Chapter Five

Violet stood in her bedroom as she pulled the heavy book from her book bag. She opened it to the page which described the school shooting. She showed Tate his photograph along with the pictures of each and every one of his victims. As he looked at the haunting photos, his eyes filled up with tears. "I did it. I took a gun to the school and I killed them. I am a murderer."

"Why would you do that?" Violet demanded. "Why would you hurt anyone?"

"You don't understand, I killed the ones who were good to me. I wanted to SAVE them."

"That makes no sense!"

"I used to live here, in this house...this - this is... WAS my bedroom," he said as he looked around.

"We've already established that. I need to know why you killed those kids!"

"Because... Because of what happened here inside this house. It was hell to live here. I wanted to die, but that would be too easy. I wanted to take them out, too, the good ones, so I could save them from the filth and stink of this ugly, fucked up world."

He traced the face of one of the victims, a blond girl with a gorgeous smile. "I remember her. She was good to me. She was one of the few who accepted me and called me her friend."

"What was her name?" Violet asked.

"Her name was... Her name was Lizzie. She was Leah's older sister."

Violet's heart sank. That's why Leah instinctively hated her, because she was living in the home of the criminal who had taken her sister's life. "Leah hates me because of you."

"I'm sorry, Violet. I know you think the worst of me, but you don't know. You don't know what happened here... up in the attic and in the basement. Terrible... awful things..."

"What kind of awful things?"

He looked like he could bolt at any second. Tate was frightened as the memories of the past made him tremble and sweat. "She... she never loved me. Not really."

"Who didn't love you?"

"My mom. She was mean to me. She hurt all of us. Her and my stepdad... but after what he did, I made him pay, too."

"You set him on fire."

"Yeah," Tate said. "He's still alive... but he's scarred for life. He'll never hurt anyone again."

"Tate, you can't just go around killing people and setting them on fire."

"I snapped. You don't know. I was tortured, but worse than that, they tortured THEM."

"Who?" Violet asked.

"My brothers and my little sister. They hurt them because they weren't perfect. She said I was the only perfect one, but she treated me like a prized horse, just like a pet or a possession. She demanded perfection from me; always insisting and coercing. She didn't know that the flaw existed deep within my mind. I need professional help. Your father's a shrink; I think he might help me."

"Tate, you're a goddamn ghost! What can my dad do for you, after what you've done? Killing kids, crippling a teacher, and setting your stepdad on fire!"

"I am sorry I did those things. I truly am, but if you only knew..."

"I guess you'll have to tell me." Violet sat down on the bed, crossing her arms over her chest as she waited for Tate to explain his actions to her. "Start from the beginning."

"My dad was cheating on my mother. We had just moved into this grand, beautiful house. It was just like a palace. We were so happy or so I thought. I was the firstborn child... my mother's perfect angel. I made her happy at first, but my dad made her abusive and angry. He was screwing the maid or so she said as I heard them arguing. One day I heard a gunshot go off upstairs. Then I saw my mom dragging my dad's bloody body into the basement. 'Tate, go watch the little ones,' she said. She spent hours in the basement doing something unspeakable while I had to take care of my 2 brothers and my baby sister," Tate stated. "She ground my dad's body up into dog meat while I did my best to take care of Beau, Michael, and Adelaide."

"Adelaide? Addie is your sister? And Constance is your- your mother?" Violet questioned in surprise.

"Yeah," Tate said with a nod. "I loved them soooo much - my little brothers and my sister."

"What... what happened to them?"

"They weren't perfect like me. Beau, he was severely handicapped. He was a freak- or so my mother called him. She kept him chained in the attic where he screamed in agony day after day. So my mother had my stepdad go up there and kill him..."

"Ohhh my God!"

"I tried to help him, Violet. I brought him food and Addie, Michael and I would sing to him. I tried everything. He just wouldn't stop screaming."

"I know you did, Tate," Violet said gently. "You tried to help him, but you were a little kid, so you couldn't. It wasn't your fault. Your mom and your stepdad were so cruel."

"They... they did worse to Michael," Tate said tearfully. "His skin was as pale a snow. He had pink eyes and he couldn't go out into the sunlight. Mom called him a goddamn albino. She kept him locked up so no one would see him. She treated him like the scum of the earth. She always hurt and slapped him. Then when she got really mad, she told her Larry, my asshole stepdad to take Michael upstairs and make a man out of him."

Tate began to sob mournfully as the awful memories came to him of his siblings' horrific abuse. "Your mother is such a bitch! How could she do that?!" Violet cried.

"After Beau and Michael were dead, she rubbed my head and she said, 'Tate, you're the only one of my offspring that is perfect. You're the only joy I have in this world, considering your baby sister Addie is a half-wit.' Then she told her disgusting husband that he could use Addie that way too. I knew what she meant since I knew that my stepdad had raped and murdered Michael. I had to save her, Violet. I had to save my baby sister Adelaide!"

"Ohhh Tate!" Violet gasped as she cried for him. Hot tears were streaming down her face when she heard what he had endured. Only he and Addie had survived, but their wounded hearts were covered in scars. Tate had lost all touch with reality. That is what had driven him to commit such horrible crimes.

"I had to save Addie, so I went to his work and I splashed him with a can of gasoline. I lit a match and I set him on fire. He'd never hurt another kid again. He was burning right before my eyes. His flesh stunk and singed as I watched him frying in the flames. I wanted to send him to hell painfully, just as he had killed Michael and my little brother Beau. After that, I went to school carrying an automatic assault rifle. I was going to war. I was going to save all those kids I cared about... send them to some place better; away from the rotten, fucked up world. I shot them, then I shot my favorite teacher. As I watched them bleeding and dying, I felt nothing. Everyone hid from me and I left the school building. I went home and walked into my bedroom ... this room. I only had one more person I had to kill. It was my mother. She didn't deserve to live anymore. What if she hurt Addie? What if she harmed my baby sister?"

More tears fell as Tate continued with his tragic story. "I didn't get to protect Addie from my mother, because the police came. They opened my bedroom door and pelted me with dozens of bullets. I fell on the floor, bleeding... then I died. I don't remember much after that, just my mother screaming. 'You killed my baby! He was my precious one!' And then she knew - I wasn't the perfect son she had always longed for. I was tainted. Michael, Beau and Adelaide; they were the perfect ones. I was the one that should have died, never them - never my brothers. What they said about me was true, Violet. They said, '"Even the devil was once beautiful. He had a pretty face. He was perfect. But then he became dark and tainted, just like me.' I am just as evil as they all said I was and I deserve nothing but hurt and darkness."

Violet reached out and lightly caressed away Tate's tears. How was it possible for her to feel the salty warmth of those droplets that ran down his face? He had died long ago, but because of their strong connection, she was able to make physical contact with his apparition,. "Tate, you're not evil... you're not bad. You were abused and tormented. You saw horrible things... and what your mother and stepfather did, it was wrong. You didn't deserve it. Your brothers didn't deserve to suffer and die. I hate your mother and what she did to you. I want to help you. I want to make things better for you, but I don't know how. Tate, please, what can I do to help?"

"You can't leave me. I need you," he implored as he hung his head in his hands and wept. "If you go, I'll be all alone. I won't be able to find the light again... and I'm afraid of the darkness."

"Tate, I am not going to leave you," Violet promised. "I am gonna stay and help you."

"Thank you," he said as he stared at her with pain-filled eyes. "I want to make things better. For Addie. Can you help my little sister?"

"I promise. I will help Adelaide. I will protect her."