Violet Betrays [Completed]

Chapter 1

A long time ago, my mother told me to appreciate the few precious moments between darkness and sunrise. Twilight. That's what she called it.

My mother is a distant memory. All parts of my life, it seems like, are distant memories. No moment matters except for the one I'm currently living in.

My mother was a painter. She taught her craft to me, and now I'm able to mix paints and create the most beautiful colors. Reds and pinks and blues, they look like fire when I stroke them across the canvases that sit in my bedroom.

Remembering is difficult for me sometimes, because I know exactly what to remember. I know my mother's long red hair; it's the same color as mine. I remember her big brown eyes and sharp chin; I remember the way she smiled when I splattered random paints on her expensive canvases. I remember her pancakes and biscuits, the way she would swirl the honey better than I ever could, even after 16 years of practice.

But I don't remember my mother. I remember the things she stood for, and her beliefs. I remember her book. Her book contained what she called her "secrets of life". She followed each rule in the book. I can think about running my small fingertips against the rough, pencil-scratched pages, the handwriting of old and young. Rules as simple as "Don't steal" and others as complicated as "Freedom is not free, but do not damage thy oppressor" filled the pages.

She was kind. She was the wife of Elliot Jackson, the only daughter to Mariana and Philip Delph, and most important, she was my mother. Marie Jackson was the wife of Elliot Jackson and the mother of Violet Jackson.

Violet Jackson, who is now motherless.

Violet Jackson, who must follow in her father's footsteps.

Elliot Jackson is an interesting man. He married one of the most powerful women in all of Area 5, and lived there with her. He married her in a quick ceremony with no witnesses. So, you could say my parents aren't even married... But trust me. You didn't need a piece of paper to show my parents were in love.

Elliot Jackson was the head of the Treasury in the capital of Area 5; Helena. Helena was a magnificent place. I can recall the maroon buildings and gray skies. I can see the maroon envelopes with gold bindings that held my father's paychecks every week. I can also dig up the memories of women being taken from their homes, being beaten, raped, and taken away from their families.

My mother was one of these women.

My father is not a moron; he knew that even if they were looking for grown women, they would come for me sooner or later. He grabbed the Tirana's tickets so fast that by the next day we were in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, waiting on the coastline of Area 1 to spread out before us.

And that it did.

It was my eighth birthday; we arrived in the Gulf of Mexico, right below where Gail is. Gail, a small city in what used to be called Florida, has a train station. We took that train all the way to Noah. The dustiest, saddest, and most vulnerable city in all of Area 1.

I live on Main Street in a big house on a lot of land. Some people even say too much land. Christian Vergin, the governor of Noah, appointed my father to Treasurer after finding out about my father's history in Helena. Helena is a rich city, and my father knows every transaction from Year 45 all the way to Year 78.

Currently, we are in Year 75 of the Era 2. There are two Eras; separated by one thing.

A war.

There was a nuclear war. A war that would leave so many people with a genetic mutation.

I inherited this genetic mutation. I inherited the genetic mutation of violet eyes.