Violet

25| Ada

We stand up right away, hands dropping.

I scrunch the paper from the pocket of his coat and retract it in my fist, placing it in mine. I return it to him.

Desperate calls are muted until I open the back door, Emmett behind me.

There is still a crowd of people, perhaps not as large as before. But they all stare at the centre of attention, a man, lean and bent over with hands on his knees, out of breath. A couple of people surround him.

"What has happened!?" Calls a woman to the side.

"Has been – has been a – an accident. Someone. Castle. Injured badly."

My once warm and open heart shrivels into a cold hard rock. I feel blood drop to my feet as the man continues.

"Someone has fallen," his chokes cut like a knife in my throat, "needed – to let everyone know! We need help! A doctor...anyone!?"

The rise in the room after this has been said happens in slow motion. I look at Emmett and he looks petrified. I look back to the crowd and cannot see Laurie anywhere. The man puffs and continues explaining, but half the people are already scattering around or already on their way out of the door, I cannot hear a word he says.

It feels like I am back in my nightmare, attempting to run from the wave behind me. Taking Emmett's hand, I pull him after me, following those who race towards the door. Everyone moves in a group, emptying the house.

Loud crunches of gravel underfoot slash my eardrums. I cannot see the village where we are, but I continue staring in front of me while walking.

The screams and howls from the village arise as we near it. Everyone knows. When the castle comes into view, there are lanterns moving around at the top of the hill.

I do not know how but we make it to the top with the castle just coming into view.

In the distance, I see a stationary carriage with two brown horses near the gate to the castle, in front of the quickly forming crowd. Too many words and sounds around me mix into a muddle in my head. I hear crying and groaning.

"It is too late..."

"She is dead!" Dead.

Emmett says something to me; however, it is too quiet to hear, and I cannot ask him either. I just stare, coming closer to the crowd, wind shoving the back of my dress against my body, hair spraying in my face.

Then I see. Between legs. Lay there, sprawled out on the cement.

I run because I think I know who it is.

While I run, stinging tears well then pour down my face.

I whip past people in the forming crowd, catching snippets of their conversations.

'She was a maid working in the castle.'

'Did she fall on accident?'

I run into the crowd; it is not hard to get through. People shout, cry and some even yell.

The woman crying is blonde, her face red; warped in terror and agony. Then I look down.

Opening my mouth to let out a groan, I see who it is.

Ada.

Her body is covered up to the base of her head with a heavy cloth. Patches of deep, black blood seep through and smudge across her pale face, sticking into her blonde hair. The wooden leg was detached and cast to the side. An edge of a platform hangs overhead, meters high. Higher than the rope at the sunflower field. She has fallen from it.