667 Issue #10: "Old Wounds"

Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

~George Santayana

It was weird.

Knowing that Violet had changed the outcome of everything that had originally happened was still something I had a hard time understanding.

Violet didn’t talk about it much after she “came back”, but resorted to basically being a hermit. She interacted socially on some level, but she kept herself hidden in her room with her laptop and only really came out on a consistent basis to shower, use the bathroom, and search for food.

It was almost like her going to live with Jackie all over again except this time we all were living with Jackie and Violet had moved into her own little world.

Whenever I tried to talk to her or even check on her, she wouldn’t make eye contact with me and would make our interactions as minimal as possible.

As much as I loved the fact that everything had been peaceful for months, I kind of wished for some sort of disturbance just so that it would force Violet to be a part of the team again. She was barely even giving Salome or Jackie the time of day…but she kept constant contact with Angelica.

“She okay?” I asked as Angelica entered the kitchen at Jackie’s to find me fiddling with the strings on my guitar.

“She’s good. Just writing.” Angelica was dismissive as she opened up the fridge and pulled out a bottle of water.

“That’s good.” I went back to restringing the guitar, but there was more that I wanted to say.

“Jackie said that he and the Council have been keeping a constant watch on the news here lately for some sort of sign involving more of the 667, but there’s been nothing that stands out. I don’t know how to find more of you kind since I don’t have those files that Jeremy possessed.” Angelica made small talk as she kicked back against the counter and sipped at her water.

“Yeah. We’ve all been looking for something: watching the news, searching the internet, asking around. There’s been nothing. And Violet is no help.” I responded, testing one of the strings on my instrument. It sounded out of tune.

Angelica eyed me over her water bottle, “You sound bitter.”

“Well, I am…I guess.” I shrugged.

“She went through a lot you know.” Angelica shot back.

“We’ve all been through a lot.” I retorted.

“You really have no clue, Adam.” Angelica spat, rolling her eyes at me as she tried to sidle out of the kitchen.

“Wait, hold up.” I set my guitar down and stopped her before she could make her exit, “What does that mean?”

Angelica cast me a caustic glance, “It means you have no clue, Smaug. You don’t know what she has gone through internally.”

“Then enlighten me, Angel.” I could feel my eyes fill with fire. I didn’t want to play the guessing game.

“It isn’t my place to say anything.” She tried to sidestep me as she replied, but I was much bigger than she was, “Why don’t you just ask her?”

“Because she won’t talk to me or anyone else, for that matter. She keeps to herself and internalizes everything like you said.” I was heated, but I was pleading with her.

Angelica hesitated, taking a slight breath as she looked away from me out into the living room for a moment.

“She didn’t necessarily say I wasn’t allowed to talk about it…” She grimaced.

I gestured at her to go on.

Angelica pulled me into the farthest corner of the kitchen before continuing.

“She didn’t want to talk about what happened in the past too much. She was afraid that it would cause some sort of problem in this timeline, but I don’t think there will be any sort of repercussions as far as affecting our existence goes, but anyway…she saw some things that really have her messed up in the head.” Angelica spoke and I could tell by the look on her face she was still unsure whether or not to divulge this information to me or not.

“What happened, Angelica? Please.” I was now far less bitter and more worried about Violet’s well-being.

“She told you all about the arrests, the pending jail time and her murder charge—but did she tell you that she was charged with Capital Murder?” Angelica lowered her voice.

“Capital Murder?” I was surprised, as she had never mentioned that before.

“Yeah. There was that false video evidence…they charged her with killing one of the SWAT officers. They were going to give her the death penalty, Adam.” Angelica’s face was severe as she recounted something that I had never heard before.

I didn’t know. I didn’t know about that and I could only imagine how something like that could affect a person. She had been dangling from a short fuse in that past life and it was only a matter of time before she caught fire. But she had managed to save herself and the rest of us in the process and never made it to that explosive end.

“Well, that explains why she was able to time travel like she did. The fear and stress must have triggered her powers.” I thought aloud. She had told us that her time travel was unintentional and she wasn’t sure how she accomplished such a feat.

“It was unintentional, but that isn’t what triggered it.” Angelica slowly shook her head and I eyed her questioningly.

“You should sit down.” She pointed at the chair I had been occupying and I obeyed before she continued, “You all went to trial on January 24th and none of us had been able to devise a way to get everyone out of jail. It was apparent that you all were going to get convicted and the next step would have been her murder trial, but Violet wasn’t going to go down without a fight. She stood up in the middle of the proceedings and exposed herself as the purple eyed wonder that she is and it started a riot.

You joined her and so did the rest, save for Janus, but the judge wasn’t having any of it…” Angelica paused as she thought about it.

“What did he do?” I didn’t know exactly where the story was leading, but I figured it was bad.

“He killed the jury with one flick of the wrist.” Angelica uttered and I heard myself audibly gasp.

“It gets worse. Violet tried to stop him, but he stopped her instead. You tried to come to her rescue and—and,” Angelica’s brow was furrowed.

“Spit it out, Angel.” I thought I knew where this was going now.

“He killed you right in front of her; crushed your skull without so much as a touch while she watched.” Angelica’s words came out in a hushed tone.

That was why.

She couldn’t bear to be around me for long because she was envisioning my death all over again every time she looked at me.

I felt a knot in my stomach as I thought about how much pain she was in.

“Now do you see why she’s been so avoidant of everyone, especially you? I think she’s developed post-traumatic stress over it and it’s really affecting her. You all may not be human anymore, but you still have those human emotions. She’s in pain: physically, emotionally, and mentally.” Angelica expounded and I felt terrible for being so upset with her.

“Oh, Violet.” I closed my eyes tight and tried to imagine what she was going through, but I couldn’t.

“Just go easy on her, Adam. She’s trying, but it’s hard for her. That’s why she spends so much time with me because I saw what she went through; I know exactly where she’s been.” Angelica tried to appeal to my softer side.

“Wait, you were there…and you remember what happened?” I was confused. How could she remember what happened even though nobody else did?

“I’m an Angel, Adam. As I explained to her: we live outside the regular constraints of mortal existence. Technically what Violet did wasn’t even time travel, either. Violet traveled to an alternate timeline and by changing what happened there somehow combined the two into what we know now. It isn’t that she changed the past, it’s as if it didn’t happen all together.” Angelica tossed another tidbit of information my way.

“Holy shit.” I breathed.

I thought time travel was difficult to make sense of, but this was something else entirely.

“So, now you know. But can you kindly try and not mention to her that I told you anything about this.” Angelica picked her water bottle back up and pointed at me with her free hand.

“Yes, ma’am.” I agreed and decided that I really would keep it to myself…but I needed to go a bit easier on Violet and decided not to pry until she was ready to come to me about everything.