A/N: Okay sweethearts, you have waited long enough. Most of this chapter will be the entries of Violet's grandmother's journal. Enjoy!
Chapter Nine
"Sam?" Violet answered the phone.
"Hey, how are you doing?"
"Uh…"
"That's what I thought," Sam said grimly. "Look, I hate to throw this at you now, but Kevin just called."
"And?" She persisted.
"He's cracked the first trial." Sam's sigh filled the phone. "What do you want to do? I know you Vi, that journal is sitting beside you and you want to read it now and wait at the same time. What's it going to be?"
He does know me, Violet though. Her eyes glanced quickly at the journal burning a hole in her passenger seat. She wanted to be with her boys and figure out this new plan with shutting the Gates of Hell. Yet…she needed to know the truth. If her Grams was truly a hunter, it meant that her family had more history than she could ever dream.
"I gotta know, Sam." She whispered, tears bordering her eyes.
"I know and that's okay." He said in a soothing voice. "We've got this, Vi. You do what you need to do."
"Just promise me something."
"And disregard our rule?" He teased.
"Just for this second time." Her ring glinted in the sunlight. "Don't make any rash decisions without me. I couldn't bare it if you guys started something that would only get you guys killed."
"Violet, whatever happens…"
"Hand the phone to Dean," she commanded. "I need to talk to him, too."
She heard the phone being passed over. "Yep?"
She grinned slightly at Dean's greeting. "Please don't do anything stupid, both of you."
"You think we would?"
"I know you have." She reasoned. "I couldn't live without either of you, got that? This is an order, Dean."
He groaned slightly. "Violet, we don't do orders anymore."
"I'm married to your brother." She tried to take deep breaths and focus on the road before her. "You are my brother now. Do for me what you would do for Sam."
He was silent for a moment. "Got it, Red."
"Good. Now, I love you both and please be safe."
After an hour of driving, she decided she couldn't wait to get to the bunker. Pulling into the nearest restaurant, which happened to be a diner, she hopped out of the car with the journal tucked tightly in her arms. Walking through the doors had sent a sense of déjà vu running through her. She was suddenly brought back to the day she met Sam and couldn't stop the smile spreading over her face. After ordering coffee and a slice of pie for luck, she cracked open the long forgotten journal. The words began to wash over her like a tidal wave.
Dear Diary,
My name is Elizabeth Child. I was born in 1948. I feel that it is necessary for me to start off by telling you the history of my life. Now you may not believe it, but my family is what you call hunters. There are dark, terrifying things that lurk this world that my family has spent generations killing. I knew of this life since I was ten years old. I began practicing then with my father. The first weapon he placed in my hand was a bow and arrow. It felt natural in my hands, like an arm that I had been missing my whole life.
My father's friends, other hunters, then gave me nickname Artemis. I rather like it. I went on my first hunt when I was fourteen, a werewolf I killed with an arrow with a silver tip. I was sixteen the year I met Jonah. He was nineteen and daring. His curly dark hair hung in his green eyes that flickered with happiness when they saw me. It was inevitable that I fell in love with him that summer. Father wasn't entirely happy , but what father is when their daughter first falls in love? But us hunters…it's like we live in a separate world from the rest of everyone else. We have our own society filled with our own rules. No one else matters.
It wasn't long until I began hunting with Jonah. Hunting usually meant that I stayed behind while Jonah did all the work and we'd kiss each other to death in the backseat of his truck. I knew he was the man I wanted to marry, but then again, I was sixteen. We had love that felt like our souls had been searching in darkness for each other for centuries. His hand touched mine and it was as if I was coming home for the first time.
It all changed the month my parents died. But I'm not ready to talk about that yet.
Dear Diary,
It's almost my wedding day. I know most brides are nervous, but mine is a dark cloud that won't leave me alone till I get it all out. As I said, my parents died when I was sixteen. From what I have gathered from other hunters, some angry demons followed Father to the house. No one was able to save my parents, I must remember that even though the guilt still weighs me down. That night I had lain in a motel bed with Jonah as we planned our future of going across the world and hunting. That's all we wanted to do. We wanted to save the world and help people. The next morning we headed out and arrived just in time to see the group of hunters and police surrounding my house.
I didn't have to be told to know what happened. I should have been prepared for it, everyone told me this is what happens to hunters. We don't live to see old age. We all should have seen this. Weren't the Men of Letters just destroyed because of a demon? What chance did we have?
Having a parent die leaves an emptiness inside of you. For your whole life, you've turned towards them for guidance, love, kindness…then suddenly it's ripped from you. They're not supposed to die! They're supposed to be there for every moment of your life, as irrational as it seems. You're whole life suddenly shifts and it keeps shifting, and you don't know what's going to happen or where you're going.
I should have gone into hysterics, but that came later. It came two months later when Jonah and I got married and were hunting together.
