I wasn't there the moment you first learned to breathe

Violet awoke with a sharp gasp and feeling things were different. Rose was at her side, telling her lay down and stay calm and promising things would be alright. Nothing will be alright, a still, small voice told her. Violet wanted to cry as panic swept through her body in waves and she found herself clutching at Rose desperately as her cousin willed the last few hours away. There was only so much compulsion could do.

"Tell me I am wrong," Violet begged, "Tell me this is all a dream."

"I am sorry, cousin," Rose had whispered, "But Kol has made you into a vampire and if you do not drink blood, you will die."

Her first moment as a newborn vampire and Violet's maker had not been there. But her family had. That should've been the first sign.

I wasn't there the moment you got off your knees

It seemed Violet was destined for a life of misfortune. Rose had helped her adapt to the underworld they were forced to exist in, going so far as to ask for Rebekah's assistance to procure a witch to spell Violet a daylight ring. The blonde hadn't been too thrilled, never being interested in the impish, gray eyed girl, but she was fond of Rose and aided them. Violet's response had been to run away.

She ran to Spain where the air was hot and the people loved more passionately and more openly than she had ever witnessed. Her first lover after Kol felt strange. He did not strike her and kissed her so delicately, she couldn't believe his lips were touching hers. In a fit of anger, she accidentally broke his neck. She spent the rest of the evening trying to put the man back together, but she'd broken him beyond repair.

She went to Africa after that and continued free falling south until she landed in Kilwa where a city of coral had been carved. There she met a vampire who promised to help her learn control. Instead, he beat her and broke her neck and she was always amazed when she awoke. She wondered if Kol had created this vampire the way he created her. She wondered if this was how she was supposed to act. She ripped the vampire's heart out one day and examined the organ carefully. Then she dropped it on the floor and headed to India where she broke more necks and ripped out even more hearts until she finally gave up.

She wasn't like Kol. That should've been the second sign.

A tear must have formed in my eye when you had your first kiss

Kol would occasionally allow himself to think of Violet, the girl he'd turned into a vampire if his brother's reports were anything to believe. They were, he knew it, because Elijah spoke the truth or he didn't speak at all. He wondered how Violet had transitioned, wondered if she'd been frightened. He liked to think she had adapted well and had maintained her humanity. He liked to think of her as brave and cunning and a queen in her own realm. He liked to think of her as unbreakable. The thought of her being destroyed was too painful to imagine. Times like these he was thankful he had turned her into a creature of the night.

Violet wondered who Kol's latest lover was. She wondered if he beat her and broke her limbs and bit her and left her mottled with bruises. She wondered if he shared her with Klaus and other vampires, or if he kept his latest toy to himself. She didn't like to think of him being possessive, of him claiming anyone or fighting for them. She didn't like to think of him beating another girl, not because the girl didn't deserve it, but because Violet wanted to be unique. Even if she had been the girl he abused and left, so long as she was the only girl like that, maybe he would remember her. Maybe he would come and find her.

But Violet didn't want Kol to find her, afraid of the abuse he might wreak now that she didn't break so easily. That should've been the third sign.

Leave a space deep inside for everything I'll miss

There were moments in every culture Violet experienced where she wished she were human. Especially the birthday celebrations when a girl was considered a woman and the entire community came to celebrate her. Violet ignored the hungry gazes of the older men and focused solely on the young girls enjoying their day. Their gowns were richly colored and they wore diadems and looked like princesses. Always, they were escorted by their father with their family all around them.

Violet had never had that. Her father's family had never approved of him marrying her gypsy mother and they had shunned them all, even Violet who should have been blameless for the supposed crimes of her parents. But no. Violet had been cast out without a birthday celebration, without her father, without her family. She had been cast out and left alone. Sometimes though, she liked to think Finn would escort her to a birthday celebration held in her honor. She liked to think Rose would be there with Trevor and Elijah and possibly even Niklaus, who would behave if Finn were around.

She never wanted Kol there. That should've been the fourth sign.

Come alive in all you've found, all you're meant to be

She ran into Elijah in Spain, in an oceanside village he was particularly fond of. He was visiting friends, an Antone and Rosala who was lovely and liked Violet's eyes and her pretty Greek name. For a month they refused to call her anything but Iolanthe and for that month, she forgot about Kol and Niklaus and Rebekah and Rose. She had Antone, Rosala, and Elijah all to herself and she could want for nothing more.

