Violet's POV
His breath hitched after hearing her name but before I could make anything out of it, he questioned calmly, "Who?"
I opened my mouth again to repeat the question but before I could, he placed his hand on my mouth and the other on my arm, while backing us into the wall. I followed his gaze to where a few guards were standing by the tall, iron gate.
"Why are we hiding?" I whispered.
His head whipped towards me. Frustration was visible in his eyes.
"I told you I was busy!" He whisper shouted back. Nodding towards one of the men, he continued," You don't remember him? That's my father's bodyguard, he informs him every single thing."
"Will?"
"Yes."
We stood there for a while in silence till the men left.
"Come on, let's talk in my room. It's not safe out here."
I nodded and followed him through the back door. As we entered into the main house, memories came rushing back. The place still looked the same. I'd stopped visiting before the last year of highschool.
My eyes scanned all over the place when we entered his room.
"Everything is still the same." The tall walls were the same shade of pale blue, we had coloured during our thirteenth summer. We had a huge fight right after that which ended with me losing a tooth and Hunter rocked a black eye.
"What's so funny?"
"Hm?"
"You are smiling weirdly." He pointed at my face.
I immediately wiped off the stupid grin," Shut up." Annoyed, I walked over to his bed and lied down with my legs hanging off the bed.
Hunter wrinkled his nose at me in disgust, "Don't roll in my sheets, you reek of smoke."
When I made no motion to move, he walked into his closet and after a few minutes walked out with an air mattress and blanket. I sat up and watched as he spread it out on the floor.
"You can take the bed it's alright."
He stared at me for a few seconds before bursting into laughter.
"What?"
"When did I say that 𝘐 would sleep on the floor?"
"You're such a jerk, Hunter. Did you take a course or were you always such an asshole?"
His eyes twinkled with laughter as he winked at me, "Learned from the best."
I huffed and threw a pillow at him, which embarrassingly landed pretty far from him and sent him to another fit of laughter.
"I didn't think it was possible for anyone to have that bad of an aim, V"
I was about to throw another pillow at him when I stopped mid-way. He looked so carefree. It had been a while since I saw this side of him. The one where he wasn't brooding or sulking, sitting in some corner, glaring at people.
Well people actually really mostly consisted of just Chase.
Then I remembered the blood stain and my eyes automatically wandered towards the folded white sleeves. He must have noticed my gaze as he cleared his throat and announced, "I will just change into something more comfortable." I just nodded in silence. When he got into the bathroom, I got up and went over to his desk and rummaged through his desk. Nothing important, just a bunch of books. God, how much does he read, when does he even get time to read, he barely does the class work. I opened his drawer, there was a revolver, bullets, some pendrive and....
...a picture frame?
Before I could turn it over to check, I heard a voice behind me, causing me to jump.
"Anything I can help you with?"
I turned around, shutting the drawer behind me.
"Nope." I walked over to the mattress and lied on it.
He dimmed the light and I heard him shuffle onto the bed.
I took a deep breath and a nostalgic smell entered my nose. It really had been so long since I slept over. I guess Hunter also realised this at the same time.
"Why did you stop coming over?"
Because I saw you. I saw you that night in the basement with a bloodied dagger in your hand. The screams. I can still remember the screams of the man when you dragged the knife and pierced through his skin, marking it with an 'A'. There was so much blood. So freaking much. But no sentiments on your face as you casually wiped off the drop of blood that had splattered on your face, then looked back at your father, who looked at you with pride.
So fucking proud of the monster he created.
"Well we grew old, I didn't think it was appropriate for me to sleep over anymore."
I could hear the smugness in his voice as he spoke," Why? Wouldn't have been able to resist me?"
"Yeah, It would've been hard to resist. Resist the urge to puke."
"So what happened at Kiara's?" He was quick to change the subject.
"It's Cora and you know it."
"Yeah, yeah, whatever, so what happened?"
"Nothing."
His voice softened a bit, "Did you have that nightmare?"
I kept quite. I hated being like this. Vulnerable.
"No."
"Okay."
"Hunter." I spoke into the darkness once again.
"Yes?"
"I wish I could get my memories back, from before I was ten. I'm starting to forget what dad was like and it has barely been a month since he's been gone."
Well he didn't necessarily spend much time with me but he must have been more attentive when I was younger.
"What do you remember from back then?"
"I just remember getting hit by a car, except for that everything is a blur. It's not just that the memories are missing, it feels like a part of me is missing. And it really sucks Hunter.", I felt a lump in my throat but immediately swallowed it back down and continued, "Knowing you know nothing about your own self and the only person who had some kind of idea is now gone. That guy barely acted like a father so why, God, why does it hurt so much now that he's gone. Why does it feel so lonely? "
I felt a tear trickle down my cheek. Wiping it off I whispered into the air, "I always wanted to know about my mother. He never even told me her name. I don't even know what she looks like."
I heard him let out a sigh, before he spoke, "You can't let anyone know that I told this, but your mother's name was Serene."