"You're all I want. You're all I have!" Tate screamed at Violet, desperate to get her to hear him.
"Go. Away. Tate. Go away!" She squealed and closed her eyes.
Her words sent a dagger into his non-beating heart. He appeared in the dark basement. After he threw a few things around the room, he collapsed to the floor, pulled his knees to his chin, and began rocking back and forth as he smacked his head. "Violet is the only thing that matters to me in this Goddamn life!" he screamed into the somewhat vacant basement.
"Aw, poor Tate, did Violet finally grow wise to your monstrous ways?" a voice mocked Tate from the shadows. Tate watched through his tears as a silhouette came into the light. "What a pity," Chad shook his head and pushed out his bottom lip. "Maybe next time you'll think twice before murdering an innocent couple." He turned around and started to walk away.
"You did this?" Tate growled. "You told Violet all those things?" his voice got a little higher. Chad began laughing at Tate's attempt of intimidation. He turned to face Tate who was now standing behind him.
"Red really isn't a good color on you." Chad chuckled. "It hurts when someone messes in your life where they're not welcome, doesn't it? All I did was tell miss Violet the truth about her angel in disguise. You played God. You chose to rid me of my life and now I have to live eternity in this shitty house with a man whom I love, but doesn't love me." He stepped towards Tate, eyes locked on one another. "At least you know that Violet loves you. You have an eternity to try and win back her trust—until you kill another family or rape another girl's mom. What do I have? Who do I have?" Chad shouted.
Chad turned around and began up the stairs. Tate fell to the ground, staring into the dark. "Why would I do all these things?" After a few minutes he decided to check on Violet. He knew he couldn't go but so close to her, but he had to know if she was okay.
He appeared at her doorway, the door was open and she was laying on the bed, sobbing. Whispering his name as she drifted off into a not-so peaceful sleep. With each "Tate" that escaped her lips, his heart sunk that much deeper. If he wasn't already dead, he could definitely understand why people said they die from heartbreak. He felt the middle grow weaker and weaker, until it just gave away and broke right down the middle.
It was kind of refreshing at the same time one of the most painful thing he ever experienced. The only thing that was more painful was when he tried to save Violet. The feeling was refreshing because even though he had girlfriends before Violet, he never felt that way before. A lifetime of being numb and then this one girl entered his life, creating a whole bunch of feelings he had only ever heard about. He was addicted to what she did to him.
After the sobs began to taper off, he turned around and headed back to the basement. As he made his way through the living room he felt someone walk by him into the kitchen. Living in a house full of ghosts, their paths crossed a lot, but something felt wrong. He turned on the balls of his feet and followed the sillouhete. "Moira?" he asked. No response. "Nora? Bryan?" he continued to call out the names trying to get a response.
Staring out the window was the culprit. "She thinks I did all those things." Tate spoke to the individual. "She thinks I'm a monster. They all do." He stood next to the ghost and sobbed. The other ghost didn't speak, just began mindlessly spinning the thumb ring that sat nestled on his left thumb.
"And? What do you want me to do about it?" the ghost finally spoke. He turned to face Tate and glared. The ghost was Constance's fourth child. Tate's identical twin brother, Isaac. When Constance was pregnant with them Isaac grew exponentially stronger and more rapidly than poor Tate. Tate was almost dead when she gave birth to them. While Isaac was as strong as a two month old. From the very start Constance knew something was not right about her Isaac. He looked, sounded, everything just like Tate. Except his dark eyes barked and were full of evil. Though she loved her children to the best of her ability, she feared Isaac.
"I want you to tell Violet the truth. I want her to know that I'm not the one that was in the rubberman suit. I didn't hurt her mom. I want Chad to know that I didn't kill him or Patrick. I want my name cleared. I'm losing the only thing that keeps me going in this life, because of you," Tate tried to sound strong and intimidating, but instead sounded like a desperate puppy begging for love.
"What makes you think I did those things? Maybe you just repressed those memories. Maybe you are the monster they all accuse you of and you just want me to say it's me so you can go on doing those acts without consequences." Isaac snarled.
Tate glared at him and lifted up Isaac's shirt. He looked at the seventeen bullet holes that were spread around Isaac's chest. "I know you killed those innocent kids at our school."
"Yeah, I did. Do you know how you died?" Tate shook his head. "You killed yourself." He grabbed Tate's arms and rolled the sleeves up to reveal two long scars, vertically down his wrists. "You killed yourself because you were bullied. So I went to school dressed like you, after I paid a well deserved visit to Larry, and I killed whoever I could find. They cried, begged for their pathetic little lives. Then I went home and waited. I didn't expect it to be long before the police showed up. And I was right."
Tate took a deep breath. At least in his fantasies he was trying to help people. The world was full of pain, he wanted to protect people from it. "But still, the only good thing to happen to me, living or dead, hates me right now because she thinks I did these horrible things. I just want you to admit to her that it was you."
Isaac looked at Tate's pleading face and asked, "Why would I do that?"
"Because I know you care about Violet. She's hurting right now."
Isaac contemplated that for a moment. "Nah, I like being invisible and having you take all the blame for my actions."
Tate turned around and walked away. He had to prove to Violet that it wasn't him. He just had to. He loved her too much and didn't like her being mad at him. Especially when he didn't do anything. Isaac killed those kids in the school. Isaac was the one who was shot by the police. Isaac had sex with Vivien. Not Tate.