"I want to go to China," she had said one evening. Antone and Rosala had looked at one another before turning their gaze to Elijah. Even though Violet was a century old by then and capable of looking after herself, they did not want the young vampire alone. She couldn't see it, but those around her could view the truth as plain as day. She was lonely.

"I will accompany you," Elijah said and for a brief moment, Violet was hesitant. She was a creature of the night and no mortal law could touch her, but she very much liked indulging in her humanity and was afraid the effect Elijah would have on her normal traveling.

"I will be your brother," Elijah said, "If you will be my little sister." She had whole-heartedly agreed and for the next eleven years, they explored China, Japan, and the Indonesian islands. Violet would indulge in her humanity while Elijah watched over as the protective older brother. But then one day she shoved him into the ocean and he began to indulge his humanity as well.

She never once asked about Kol. That should've been the fifth sign.

Wait until the morning light, close our eyes to see

"Must you go?" Violet had asked on the eve of their departure from Australia. Elijah was needed back in France at the request of his brother, a request he could not deny.

"I must," he said, "But you will be safe. Antone and Rosala will meet us in Bali and you will travel with them for a while. Do not worry, you will be happy."

"But I will still miss you." He turned and found her face illuminated in the rising sunlight and hated himself in that moment. Her wide gray eyes looked at him with all the trust in the world and he genuinely believed her when she said she would miss him. How he stood by and let Niklaus and Kol abuse the girl beside him, he did not know. How she could not despise him was an even bigger mystery.

"I am sorry," he said and said no more because there was not enough time in eternity to apologize for all his sins. And if Finn had been right and Violet did possess some sort of second sight, then perhaps she didn't need to hear him recite his sins. Perhaps she already knew them.

She took his hand in hers and rested her head on his shoulder as they watched the sun rise.

"I forgive you."

She had yet to forgive Kol. That should've been the sixth sign.

The light at the end is worth the pain

The sensation of dying a second time was not as Violet had imagined it. Having Kol break her neck was quickly, definite, and almost painless. But lying on the floor in Finn's room with a wooden beam protruding from her chest had been an entirely different matter. She just wanted it to end. She wanted Kol to break her neck so she didn't have to feel anything. She wanted him to rip the wood from her body and end her suffering. She wanted him to make her forget him and his tears that were falling and drying on her face. She wanted to die and remember nothing but sunrises and Spain and being called Iolanthe. She wanted to go back to Greece and never leave.

"I am sorry," he had said and in that moment, she forgot everything he had done and remembered that she had forgiven him, centuries prior when Elijah had accidentally let it slip that his youngest brother had asked about her.

"I forgive you." She said it because it was true and Elijah had taught her to only speak the truth. She said it because Finn would have approved and she had always wanted his approval. But most importantly, she said it because she loved Kol and she didn't want him to live any longer without knowing that.

She never got the chance to tell him though. He killed her before she could. All the signs in her life had brought her to this moment. She'd always known he would be her death.

I'll be there the moment you come out in white

Kol carefully settled Violet's body on the pyre constructed on the back lawn. Around him stood various vampires, witches, and the occasional human. He'd never known Violet as those around him did. He'd never known her friends or those she called family and he could not begin to fathom the impact she had had on their lives. He'd never traveled with her, never told her stories, never held her hand without breaking it. He'd never been gentle with her until this moment as he smoothed her hair across the rough wood of the pyre. Their were flowers in her hair- his request; Rebekah's doing- and had she not taken on a blue color and a decaying scent, he would've imagined her sleeping. Had he imagined hard enough, he could've made himself believe that. And if life were a fairytale, this would be the moment he kissed her awake.

But life wasn't a fairytale and that was made obvious when Finn stepped forward with the torch and set fire to the pyre. The flames licked at Violet's dress before consuming her decaying body. Life wasn't a fairytale and that was made painfully clear as Kol watched the lover he had murdered burn and Finn set his daughter on fire.

The fire eventually died. Eventually, her body turned to ash and the wind lifted her up and carried her away for one last adventure. Fly, fly away she had whispered to the sky as a child. At last, her wish came true.

'Cause I'm on my way, on my way

a/n: I'm so mean to Violet. Really. How she remains so nice after everything I put her through, I don't know.

Fave, flame, faint.

[song fic inspired by "On My Way" by Boyce Avenue.]

oxox