbolism, the second to last chapter, the comparison of our feble attempts at 'life' and its resemblance to a puzzle."

A soft sigh, "We have but the largest puzzle before us, millions of pieces, each representing our choices, a point in our stupid lives. The most ridiculous concept is that we have all of the pieces from the start, we're given the print and we see where the colors go, where the lines intersect. Yet, we refuse to put the fucking piece in, because it's going to hurt, because we knew they had betrayed us, because this sliver of happiness will have ended, because we knew once we had no choice but to face the truth we'd have to move on and put the next God dammed piece in. You reach death, you see your moronic puzzle in front of you and you realize it would have been much better had you held your breath and just put all the pieces in. But no, you didn't, you refused to put the pieces in so you spent all your time in the shitty pieces failing to realize that had you placed in the next few, there would have been another sliver of happiness."

Violet leaned forward and placed a chaste kiss on Kieren's lips, "And the only reason Geintry is a moron is because he's right. He wasted nine-hundred and seventy-three pages to tell us a truth we are going to ignore because we don't want to see the puzzle piece that goes in next. And today of all days he's an even bigger moron because I'm looking at the pieces and I can't tell why Travis wants you dead. I can tell you thousands of reasons why he's a piece of shit, why if you killed him it would be all right, why the world would actually rejoice. Infuriatingly enough, however, and despite all those truths, I'm not looking at the same fucking puzzle Geintry was looking at."

Kieren laughed unrestrainedly, he pulled Violet in for a more passionate kiss parting only when a chortle escaped his lips. "You're right, I hate him too."

"So Kieren?" Kieren looked her evenly, "time to find out why, then I'm going to kill him. Are you ready? We should head back before Jace calls again." Violet shrugged, "yeah, that would probably be best."

For the second time Violet moved to open the car door when she was stopped dead in her tracks. An unmistakable tingle rose up her spine, the un-ignorable whisper in her ear demanded her time, and despite her best efforts her eyes closed and she watched as a gate cracked, a figure poised over it.

Kieren looked over alarmed that her posture had stiffened. "Violet? Did something happen? Violet?"

Violet's eyes snapped open, she looked straight past Kieren. "Change of plans, I forgot about something, it can't be helped and I've got to go now. Don't wait up, I'll see you at the school.

Kieren griped her arm, "no, where are you-." Violet pried his arm off turning to run up the ramp, "I do not have time for this Kieren, not right noWW! Shit!" She closed her eyes for the second time as the call pulled her in further. "It's fine, just the motherfucking stupid puzzle." She began running, "I've been neglecting a piece because it's STUPID!"

Kieren realized that his mouth was open, "what?"

Jolting back into action he chased after Violet only to see the ragged streets of the underground, she was gone.

— — —

Violet had allowed the call to pull her to the gate, not that it would have been hard to find. The enormous amounts of ravenous aura it was emitting were chilling. She had opened her eyes in an enormous cave. She wrinkled her nose in disgust, kicking a body over she mumbled, "ugh, really, sacrifices… we're still doing those. Lame. At least I kill for a valid reason."

Walking past the charred bodies she ambled closer, she could hear them, chanting, screaming, running. Looking from behind a rock she got her first glimpse of the gate. "Oh fuck, you've really done it this time. Fuck, I hate humans."

A particularly violent jolt to her head forced her to, for the third time, close her eyes and this time when she opened them she found herself facing an irate woman. "How could you ignore my call Violet? This is a true emergency!!"

Violet groaned, she was standing in an infinite space, and upon closer inspection, in a puddle. An endless ankle depth puddle as far as she could see, she looked up into the angry eyes. "Well, you're always calling, half the time for absolutely no good reason, not to mention… well you're also dead."

"Violet! This is your purpose in life! You cannot keep ignoring it to chase after such pointless revenge!"

Violet plopped down into the puddle, "no offense, or honestly, be offended, fuck if I care. I'm not going to take advice from the last ~dead~ muse. You had your chance and you blew it. You keep trying to drag me here, hellbent on training me into…" Violet mocked her voice, "an outstanding and humble muse. No thanks."

Flora glared at her, "how you of all people were chosen is beyond me! You do not deserve the title. All you've done is ignore the call, I like all others before you and I, am here to prepare you. You are meant to care for the humans and take charge of all the gates, proper maintenance and vigilance is monument and yet you… You! Stop ignoring me!"

Violet laughed, "don't care, you ever stop to consider the last few of you idiots have all been killed because you were so nice and humble? Protect the humans, oh please, that's not even the original conjecture. I know, wanna know how? Cause I read the first books! I'm making my own purpose out of this bitch you've coined as 'the only reason I exist', now let me out of this stupid puddle before that group of dingbat humans you love so much manages to actually open that gate. Or maybe I should let them play with that's going to come out of said gate?"

Flora was angry, Violet could almost see the steam rising from her head. It really wasn't Flora's fault, she just didn't know better, but she did, and she wouldn't share their fate.

"This is my last warning, I've stuck around for as long as I could. I should have dissolved years ago, as soon as your training was complete, yet due to your refusal I have been stuck here and after your next birthday in a months time. I won't be able to call you ever again."

Violet chuckled, "you actually look upset!" Violet rose from the puddle to pat Flora's head gently, "listen, you should have left a long time ago, now put me back, I've been found and that knife is hurtling at a real good speed straight for my head."