Chapter 9

Violet was terrified. Olaf had cut her skin and traced her name into the blood.

She sat in the cramped quarters of the trunk and was quite used to the familiar jumps and bumps, but without her sibling's comfort, she felt alone.

Suddenly, a song formed in her head. Usually she didn't sing, because she wasn't very good at it, but the song uttered from her lips anyway.

"When we drive away in secret,

You'll be a volunteer,

So don't scream when we take you,

The world is quiet here."

She sang softly, her voice faded with the blowing wind, and then sighed.

"How do I even know that song, let alone sing it?" Asked Violet, but she found herself singing again.

"When we grab you by the ankles,

Where our mark is to be made,

You'll be doing noble work,

Though you won't be paid."

Her eyes filled with tears as she crouched in the cramped space, and four more words escaped her lips.

"The Little Snicket Lad…."

The car stopped, and Violet's eyes grew wide with fear, knowing that if Olaf got Violet alone, she would be dead.

He opened the trunk and the first thing glinting besides his eyes was his knife, Violet's blood still caking it.

"Come, my pretty, I have to talk to you," said Olaf in a sugary-sweet voice that made Violet sick.

He led her fiercely to his putrid tower room, and Violet realized that she was in the same house that she had been in about a year ago.

He tied her to an old chair, and then stepped back to admire her from afar.

With one swift movement, he put the knife to her wrist and slit it with malice.

A cry of pain escaped her lips and her blood gushed on her ratty shoes.

"Awww, does that hurt?" He mocked, slitting her other wrist.

She couldn't answer. The pains in her wrists were racking, and she could barely even move.

He looked at her hard, as if contemplating where to slice next.

He suddenly smiled, and walked casually up to her, as if he were attending a party instead of cutting a 14-year-old with a knife.

He put the tip of the knife to her throat with a grand flourish, and then breathed one word in her ear:

"Good-bye."