Chasing Violets

It's a Girl Thing

------------------------------------------------------------ 3 Months Ago -------------------------------------------------------

Three weeks after they killed my parents, the Refined came back to my house. Immediately, I shrank back into the forest that rings around my neighborhood. There are only 2 reasons they would come back to the house. They were either re-taking all the food and supplies for the Refined, or they were searching for the one and only Violet Bellonici. I was sincerely hoping it was the former. The less people looked for me, the better. Besides, I'd been living off of my own home supplies since my parents died, so they wouldn't be getting anything from my house. Small victories are sometimes the best ones, I suppose. The Refined weren't in the house long, and my heart dropped into my stomach when I realized that most of the Refined were Officials, the telltale snow-cobra patch on their shoulders. Quick and deadly...it suited the Officials quite nicely actually. Were it not for the irony of the situation, I'd applaud them on their symbolism. As it stood, there were 10 Officials, armed to their immaculately perfect teeth, all sent to apprehend one seventeen year old girl. In all fairness, they probably should've sent more. But taking them head-on would be along the same lines as me jumping in front of a bullet. Stupid and suicidal. So it seemed that if I was going to deal with these Officials, I'd have to take them by surprise. Suited my style just fine. So I ran up a tree, parkour style, jumping from the trunk of one tree to the trunk of another one. When I was perched high enough up the tree that I was completely obscured by the leaves, I took another look at the scene. I was about 30 feet of the ground. Luckily for me, I'm an incredibly fast healer. Thank you violet eyes. I made sure that the leaves completely covered me and then I did something every teenager in the history of forever perfected. I made a very loud, very drawn out, incredibly unnecessary noise, as if I was dying of boredom. I knew that despite being over 65 yards away, the Refining Officials would instantly pick up the noise with their superior hearing. In eerie unison, they turned and sprinted for the forest. They got to the copse of trees surrounding mine, and fanned out, searching through the underbrush. I stopped breathing. As close as they were, they could probably hear my racing heart. I quickly jumped from my protective perch in the tall Sitka spruce tree to a neighboring tree, an average pine tree. Directly above the biggest of the gathered Officials. I eased my knives out of their hidden sheaths in my sleeves. They came out with the smallest of sounds. It was still enough to have all ten Officials pause just for a second. Well I said to myself nothing else I can do about it at this point. Then I launched myself headfirst off of the tree.

I don't think it occurred to the Official to look up until my knife was already aiming at his throat. I saw his eyes widen behind his sunglasses right before I crashed into him knives first. There was just the tiniest hint of resistance before the knives plunged into him, one at his throat and the other at his back. Even if the knife to the throat didn't kill him, he'd definitely be pretty useless until the bio-tech within him knitted his spine back together. I yanked my knife from his throat, slashing him even more, and spun around to throw it at the oncoming Official. It caught him in the eyeball and he was flung onto his back. I slashed his throat with one knife, pulled the other one out of his eyeball. One Official made a grab for me but I ducked under his arm and sliced his kneecap with one of the knives as I did. He fell to one side, and I delivered a crippling blow to the back of his neck, the tip of the knife jutting through his Adams apple before he slid off the knife to the ground. I turned around, squaring off against the remaining 7 Officials. Someone should really make a movie out of this, I thought distractedly as they advanced toward me. They had their signature cobra-batons. It was a combination whip and electrocution chain. Again, based on the snow cobra. Quick and deadly with a long range and a deadly bite. I saw this demonstrated in a training video three days ago. There was a lot of twitching and pain involved. Needless to say, a shiver ran through me when I recognized the whips. But I forced myself to stay light on my feet. There was a current that shimmered through the air, forcing itself towards me that I instinctively sidestepped. Milliseconds later, the whip cracked, and I thanked God for instincts. I'd have to feel for the electrical currents surrounding the whips. I licked my lips, nervously. This battle just got a lot more interesting.