He came home, torn to pieces after a hunt. I couldn't stop myself for yelling and screaming at him. I told him that if we didn't get out of this life then we were going to end up dead just like my parents. He told me it was our destiny. He held me through the night as I cried till my cheeks burned.
It wasn't until Jonah died seven months later that I realized I had no one. My parents were gone and now was the love of my life. When I got the phone call, I could do was drop the phone and sink to the floor. I couldn't cry because if I did, that meant it truly had happened. I should have known when it had happened because my heart had felt like it had crumbled. I remember my eyes had searched my hands as if they were looking for his. How was I supposed to breathe?
Almost all of my family members had been killed by this life except for a few cousins. What was I to do now?
Dear Diary,
It's the night before my wedding I feel as if I should tell you the rest of my story. I had just turned twenty three when I met Daniel. I was working fulltime as a waitress and part time as a tutor. He came in the restaurant often, he was very nice and a sweet man. He brought his eight year old son Calvin in for the first time to see me two months after we met. He told me Cal wasn't doing so great in school so I offered to tutor him. Daniel doesn't have much money but he promised me he would find some way to pay me back.
Cal liked me, I think. It wasn't long that I looked forward to Daniel's visits and my time with Cal. Though the little boy did act strange at times, Daniel told me it was from his mother's recent passing. It was nice having people to care about and one's that cared about me. Eight months after we met, Daniel asked me to marry him and I said yes.
I haven't told him about my past, not yet. I'll do that soon. Will be believe me that in some circles that I'm still known as Artemis? Or that the reason I read the paper religiously is because I know what's really happening out there? I told him about Jonah, well, partially about Jonah and my parents. There are still nights that I wake up gasping their names. Or that I'll reach over for Jonah just to feel an empty bed. I don't love Daniel like I did Jonah, no that was completely different. With Jonah, everything felt like it was going to explode. When he was in pain, so was I. It's still hard for me to talk about how he died. I had warned him, but was it fair for me to live? Out of everyone, how could I be the one to live?
I better sleep. Tomorrow, I become Elizabeth Donaldson.
Dear Diary,
It has been so long since I have written in you. Things became hectic. The day after I married, I still worked fulltime while being a fulltime mother and wife. I'm still not sure how I did it. Cal turned fifteen last week, he's growing so quick. There are still moments that I don't trust him, which is sad to say about a boy that is supposed to be my son. But he lies and steals so often.
Daniel's promise that he would be rich came true. He struck gold with a business partner and now their trade firm is growing each day. We've already moved into a larger house, but he says that when he retires, he wants to move to England. I don't know why England, but I think he finds it prestigious and thinks we belong there now.
I did tell him the truth, if you're wondering. I finally told him three years ago when he found my panic weapons and holy water under the bed and in the closet. It took a while to explain, and at times I still think he doesn't believe me. He asked me if I loved him like I did Jonah so I lied and said yes. He just kissed me on the forehead and made me promise to never tell Cal about my true life. I don't believe in promises, they're always broken.
The main reason I'm writing is because Daniel asked me why we couldn't have a child. I don't know why I've never become pregnant. I want a child, so much. I want a part of me that will go on. I don't want to be the last Child to die out. The history needs to be known. I would love a little girl.
Dear Diary,
Again, it has been awhile. Well, more than awhile since I'm now forty three years old. But something happened that I don't know what to think about. Things have been so quiet since Cal got married a couple of years ago to that dreadful woman (I must promise never to say that in front of them, I'm already seen as the oddball).
It was a quiet night like every other when the doorbell rang. I didn't know the man on the other side of the door, but I could tell immediately by the way he carried himself and his clothing that he was a hunter. There is a look all hunters have, like they're prepared for a fight at any moment's notice. He asked me if I was Artemis in which I told him I go by Elizabeth Donaldson now and that I'm not part of that life anymore. That's when he gave a sardonic smile and said, "You're never truly out of the life."
I asked him what he wanted and that's when everything changed. Apparently I had a distant cousin that had been alive, she was the last one. Her and her husband were just killed by some vampires and they had a baby girl. He then nodded to one of his friends I hadn't noticed who brought over a tiny baby and placed her in my arms. I was so stunned that I about dropped her. I was ready to deny everything when the man's tone and straight face stopped my blood cold. I will never forget his words.
"She needs someone and you're that someone. None of us have much family left and you're all she's got. Are you really going to deny her that much?"
I asked him what her name was. Violet. Isn't it beautiful? I took one glace down into her beautiful eyes as her arms stretched forward as she cooed at me. I was hooked.
Daniel, however, was not pleased once I told him the situation. He was ready to retire and move to England like we had been planning. We kept her for a few days, but Daniel couldn't handle it. He said he was getting too old to take care of a child. Then, he made a suggestion and I'm still confused on why I agreed. Maybe because every time I looked at her radiant face I couldn't help the deep sadness that overwhelmed me.
