Later that afternoon we found Lily's body by the clocktower. Rose tried to heal her with her healing magic, but she can only heal the living and not too far gone. Her power basically accelerates the body's natural healing and if the body wouldn't be able to recover then her powers won't work on them. Everyone, including me, is crying for Lily. She left a letter in her room addressed to me that some of the faculty found.
The letter said:
"Violet,
I have done so much that is unforgivable to you. I am the reason for all of your suffering. ALL of it. After the knocker match, Giovanni approached me and said if I didn't want to be gang raped by the boys, that I would need to give him information about you. I never wanted to hurt you, but I was terrified about what they would do to me if I didn't. My first time betraying you was during our camping trip. They told me to drug you so I drugged your tea so the boys could steal our food without you interfering. I also told Boss who then told the faculty about your initial escape attempt. I did that because I didn't want you to leave me. After telling Boss of your second escape plan and seeing what they did to you and realizing it was all my fault, I was so riddled with guilt. I was the one who asked them if they could do something about Mia and Heather so I could get some alone time with you. So, I am not only the cause of your hurt, but theirs as well. All I have wanted to do was take care of you and love you because you were my hero. I didn't stop to think that making love to you while you slept was actually sexual assault. I just wanted nothing more than to be Rose since you were calling out to her in your nightmare. I wanted to be that person. You were wrong. I am not a good friend. If I were a good friend, I wouldn't have thought about poisoning Rose and framing you for it so I can talk them into letting you become my slave. I am the worst friend. I should have taken my life sooner to have prevented causing you all of this pain. I really did love you, Violet. I am sorry. I hope you and Rose get your happy ending.
With love and regret,
Lily"
Wait if she was the one who fed them information about us, then we could escape now without having someone else interfere. I am hurt that she betrayed me, but it isn't like she had much choice. After living through what they threatened her with, I completely understand why she did what she did. Blame for this resides solely on Giovanni. That fucking pervert. He keeps going off about making me birth his bastard. I am not pregnant now nor do I ever want to be. Especially by him. I shiver, starting to get filled with thoughts of despair and fear thinking of the horror again. Mia and Heather are with me as I read this letter and they see me starting to lose myself in my despair. They come and sandwich me in a hug.
Breathe in.
Breathe out.
Breathe in.
Breathe out.
Rose Remington.
Rose Remington.
Rose Remington.
When they see I am calmed down they release me from the hug, I am not sure I can say what is on the letter and I pass it to them so they can read it. I mean they were also victims as well they have a right to read it themselves. Heather's grip tightens on the paper and she hands it back to me when both of them are finished reading it, "I had no idea. I don't know what to feel right now." She touches her face as if she was feeling phantom pain from their attack and Mia does the same, "I know exactly how you feel. It is like I hate her, but I don't at the same time."
I go to my dorm immediately and open my window to find Rose waiting. I attached the letter Lily wrote me and tugged on the line, "Before you read that there is something you should know. Lily took advantage of me while I was sleeping when she was staying with me that night. I didn't know until I mentioned a weird dream I had with you to Mia and Heather and after drawing the weird face Lily made for them to see. That sex dream with you only occurred when she was with me. They were so pissed and took me with them to confront her immediately and that was what occurred before she wrote that letter." Rose takes the letter and reads it. Like Heather her grip tightens reading it, but a tear runs down Rose's face. She tugs the line, "I never liked her, but I never wanted to beat someone up so much in my life. I am furious that she killed herself depriving me of that chance. She caused you so much pain and I don't know if I could ever forgive her." I tug on the line, "Now that the reason why our plans kept getting thwarted is gone, do you want to leave tonight?" Rose tugs on the line, "You already know I do. Let me leave so I can pack my things. We will leave at nightfall when everyone is asleep." I tug on the line, "Meet me at the campsite at midnight. Hide your presence from anyone that is not me. I love you Rose." Rose tugs on the line, "Of course, my love. I love you, too." She lets go of the cup and blows me a kiss.
I pack and prepare for our journey. We don't have any jerky prepared but I still have that homemade bow from the camping trip that I can use to get our own provisions. I can grab a loaf of bread that should give us something to munch on overnight. I write a note to Mia and Heather that I will drop off as I go to leave under their door. Asking them if they can maybe cover for us if they can and say that we are sick or something to buy us some time. While letting them know we will support them when they go on tour.
An hour until midnight, I get my bag and head out. I put the letter under Mia and Heather's door and turned to leave. Their door opens and Heather says, "You were really going to leave without saying goodbye?" I go up to her and I hug her, "Sorry, I assumed you would be asleep. I love you Heather." "I love you, too, Violet." Mia wiping her eyes since she apparently was asleep comes up to me and she hugs me as well, "Be safe, Violet. Write to us when you get settled." I responded, squeezing them tight, "We will. We will be your biggest supporters in the crowd when you start your careers as bards." They wave me off and I head out.
I got to the campsite early like I was planning. I was not only impatient, but I don't like being late to things. Rose arrives about 5 minutes until midnight. I run up to her and kiss her. After our passionate kiss she says, "We need to spend as much time moving just in case. I don't want to get caught again." I nod and we set out holding hands hiking through the forest. I get a branch and hide our footsteps like last time with the hand not holding Rose's. I refuse to let go of this hand.
