Pointless Truths

She rose from her seat, filled a glass with water and sipped on it slowly. Violet watched as his eyes traced her movements, focusing on the prints of blood on her clothes, neck, fingers, and those being left behind as she touched her belongings. "That doesn't explain how we got to this point Violet! Where have you been? What are you doing?"

She seemed to ponder his questions seriously, it was a few breathless moments —for him— before she began speaking.

"I was found, rescued, and loved, taken, and tortured."

Violet ambled over to her window and resumed her story whilst facing outside.

"After I woke up, stricken by pain and trauma I walked for hours. I ran into a woman and her husband, Laurely and Thomas, they were appalled at my condition. At first I tried to run from them, but I was only a wounded child. They took me to a hospital, attempted to locate my parents…"

She scoffed, "not that they could have because I've never known my birth parents, and well, I refused to speak. I didn't help that I had also hit my head, nearly died, found out I could heal, (excellently) and was overly confused: faces, words, phrases, people I couldn't exactly place kept popping into my memory."

They coordinated with the police, and child services, explained that I had been found on the border of Wyoming and Colorado, they looked everywhere, but it turned out there was no record that I even existed. Our clan was shrouded in mystery and since the Ruenen believed me dead, they didn't search further than the river I was tossed into.

I knew that they would never find me. The police even attempted to name me, at which point I spoke for the first time. My name was Violet, and that they could not take away."

"The state was dumbfounded, at a loss of what to do with the most uncooperative child they had ever met, it was finally suggested I be taken to an orphanage, which, I was. It appeared however, that they couldn't let me go. So even though Laurely and Thomas had flown back to California, three weeks later, they returned. They wanted to adopt me. They spoke with me sincerely, I would have a loving home. There would be rules, I would follow them, but I would have true support. 'The world isn't pretty they said, and we have a feeling you already know that, but when you meet the right people, it can turn a bit better'.

I eventually left with them, they had a beautiful home in California, they weren't filthy rich, but they were well off, and I had siblings, three of them. Dean, Lily, and Moises. For the first time I was normal, no… I wanted to be normal. So I pretended."

"I went to school, I learned to interact with people, I fought with my siblings, like all normal people do. I was recognized by the school as borderline genius almost immediately —despite me attempting to dull myself, so as to remain below the radar—. My parents placed me in extra classes: I did ballet, soccer, tennis, language studies, anything I wanted they tried to give me. I was happy, but I was lying to myself. I often wondered how long I could keep up the facade. After all, I was well aware of what I was 'meant to be' and I'd been casting it aside for years.

She paused, "what really kept me from speaking out was fear. I feared that they would reject me, cast me away."

Jace cut in, "why would they reject you Violet? Having an ability is a good thing."

Violet laughed, she returned to her chair. "That notion is one set upon by the upper community. You all live so happily perched on your pedestal, thinking high and mighty of your abilities that it's clouded your gaze. The people of the higher community are looked at with mistrust. Do you really think that only people of nobility are born with abilities Jace? Could you really fall for that farce?"

Jace frowned, "Listen, I know things aren't that great amongst the Ruenen, but what are you implying?"

Violet rolled her eyes, "that which even your prince has figured out, despite the Ruenen's constant intervention. I garner he's trying to find a way to fix it, wether he can accomplish that remains to be seen. Jace, people are born with abilities all over the world. Sure, it's much rarer than in high families where it's all but engrained in their genes, but they're still born. So what do you think happens when a kid is born with an ability and it doesn't fit the Ruenen's story?"

She acknowledged the dark expression on Jace's face, "yeah, it's that great, they're either taken forcibly, or killed. If the parents can be bough off, sworn to secrecy, on the threat of their own lives, or by matter of scandal or secret, then the child is taken before they're old enough to know their own parents and raised elsewhere. The Ruenen places them selectively in a family where some semblance of appearance is found. Really Jace? Have you not noticed that even amongst high standing families, there seem to be siblings that are treated far better than others?"

"If by some rare chance you're a virtuous human who refuses to give up your child then the entire family is killed, some dramatic accident, car crash, fire, flood, etc. occurs. You might wonder, why not just kill the child? Well we can't have them birth another child of abilities. Better to wipe the entire family of the map right?"

Violet frowned into her cup, they've silenced so many families that the feeling of mistrust has created such a large gap… oceans apart really…anyway…"

"When I was fourteen, on our walk home from school my sister and brother were arguing and Dean, threw Lily's phone. She ran out into the street and was hit by a car. I remember being rooted to the spot. The driver was intoxicated, who drinks at three in the afternoon, on a Tuesday?"

