Since Vivien had left the house, things had been pretty quiet. I mean, Ben was so wrapped up in his own business that he often forgot Violet was there, which meant there had been little to no talk of her going back to school. Ben was barely aware she wasn't attending, or at least unaware of the extent of her truancy on my behalf. She was reading, outside, and I didn't want to disturb her for a while. I wanted to give her some space, so I was hanging out in the basement. I needed to talk to Hayden anyway, because I heard she was trying to play happy families with Ben and it needed to stop. It would hurt Violet if she found out. I heard the clatter clop of heels on the steps above, and shrank into the darkness, not patient or compassionate enough to deal with Nora today.
"Tate? Tate honey its mama. I have to talk to you. Tate? Tate?" Oh god, the shrillest, cruellest harpy imagined in the nightmares of the Gods had come to talk to me. Of course she had, because I was having a sort of nice day. I watched her peer around a while, hating the way her mouth curled around my name, until I couldn't take it anymore.
"So talk." I was right behind her, with every intention to spook her, and I succeeded. She spun around, clutching one hand to the heart she never had, playing up the façade, though it was useless with the one person in the world who knew what she really was. 'Oh," she gasped, shocked and enthralled as she always was when she saw me, and she cupped my cheeks in her hands. I wanted to pull away, but if she really had something to say I would wait.
"Oh god. Tell me it isn't true, what I've been hearing about you." Her face and voice were fierce, intense, and she was more lucid than I'd seen her in years. I began to panic.
"About what?" I kept my voice a monotone, poker face in place.
"Your behaviour. God, after all the missteps we finally have somebody in this house who can maybe help you." Her voice raised an octave and my stomach lurched at the mention of Doctor Harmon. She couldn't know… Hayden swore she wouldn't tell. If Violet finds out I'll gut her everyday for a year, or maybe I'll let her gut me. Violet wouldn't forgive it. I stared at Constance. "Tell me you did not crawl on top of that mans wife." Oh god, oh shit, fuck, she knew. Who else knew?
"Mom…" The tears brimming in my eyes were usually enough to placate her and have her coddling me and calling me her perfect baby boy, but it wasn't going to work this time. I saw the angry flex of her withered jaw and knew what was coming, but I had to try, still. I had to beg.
"OH!" She wailed, tearing her hands away from me and whipping her head as though my confession had physically wounded her.
"Mom you can't tell Violet okay please don't-" I was cut off with a yell, more out of surprise than pain as her sharp nails caught my cheek in a heavy slap. She rained punches down onto me, hits I knew I deserved but that surfaced memories long since buried. I lifted my arms in a weak attempt to shield my face, because if I get bruises on my face she'll be angry, because the school will ask questions.
"What is wrong with you for gods sakes, what is wrong with you?" She was hammering through my useless defence; battering through the cold detachment I'd regarded her with for decades.
"Mom!" I wailed, more for Violet than for myself. She would find out for sure now. If not from Constance than from one of the other ghosts here, because there were always ghosts in the basement and they didn't exactly have a reason to keep secrets.
"Don't you realise what you've done?"
"Mom!" I cried again, begging in the only way I knew how… to make her believe I was her son. She stopped hitting me, stepping back and pressing a palm to her forehead. I continued to cry, hands raised in a protection I no longer needed, because the assault was over.
"I'm not going to tell Violet," her voice was soft now, and she crouched in front of me, pulling my face against her shirt. I let her, desperate to keep her on my side and hopeful because she always had a plan. "But that baby cannot be in this house." I nodded, pulling away and blinking back the tears pooling in the corners of my eyes.
"Vivien isn't here anymore, she's in the mental hospital."
"The babies can be born there. She won't come back here. Oh god, all the times she…" Constance broke off, checking herself before she broke down, and meeting my eyes only when her mask was carefully reassembled.
"Vivien knows she was raped. She doesn't know it was you, and she doesn't have to know. But I am taking my grandson, and he will never be here." I nodded.
"Thank you… mama." The word was poison in my mouth but it made her smile, and she reached out to stroke my swollen cheek with the back of her hand.
"My perfect son," she whispered, admiring me in a way that made my skin crawl for a few moments before standing up and smoothing out her clothing.
"I'll come and find you later. Let mama fix everything," and that was it, she was moving gracefully, stealthily back up the steps and hopefully out of the house, though there's a good chance she'll go and see Beau beforehand. I can't really object to that, he looks forward to her visits because to him, she's a mother and not the monster I know her to be.
"I didn't tell your mother about Vivien." Hayden was slumped against the basement wall next to me, and I literally didn't feel her arrive. She must be getting good at the creepy ghost shit, probably watches Ben sleep like I watched Violet before I started keeping her up at night.
