The Gender Game 2 by Bella Forrest (audio ebook reader .TXT) 📕

glass under my fingers. I pulled it out, and examined it. It was a vial with several white pills. The vial wasn’t labeled. I contemplated it for a few seconds, and then repacked the bag, placing three empty aerosol containers to one side.

Then, I removed Violet’s blanket and went through her pockets. I found her gun, an extra clip, and a few slips of paper, which I removed. I covered her back up, and then clicked on my flashlight. There were two pictures—one of Queen Rina and a blond-haired man, both sitting with their throats slit, and the words “FOR THE BOYS OF MATRUS” carved into the desk that sat between them. In the other, I recognized King Maxen’s car, and the words “FOR THE MEN YOU WILL DECEIVE” scratched into the tinted windshield.

I unfolded the paper. It was a letter from Lee Bertrand, addressed to someone called Desmond. Sitting back, I began to read.

12

Violet

I was standing on a precipice, staring down into the velvet darkness. It felt like a dream, but maybe that was what death felt like—a dream that no one could ever wake from.

I kept waiting for something to happen, but I just stood there, staring down, waiting. I kept hearing things in the darkness, but I couldn’t make them out. I knew I should be afraid—in fact a part of me was. But another part of me was curious.

Taking a deep breath, I stepped forward. Everything shifted under my feet as I did, and suddenly I was standing in the hall of my old house. My mother was standing in front of me, her face a mask of disapproval. “Again, Violet?” she asked, her eyes sad.

I looked down at the back of my hands. They were bloody and torn. I looked back up at my mom who was now walking away, her back to me. She was leaving me.

“I’m sorry, Mommy,” I cried, trying to run after her. It was like my legs were stuck in honey. The faster I ran, the slower I went. “Mommy,” I yelled, reaching for her.

She didn’t look back as she entered a door, closing it in my face. “I’m sorry,” I said against the door, tears running down my cheeks. “Please come back. Please… come back.”

I stood there, my face and hands on the door, crying, begging her to return.

“Violet?” came a small tremulous voice next to me. I turned, and there was Tim, my little brother, his eyes wide. He held out his hand to me, and I reached for it. I held it for a second, his skin warm and vibrant under my touch.

Then he was slipping, falling into the toxic waters of the river. I screamed, reaching for him, the river bank lifting me away from him. He stared up at me, his eyes black and dark, before he disappeared into the swirling depths. I tried to jump in after him, when strong hands grabbed me, carrying me away.

I clawed at the earth, my nails digging furrows into the dark soil. “No!” I screamed, kicking my legs. I broke free, and started to run toward the edge. I dove off the side, intent on rescuing my brother, when the landscape shifted beneath me.

I watched as the canopy of The Green rushed in. I raised my hands, still screaming, my body tensing for the impending impact.

“What are you doing?” said a gruff voice.

I was standing in the middle of a clearing, and in front of me stood… Viggo. He looked handsome, his face cleanly shaved, his eyes earthy green, and his hair falling to the sides of his face. I wanted to touch him.

I took a step forward, and stopped, looking down. I was wearing the dress I wore to Lee’s and my wedding. I met Viggo’s eyes and he shook his head.

“You betrayed me,” he said, his voice raw.

“No, I –”

“You’re toxic, Violet. You hurt everyone you love.”

“No!”

“I never want to see you again.”

“Please–”

I watched as vines dropped from the trees, covering Viggo. He stared at me, his eyes filled with rage and pain and betrayal. I tried to rush to him, but the vines had wrapped around my legs, holding me in place. I looked down, and watched in horror as they morphed, turning black, scales forming and legs erupting from their surface.

The centipedes writhed against my legs, heaving as more and more piled in around me. “Viggo,” I cried.

He continued to stare at me, as the vines started to cut into his skin, cutting long lines that welled with blood and poured down his face. “You are toxic,” he said.

I watched as the vines constricted, forming scales of their own, until he was wrapped in the coils of a silver python. I heard the snap of bones and screamed, trying to push through the centipedes to get to him. His eyes bulged in their sockets. One of the python heads hissed, opening its mouth to swallow him whole. I closed my eyes, hot tears dripping down my cheeks.

I collapsed on the ground, the centipedes gone. “Don’t go,” I cried.

“You did this, Violet,” said a voice behind me. I kept my eyes closed as I felt the clammy touch of a hand on my back. “You did this to me.”

I forced myself to look up into Lee’s eyes. His face was misshapen, his bones broken. He moved around me in jerking steps. “You killed me,” he hissed.

“You killed me,” echoed Viggo’s voice.

“You killed me,” came my mother’s voice.

“You killed me,” said my brother.

I screamed, clamping my hands over my ears as they chanted all around me. Vertigo assailed me as I felt the whole world shift. I could hear more voices chanting with them. Queen Rina, Alastair Jenks, the two girls I’d killed in Matrus, and the man from the Porteque gang who I had stabbed—all of them screaming at me.

I tried to explain, tried to deny, tried to justify, but their voices only grew louder. They all surrounded me, screaming “You, you, you,”