New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

***The events, from Violette’s perspective***

This day had been great, with Violette seeing so many new things. The park was beautiful; the pond was breathtaking, and the ducks were so close, she could practically touch them.

She was walking her way forward to them when she heard Alex talk behind her. She wondered who he was talking to, since his voice was so low.

When Violette turned around and noticed the two men, her first thought was, ‘Friends of his?’

But they rapidly brought her to speed, when Alex ordered her to stay back, and she noticed a gun in one of the man’s hands.

Fear assaulted her heart when the bigger man got up and started walking toward her. She slowly inched backward, trying to stay away from him.

Before she knew it, the situation devolved into a brawl, and she didn’t know where to stand to stay out of it. In seconds, an old man started fighting the scary big man, and Alex was now fighting the other man on the bench.

Violette’s fear kept pushing her back until she was standing at the edge of the pond. And before she knew what had happened, something impacted her, and she flew backwards.

When her body hit the water, panic immediately filled her mind. She flailed as best she could, trying to stay at the surface, trying to scream for help. But every cry for help came at the cost of swallowing more and more water.

Her coughing eventually brought her under the water, where she tried to hold her breath, or what little air she still had in her lungs.

It didn’t last long, and she soon breathed instinctively, sending even more water into her lungs. As she slowly sank, her lungs burned, and her mind blurred.

As she sank into darkness, her mind went back to another similar moment in her life.

‘Is this what he felt? I guess in the end, I die as Tommy did. Like I should have in the first place.’

Her mind flashed back to a joyful summer day as she played with her brother in their backyard.

“Violette, we can’t be near the pool like this. You can’t swim, remember?”

“Oh, come on, Tommy. I’m not even that close. And you know how to swim, anyway. You can always save me, hihi!”

“Please, Violette. We’re gonna get in trouble.”

Violette skipped and hopped next to the pool, ignoring her brother’s pleas to step away. Little did she know, her father had taken a swim early in the morning, and a small puddle of water was still drying where he had pulled himself out of the pool.

“See, there is nothing to worry about,” Violette said, spinning around and walking backward.

Tommy looked at her with a scared look. He feared their parents would scold them if they knew they played by the pool.

His father had always been clear, not to be near it without supervision. They shouldn’t be left alone at all, in the first place.

But Violette always escaped the maid’s purview, getting herself into trouble. And since Tommy was the big brother, if only by a few minutes, he refused to let his sister be in trouble alone.

This was another situation like those.

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“God! You’re such a stickler for rules. What’s the worst th–Eep!”

“Violette!”

As Violette reached the wet spot, her show slipped on the wet concrete, making her fall backwards. She splashed into the pool, her body going into instant survival mode.

Tommy jumped into the pool after her, trying to help her out.

“Help! *Cough* Help me!”

When her brother grabbed her from behind to help her keep her head over the water, the girl kept violently flailing her arms and legs.

“Violette! Stop struggling! You’re going to make both of us drown!”

He tried to push her toward the side of the pool, but she was making it very hard.

“Help me! Help!”

“Violette! You need to st–”

*Whack*

As Tommy finally pushed her close enough to the side of the pool, Violette’s flailing arms found purchase. Her elbow violently yanked backward, hitting her brother in the temple.

The poor boy lost consciousness instantly.

Violette finally touched the edge of the pool, hanging herself for dear life. But when she turned her head to thank her brother, he was nowhere to be seen.

“Tommy? Tommy?!”

She then noticed her brother at the bottom of the pool. Her eyes went wide.

“Someone help! Anybody!”

By the time the maid finally heard her screams, she had been hanging on the side of the pool for two long minutes. The house was enormous enough as it was, and the maid was looking everywhere for her.

But the backyard was the last place she had thought of, since the girl usually hid inside the house, in nooks and crannies that were hard to get for adults.

The old maid had pulled Violette out of the water before throwing herself in, getting the young master out. She rapidly went to work, trying to make him breathe again.

But no amount of CPR opened the young boy’s eyes. After struggling for minutes, Violette crying to the side, the maid finally called the emergency services.

She tried pulling the girl away, so she didn’t have to look at her motionless brother as his life slipped away. But Violette kept fighting back, screaming at her brother to wake up.

When the ambulance arrived, they saw the colour of the boy, and how cold he was, and immediately knew it was too late. It wasn’t their job to decide his state, so they kept trying to bring him back, as they drove madly to the hospital, but the results didn’t change.

The doctor declared him dead at the hospital, seconds after they arrived. That was a grim day for the Bellemares.

Suddenly, Violette felt something compress her chest rhythmically. She felt her lungs being filled with air and the urge to cough.

She reopened her eyes, coughing out water to the side, as the old man from earlier leaned over her.

“She’s breathing! She’ll be ok!” the old man cried out to the side, before she lost consciousness again.

‘I’m alive… Seems like you’ll have to wait for me a bit longer, Tommy…’ she thought, as her eyes closed again.