"Then who did?"
"Moira. Some doctor lady rang the house and told Ben, she overheard. He's gone to see her." I turned to look at her out of the corner of my eye.
"I don't know how to fix this," I admitted and she rolled her eyes.
"Don't worry, golden boy, you're sadistic excuse for a mother will make all your problems go away, she loves you in a real creepy way," she wrinkled her nose and I bit my lip.
"She's a cocksucker, you know."
"Yeah?" Hayden's eyes were wide, and she stepped towards me, coming up to put her mouth to my ear.
"Bet she sucked you off a few times, huh? Her golden boy?" I shoved her away from me hard.
"Fuck you."
"You didn't want to last time I checked, remember?" I grunted.
"You're pathetic. Go pine over a man you'll never have again, I've got things to do." I shoved past her, praying that she wouldn't test me any further because I liked this sweater and I didn't want to get it all gutty.
"You never denied it," Hayden mumbled to my back and I stopped for a moment before deciding I wasn't ready to have this conversation with anyone, least of all her, and carried on out to find Violet.
I made it to the hall before feeling a gentle weight shift onto my back and the brush of lips on my neck. I knew instantly that it was Violet, I was used to the shape of her and the scent of soap and cigarettes no one else could ever achieve.
"Hey, you," she cooed against my neck and I shivered, pleased that she'd come to find me rather than me have to find her.
"Hey, where've you been?"
"Just out back, I wanted to read in the sun for a while. It was warm," she explained and I smiled, dropping her when we finally reached her bedroom, the old fashioned way. Violet may be light, but it was still a challenge to carry anyone up two flights of stairs so I dropped down onto her bed as soon as we reached it, placing her on her feet first, of course.
"You look tired, Tate," she noted, sitting down beside my sprawled form and looking down at me.
"I am tired. Don't know why, but it's been a really, really long morning," I sighed and she made an 'mmm' noise, reaching her hand out to trail her finger tips gently over my facial features. It felt nice, soothing, and completely unlike the feeling of my mothers wrinkled hands.
"That feels good," I breathed, allowing myself to relax under her.
"You okay?" She asked, face twisting to the side to show she was concerned, but also awkward asking me a question like that. She wasn't good at talking.
"Yeah, I'm okay. I'm tight, though," I hinted, rolling my head on my neck over exaggeratedly.
"You're tight, huh?" She smirked, raising an eyebrow.
"SO tight. How are you with massages, Ms Harmon?" I teased, and she stuck her tongue out at me.
"Okay then, roll over mister," she said, switching positions onto her knees. I felt my eyes widen in disbelief.
"You're not actually going to give me a massage?" It came out as a question, though I hadn't intended it to be that way.
"Yep. You're 'tight' after all," she air quoted around tight and I regretted my turn of phrase, but not the outcome, because I could really, really do with a massage. I needed to relax, and Violet was the only way I could ever do that, anyway. I flipped onto my back and felt her straddle my ass.
"Very unprofessional, Ms Harmon," I commented and she shoved my face into the mattress, muffling the laugh that accompanied her obvious irritation.
"Be good," she commanded and I sighed, closing my eyes and turning my head so I could breathe. I mean, I didn't need to breathe, of course, but I'd rather not be dead for this, because I get the feeling that massages from Violet Harmon didn't come often and probably didn't come cheap, so I wanted to enjoy this. She slipped her hands under my shirt and I lifted my torso off the bed so she could remove it. She smoothed her palms over the planes of my back, feeling the skin and applying light pressure to my shoulder blades. Her weight shifted forward on my ass as she placed a kiss on the back of my neck.
"I love you," I sighed, as she knuckled the kinks out of my neck.
"Is this good?" She asked, I could hear the nervousness in her voice and wanted to laugh at her, but that wouldn't have helped, even if I were laughing because she was so silly to worry at all.
"It's amazing, Violet," I groaned, relishing the release of tension in my muscles as she worked over them, nimble fingers and just the right amount of pressure on my skin. It was over much too quickly, but I felt pretty tired after it, so burrowed under her duvet. She crawled into my lap on top of the covers, pressing a kiss against my forehead as I slumped against her neck.
"You should take a nap or something, I'm worried about you," she confessed, genuine discomfort in her voice. I was touched that she cared at all.
"Will you stay with me?" I knew how childlike I sounded but I didn't care. She smirked, crawling under the duvet next to me and reaching for the book on her nightstand.
"Sure. You sleep though, okay?" I nodded, reaching up to press a harsh kiss to her cheek before nuzzling down in the sheets that smelled like her and finally napping in the comatose state that was all the dead were capable of.