"A day or two, a week or a month or a year, I'm walking alone, this clumsy step, 'cause we lost the summer."
— We lost the summer, Tomorrow x Together.
At the age of fourteen Trixie Van Der Woodsen took her first life and in her eyes it was justified. Creeps like him shouldn't exist, not even a jail would be a suitable punishment because they'd only go ahead and do it again when they were released from their torture. She believed it was her duty to protect those who couldn't protect themselves, those who were unfortunate enough to find themselves around such horrible people.
It was her private tutor who was helping her with her piano lessons and together they sat by the grand piano. He explained it to her and she nodded along, her hands easily tracing along the keys in front of her. They moved methodically and she found herself enticed in the music, until a hand found it's way on her thigh. Startled, she stopped what she was doing and turned to face the man who had moved the hand as if it had never been there.
"Is there a problem?" Jakob had asked her but she merely shook her head, biting her lip and continuing.
Jakob didn't touch her again that day but it played in her head over and over until she felt nauseous. He was well in his thirties and she was fourteen, why had he done that? Pushing it to the back of her mind she continued on with her day and didn't think about it until a week later when he did the same thing again. Except this time he'd moved her hair from the side, moving it to rest against her back. He leaned in, pressing a small kiss on the base of her neck and she froze, panic seeping in as she moved away.
"I'm really thirsty, um, do you want something?" Trixie asked, standing up and sending him a false grin.
"Tea would be nice, two sugars." Jakob smiled at the girl and she reciprocated it, hurriedly heading towards the kitchen as she bit back the disgust clawing at her skin.
Entering the kitchen she let out a harsh breath, she didn't care if he wanted tea, she just needed to get out of there as fast as she could, any excuse would do perfectly. Her eyes scanned the kitchen and she sighed to herself, opening up one of the cupboards to see if they had any tea. In her mind, she believed that maybe he'd give up with what he had tried to do, knowing she was uncomfortable. Maybe tea was all she needed to get out of there.
A vial caught her eye and she gulped, her manicured nails reaching out to grab it, immediately recognising it. Her mother dabbled in poison and her old nanny had taught her everything she needed to know about them. In her nanny's words, a woman needed to protect herself and should not rely on a man. Poison was the way they were going about this and it was no surprise to the family when an enemy dropped dead of a sudden unexpected death.
The poison in her hand wouldn't immediately kill the victim, it'd merely give them some common symptoms of a fever before eventually they'd find themselves short of breath. Within ten minutes they'd succumb to a heart attack and eventually, death would take them. It wouldn't be pleasant either, they'd cough up blood as they feel their lungs cave in on them.
It was a perfect fate for him.
Some part of her screamed at her not to do this, it's wrong, taking a life and tainting your own soul for your own benefit. Yet, a small part of her reminded herself that this was for the greater good. So what if she told her mother what he'd done, she'd merely sack him and then he'd go and do this to another person. Trixie wasn't going to let that happen to anyone, nobody deserved that. What if the next person he tried it on with didn't know how to defend herself, what if she didn't realise what was happening until it was too late?
That wasn't going to happen.
Trixie took a deep breath, slipping the vial into her sleeve as she carried the teaset back to the music room. Jakob was still sat there, looking up at her arrival with a wide smile. The blonde girl placed the tray down and turned her back to the man as she poured the two drinks. Slipping the vial out of her sleeve, she made small talk with him about music, the man unaware what she'd just slipped into her drink.
"It was two sugars right?" Trixie questioned, turning around to face him as he nodded.
Pouring the sugar into the drink, she stirred it before passing it to him as she grabbed her own drink. Taking a sip of it, he grinned at her and moved himself closer to her, throwing his arm over the back the chair she was sat on. Jakob was unaware of the flinch that the girl gave or how her heart was racing. All she wanted was to see him suffer, he needed to suffer.
"I love these." Jakob announced, his hands delicately reaching out to touch the earrings that rest in the girl's ears. "They match you, both very pretty."
