The Book of Paradoxia Whispers

Chapter Thirteen

Dawn arose and from a slow beating heart, London started to breathe life again. Violet was fast asleep in bed and couldn't hear the loud dragging thuds of her waking father coming closer and closer towards her and Matthew bedroom. She was in deep sleep and couldn't care less about her father's loud thuds as they approached closer and closer. The bedroom door opened slowly and murmuring, possibly by her father, uttered very odd words of disgust

He slowly entered their bedroom and saw the mysterious book that Violet brought back home from the previous night. He was confused to see a book in his own home, he picked up the book and opened it. There was nothing inside, no words, no pictures, nothing at all, just blank upon blank pages of nothingness in a thick book

"What on earth is all this dribble?", her father asked himself. He continuously flipped more and more pages progressively getting violent in turning the pages as he flipped more blank pages, still with nothing in them, all still blank. His anger flowed even more now and threw the book on the floor

The loud thud woke up Violet but not Matthew

"Father!? What are you doing in our room?", she asked in surprise and shock

"Can you explain to me what is this... this... book!?", he says whilst pointing to the book on the floor

"It's a book called Paradoxia, I found it yesterday...", she tries to explain but her father's eyes look dead straight into Violet's innocent eyes and says, "Yesterday? Where is the food we needed? What did you do yesterday? Where is the FOOD!?"

Violet slowly starts to feel a sense of fear in her from her father's drunken anger

"I... I... I got caught...", she says hesitantly

"Caught? CAUGHT!?", he screams in anger

"Y... yes"

"How could you get caught!?"

"I... I don't know"

"You don't know!? I'll tell you what you do know! You wasted your time getting this stupid, useless book!"

"It's not stupid! I wanted to read it!"

"Read it!? READ IT!? Why would you waste your time reading, no daughter of mind is going to read! You should be finding food for us, not wasting your time reading!"

"But I want to read!", she said as she slowly started to challenge her father which wasn't the best of ideas

"No you will not! You will go out now and find food and that's final!"

Violet quickly rushes out of bed and shouts in front of her father, "NO!", her father's anger has now really boiled to the brim. He runs towards her and is about to strike her. She stomps his foot and he screams in pain

"You... you brat!", he shouts

Violet runs out and grabs the book. Her father runs after her but falls down the stairs, hitting and bruising his head. Violet quickly opens the front door and then turns around towards her father and looks at him in disgust and says, "I hate you!", in an aggressive manner, she the runs out the door, slamming it in the process. Violet walks in anger with the book still in hand and all of a sudden Violet's father burst out the front door and shouts, "VIOLET! GET BACK HERE NOW! VIOLET! VIOLET!, his voice Echoes through the narrow London streets. Violet completely ignores him and continues walking farther and farther away from her home with tears trickling down her cheeks

She finds a corner and places her back on the wall and slowly slides down as if she has given up. Sitting in a corner on her own, crying. Her tears slowly drip down her cheeks and falling down onto the book she holds in her lap, landing on the thick brown cover. Violet slowly stops crying and looks down at the book, 'Paradoxia', imprinted on the book's cover. She had to open this book and see what it was all about, but not her, not in this corner

Violet decided to stand up strong and look for a good place to read. In front of her, not too far from where she was standing was the well known bridge she used almost every single day. She slowly walked towards the bridge, book still being held tightly in one of her hands

The River Thames, the longest river that splits London down the core. Steamboats of all shapes and sizes cross the dirty river slowly with the thick black smog exiting the long funnels. Slowly polluting the air of Victorian London, St. Paul cautiously overlooks the river from the top of the cathedral. Violet was now in solitude, no one to bother her around. Her alone, with the book in hand, ready to be opened