We hike most of the night and near dawn my headache that I had most of the night gets worse and I start to get really dizzy and light headed. Rose says, "Here let us rest. You seem tired. We can get a little sleep and continue moving until we are safe." I say while dropping my rucksack, "Ok." My shoulders sing a sigh of relief from dropping the weight and I roll them a bit. Rose says while looking at me up close in the face, "Let me try to heal you, you seem under the weather." She uses her saint's power on me, but my headache and symptoms remain. I shake my head, "That didn't seem to help sadly." Rose looks at her hands with a raised eyebrow and an intense expression, "It has never not worked before." I ask, "What if your power doesn't work on curses?" She clicks her teeth in realization when those words come out of my mouth, "That is probably it." I put my hammock on the ground since it probably won't hold our combined weight when attached to trees. I don't worry about the tarp shielding us since the skies are clear and sparkling and bright from the stars. Grabbing the blanket and laying down. Rose joins me and she wraps around me cuddling me as we fall asleep.
We get a few hours of sleep and we wake up and start moving again. It is now daytime and I have since put my shades on. My head is in dull pain, not sharp like it was so I can deal with it now. We walked until we found a water source and by now we are starving and all of the bread was long gone by this point. Rose is refilling her canteen and I say while grabbing my bow and a few arrows, "When you are done, find a perch. We can stay here a while and get food." I get up in my perch and we wait. Hoping our occasionally growling stomachs don't give away our positions to the prey. A hare approaches the watering hole and starts to drink. I steady my aim and since it is a lot smaller than the deer I aim center mass instead to not take any chances in case it moves while the arrow is in flight. My arrow catches it by surprise and it is still barely alive. I get my dagger and say a prayer over the hare while petting it and finish it off with my dagger. Since he is so tiny, he doesn't take that long to drain the blood. I skin the hare and clean and carve it. While I am cleaning and carving the hare, Rose is preparing firewood and putting stones around it to not cause forest fires very responsibly.
After getting the meat prepared I take it to the firepit and get my firestarter from my rucksack and start the fire. I get my frying pan and use the fats from the hare to cook the meat using some herbs lying around the forest as seasoning. When I am done preparing the first one, I put it on the plate and hand it to Rose, "For my love." She smiles and takes a bite, "Oh by the goddesses, that is so delicious! I love your campfire cooking so much, but this seems especially good. Maybe because I am starving." I giggle at her reaction. I then realized that this was the first time I giggled since the incident. I feel like I can actually show positive emotions again in a long while. I smile, enjoying this warm feeling I feel around Rose while I prepare my lunch. Rose is finished eating by the time this is done cooking, so I just reuse her plate. I take a bite and I feel the same way as Rose did and I eat mine pretty quickly, "Looking at you now, no one would believe you were a noble." She says giggling. I responded, "Good. I have been trying to get rid of my noble title for a long time now." When I am done eating I get some sticks and fashion them together with some gaps containing some seasoned hare meat so it can dehydrate into jerky while we are on the move.We put out the fire and bury the remaining parts of the hare. We start moving again.
Around dusk we hear hooves. We immediately try to hide. We immediately hide behind a bush and we see some faculty members on horseback and Doctor Stirling who apparently excels in tracking. He says while examining some broken branches, "Shouldn't she be too sick for this by now? How was she able to get this far?" He pauses looking at a weird device then raises his hand while stopping his horse, "Wait. She is close. Look around."
FUCK.
FUCK.
FUCK.
How did they find us so quickly? Lily didn't snitch and I know it would not have been Mia or Heather. We didn't tell any other soul. This has to be a creator thing. To try and buy us time I get a rock and I throw it far away in a misleading direction and when they go to investigate we try to run. Another faculty member that was holding the rear that we couldn't see yells, "They are over there! Get them!" I yell to Rose, "Run, I will try to buy you time and catch up to you!" I drop my rucksack and grab my dagger still in its sheath. The faculty that were going to throw rope at me to capture me saw the dagger and they aborted that plan and got off of their horses. I engage in combat with them with my sheathed dagger so I don't kill anyone using mainly the butt of the dagger to hit them. I am doing a good job at distracting them and holding them up, but then I feel faint with a dizzy spell and my sight is getting blurry again. I still try to keep going but my body says it needs to lie down and I stagger a bit before collapsing to the ground. The last thing I remember before everything goes to black is Rose yelling, "No! Violet!" While some faculty members tie her up like she is a prisoner, separating her from me. I reach out to her while I lay on the ground and everything goes black.
I woke up tied up lying on the back of a walking horse like cargo of some kind. I look around with my limited mobility and when I turn my head to the rear of the horse I see Rose walking behind with a rope like a criminal. I cry when I see her face and I mouth 'I love you'. She mouths, 'I love you, too.' When we start getting close to the academy I start feeling gross since Rose is close now and I say, "Can you separate me and Rose now? Something bad will happen if we remain close here." Doctor Stirling scoffs, "We are almost there, just deal with it for now. You made us come get you and now you are trying to make demands?" I scoff back, "We never asked you to come get us." Doctor Stirling said in response, "You and I both know that your father donated because he wants to see you graduate. I would be a fool to try and just watch that money leave our hands." I cry and when we get closer to the academy the creator takes control and says, "You should have left that filthy commoner away from the academy! Her lowly presence only taints the name of the institution! Now, can someone please get me off of this filthy horse?! This is no way to treat a lady from house Treece!" Doctor Stirling says, "That is the Miss Treece we know." The creator stays with me and the faculty obliges the creator's request and lets me walk. I walk in front of everyone far enough away to not activate the curse anymore and when we return to the academy I am crying and I mouth to Rose, 'I love you' and she returns it back.
We were escorted to our rooms and a faculty member was posted up outside of my door preventing me from leaving. They are apparently sending word to my house so they can send someone to supervise me while I am here to prevent me from running away again. Fuck this creator. Why can't we have our happy ending? All hope for a happy ending for me fades away with this last attempt and I feel like a shell of a person. I start having difficulties breathing for some reason and I collapse on the floor of my room. Before everything goes dark the faculty member that was outside that must have heard the collapse came rushing to my side as everything went black.