[ 3 ]

hours earlier...

Cade Hood had been sent to the poorest province in the country on an assignment. 

The sixteen year old boy king who assigned him the task had been vague in the details. "I need you to go to Porpra, and spy on the locals for me. Specifically a filthy violet family named Raine." He said their names with disdain. But the name also stirred up emotions within his seventeen year old brunette general. It was a name he knew as well, because of their daughter, Violet Raine. Still, he quickly tried to compose himself and make it seem as though the name was new to him. He didn't want the king to catch on that he had a past with them, and send someone else instead. "There are rumors circling around the provinces that a rebellion is forming in Porpra, led by Scarlet and Mauve Raine. I want to squash their pitiful little movement before it even begins. It really pisses me off when people think they stand a chance against my powerful empire."

The king had then went on to explain that he had sent soldiers to their home, to question them about their supposed book club. But they had found nothing. No evidence of a rebellion. And though the king was inconsiderate, he didn't want to launch the country into a revolution himself by executing a family who was seemingly innocent. 

And so, General Cade Hood found himself in the outlying forest with a clear view of the Raine's home. He had been standing there in the bushes for the better of two hours when he saw movement. A lone red boy, in the violet slums, walking with shoulders slumped and head down. From the opposite end, another red boy walked up, hitting him across the head with familiarity. "Here you are, Deet." He hissed in annoyance. "Mom and dad sent me over here to look for you, you little shit. You'd better get home right now if you don't want me to punch you. You know they're gonna scold you."

The younger boy heaved a sigh. "Alright Finn."

His quick submitting to the older boy's words took him by surprise. But he said nothing as his younger brother walked past him. "He was probably with that dumb violet girl. I should teach her a lesson." He brought an index finger to his chin in thought. He then walked away and returned with three delinquent violet boys, offering them a maroon coin each if they helped him scare a little violet girl. 

Cade tried to stay out of their way. Whatever they had in mind was none of his business. He could easily take them out, but he knew he shouldn't get involved or else the king would hear of it. A brunette general saving a violet girl from a red boy. 

He remained in the bushes for another hour when he saw someone again. A girl walking from the same path as the red boy from earlier. She seemed to be lost in thought, wearing a purple school uniform from the only high school in the little town of Porpra. Cade's breathing stopped, but he had no time to react as the three violet delinquents jumped out at her from the bushes. Together, they tied her up and gagged her as the older red boy walked out to reveal himself as the mastermind of that horrible plan. 

But Cade couldn't look away. He couldn't ignore what was happening because he knew that girl. It was the same girl that lived in the house he had been asked to watch.

Violet Raine. 

Now he made sure he remembered the red boy's name. Finn. He would make sure he didn't get away with it.

-

The seventeen year old was shaken to say the least as they walked the short remaining distance to her house. He had been hiding in the trees with a view of her back yard. But the trail looped around to go to the front of the houses. She didn't even realize, didn't even question that he knew exactly where to go. Instead, when they stopped in front of her house, he looked down at her, since he was much taller and towered over her several inches.

"Don't stay out too late." He told her with a crooked grin, trying to lighten the mood if only a little bit. "There are monsters hiding in the forest at night."

She looked up, her lavender tinted irises boring into his dark brown ones. He always thought, how can someone with such different and incredible features as a violet be considered so inferior to him? But it was the last of the mutations to happen in their country over time. Long ago, it had only been the blondes and brunettes, then came other variations in hair and eye colors. Those people were separated into different towns and provinces. The last to emerge were the reds, and finally the violets. Because of it, they were inferior to the original colors of their kingdom.

But he didn't feel like she was less than him. 

"But you were there, and you're no monster." She pointed out, eyes still blank with her daze. Though she didn't remember him, he had saved her and that was enough for her to know that he was a good person. No bad person would have helped her the way he did.

Violet had always heard stories about how the blondes and the brunettes were even worse than the reds she knew, other than Dieter. She thought they were horrible people who thought they were better than everyone. It was at that moment that she realized she was wrong and that she was the same as them for assuming things about him without even knowing him.

"Just because I wasn't there to hurt you doesn't mean I'm not a monster." He said to her with a sigh, and the words managed to send a shiver down her spine. Without another word, he turned and walked back down the path they came, leaving her alone.

Violet turned the door knob and pushed the door open, entering the house. Her parents were in the living room waiting for her. It was close to midnight, and though Violet normally stayed out late, she usually made it a point to return no later than ten at night. Her parents always warned her of the dangers of the slums, of the forest. She had never experienced it first hand. Her mother was sat on the couch with tears in her eyes, her father was pacing the living room floor. When she walked past the front door, their eyes were on her, and her mother jumped from her seat.

"We were so worried Vi!" Her mother threw her arms around her tightly, pulling her into an embrace. "We thought something happened to you."

The Raine family knew they were being watched by the street cameras which transmitted footage back to the king himself. But they couldn't say more about the subject, as they didn't want the king to knew that they were aware of his watchful eyes. 

Violet assured them that she was okay and went to her bedroom to rest for the night.

-

She awoke in the middle of the night to sounds coming from her closet once more. There was a rustling coming from behind the closed door, and then the sound of floor scraping across other floorboards. 

