Page 34 of Beautiful Venom
“Worry about yourself first.” She rummages through the desk and then produces a protein bar. “Eat this before you faint.”
“Thanks.” I accept the bar sheepishly because she’s right. I’ve been surviving on the tuna sandwich I had for lunch yesterday.
Violet shares a room with a young man who has dark olive skin and thick eyebrows. His name is Mario, and he had an accident shortly after Violet was attacked. They were both in the ICU for a bit, and now, they still share a space because the hospital couldn’t move either of them to single rooms due to a lack of capacity.
I don’t mind since they have a curtain separating them, so their privacy is respected when the nurses tend to them.
Mario, however, doesn’t get any visitors. At least, I haven’t seen anyone come to visit him for the duration of the time I’ve been here.Though I do find baskets of fruit on the table beside his bed sometimes, and Mrs. Hales often tells me to eat them since they’ll rot and be thrown out.
Since Mario must feel lonely, I talk to him sometimes as well, mostly about the day’s news or random anecdotes. I don’t want to imagine what Vi would feel like if I stopped visiting her.
Putting on my most cheerful smile, I push the door open. “Vi! I’m so excited to have full-range access to the lab as an upperclassman?—”
My words halt at the view of a tall shadow standing by Violet’s bed. He’s smothered by the dark, and a hoodie covers his head and face.
I barely get a glimpse of him and scream.
He sprints to the window, forces it open, and jumps out.
I dash toward Violet as footsteps rush in from the hallway.
Thankfully, she’s still sleeping peacefully, and the machine by the side of her bed beeps in a slightly high but mostly regular rhythm. I still grab her pale hand and check her pulse just in case.
“What’s going on?” A nurse peeks in, her cheeks red.
“Someone…was in this room.” I motion at the window. “They jumped out the window.”
“Impossible. They’d die from this height.”
“It’s true.”
The nurse looks at me as if I’m out of my mind, then goes over and looks outside. “There’s nothing.”
“I know what I saw. Please check the security footage.”
Her frown deepens as she slams the window shut and walks out.
My heart thumps loudly even as I feel my sister’s steady beat beneath my fingers.
I throw a glance at Mario and release a breath when I find he’s also peacefully sleeping.
Just to be sure, I leave Vi’s side and peer out the window. All I see are cars speeding down the road below.
But I couldn’t have been mistaken.
Someone was here and if I hadn’t come in time, who knows what they would’ve done to Vi.
My blood turns cold.
Wait.
It couldn’t have been whoever hurt her coming to finish what he started, right?
I rush back to my sister’s side.
She’d look like an angel while sleeping if it weren’t for her sickly white skin that’s paler than the sheets. Her hair, which used to be a shiny strawberry blond, is now dull and lifeless as it frames her petite face.
Violet has always been a beauty whom everyone stopped and stared at. Flirted with. Tried to take advantage of.