He missed Violet's kisses even though he had one earlier. He missed her smell, her touch, her voice, her everything. He was intoxicated by her, and he was going to get her back if it was the last thing he did.
Violet woke up with her pillow stuck to her face from her dried tears. She stared at the spot where Tate was laying when they first had sex. She loved that night, though it was a bit rough for her. A tear ran down her cheek as she remembered the closeness they shared and how she couldn't have imagined it with anyone else.
She was still so angry at him, but part of her longed for him to be there when she woke up. He would be laying on his left side, propped up on his elbow, just watching her sleep. Then when he saw her eyes flutter open, he'd smile and touch her cheek with the back of his hand. She reached over and lightly touched the area of the bed that he would've been on and then started punching it.
"Shit!" she yelled in a huff of anger. "Why the Hell did you do this to me, Tate?" she screamed hoping he could hear her wherever he was. "You said you'd always be there! You said you'd never let anything hurt me! You said you loved me!" as the last word came out of her mouth, her voice broke and she began sobbing again. She hated crying. She was always strong and at times wondered if she even was capable of crying. Now she was so tired of crying that if she never cried a single tear again it would be too soon.
"Honey, are you okay?" Vivien asked as she ran into the bedroom. She sat next to Violet and wrapped her arms around her. "I heard you scream downstairs." She began stroking Violet's long hair and rocking her as she hummed Violet's lullaby from when she was a baby.
"I'm so sorry mom," Violet murmured. "I'm sorry that dad was such a shithead to you. I'm sorry I overdosed. I'm sorry that you died. But most of all, I'm sorry that the one guy I ever loved killed you." Even as she muttered the words, which she knew were true, Violet felt sick to her stomach. She felt like she should've been on Jerry Springer or Maury. My boyfriend knocked up my mom and inadvertently caused her death.
"Violet, sweetheart, I'm sorry you felt the need to kill yourself and you didn't feel that you could come to me about your problems. Everything else I've let go of. But I can't let go of the fact that I wasn't there for my baby when she needed me." Vivien hugged her tightly. "But now we have all of eternity to have be here for each other." She kissed Violet's head. "Except for right now, I have to go find Moira." She got up and laid Violet's head down on her pillow and rubbed her arm before leaving.
Violet stared at the ceiling for a moment, wondering what exactly happened to Tate when she told him to go away. She knew he was still in the house, after all they're stuck there forever. But did it send him to another room, or just make it so she couldn't see him? The latter gave her goosebumps so she looked around the room. "Tate? Are you here?" she asked as she looked all over the room, but nothing changed. She took a deep breath and laid back down.
Tate was in the attic watching out the window at the nearly perfect sunset and how he wished he could have enjoyed it with Violet. She was so much more beautiful than the sun setting, but something about it made him see her smiling face in it. He closed his eyes and walked back into the shadows. He had to come up with some sort of plan. Violet had banished him from being near her, but Isaac was free to roam the quarters of Murder House. How was he going to get her to see if he couldn't go near her?
First he thought of whispering it to her while she was sleeping, but then she might wake up and get even more angry. Then he thought about the chalkboard; writing a message explaining that it wasn't him and to let him explain. Once he was banished from her, he wasn't allowed near her until her feelings subsided or she sought him out. But since the last time he used the chalkboard for leaving her messages… didn't work out so well… he cringed at the memory of her near lifeless body laying on the bed, and him dragging her into the bathroom while he screamed at her, telling her not to die.
Finally, he decided that the only way to make it obvious he wasn't the monster was to have Violet see Isaac in the act and then appear next to him. That would work, right? He thought about it for awhile and decided that it had to be something small, he wasn't going to put his love in danger anymore than she was by being in that house. But Isaac was good at doing things when nobody was around to catch him. He was very sneaky. Which meant that Tate would have to become just as sneaky if not more so. He had to stay one step ahead of Isaac at all times.
He decided the only way to ensure he would get that kind of training was by the devil himself. Since Isaac had always been trying to get Tate to come over and embrace the darkness, he knew it wouldn't be too much of shock to Isaac. Tate took a deep breath and proceeded downstairs to find Isaac. Isaac was in the basement playing with their brother Beau. "Isaac?" Tate whispered as he stepped on to the last step.
"Yes?" he replied as he rolled the ball back to Beau.
"You know how you're always saying I should embrace the darkness instead of fighting it?" Isaac just grinned. "Well, I agree with you. I'm ready."
Isaac stood up and cocked his head to the right. "What made you change your mind?"
Tate hung his head down. "Since Violet hates me and thinks I'm a monster, I might as well live up to my reputation. Especially since she isn't going to forgive me for hurting her mom. Which if I had done it, I wouldn't expect her to forgive me anyway."
Isaac walked over and patted Tate on the back. "I'm glad you're finally acting like my brother." He turned and walked up the stairs.
Tate sat down on the floor and Beau walked over next to him, didn't make a peep just looked at him. "I'm not really going to allow myself to be consumed by the darkness, I just need to get Isaac's trust so I can free my name and get back Violet." When he said Violet, Beau smiled slightly. "You like Violet, don't you?" Beau nodded. "Here, let's play." Tate rolled the ball into the shadows and Beau ran after it.