Violet Tides: A Spider-Woman Story

Chapter 5. Memories

tw: blood, bulling, slightly descriptive gore, death

To be fair Violet panicked, it might come to a surprise but she had never been shot before. Burnt and stabbed, sure. But shot, no. Violet sensed the bullet heading straight at spider-man and jumped in front of it without thinking. It hit her in the stomach and Violet went numb. The world faded in and out. She remembers hearing Spider-man begging her to stay conscious. She remembers disappearing. She remembers making it home and trying not to pass out in the bathroom. She remembers finally giving in and falling into old memories.

Violet's first memory wasn't a happy one. Not that she remembers it clearly, only in the abstract lens a four year old sees the world.

No matter how much Violet wanted to play on the swing set the monsters in the backyard kept her away. Their snarling teeth and mocking shrieks scared many a young child. But today would be different. Violet would conquer the playground. She strutted down the steps, blankie in hand. And walked right up to the swing. The monsters stared at her curiously not sure what to do, they had never had to defend their territory before. Violet ignored them, like she had been told to do when faced with bullies. Head up high she confidently chose the big kids swing. Her feet couldn't touch the ground so she faced the largest monster and asked it for a push. The monster bared its teeth but agreed. For a few moments Violet was a bird dancing in the wind, she laughed at the monsters they couldn't get her from up here. birds don't fall but Violet did. She smashed into the ground and fell back into old memories.

The sharp fluorescent light of the bathroom stabbed Violet's eyes. She tried to lift her arm to shield her eyes but was stopped by the sharp pain in her stomach. Violet looked down

"What?" she whispered to herself. She was in her spider costume but she was covered in blood. Why was she covered in blood? She moved the fabric around the epicentre of the stain. a hole ran right through the middle of her body like some kind of insect had come and made a nest. Violet's eyebrows knitted together in confusion "what?" She whispered again as her vision went black.

The thing with hope is that it easily gets lost in the maze of life. and once hope is lost it becomes very hard to find it again . Violet was 8 when she lost hope. It didn't come in a dramatic moment or as some great epiphany but when she looked back on her life she just knew it was this moment. She snuck downstairs to where Taylor was watching tv. Every night she would ask him to read her a bed night story and every night she would hear the same excuses. "Not tonight sweetie it's too late" or "another time violet I'm too tired" but every night she would ask, just in case it would be the night. She sat on the second last step peering over the bannister into the lounge room. Taylor was passed out on the couch, the only light was coming from the television. A half eaten tv dinner was abandoned on the floor. Violet sat back on the stairs, her lip trembling, she bit it to try and stop it. Tears started to stream from her eyes. She cupped her mouth to stop her sniffles and ran back to her bed book abandoned on the stairs.

Blood covered the white tiles of the bathroom. Violet looked at her stomach. she could no longer see right through it. She assumed this was a good thing.

Violet learnt the true meaning of pain when she was 12. Violet had been living with the greens for almost a year. She had been adopted last spring on one of the open days saint tides often held. She called Julie mum for the first time last week, she had cried for an hour. For the first time Violet could honestly say she was happy. The greens were perfect. Simon was an amazing father. He also loved reading so the two of them often spent afternoons reading together. And Julie couldn't be a better mum. She would help Violet with her homework and slice fruit for her every afternoon. They lived just outside a nature reserve northwest of Jersey City in a remodelled farmers cottage. It was a quiet life compared to New York which made it feel like a constant holiday.

The car trip was like any other. They were heading up to Canada to spend time with Simon's mother for Christmas. They were belting out Christmas carols the whole drive. Julie drank a thermos of hot coco while driving.

"Can I have a sip?" Violet asked

"Sure honey"

Julie twisted her arm at a weird angel to give it to her.

"Have you got it?" she asked, turning her head to look at Violet.

"Eyes on the road mum"

Yeah yeah are you holding onto it i don't want you to burn yourself"

"I have it mum"

"Julie watch out!" Simon screamed, grabbing the wheel.

There was a screech of tires, a honk of a horn and the smashing of glass. Violet's head hit the seat in front of her hard. Glass dug its way into her arms.

The road was silent. Violet unbuckled her seatbelt and opened the door. She stumbled out onto the road and spun around. Glass littered the icy road like diamonds. In any other situation it would have been beautiful but context ruined it.

The car had swerved and hit a tree crushing the driver's seat and Julie who was in it. The window of the passenger side was smashed to bits. The door was jammed; it wouldn't open no matter how hard Violet pulled. Simon's eyes fluttered open, he turned to look at his wife, tears streamed down his face when he saw her disfigured body. He turned his head to face Violet

"Hey kiddo" he croaked out

"Dad"

"I love you" he said to Violet with the last of his breath.

Violet shivered violently, the cold finally hitting her. She looked at the centre console where a phone sat. trying to ignore the severed hand beside in she picked it up and running on pure adrenaline she called 911

"Hello what's your emergency"

"I think I was in a car crash," Violet said weakly.

Violet pulled herself off the floor. Black crept in at the edge of her vision but she pushed through it there was a shit ton of blood on the bathroom floor she needed to get it cleaned up before Ms Wren saw it she used the shower hose to spray down the tiles after some hard scrubbing the tiles looked almost normal except for a pinkish tinge in the grout. She was lucky that she didn't drip any blood on the carpet coming in. Violet rummaged through the kitchen draws and managed to find some large Captain America plasters which she stuck on the entry and exit wounds. She doubted it would do anything but it couldn't hurt. She pulled off her suit and stuffed it in a plastic bag under her bed. She would deal with it tomorrow right now she just wanted to sleep. Her dreams came dark and vivid filled with monsters, diamonds and bullets.