Hanahaki Disease. The disease of unrequited love. The disease where the infected person's lungs fill with flowers that were the crush's favourite, then the person proceeds to choke them up as well as the petals. It can last for up to three months but can sometimes just last weeks until the infected person suffocates. The only way's to get rid of it is for the person's feelings to be required or for the flowers as well as the person's feelings to be surgically removed. The only problem with that was that during the zombie apocalypse, surgery was not an option. And an even bigger issue was that the crush was on another girl who had a boyfriend.
As a decade-long survivor of the apocalypse, Violet never thought that she would find love. She also never thought that she would die from it. Surviving as a young child without adults around to care for her, she was sure that she would have died days after the dead started walking. But with the help of her new friends at Ericson's Boarding School For Troubled Youth, she had managed to make it much longer. She had lost track of her actual age but she assumed that she was roughly around the age of 17. She had seen so much death and lost more than anyone else at the school. She had lost her little brother, Tennessee and she had lost her first girlfriend, Minerva. Both of them had been out hunting for food but then got attacked and bitten. And even worse, Violet had been the one to find them. She saw their emotionless bodies, their faces starting to rot. Their slow stumble towards her, desperate to eat her flesh. She had the choice to let them live as zombies or to end their misery. She had managed to find the courage to kill them, slamming her meat cleaver into their heads. Her eyes burned with tears as their bodies fell to the ground, completely lifeless. She went back to the school and broke the news to the others but from that day, Violet was a different person. She became shut off and quite, spending most of her time in her dorm room or hiding up the belltower. She rarely talked to anyone and she never showed her feelings. She was numb.
That was until she met Clementine. A girl who was around the same age as her and was extremely sweet. She broke down the walls that Violet had spent more than two years building, in less than three days. She had been kind and genuine towards Violet and something inside of her had clicked. She stood up for the smaller girl when her friends started arguments and defended her when anything went wrong. Their relationship grew stronger and stronger as they grew closer and soon enough, Violet had fallen for her. She started to act more like her old self and all of her friends notice. She became happy again or as close to it as she could be in the apocalypse. She started to help out more and talk to people again. She smiled for the first time in two years and her friends knew that she was crushing on the other girl, hard. Everyone knew apart from two people. Clementine, herself and Violet's best friend, Louis. Louis could tell that Violet was happier but he was oblivious to her crush. He knew that they were friends, good ones, but couldn't see how Violet's eyes lit up every time she saw Clementine or how she gave her a smile that only Minerva had been given.
Violet had always been quiet about her feelings. It would take her months to build up the courage to tell Clementine how she truly felt about her. One day, she thought that she had the courage to tell her. That day turned out to be fatal.
Violet had decided that she would tell Clementine about her feelings. She walked around the courtyard, nervously looking around for the girl. One of her friends, Brody, told her that she last saw Clementine going towards the music room. Violet thanked the girl and started to make her way towards the room. She took a deep breath before creaking the door open slightly, peering into the room. And then she saw something that made her face drop. She felt her stomach getting heavy and she felt her head start to spin. There Clementine was, sitting by the piano. Kissing Louis. Violet closed the door quickly but made sure that no sound was made before sprinting away, towards her dorm room. She felt hot tears start to stream down her face and her lungs start to burn. She arrived at her room, slamming the door shut behind her, her breathing heavy. She sunk to the floor, leaning against the door as her body started to shake with sobs. The one person who made her feel normal, made her feel human, was kissing her best friend. The cause of her happiness was happier with someone else. Violet slammed her fist against the door, a quiet "dammit" echoed around the room. Her voice sounded broken, even more so than when Tenn and Minerva had died. Violet felt empty.
A sudden pain filled her as she started to cough. She felt blood rising from her lungs but as she went to spit it out, realised that it was much more than that. There were flower petals, covered in blood but underneath that, Violet could see that the petals were from violets. "How ironic" was the only words to leave her mouth before she started to choke up again, this time much worse. She had to pull herself onto her knees, doubling over so the petals could leave her body easier. Once it had subsided, she glanced at the mess on the ground. Blood covered violet petals. She knew what was happening to her, she heard Aasim talking about it once before. She knew what would happen to her. She knew that she was screwed.
Violet never thought that she would find love. She also never thought that she would die from it. But here she was, two months into the disease and she knew she was on the verge of death. Her coughing fits had become much more frequent and much worse. She had started to cough up fully formed flowers which was the diseases final stage. She had managed to keep it all a secret, surprisingly. Nobody seemed to question why she spent most of her time, if not all of it, locked away in her dorm room. Everyone just assumed it was because of Clementine and Louis. They had announced to everyone that they were officially in a relationship and to say that people were shocked was an understatement. Brody and Marlon had both tried to talk to Violet, begging her to leave her room but she never did. She couldn't. But tonight she knew. She knew that she was dying and she knew that this was her last night alive. She was grateful for the darkness of the hallways as it made sneaking around much easier. She didn't want to die in her dorm room so she quietly made her way to the music room. She smiled slightly when she noticed that it was empty before she sat on the floor with her head resting against the piano. She glanced at it and felt her heart break at the sight of a C and an L carved into the piano, a heart surrounding the initials. Violet shook her head slightly. She wasn't going to spend her last few moments alive being jealous. She carefully stood up and sat at the piano before gently pressing the keys. It was much louder at night but she didn't care right now. She played a familiar tune to the school as Louis spent most of his time playing it. "Oh my darling, oh my darling, Oh my darling, Clementine" Violet sang quietly, ignoring the agonising pain in her lungs. "You are lost and gone forever" She felt the blood rising, quickly and by the pain, she knew it was time. "Dreadful sorry, Clementine" She finished the song just as her lungs caved. She spluttered for breath before her head grew light and she fell from the chair. Her body landed on the floor, surrounded by violet flowers and her own blood.
By the time the sun rose, she had turned. Her jaw was covered in blood that was as red as holly berries and her eyes were as white as freshly fallen snow. As Louis opened the door to the music room, his normal cocky grin fell immediately. His former best friend turned to him, slowly stumbling towards him. Without thinking, he closed the door and ran to the courtyard. Everyone turned to him, seeing his pained and panicked face. "Violet... she's-" Was all he could manage, his joyful personality completely gone. He had everyone's full attention at the mention of the girl. "Music room" He added and everyone rushed to the room. The door was opened again and a mix of sobs and gasps filled the air. Their beloved friend was now gone, nothing left of her but a shell. She didn't even move towards them this time, just staying where she was. Aasim was the first, and only, to speak. "Hanahaki disease. She died because of unrequited love" His voice was unusually weak. The group all understood. Violet had died because Clementine loved Louis. Clementine had found her requited love but little did she know that it led to someone else's unrequited love.
Violet never thought that she would find love.
She also never thought that she would die from it...
