Conference room - Violet

Father clapped once to gather everyone’s attention and begun in a semi-cheerful tone.

“I was planning on giving you all one more chance and talk about this during the Sunday’s dinner in a warm family atmosphere, but the new twins have proved to be unwilling to wait that long and forced me to introduce changes. The person standing next to me is Nero Grue, second vice president of TET, don’t mind him. By the way Nero, don’t you think that they look cute together? Like two matching dolls.”

“Wish I had such daughters myself, they could give me a good shoulder rub, one on each side, I would also teach them all about gardening. Ho-ho, just imagining such pretty girls tending to roses makes me feel young again, maybe it’s still not too late to start my own family and...”

While Nero was busy with spinning his tale, Vincent shot me an uncouth glare and said silently:

“Thanks ‘brother’.”

Father clapped again to stop the topic from sidetracking, even though he was the reason behind it, and continued in an entirely different voice - he put on his business mask:

“And we will end the jokes here because the matter is serious. Nero, can you use your power?”

Without delay, the old man closed his eyes and the room we were in changed. Countless red rose petals began to slowly fall from the ceiling, dancing during their short journey down. Numerous red poppy petals began to rise from the floor, swimming through their short trip up.

It was as if we were inside a flowery dream.

“Pretty…”

I heard a short whisper coming from my side, Violet held some of the petals on her open palm. She wasn’t the only one affected by them, though in Viktoria’s case she looked annoyed that the red gatherings started to accumulate on her clothes and tried to quickly brush them off. Vincent watched her antics confused, scratching his head on which a small stack of petals was already present. I also caught some of them for closer inspection. They seemed to be normal petals, slightly moist and nicely fragrant.

“Done. The sentence used to activate its effect is ‘I don’t want you to know about’.”

The entire flower storm burst without leaving a trace like a soap bubble.

“Last time you used it there were no visuals included.”

Commented unhappily Viktoria.

“Good that you’ve mentioned it, it’s our recent discovery.”

Nero said in a way as if he was going to explain the details to us, but didn’t. After that, he went to sit down in the leftmost chair of the last row.

“We will start from the youngest one. Violet, use the key-phrase that Nero has just said and answer my question. What’s the thing you don’t want me to know about the most?”

Asked father and tried to encourage Vio with a warm smile. However, it had the opposite effect as she visibly flinched, avoided eye contact with him and grabbed my hand.

The only one among us siblings who probably knew what was the effect of Nero power - Viktoria - was thinking deeply with her eyes closed. Vincent tried to use the fact that father’s attention wasn’t focused on him to secretly send a message on his phone.

“Come on Violet, don’t be afraid, you’re the youngest one and I’m willing to be lenient if you answer quickly.”

This seemed to convince my little sister, or she finished weaving a suitable lie, as she started to say...

“The thing I don’t want you to know about is-”

“Again.”

This word was quickly becoming the number one on the list of words I hated the most. Especially when it came from the mouth of this blonde midget who tried to surround herself with an aura of importance and wealth.

Once more, my head was pushed into the toilet bowl, submerged, and kept like that till I started to run out of the air. Only when I stopped my desperate attempts at scratching the two bitches who kept me down they allowed me to resurface.

“O-hoho~, each time I see you like that I think of wet rats but today it has reached a new high, you also smell like a wet rat. Do you want to take another dive or will finally apologize to me?”

Said Noel with an undisguised sense of superiority, her specially designed and expensive like a car white blouse was still showcasing a huge ink stain in all its glory.

Trying to catch my breath I felt as the foul water was dripping down my hair, soaking the clothes. It horribly stunk of piss, I bet all of those dick eaters had used the toilet before putting me through this. To avert thinking about it anymore I went back to repeating a certain word in my mind.

Endure, endure, maybe I should stop... endure, endure... no, I have to remove that irritating smile from her face.

*cough* “Noel, how is your” *cough* “father’s dick tasting lately? How many times you had to suck it before he bought-”

“Again!”

This was the topic she hated the most, all jokes about her dear ‘papa’ were a taboo that quickly allowed me to turn her into a hissing bag of anger. The more vulgar the better. Before being subjected to another dive, I made sure to wipe out my hair into the expensive clothes of Mari and Chloe, the two bitches who were restricting my moves.

Endure, endure... why do I have to go through this shit… endur… it will end if I just apologize… endu…

When they allowed me to resurface I started coughing heavily, some foul water got inside my mouth and nearly caused me to vomit.

“Was it six times already? Is that your new record? Maybe I will have to think of another way of taming a crass rat like you.”

“F-… fuck… y-you.”

My voice was a lot weaker than I wanted it to be and it only resulted in Noel and two other bitches standing on her sides to snicker. The two holding me down weren’t in the mood for that as they tried to keep their sour faces as far from me as possible.

“Again.”

I didn’t close my eyes in time and noticed that piss wasn’t the only thing swimming inside the toilet bowl. Being forced to acknowledge it was more than enough to squeeze the content of my stomach out. Even Mari and Chloe hesitated to push my head down when they saw this reaction.

“Noel… this is enough.”

“Yeah, she has learned her lesson.”

“You heard them Violet, what do you say, should we stop?”