Violet felt her breath catch in her throat, but she steeled herself and pushed the covers aside. She got on her feet and slowly made her way to the closet. Her hand stuck out slowly, and shaking, and she pushed the door open. There was nothing there. Only the few clothes she had, resting on hangers, and on the floor of the closet were two pairs of shoes--her black polished school shoes which she absolutely hated, and her very old sneakers which she found in a dumpster by the abandoned warehouses near the docks. The only shoes and clothes she had.

She gulped away her fears and closed the closet door once more, returning to her bed. She tried to fall asleep, but she tossed and turned for what felt like hours. 

When she finally managed to fall asleep, she was woken by the sound of someone calling her name. "Violet..." The voice called, sounding like a distant ghost of the past.

She blinked back slowly after a few attempts at being woken by the sound of the person's voice. Her lavender eyes opened and she was met with a boy standing over her. He looked like someone she knew, only different. It was an entirely different version of the boy she knew. She sucked in a breath and started to scream, but for the second time that night, a hand clamped over her mouth.

"Its me." He hissed at her in a whisper, as she still tried to scream against his hand. "Your brother Indigo."

When she heard his name, it triggered something within her and her screams stopped abruptly. He waited a whole minute before removing his hand from her mouth. Violet quickly sat up, eyes widened in surprise. She thought she was sleeping for a moment and wiped her eyes tiredly, expecting him to be gone. But he wasn't. He was still there, in the flesh, only this boy was different from her brother.

His usually side swept long-ish violet hair was trimmed down into a buzz cut. His skin looked paler than she remembered, though she attributed that to the moon light coming in through her window. There were bags under his eyes, like he hadn't slept since he left Porpra, and there was a purple bruise circling his left eye. There was also a cut on his lip, and he looked thinner than she remembered. He also seemed to be on edge, nervous. This wasn't the same brave Indigo that she remembered. He was beaten down and conditioned into being afraid. Violet wondered what the horrors of the army were, but she didn't want to find out.

Once she was sure it was him, she threw her arms around him and pulled him in for a hug.

"What are you doing here, Indy?" She said, her voice full of curiosity, but also worry. "I thought you were coming back in two and a half more years."

He nodded his head as he pulled away from her. "I ran away. I couldn't stand it there a moment longer." He confessed, lavender eyes like hers glancing in all directions, paranoia sitting in that he was basically out in the open and there were cameras everywhere on the streets. What if one were to catch him at his house and they found him.

Violet let out a gasp. "They'll kill you if they find you."

That was the punishment for deserting. 

They would hang the deserters in the square of their home town, to show the others a lesson. This is what happens when you challenge the king. They find you, and they kill you for it. Violet felt her heart sink in her chest. She didn't want that for her brother.

"I just couldn't stay." He insisted, taking her hand in his. It was cold, and it was shaking. "They don't let us sleep, they don't let us eat, they don't even fucking let us use a toilet. They make us sleep in the muddy trenches outside the barracks while the others get beds to sleep in. They torture us and use us for their experiments. I couldn't take it. I saw many of my legion mates die before my eyes. We're not meant to come back from service, Vi."

Now it was Violet who was taking his hands in hers, giving them a squeeze of reassurance. "We have to talk to mom and dad. Surely they can figure out some way to help you."

She pulled away from him only to draw the curtains to a close, so that no one could see them from the outside. She then moved over to make space for her brother on her bed. He hadn't slept in a bed for six months, since he had been forced to join the Vesperian army. But she could feel him trembling as he took his spot beside his younger sister. 

Violet told him to sleep, that she would watch over him, and in the morning they would figure something out. They had to.

-

She stayed awake all night, watching over her brother as though fearing that any moment he would disappear before her eyes either because he was a figment of her imagination or because the army would come looking for him. He was a deserter after all and the family home was the first place they would probably look. 

Violet got ready for school in her purple uniform and went out to the kitchen to greet her family for breakfast. She knew there was no ways for them to have cameras inside her house. She knew she didn't have to worry about anyone seeing him in her room. Still, she whispered, as she made her way to her parents. "Mom...dad..." She started with the softest hint of a voice. It managed to inform her parents that something important was coming. She wouldn't have been whispering like that if it wasn't important. They looked up at her and she continued. "Indigo deserted, and he's sleeping in my bedroom right now."

Their parents' eyes widened in shock and she heard the scraping of chairs in unison as they got up and raced to her room.

The first thing Scarlet Raine did was to jump onto her son and pull him in for a hug, tears streaming down her face. Both were relieved to see him, but were sad to see the state he was in. Indigo explained everything to them--from the conditions that the violets lived in to the reasons behind his bruises and scars. His parents heard everything without interrupting or questioning him. Their eyes filled with more and more resentment against the cruel king, and they blamed him for what had happened to their son.

"We will get you to safety." His mother assured him. "We have contacts in the underground, and they will take good care of you."

"What if they come looking for me?" Indigo wondered, lips quivering with fear. The last thing he wanted was to put the family in danger. He knew what happened to families who protected a deserter. They suffered the same fate.

His father placed a hand on his shoulder. "We will deny that you were ever here. But we will not let them hurt you."

Violet nodded in agreement. They could not let him be taken away from them again.

-

guys, i'm fucking inspired with this story right now. 

i have written three new chapters in about two days. the old chapters are in my drafts and will be edited, and changed slightly, before i post them. but don't worry. they will make it into the story.

like i mentioned before, i just think these exposition details are important to the story. so i wanted to include them.

thank you all so much for reading. it means the world to me.

let me know what you think of these new chapters, and these new characters. i think they add more suspense to the story. 

-clary