CHAPTER 3: VIOLET'S DREAM

Late at night, Violet was laying in her bunk in her cell. She was tossing and turning, whimpering. Her cellmate, who was on the top bunk, looked down to see if she was all right. Violet kept stirring in her sleep. She was having a vivid dream. She was back in the old neighborhood where she played with Patty, Lucy, Frieda, and the others. Only the neighborhood was empty. She found herself at Charlie Brown's house. It was too eerily empty in the backyard. Snoopy's doghouse was there and he was sleeping on top of it, as he always did. She thought he died years ago. What she was looking at was the past. Charlie Brown came out and fed Snoopy his supper. But what was strange was that he walked right by Violet and didn't acknowledge her presence standing there. It was then she realized that she couldn't be seen in this dream.

Soon she was whisked away to a different scene. It was somewhere in the neighborhood, but this time, she saw Lucy, Patty, and herself as a child, picking on Charlie Brown. They were digging in on him as they always did. For the first time, Violet was watching how her treatment of him affected him over the years.

"Why did I do that?!" she asked herself. She continued to watch her younger self tear into Charlie Brown, without a shred of remorse.

"Charlie Brown, why don't you accept that you will never succeed in life," the younger Violet said. "Accept that you're doomed to fail, and things may go easier for you."

"The operative word is 'may', Charlie Brown!" added Lucy, calmly.

"Yeah, failing is the only thing you're good at, Charlie Brown!" laughed Patty.

"Oh my God!" shuddered the older Violet. "We were MONSTERS!"

"And yet, you never stopped, did you, Violet?" said a voice out of nowhere. She turned around to see the older Charlie Brown, complete in his Sergeant uniform for the Marines now standing by her.

"You can see and hear me?!" said a now shocked Violet.

"Of course," said the older Charlie. "Take a good look, Violet Gray. You and the other girls treatment of me was the catalyst of me enrolling in the USMC in the first place. It's not pretty, is it? How do you think I felt?!"

Pretty soon they saw Linus coming to Charlie Brown's aid. "Why don't you leave Charlie Brown alone?" he protested. "Why do you insist on hurting him?! How would YOU feel if the same thing happened to you?! You wouldn't like it, WOULD YOU?!"

"I'm forever in debt to Linus for coming to my aid," said the older Charlie. "He, along with Schroeder and Franklin, were the one's who made my life more tolerable."

"You and that STUPID BLANKET, Linus!" sneered Lucy, looking at her brother's blue blanket. "If you'll excuse me, girls, I need to help rid my brother of this habit once and for all!" And Lucy snatched Linus's blanket and started running away.

"COME BACK HERE WITH MY BLANKET, LUCY!" yelled Linus, running after her.

"Well that just leaves us, eh, Charlie Brown?" sneered the younger Violet.

"I can't look at this!" cried the older Violet.

"LOOK, BITCH!" yelled the older Charlie. "THAT'S AN ORDER! SEE THE PAIN YOU CAUSED ME GROWING UP! IT'S TIME YOU SAW THE SIN YOU CREATED!"

"Charlie Brown, you are a waste of a kid, no, a human being!" the young Violet began. "You haven't given anything to society besides being the king of failures. And really, being a failure is the only success you ever had, so I guess you're not a TOTAL failure! But still a failure, nonetheless. You can't fly a kite, kick a football, win a baseball game, or even be a decent brother to your OWN SISTER! Why don't you just crawl back into the crawlspace you were spawned from, and DIE!" And the young Violet and Patty walked away laughing hard, satisfied with putting down Charlie Brown for the day, while he slumped his head down, on the verge of tears.

"Aren't you proud of yourself, you whore?!" sneered the older Charlie. "Telling a boy he should die?! Even Lucy wouldn't go that far, and she was far from better!"

"I'm sorry, Charlie!" said the older Violet, now crying. "I was a monster! I see it now!"

"WAS?!" laughed the older Charlie. "Have you forgotten just a few months ago you tried to massacre my WHOLE DAMN FAMILY?! Yes you were a monster, but you are STILL A MONSTER! AND I HOPE YOU ROT AWAY FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE! YOU WANTED ME TO DIE? YOU'RE THE ONE WHO NEEDS TO DIE, YOU ROTTEN PILE OF ELEPHANT SHIT!"

Violet recoiled at what she saw next. Charlie morphed from his usual look into what looked like Satan, himself. Then Sparkyville morphed into what looked like Hell.

"And now, Violet Gray," said the demon, "IT IS TIME FOR YOU TO PAY FOR YOUR SINS AGAINST HUMANITY!"

"AAUGH!"

Violet woke up, looking around to see that she was back in her cell in the prison. Daylight was finally starting to rise and the guards were making the rounds to escort the inmates out for breakfast. Her cellmate looked concerned.

"Are you okay, Gray?" she asked.

"Had a nightmare, that's all," said a tired and disheveled Violet.

"Well you better get up," said her cellmate. "Breakfast time." And Violet got ready for her day. She wouldn't forget the vivid dream she had. She knew she had a lot to atone for. She hoped that she would be able to at least apologize to Charlie when she got out. If he still hated her, that was fine, but she needed to let him know she was really sorry for the pain she had caused. But for now, she had to serve her sentence.

THE END