He suggested we let Cal and his wife adopt her. Cal's wife apparently couldn't have children and they wanted one. I didn't think that Cal wanted Violet, but he and Daniel spent a long time talking it over in his office before Cal came out and said they wanted her. Next, I was signing a document I couldn't even read. My eyes were so focused on that face I was abandoning.
Dear Diary,
Apparently, I'm not good at keeping a diary on a daily basis because it has now been several years since I've last written in you. Daniel and I did move to England. I had kept up with Violet through letters, though the only responses I ever received were from nannies. Daniel had told me that Cal was so busy that they didn't have time to write letters and Violet was fine.
Daniel died of a heart attack. It was weeks before I could move, I had lost my best friend. When I finally did get out of bed, his lawyer informed me that Daniel had left me the company instead of Cal. I didn't want that and I know Cal didn't either. I wanted to be with Violet and take care of her.
When I arrived back home, I was amazed at how Violet had grown. Her hair was the same shade of red as my mother's, something I was surprisingly able to smile at. Cal wasn't really welcoming and I knew then they didn't take care of Violet at all. She had clung to my attention like it was gold, too much for a non-neglected child.
I confronted Cal and told him I wanted Violet back. He had sneered and said that I couldn't do anything, Violet was his. He didn't want her, that I knew. He was only doing it to get back at me because he thought I told Daniel to leave it all to me. I tried to get lawyers to help me, but none of them could. I was a rich woman, gaining age, but I couldn't do anything but watch the child I should have never given up being neglected.
I decided then that I wasn't going to make the same mistake twice. I'm going to be in Violet's life no matter what it took. She deserved so much better than this and the life of death. Maybe one day I will tell her about the truth of her family, but why bear her with that burden? No, I will keep control of the company and grow it and leave everything to Violet in case something happens to me. Cal can go to hell, that ungrateful brat.
Dear Diary,
As I write this entry, I know it will be my last. I have so sick with age, or else the day Violet turned eighteen we would have been so far away from these evil people. The thing that Cal still has some money means he has influence with the law. Every time I tried to get him arrested for hurting Violet, somehow the charges would disappear. I would have gone to a crossroads demon a long time ago and solve this problem, but I want my soul to be in heaven to meet Violet's one day.
She looks at me now, such a beautiful woman. She looks like my mother with each day. I've never told her the truth. Instead, she will have this diary to read. She saw me lock it up in the bank, but I had to pull it out again for just one last entry.
I'm saying this directly to Violet. I know that if you read this you may be upset or angry with me, but I want you to know that I did the best I could with what I knew. I went from being a daughter of a hunter, to an orphan, a wife, to a widow, a wife, a stepmother…it all just blurs and you don't know what to do at times. But I do know this, I love you with all my heart and I will always regret not keeping you to myself. We could have runaway to our own little corner of the earth where evil doesn't touch it. But I can't change the past and the mistakes I made, but I can change the future.
It you're reading this, sweetheart, and you want to become a hunter, do it for the right reasons. I know I've been saying in this journal that I don't want you to have that life, but it is ultimately your choice. I have been hurt by the life, but maybe for you it will be different. Maybe it is part of a grand scheme of destiny that I know nothing about. I do know that helping people is very noble and brave, but don't sacrifice everything for it. Don't go into hunting for me or the past, I've already made peace with that life. Don't do it for vengeance, it only ends up in death and disaster and it tears your into pieces; it makes you become a different person.
If you don't decide to hunt and you decide to lead a normal life, find love. Don't let the past of your so-called father or the confusion keep you from finding someone. I want you to find what I had with Jonah. It should be a slow, passionate, crazy love. I know that doesn't sound right, but that's what it should be love. Give him yourself and he should give you himself. And be honest with him, about everything. And make sure whoever you love deserves it. Don't give it to just anyone.
If you decide to do both, you have my blessing. I don't want to tell you what to do, I want you to make that choice. Just please be safe and make the right decisions. There is always going to be evil in this world, Violet, you can't give up everything for it. Just live, my darling. By the way, if you ever do run into trouble with another hunter, just tell them you are the granddaughter of Artemis and they will be sure to leave you alone. My heart aches as I write this because I don't want to leave you. I wish I had the courage to tell you this, but I'm afraid of what you might think of me. Remember, you are the only one I have left, too.
When I do leave this world, please don't be sad. I will be waiting for you, there's nothing to be sad about that. Just be you, Violet, and your life will be wonderful. I love you more than I can say. Be well, my darling.
P.S. If you decide to become a hunter, I've recently been hearing a lot about the Winchester brothers (I still keep up to-date about what's happening in the hunter world). If you need guidance, seek them out and maybe they will help you.
Love,
Elizabeth 'Artemis' Child
Violet's hands finally dropped the journal. Her hands were stiff from holding it so tightly. Her coffee still sat beside her with her pie, both untouched. How much time had passed? Where did she go from here?
