BOOK III.
Chaos has taken over Ashton and Ria's reality.
Vincent has come out on top once again. Daniel is dead. Jared and Vivian are in captivity, back to the place where all of her nightmares lurk.
Their plan has failed miserably, leading them on...
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"DON'T LOOK AT ME," Vivian whispers as she trudges to the wardrobe. Despair clings to her frame and she lowers her head into the shadows.
Jared wants to tell her that she has nothing to worry about...that he won't judge her. No matter how many times he expresses how beautiful she is to him, she never seems to be listening. He swallows hard and turns around as she wishes.
His gaze falls to the pile of hair sitting on the ground and he cringes. He has no clue why Vincent wanted to cut her hair so badly, but she's become so lifeless like he cut out her soul. The curtain of night that once fell down her back is now jagged and uneven around her face.
She looks different, but she's still the same. She's still beautiful. He still loves her...but his affection doesn't matter.
Vivian doesn't love herself, see beauty in her existence, so how can she accept his love for her?
"I hate this," she sobs. "I don't want you to see. I don't want you to see how awful I look."
"You don't look awful." He glares at the ground and clenches his fist. "I've already seen the scars, Vivian. They don't change anything. It's just the reason behind them that hurts."
"I can't help it," she cries. "I don't want to do it, but when I can't feel anything...it just...it reminds me that I am alive. The pain...it scares me and my emotions come rushing back in. It...it reminds me to live."
Jared chokes on his grief and rubs his eyes under his glasses. "Vivian..."
"When I'm here, it gets so much worse. I just...I just want to die. My parents were murdered here. V-Vincent abused me here. Nikolai harassed me. Ashton got into so many fights. Vincent k-killed our child in this very room. How can someone like me hope to live? I would wonder that every day...but Ashton promised that I would be free."
"You will be..."
"That's what everyone says...yet see where I am? I've returned here. I try to have hope and find reasons to stay alive, but sometimes it's hard." Her voice cracks as she cries. "He keeps finding me. He controls every part of my life. I'm just a slave to his will. The only way to really free myself is to stop living...then he couldn't hurt me anymore."
"D-don't say that." Jared whirls around to her with tears swimming in his eyes. "Don't. That's not the answer. I know it feels like the only option right now, but it's not."
Vivian hugs herself, shielding her now exposed arms in the maroon sleeveless dress Vincent picked for her. She drops her gaze and turns her head, but her hair is too short to truly conceal her face. Uneven locks fray out behind her ears.
"I hate myself," she sobs. "I'm so pathetic. My entire life has been a living hell. I just don't want to live like this anymore. Everything I know is so painful."
