Violet

Chapter One

We were there, in the meadow. Violet and I. Just like we did every day after school let out. Before the war, that is. It was the only place we could escape. Escape the hands of our crumbling society.

I woke up with a start when my new Vampire Damsel book fell of my dresser with a clank. I looked at my alarm clock. It's 3:42. After I coughed and sneezed a couple of times, I tried to go back to sleep but my cold got the best of me. I got up and walked to the bathroom. I tried to be very quiet when I snuck past my little sister Violet's room so I didn't wake her. Violet has a condition where if she wakes up in the night she can't get back to sleep for anything. My mom had it too but it suddenly vanished one night in college when she was 19 and her roommate burst in drunk and screaming some punk rock song at the top of her lungs and woke my mom up. My mom was kind of mad but she figured she would eventually be woken up in college at some point. Afterwards, my mom didn't think she would be able to fall asleep so she just lied down. Next thing she knew, it was morning. She didn't know how, but after that, she could fall back asleep if she was woken up in the middle of the night with no problem anymore. I somehow never got the condition though.

When I got to the bathroom I looked at the dirty yellow paint that was peeling and realized that the last time we painted was over 11 years ago. I remember because when Violet was born we celebrated by painting it yellow because mom loved the color so much. I never much liked yellow. Especially not this hideous dirty yellow. I looked into the medicine cabinet behind our smudged and cracked mirror and got the NyQuil Cold & Flu cold medicine. After I took a dose, I put in back in the cabinet and closed it with a loud creak.

"Crap", I say under my breath. But it was to late. Violet had woken up. She walked into the bathroom, her curly brown hair being crazier than ever. Of course she would come to her 18 year old big sister for help. She was only 11. I could tell by the look on her face that I would be up with her for the rest of the night reading he some sappy story about a high school girl who can't decide who to take to prom or what shoes to wear. I really don't like those silly stories, but Violet said they always make her laugh so I read them anyways. I pulled back my strait red hair and followed Violet into her room.