She was bleeding heavily, there were broken bones, people screaming, and I just couldn't move. Was I really meant to let my sister die? Suddenly it was so quiet, everything had faded out. Several bystanders had run to get help and Dean was just on his knees screaming for Lily to be alright. So, I reacted, I picked Lily up and ran, ran faster than I knew was normal and I kept running…"

She laughed, "what a sight that must have been, I ran straight into our parents house pulling the door right of the frame in the process. Mom was screaming, dad and Moises didn't even know what to do. Laurely… she was trying to stop the blood and Thomas shouted something about calling the cops. I grabbed the phone, shit, snatched it so hard he fell backwards and I crushed it into hundreds of pieces. They all stopped screaming and just looked at me. I couldn't decipher their expressions but there must have been some fear."

"I walked back to Lily, sat down, grabbed her shattered wrist, told her I loved her, and I healed her, every cut, every wound, the broken bones, everything. Dean walked in the door just as I was finishing up and he just fell on the ground."

I was fourteen, I looked up at them terrified and I knew it was over, they were going to send me packing, the truth would come and I would be killed. I think I began to run to my room when Thomas grabbed me. I was stronger, I could have done something but I knew I would never raise my hand against the man. Dean began shouting, he was trying to protect me, he was old enough to understand the repercussions of having an ability outside of the upper community." Laurely told him to zip it and she reached for my face. I had not realized I was crying, that is until she wiped my tears. They both hugged me, told me over and over that they loved me and thanked me for saving her."

"I stood there in utter shock, they weren't going to send me packing? It was going to be okay? For the first time I think I broke down, I hugged them and my siblings, told them I didn't want to go back. A whole plan came into motion. Lily was made to stay home for two weeks, our parents said the accident wasn't as bad as it seemed and they spoke to Moises so many times about silence. Nobody could ever know. We had to make sure."

"But… Moises was just a child, and I think one day he let it slip, claims were made by a parents at school and despite my parents protests we became victims of the entire communities scrutiny. I don't think they ever told me how bad it was, they were trying to shield me, and I think moreover, they were grateful for Lily's life. One evening dad came home with a broken nose and blooded fists…overnight we moved. Our parents packed it away and we left."

Violet rubbed her eyes tiredly, "at that point I was beginning to understand that I would at one point have to leave, despite how much I did not want to go. We did really well for two years at the new town, but they thought I was a simple healer, that I could just hide it for life, go into medicine, help people subtlety.

We didn't count on the fact that from the moment Moises had let us slip, we had been assigned a watcher."

"So they knew who you were?" Jace asked confused.

Violet shook her head, "no, it seemed that my parents had a suspicion all along that I was 'enhanced', so, when they adopted me, they had a friend alter all related documents, in the worlds eyes, I was born to them… in the Ruenen's eyes… I was a healer born into a lower communities family."

She gritted her teeth, "it seemed my survival was coming back to haunt me. The Ruenen, at least that same faction that come after me, in the clan, had decided that the world had forsaken them. No new Muse had been born, but that was fine… what's the Muses strongest ability Jace?"

Violet continued without waiting for a response, "her healing… fine… if a new muse wouldn't be born, they would just make their own. They decide to take specimen from all around the world, but only the powerful ones… the ones who demonstrated mastery in their craft. One-hundred and sixty-three healers were taken, the ones from prominent families were taken under the ruse of untimely death… once again, fires, car accidents blah blah blah…The ones from the lower communities… we were just taken… it didn't matter how for they would never have the power to fight back."

I was sixteen, taken as I walked home from the grocery store alongside my sister… I spent five years in a vile, cage like hell. Then two more once I was the sole survivor in a harsher psychotic compound, until I escaped."

Violet's eyes darkened… "upon my escape, I appeared into a forest, and for the first time met Kieren and his guards. I left them, and some time later, I procured a body, and watched my family bury me, and then, I came here."

Silence… Jace sat in shock, time ticking by…

She smiled humorlessly, "Muse… healer…human… fuck it all… what have I been doing Jace? … Me? I've been murdering people.

I'm going to kill them all, every single man, woman, human, alien, critter… every single one involved in the capture and deaths of the one-hundred and sixty two healers are going to die by my hand. And quite frankly, most of them already have."

She rose from her seat, grabbed Jace's hand with her bloodied fingers and placed in on her cheek, eyes burning intensely, as she walked him to the window. "The real question is, Jace, what are you going to do?"