"Thank you." Trixie gritted her teeth, trying to remain as polite as possible. "I stole them."
Jakob's grin became wider and more cruel, the girl immediately regretted the lie she'd made. A part of her hoped he'd be disgusted but it seemed he was the opposite, it enthralled him. "Aren't you a little minx." He whispered, his hand moving to her jaw as he ran his hand over it. Slowly, he leaned in and captured her lips in a slow kiss. Trixie froze, unable to move, unable to breathe.
Snapping back into reality, she pushed him back and stood up quickly, her tea falling on the floor and smashing into various pieces. Jakob's gaze turned dark and he followed her as she began to step away from him. Backing her into a wall, his smirk became cruel and she tried desperately to find anything to stop him. The poison wouldn't act straight away and she wasn't sure if she could wait for it to take affect.
Pushing past him she raced to the door, pulling it open and sprinting down the hallway. "I can do this all day, you wanna play hide and seek?" Jakob called out as she felt her heart race, looking around the house for an escape.
Rushing into the dining hall, she grabbed a knife off the table and set off running again. Her best bet was to run to the top floor, it was like a maze up there, he wouldn't find her in time. Trixie looked behind her, noticing the door she'd just closed was shaking slightly as he attempted to open it. Not staying a second longer to see how it plays out, she pulled open another door and threw herself in the room.
Adrenaline flooded through her as she ran all throughout the house, his angry yells following her every time she entered a new room. He was catching up and she was cursing the poison for not hurrying up. It seemed her prayers were answered, just in time, as she heard a thud, or more correctly, the sound of a body dropping to the ground.
Slowly, she turned around to where the noise came from and walked past, noticing his breaths were coming out uneven, blood pooling from his lips as he gasped in any oxygen. Desperation swam in his eyes and she stood frozen, the knife in her hands dropping against the floor with an unceremonious clang. Pure fear was on her face as she watched the life drain from his eyes, he begged and pleaded for her to help him through desperate wheezes but the girl stood unmoving.
In fact, she didn't move until he took his last breath and choked on his own blood, an unsettling sight for her to witness. She found her body sliding down the wall, crumpling to the ground where she remained until her mother came home. One look at the scene was all it took for her to step over the body and rush to her daughter, wrapping her arms around her as she recognised the effects of the poison.
"I killed him, Ma." Trixie whispered into her mother's shoulder, guilt creeping up in the form of salty tears.
"Trixie, look at me, you're a Van Der Woodsen, we don't cry over silly little things like this, the bastard deserved it." Elara reminded her daughter, grabbing her jaw with her fingers so she looked at her. "Do not let emotions tear you down, you're a strong girl, my little dancer, I'm proud of you, okay?"
"Okay." Trixie mumbled, forcing the tears back as she looked at her mother, unaware of how she'd just sold her purity for the price of nothing.
Nina was panicked as she got to work with helping Trixie's wounds, which seemed to be a lot more complicated than she first thought. Eventually, she figured it out and collapsed onto the chair beside the girl, watching and ensuring she was okay. Mumbling a 'please be okay' she ran her hands through the girl's blonde locks. Despite their obvious differences, Nina cared for the young girl and she, along with the other Crows, enjoyed her presence when she was with them.
Trixie had a way of lighting up a room with a single sound of her laughter. They knew hardly anything about her, she was unpredictable and cruel, yet, they couldn't judge her because she stayed. There was no reason for her to do all this, to help out but she did it anyway. None of them knew that she'd found a family with the unlikely bunch, that she felt safe with them, which was insanely ironic.
Sighing to herself, Nina sat up straight and looked at the unconscious girl, whose breaths were slow but the rise and fall of her chest proved she was alive. All they needed was for her to be alright, for her to make it through this. She never was an official member of the dregs but they didn't need a tattoo or a statement to say that she was and always would be one of them.
Crows stuck to people who were loyal, she was the definition of that, loyal.
Words~1777.
{edited:no}