“I… g-give u-up.”

“Finally, you’re making me waste so much time lately. Come on, do it like always.”

Why I'm so weak? Why I’m only strong when it comes to insults? Why I can’t endure like my brother did? He would never give up… never...

I was released and with tears flowing down the contaminated cheeks, moved on all fours to kiss the tip of Noel shoe. She had once decided that simply saying ‘sorry’ was not good enough and from that time this was the way I had to use to apologize.

Right after that, they left, leaving me alone, curled with my back against the wall, desperately trying not to cry out loud to avoid giving her the extra satisfaction of reducing me to this state. I had thought that enduring a simple toilet dive or two wouldn’t be too hard at this point, but Noel proved that there was still room for the improvements.

... everything seemed so real as if I was the one who had gone through it. I experienced every single thought that Vio had at that time, her every emotion and stimulus which had been recreated down to the tiniest detail. I even checked my hair on reflex, to see if it wasn't wet.

I swear to get my hands on those little bitches, submerge every single one of them in a cesspool and keep them there for hours.

The atmosphere in the conference room changed. It was so silent that each of us could hear the slowly increasing volume of Violet’s sobbing. Going through it again must have been really hard and she hopelessly tried to restrain herself from bursting out. The knuckles of the hand she kept on mine turned white as she sought safety and reassurance with all her might.

Vincent seemed slightly shocked and disgusted, but that was his whole reaction. On the other hand, compared to the fury of two people who were on the verge of exploding, the anger I felt seemed almost cute and fluffy.

“FATHER!”

Viktoria stood up from her seat with a revenge demanding shout, her face red, she was literally shaking with rage and would probably strangle this Noel girl with her bare hands if given a chance. The remaining four could count themselves lucky if they ended only as one of Viktoria’s loyal zombies.

Gregory’s fury was of a different kind, freezing cold without any obvious indications, yet deep in his eyes a terrifying beast was already scheming the most convenient way of erasing five whole families, no matter if they were rich or not. I think that he was also blaming himself for the lack of information on this topic.

“DON’T YOU DARE!”

This unexpected scream erupted right next to my ear. Violet was the one who made it, focusing the entire room's attention on herself. She wiped out the flowing tears and met father’s gaze face on, without flinching.

“Don’t you dare to do anything… this is my fight… I started it, I will be the one to end it… Noel didn’t involve her family's power, I won’t use mine.”

She was speaking slowly and carefully, trying not to stutter and to convey the importance of this message.

“No! It felt as if they did this to me! There’s no way in hell I will let it go! And Violet! How could you hide it from me? If you only gave me a tip or said a word I would never allow my own sister to be humiliated in such way!”

Funny.

The monochrome twin was fuming, on the verge of running out from the room to administer the hypocritical justice, the only thing stopping her from doing it was that she counted on father's help in resolving this matter and waited for his approval. On the contrary, the beast inside father's eyes was gone, once again lulled into a shallow sleep under the calm surface.

“Viki, sit down.”

“Father?!”

"Viktoria, sit down. Violet may be the youngest, but it looks like she's the one who deserves the most praise of you all. That was a good answer, but Vio, please remember that turning to me for help is also an option. Of course, only if you're doing it consciously and ready for the consequences. Say a word and Noel O'Connor, Marianne Vea, Chloe Black, Cordelia Astra and Luiza Takeuchi will taste hell."

Surprisingly, father recited each of those girls names making only slight pauses in between to recall them from his memory while Viktoria, biting on her lower lip to the point of drawing blood, sat down as she realized that this topic was already closed.

“I will remember that.”

Answered slightly dejected Violet, probably because something that she was hiding for a long time was easily resolved, turning the entire offensive prepared to object to father's help - useless.

“Vio, I'm aware of the reasons behind why you've left the mansion, but I thought that you becoming an esper was a simple whim or that Victor tricked you into it, yet it seems that I've been horribly wrong. The only price for you to pay is the one for turning back to me for help on the cemetery, other than that there’s nothing. You always try to resolve everything on your own…”

That's bullshit, Violet's dying for someone to join forces with and to rely on, she's not a lone wolf, but she doesn't want to feel powerless when someone's doing all the work and looks down on her… like you do.

“... and it’s a trait I highly value. I promised to be lenient, so let’s say that I will simply cut your next month allowance in half and that will be it. You may leave now or stay and listen, it’s up to you.”

I whispered into my little sister’s ear:

“Vio your vulgarity level is skyrocketing lately, but you know what? Let’s get those little dick eaters together. I’ve got a perfect disguise to help you with that.”

Vio nodded slightly and loosened her full force grip on my hand. She didn’t look at me nor spared a word, but she had neither left and it seemed that a part of her distress and uneasiness gave way to something warmer and more important.

Now that the imminent crisis with Vio was partially resolved I could focus on saving my own ass. At first, I thought that it would be only about us two, but the previous reactions of our remaining siblings had changed my mind and I was right.

“We’ve started from the youngest one, so it’s your turn now Vincent. I already know a lot of things you’ve done and tried to hide from me, but to be fair let me ask you this as well. Please use the key-phrase that Nero has mentioned and answer my question. What’s the thing you don’t want me to know about the most?”