The Alpha's Forever Mate

CHAPTER: 5

It could not have been Ryan Jackson. It was probably just the exhaustion from all the travel, catching up with Violet and giving her hallucinations or something similar. In her mind, she could still see the scene that had greeted her on that night, as clearly as if it were happening now. There had been so much blood.

"Are you okay?" Yana asked.

Everyone was still listening to Assistant Head Mistress Elise Steven talk about the truth and possibility or whatever, and whispering about the arrival of VIP Gold, but none of it seemed real to Violet the way that picture in her mind was.

"I think I am going to be sick," Violet said.

Yana glanced around to make sure that nobody was paying attention to them, slid Violet's bag out from under the seat, and then guided her out of the courtyard and down past the fountain into the gardens, taking a path that led off to the right, toward the forest.

"The other boy," Violet said, "the other VIP Gold. You did not say anything about him."

Yana gave Violet a strange look, which she took as confirmation that she was actually losing her grip on reality and Ryan had not been there.

"You are so pale," Yana said. "I am sure you will be fine after some food and rest. I hope you have not caught some sort of travel sickness."

Violet was not sure what sort of travel sickness could cause delusions of dead friends, but the food sounded good. As Yana led her past the mini-village of outer buildings and deeper into the gardens, Violet tried to take her mind off Ryan by thinking about all the fancy foods she could eat at a rich person's school. Violet didn't even know anything about fancy foods-- fancy, for her family was having meat once a week in their weekly stew instead of canned beans.

Still, her thoughts kept going back to Ryan. Why would her mind conjure him up now, in this place? She had worked so hard to move on, and it had taken her so long. Violet was exhausted, and her brain was maybe just looking for something comforting, familiar. That could have been the most logical explanation, but she still had to be sure.

"You did not see anyone else?" Violet asked Yana. "Only Blake Evans, and the Johnson siblings?"

She shrugged, taking Violet by the elbow to guide her as they left the main path and entered a garden. There was a fountain on one side of the garden. And in the center of the fountain was a statue of a very fat man, with a thick mustache. Violet was sure he must be the founder of the school. The garden was very beautiful, but its beauty was lost on her as she was thinking about her dead best friend.

"I was not paying that much attention, to be honest." Yana gave her an apologetic smile.

Violet smiled back but wished Yana could have given her a definite answer either way. She had told her everything else about VIP Gold but did not tell what Violet had wanted to know. But it was not fair to blame it on her. Yana had no clues about the whirlwind of thoughts and feelings going on inside her, but it would have been great if she would have just said, 'No, Violet, you are seeing things, there were only three people.' Then Violet could just put it out of her mind and move on.

"Down here is the Red Garden," Yana said, leading her out of the previous garden and along another path. "That is where our Red House is."

"Our house?" Violet asked, pleased about the distraction from Ryan.

"It is just our dorm house, where we live. The Blue House is much closer to the school and has bigger facilities and better security... you got the idea," Yana asked.

Violet was starting to.

"The VIP Gold house is usually empty," Yana continued. "Because there are only a few Gold families. That is probably why people are so crazy about them.

"People are crazy about those normal guys? Normal people?" Violet asked her.

Ryan was not one of them, then, Violet thought. Not her Ryan. He was her gentle, silly, ridiculous friend. Nobody would ever go crazy over that guy.

"Yeah, strangely enough, people in this world love amazingly rich, amazingly attractive people. It is shocking," Yana said to her.

Violet nodded. "Fair point."

The Red Garden was beautiful in a different way from the previous one. Delicate red flowers bordered the path. Big leafy red trees met over their heads and blocked out the sky. Violet never knew that so many types of red trees existed. Other clusters of red flowers blossomed across the garden. Though Violet knew very little about gardening, she preferred this style to the carefully cultivated ones closer to the school.

They turned a corner and as the trees cleared, their house came into view. It was a six-story red brick cottage, with some sort of vine growing across it, and had red geraniums in hanging boxes outside the windows. After seeing the grand school buildings, Violet had not expected anything like this. She was charmed by it. Night had fallen during their short walk, and warm lights glowed from inside the house as if beckoning them in.

"Do you have your student card?" Yana asked her.

Violet patted down her pockets, then nodded.

"Security is very tight, even in the Red House. While in the Blue House, they do a retinal scan, before allowing them to enter. I was also hoping we would have it because it is annoying if you forget your card," Yana shared.

Yana pulled out her card and touched it to the sensor next to the door. The door slid open softly, then slid closed again as soon as she stepped through. Violet wondered what would have happened if she had tried to sneak through the door beside Yana. Would it have been like laser beams and cut her into a thousand pieces or something? But she did not want to find out. She copied what Yana had done, scanned her card, and entered the house.

Inside had the same sort of comfortable, cottage feeling just like outside. The floors were light, polished wood, the same wood as the exposed beams on the ceiling, and the other trimmings that she could see. The walls were white-painted stone, which she worried would make it cold in winter, but then she heard the climate-control click on as they moved further into the house.

"This side is the common room," she said, leading Violet to a room to the right.

It was a large square room with a long wooden table taking up most of one end, then comfortable-looking red sofas and the biggest TV that Violet had ever seen, at the other end.

"Mostly, people study in there and fight over what they want to watch on TV," Yana said, leading her back out and toward the room on the other side of the foyer. "This is the house kitchen. It is better to go to the dining hall at school for meals, but if you need snacks while studying or whatever, there is usually something in here."

Although Violet still felt weird about seeing Ryan, she could not help but perk up at the promise of food.

A/N: To be continued...