I was eventually let out of the room, but not entirely let out of custody. When the man who was interrogating me was satisfied enough with my answers, I requested him to go get me another bottle of water, but in his absence I had enough time to escape unnoticed. I didn't care if they ran after me with guns or captured me in another brutal grasp—there was no securing the promise that whatever happened after this moment, I'd be back at the police station alive.

Shaking and out of breath, I finally made it to the house and pounded my fist against the heavy wood of the door until I felt the skin of my knuckles scraping away. For a second, I curiously surveyed the rawness of my hand and how fragile the tissue had become from the trauma and malnourishment that wore out my body the past few days. I was snapped from my musing to look into the sharp eyes of Constance, who had opened the door with both sorrow and frustration.

"Violet," she croaked in surprise, tilting her head to the side. "Do you think it's wise to come back here after everything you've done?"

"After everything I've done?" I scoffed, stepping towards her in a challenging manner. "I told them everything. Turns out Moira is filed under missing persons, and guess who is the number one suspect now?"

"You bitch!" Constance spat, lunging forward to dig her perfectly sharpened nails into the flesh of my upper arms. I let out an agonising squeal as I ripped myself from her grasp, her grip leaving long scratch marks on my skin. Stumbling backwards, my back landed onto the porch with a deafening crack. Constance was quick to seize me, grabbing my hair and dragging my body into the house.

All I could do was scream as my scalp burned severely. Her grip was so tight on me that my eyes started to water and I began to lose sight of everything that held together my consciousness.

"You've ruined everything," Constance growled as she continued to drag my half-lifeless body by the few remaining tough hairs from my head.

"You came here and turned Tate into a monster," she continued, pulling me onto my feet and slamming me against the wall. "He burned my husband and killed those children. And now I'm wanted for murdering the little slut who slept with my Hugo!" Constance drove for the drawer of a small table beside her as I stood frozen before her. She pried a small, silver pistol from the contents and flicked the revolver. "She deserved it, just like you do."

For the third time in my life, I had a gun pointed towards my head. It was funny how calm I was, so casual with having an object that could cause instant death aimed so simply at me. The barrel was almost enticing, greeting me by whispering, It's okay, I'm here to free you. I wanted to be freed. I wanted to be able to feel again, to be able to replace the numbness with something real. Of course, death would take me from reality, but anything was better than the emptiness that held me in this life. I didn't have to have Constance's gun pointed at me to know I was already dead.

Constance closed the space between us, the gun digging mercilessly to my chest as she whispered hotly into my ear, "Because of you, I lost my perfect son."

The shot ran out and bloody liquid instantly splattered on my face. I stared at Constance, her lips parted from the dark red crimson that had erupted from her mouth, her shuttered breath faltering. She fell to the ground, and in her place was Tate, holding his own gun out.

"I was never your perfect son," he said.

I allowed the tears to streak down my face as I stumbled over Constance's limp body and into Tate's arms.

"I thought I lost you," I whispered, holding him so close that my chest began to ache. Tate's sobbing made me look up and see the torment and grief painted on his angelic face.

"I'm so sorry, Vi," he said, looking down between us. My eyes trailed after him, noticing the red smears that stained his shirt front.

"Are you bleeding?" I asked hesitantly, pressing my fingertips to the redness until it rubbed onto my fingers. It took a moment to realise that Tate was dead, and that there was no possible way that he'd be injured. His cries confirmed what I had feared, and I looked down to my chest to see the open bullet wound and the blood pouring from it. Finally registering the situation, my body collapsed, and Tate held me all the way to the ground.

"Don't be scared," he said quietly, brushing my hair from my face in a soothing manner.

"I'm not," I smiled, allowing the blood to escape and cascade down my chin.

If there was numbness before, the sensation of a gunshot finally brought out life within me, and in my final moments of living, death was what unlocked my pain, and my freedom.

I was content knowing that the last pair of eyes I would see were Tate's dark chocolate ones, the eyes of the man I loved.

Tate's P.O.V

I rocked her body back and forth, pressing her up against me until I could feel her warm blood soaking through my shirt. It took me a while to gather the fact that she was gone, and there was nothing more I wanted to do than to give her life again.

Dying wasn't how I had expected. I thought I'd be someone else, feel different things and essentially leave this hell-hole house. But in death, I was trapped, confined to the walls of this prison, and Constance had selfishly trapped Violet with me.

Poor, poor Violet. My beautiful Violet. This wasn't how I wanted her life to end, nor have it end in this house.

"Violet? Violet?"

Something was calling out; a soft, soothing, motherly voice. Curiously, I took Violet in my arms and began to follow the chanting voice of the woman. Her body was so light and effortless to carry, and soon enough, the basement door was before me, and I opened it up with my free hand.

There was an eerie silence before the voice said cautiously, "Is that you, Violet?"

My breath shuddered and I took one step after another until I reached the bottom of the basement. "She's here," I croaked, placing Violet delicately onto the cement floor. When there was no response, I took one last look at her frail, lifeless body and trudged back up the stairs, shutting the door for what felt like the last time.

My room was almost exactly how I'd left it when I passed, all except for Constance's attempt to scrub the floor clean of the vile red mess. I sat down on the bed—avoiding the stained patches—and dropped my head to the mattress. Oh, how I'd been here before, laying helpless with a bullet in my skull, and Violet's tormented face craning over me. I didn't even have enough time to hear her last words to me before my brain had shut down.

I wondered what would have happened if Violet weren't there to stop me. I'd most likely be laying with dozen of bullets impaled in me, rather than just one. She was right about becoming a ghost in the afterlife, and now I waited for her to reunite with me too.

With a click, my door opened, and I leant up in anticipation, only to see Constance enter the room with a lit cigarette between her fingers.

"Did I get the little bitch? Is she dead?" she asked, taking a long drag in Tate's silence. The smoke coiled from the exposed flesh of her stomach where I had shot her from behind. I smiled knowing that I had the honour of killing my mother.

I nodded faintly, and Constance snorted. "Then where is she?"

"I don't know, she should be here," I murmured, realising how long it had been since she'd died. Maybe, she hadn't died, and she was still clinging to life down in the cold floor. I shot up and ran past Constance and to the basement, almost tripping down the steps in my haste. Where I had left Violet was nothing more than an empty space, not a single drop of her blood verifying if she was ever there. My hands searched feebly across the dirty ground, my attempts to hold in my panic failing me.

"Violet!" I screamed, choking on my cries. I was greeted by no reply, the memory of the girl I loved deteriorating with the ongoing silence.

A/N: You will not believe how sorry I am for not updating in so long! Please put down your pitchforks! I have now finished school and can finally tie up the ends of this story like I've wanted to forever. I really hope you enjoyed this after such a long wait, and the next and final chapter will be up soon! Reviews? I still love you all xoxoxo