When Holly-Eve finished her sentence, her face became demented like the night that thing had visited Violet and Charlie. âHollyâ laughed at Violet as if it was waiting for her to join in. In some sick way, it thought of them as old friends. Violet was one of its favorites now considering she played along so well last time.
âYou want to stop me, Violet?â it whined, âWell the game is only over when I say it is! Just try to stop me. I dare you.â âHollyâ cackled in her face. âJust kidding! You already had a dare, Violet. Oh no, youâre getting truth, friend! I like to shake my games up. I get bored soooooo easily. I just have to change things up, but you know a lot about that donât you?â
âHollyâsâ head began to tilt to the side as she continued to look at Violet with wild eyes. When her neck should have naturally stopped moving, the girlâs head continued to tip until a SNAP broke the silence and a bone tried breaking through the skin. âAlways hopping from friend group to friend group⊠Everyone says youâre so brave, but just how fearless could you be when you wonât even talk about your mother?â
Holly-Eveâs face was, unexpectedly, resting naturally once more. Had Violet triggered something for it to go away? When it seemed for a split moment that the thing had ran off, something called her from behind.
âTell her why you really never had friends until now.â Mrs. Matthews (or whatever she was going by now) stood in the same outfit Violet had last seen her in before walking out on her family. The grotesque smile on her face let Violet know that this wasnât really her back for her daughter, but there was something still very unsettling about the hallucination.Â
âYouâre not so brave as you pretend to be, Violet.â another voice joined in. Suddenly, a swarm of Violetâs mothers circled around the two girls.
âTell her how I ruined you and your father.â they all demanded collectively as they continued to glare at the blonde. âTell her, Violet. Tell her.â
As soon as Violet heard an out of place laugh coming from Holly, she knew what was happening. The look on the girlâs face only further cemented things. The truth or dare demon had chosen that moment to pop into another body of someone she cared about, and tragically she didnât even time to try and turn the tables on it.
Not again, she thought to herself as the taunting began. Opening her mouth to speak up and demand a truth, Violet was taken aback by how she was given no choice, and made a mental note of that fact. As sheâd come to realize, any truth was better than a dare, and since there really wasnât anything that Holly couldnât know, so Vi crossed her arms and waited to see what life-ruining secret the demon could be possibly trying to get her to reveal when she really didnât have any.
Her life had been perfectly bland up until sheâd joined the Murder Club. She went to school, she went home, she did her homework, she talked to her dad, she ignored all invites to socialize outside of school, she watched movies and ate meals with her dad. Wash. Rinse. Repeat. What did the demon think was going to be big enough to ruin her friendship with Holly?
Violet tried to keep her eyes trained on the demon for as long as possible just in case it pulled some sketchy shit, but she absolutely had to look away when her neck began to twist beyond any reasonable range of motion. She liked to think that she could see a lot, but hearing the distinct sound of breaking bone made her instantly aware that she drew a hard line at that. She didnât dare to look up, knowing it was just some hallucination but fearful anyway. She didnât want to see something that she couldnât unsee.
Except the demon was already one step ahead of her there. She should have known as soon as the word mother had come out of not-Hollyâs mouth that she was going to have to come face to face with the shadowy figure from her past that was her mom, but... previously the demon had only jumped into her dad and the television. It hadnât materialized into something out of her super repressed memories.
âHolly-â Vi spoke up, finally daring to look up at the girl. Not at her mom. Not yet. âI donât know if you can hear me but itâs here. And apparently it loves eavesdropping.â
Knowing that the demon wasnât about to let her not engage in a stare-down, and absolutely aware that her survival instincts were screaming at her to play along, Violet finally glanced at the figure. And then there were more of them, circling and hurling words that were clearly meant to hurt at her. Rude.
The most jarring thing was seeing her motherâs face. She was a figure Vi had long buried in her past, including every photo that had existed of her. She had almost been able to forget what sheâd looked like over the past 10 years, but seeing her in those clothes... Violet knew that outfit. She had replayed that night in her mind for so long, wondering what she had done to make her mother leave. How she could have stopped her. Why she didnât get to leave too.
She was about to sorely disappoint this demon fuck.
âIt didnât ruin me when my mom left,â she started, looking pointedly at each of the Caroline Matthewses surrounding her before looking over to Holly. âI donât know how much of this you know but she left when I was six. The whole town couldnât stop talking about it like it was some major scandal. And I guess it kind of was. She left me and she left my dad and I still donât know why. I stopped wondering why a long time ago. Itâs not like it didnât impact me. I know I stay out of the spotlight to avoid being the subject of town gossip again. Like, thanks YouTube videos on how to psychoanalyze yourself. Iâm aware now. But Iâve accepted it. Sheâs gone. She isnât coming back.â It probably should have been concerning how unemotional Vi was when talking about her motherâs abandonment, but she had stayed up for so many nights sobbing about it in the past, running the water in her bathroom while she sat there just so her father couldnât hear. After ten whole years you move on.
âBut my dad?â she pivoted to ask, eyes narrowing as she made one thing explicitly clear to the demon in the room. âHeâs the one who is always there for me... supposed to be, at least. And since this demon is trying to mess with that too, yes. I am coming for it. And it will cease to exist. Soon.â