Elixir

Chapter 5 - The Dance

It was the morning of the dance, well, morning to me, which was about noon, and I was fidgeting with my dress, refusing to look into the mirror, waiting to see myself until after I was all prepped up. I had a red gown on, a dark red with small sparkles on my breasts, with a golden ribbon underneath and a long flowing skirt that went down to my ankles, the red getting darker and darker as it went down, the darker at got, the more sparkles were peeping out.

“It’s like a red night, and the sparkles are the stars.” Katie said and smiled at me. “You look absolutely beautiful Violet, you should look at yourself.”  I looked in the mirror. My hair was had gentle curls going down my shoulders, sparkles were loaded into my hair and Alex’s necklace was adorning my neck. My face was beautiful, my eyes were a smoky black, and my lashes were twice as long as normal. My hair was golden and shimmered in the light, and my dress shimmered in contrast whenever I moved. I looked like a completely different person, someone who should be on TV instead of at a normal high school dance.

“Wow, I look… Different…” I whispered, clearly in awe as I lifted my fingers to my deep red lips. My mom was driving me there, about a half hour early so that I could help get ready for last-minute preparations, and Katie demanded to be in the car also.

All the way to the dance, my mom kept saying how I should take my pills every two hours, and I should “Be safe.” But after about five minutes I just tuned her out and looked out the car window, thinking about the kiss with Alex until we pulled into the high school driveway.

I opened the door, purposely trying to escape another prep talk with my mom but she yelled “Violet! Get back in this car this instant!” So I sighed and sat back down, keeping the door open and one leg out, clearly obeying but showing that I was in a hurry to get inside. “Here are your pills…” My mom handed me my pills that were in a small plastic bag with about 10 white pills coded with numbers, and resumed, “You’re supposed to take two every two hours, and don’t forget, actually you might as well take two when you get inside, just in case.” “Okay Mom, I will, can I go now?” I said annoyed and took the pills and sat them down next to me. “Yes, fine go, just remember…” Her voice faded away as I jumped out of the car, closed the door and made my way to the school.

I entered the gym, and found that it was exactly five minutes after eight, when we were supposed to be there, and heaved an annoyed sigh for my mom and got into the crowded line to write my name on the paper to show that I had come.

After I signed my name I went over to my friend Abigail, who had asked me to come and help out, and found her pouring punch for some guy that I had never seen before.  “Hey Abigail,” I said, “Sorry I didn’t get here earlier, my mom was giving me a pep talk.” I didn’t give notice to the guy standing in front of me that was now staring at me. “Hi, I’m Venen.” He said as he leaned against the table, giving me a sly smile. ‘Okay,” I thought ‘I’m not really very interested in you, because it pretty much seems like you’re the guy that goes through 6 girls a month, but it is kinda flattering…” I decided to play nice but uninterested so I just said, “Hey, Im Violet.” And turned back to Abigail who was handing another girl that I recognized from school some punch.

“You’re fine Violet,” Abigail said as she turned toward me, effectively giving Venen the cold shoulder. “You were in the hospital; you have a perfectly valid excuse for not helping set up. Hey, I got to pass out punch; I’ll talk to you later okay?” She asked, but I noticed that when she talked about me being in the hospital, Venen flinched and for a millisecond had a look on his face that made me think that he just realized something. It was quickly removed by the same sly smile that it had been, but this time it somehow seemed a little off, but at the same time more focused.

“Well, Violet, do you want to dance?” He asked, setting his endearing blue eyes on me, but I sensed some hidden meaning in them, seductive and almost demanding, like he wasn’t going to take no for an answer. But I already had a date, and I didn’t want to dance with someone like him, someone who thinks that he can have any girl he wants just by taking an interest.

I was about to say that I already had a date and walk away, when I was startled by a familiar voice behind me that said, “No, she already has a date, and she wouldn’t dance with the likes of you anyway.” I quickly twirled around to see him giving a menacing glare to Venen and as I opened my mouth to speak, he turned to me, giving a smile and said, “Come on Violet, let’s go, he’s not worth our time.” Ouch was the first thing I thought, because there was definitely some ongoing feud between them that I wasn’t sure how I had gotten into. I wouldn’t have treated him quite s rudely, but there was obviously something missing that I was eager to find out about.

Alex was in an angry mood when we got to the dance floor. I was starting to get mad, because Alex was so rude, and now he was going to be angry the whole time we are at the dance, and this was supposed to be my only time off from being in the hospital, and I wasn’t going to put up with him being angry the whole time just because someone else asked me to dance. Part of me knew that there had to be more than that, something that Alex was keeping from me, but I just ignored that and let myself be angry at Alex for a minute. 

At one point in the middle of the dance, I had built up enough anger and decided that I would go dance with Venen for a song. "One song, and that's it." I told myself. I stopped dancing and looked at Alex, an annoyed expression playing on my face. "What?" Alex asked. "I'm sick of you be angry, if you're going to act like this then I will go dance with him." I turned around about to make my way through the crowd to find Venen, but he grabbed my shoulder gently and I turned around to face him. 

"You don't understand, he's not who you think he is Violet." Alex said, I just ignored him, turned back around and he let me go, and I got a glimpse of his pitiful face as I turned around. For a brief moment I felt sorry for him, and took pity, but my anger swallowed my pity as I made my way to where Venen was sitting on a chair to the side of the room, looking at me, a smile toying on his lips.  

"What do you have that look for?" I asked. "Oh, nothing, I just knew that I was too irresistible for you to stay away." He replied and the smile grew larger and more idiotic. I just sighed and said, "Do you want to dance or not?" He stood up and grabbed my hand, acting fake polite and nice, but I knew that it was just a show. I was starting to regret leaving Alex, because I felt off when I was around Venen, and it was unsettling, and I didn't know why, but I didn't like it.

When we started dancing, I slow song came on, and my stomach lurched. Venen put his hands low on my hips and pulled me close to him. I inched away and pulled his pulled his hands to my waist. We started dancing and his hands kept getting lower and lower until they were almost on my butt. I yanked them up, but he grabbed my hand, hard, and pulled me away from the dance floor. I followed him, because his grip and my hand only got tighter when I pulled away. "Where are we going?" I yelled over the music.

Venen didn't answer, as he led me into the hallway of the school, past the "DO NOT ENTER" sign, and into a classroom that I didn't recognize. He pushed me against the wall, hard, and I slammed into it. "OUCH!!" I yelled. "'WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" I demanded. Venen's face was as cold as ice, and his eyebrows were pushed together in annoyance, "Don't play that game with me, you know why I brought you here." "Huh?" I thought and racked my brain for anything that he would be talking about. I came up with nothing.

"Tell me where it is!" Venen demanded, hovering over me, a vicious look on his face. "Where what is? I don't know what you’re talking about!" I yelled back and stood up, trying not to look as scared as a felt inside.  

“The elixir! I know that Alex gave it to you!” Venen shouted. “What’s an elixir?” I thought. “I DON’T KNOW WHAT AN ELIXIR IS, AND EVEN IF I DID, WHY WOULD ALEX GIVE IT TO ME?” I yelled, my fists clenched. I was starting to get weary. (I was really regretting dancing with him now…)

I had no idea what he was shouting, because my stomach began hurting again, the same pain that I had before when I collapsed at school and woke up in the hospital. But this time it was even worse. Black spots danced across my vision as I fought to stay awake.

I could hear Venen screaming, hovering above where I was crouched on the floor, his face contorted in strange ways with anger. I imagined that I was falling into a black hole, not even light could escape, but I could still feel what was going on around me. Those were my last thoughts as I fell into the black hole and lost consciousness.