Secret Scent Of Lavender

It happened again

Violet turned into a smaller path –less crowded. The road she walked was narrow and quiet –the deeper it went the calmer she looked. With a stalker behind, she’s strangely fearless. But it turned out that it was her plan to lure him there. She would never have walked that way alone without any purpose.

As she passed the third alley, two big guys came toward the man behind her and nonchalantly grabbed him by the arms –dragged him into a building on the right side, leaving him no chance to struggle. Violet smirked to herself as she continued to head into another building on the left. She started to loosen up a bit after making sure no one was following her.

She walked through the dark hallway of the house,got on the stairs and went up to the third floor. She was grateful she wasn't wearing high heels that day.

There were four doors to each apartment and she went into the second one –at the end. The apartment was quite big, with a dark vibe design reflected the personality of the owner –full mysterious. Yet, it looked like the owner was too busy to clean or too lazy to tidy up, it was in a mess. There was nowhere to sit –the couch was almost full of clothes and shopping bags. The coffee table is covered by pizza boxes and cans of beer. Violet scanned around the room for a minute before going to open the curtains. Finally, light could emerge in the room. There was a figure on the bed –fully covered by the black blanket. The blond hair could be seen when the sunlight lit up the whole apartment. Lazily, a pair of blue-sky eyes opened –feeling annoyed by the heat. She didn’t bother to get up but turned to her other side and continued to sleep. Violet went to the kitchen area just to find all the used dishes were in the sink. The plastic boxes of food were scattered on the dining table with the leftover slices of pizza and cola. A sigh escaped her nose as she decided to clean up everything on her own and let the owner of the house rest as much as she wanted.

The dishes were washed, the clothes were cleared and the rubbish was thrown away. It took her long enough to tidy up the whole apartment before the owner decided to get up and shower for a good ten minutes straight.

Violet finally let out an exhausted breath. She seated herself down on the now-neat couch, leaned her head back –eyes closed.

“Guess I don’t need to hire a housekeeper anymore. You better come here once a week from now on.” It might sound like a joke, but she wasn’t joking. Karley Sandra, the eldest daughter of the Sandra family, owned a tall body, much broader than Violet Sandra. She had her white bathrobe around her body while wiping her shoulder-length blond hair with a towel. Violet rolled her eyes at her sister as the elder dropped her body right beside the younger one. The fresh smell of her soap lingered around the place and Violet felt familiar. Karley only used the products from the hotel and she had never changed her taste. She said it felt like home.

“Karl, please be more careful, okay? Don’t trust people…” Violet tried to advise and got cut off by her sister.

“I know, I know. Stop it now. Since when did you start to act like Mr. Jim? I’m sick of it already. Can’t you just act like a normal sister who comes to see her sister, just to talk about her crush or some drama instead?” Karley was stubborn and she always was. Violet could only let out a stressed sigh, staring at her sister with concern.

“There’s someone, not just someone but two or perhaps more, they’re coming after me.” That made Karley’s eyes widen. She dropped the towel, turned to her sister and looked at her as if she was asking for more information –a detailed one. Violet reported what happened to her at the cemetery and the stalker earlier. Karley blinked her eyes rapidly in thinking.

“Do you think they might discover your lab?” Karley asked with worry. Her tone changed suddenly, it contained fear and Violet noticed it.

“No way, I promise.” She was not sure herself when she said it, but she just wished to calm Karley down upon sensing her sister’s sudden change of behavior. Karley sighed in relief.

“You can’t let anyone know, can you? Tell me, no one will get to know it.” Suddenly, Karley changed from a very confident person to a child-like one.

“Of course, Karl. No one will get to see it, never. You know Mr. Jim cares about it a lot, right? He’ll take care of it. Don’t worry.” The more she tried to comfort her, the more Karley got scared. She ran to bed and got under cover –eyes closed like a child who got scolded for not going to bed early. Violet seemed to be used to that image. She went to grab a glass of water. The curtains were pulled back closely, not allowing the evening heat to get in.

Gently, she sat beside her sister. Her palm tenderly reached for Karley’s hair and stroked it –eyes full of empathy.

“It’s safe and you’re safe. No one will know it. Here, take your medicine and then rest more.” Alluring, Violet got Karley to take her medicine before tucking her back to bed again, just like a child she was.

“And make sure to have dinner when you get up.” The elder responded with a nod and Violet smiled. Before she left the apartment, on the nightstand, she lit up a new scented candle she had brought –a lavender scent. She also ordered some food and left it on the dining table. The last glance she took, she was sure Karley was soundly asleep.

She thought she was safe. But after one was knocked out, three of them followed her behind without her subconscious. They followed her car with their van. Three men were in casual outfits like they were going camping or biking but they were fully armed. They waited patiently until her car ran out of the town and the road became less busy. They would take action immediately and make it like it was an accident.

Violet, who was enjoying the drive, finally noticed a van behind. She glanced at the rear view mirror from time to time –she knew she was in danger again. Her eyes roamed around the area trying to see where to escape.

Yet, she wondered, if they wanted to kill her that badly, they would have done it in five minutes or they could have just bombed her car right away –she was defenseless. Somehow she found it was torturing. They were just giving her warning, telling her to stop doing something or it would reach their limit of patience. Of course, she couldn’t care less –that’s what she aimed for anyway. The more they became irritated, the faster they showed themselves. For now, she only needed to protect herself. It would be fine if they killed her. What she was afraid of was that they would use her –use it for their bad intentions. The worse thing was she didn’t know their real motive behind all of this and she was afraid they would hurt more people around her.

Once the road got quieter and the sky was darker, they started to take action by catching up with her speed. Violet didn’t let them take the lead. Her eyes lit up when she sped up and at least took much far ahead –continued to thrive forward as far as she could.

The van dashed faster as well, trying to crash into Violet’s car from behind. Violet gripped the steering wheel tighter while her feet trembled on the pedal.

She had that feeling –the familiar feeling when she was fourteen years old when she was running all her might from two big men, hid in a trashcan, slept in the tree, and even picked up some almost rotten fruits to survive. Those scenes came back to her mind like a flashlight –fast and clear. And she was taken back to reality when the van hit right on the backlight, causing her car to fall to the rim of the road. The front part was stuck between two big trees on the side, there was no way to move back. The strength from the crush almost cracked her neck, yet she was aware and protected it just in time. From the side view mirror, with the help of the headlights of their van, she could see them coming –guns in each hand. They also had the impact of the crash, so they couldn’t make it faster to her car. Fortunately, it was dark –it was easier to escape. Quickly, she grabbed her phone and a handgun from the armrest storage box where she had been hiding one recently. She moved herself to the passenger seat before opening the door wide enough only for her body to slip out. The first bullet was fired in her direction –almost scratched her ear if she didn’t squat down. It was not a good choice to run to the main road, so she chose to dash toward the thicker forest. At least she had something to hide behind. The river was a hundred meters away if she remembered right –it was quite big and flowing. The three men trailed behind without losing their sight of her. It looked like they were trying to catch her alive. They seemed to care less at first, perhaps she was underestimated by them. It didn’t take much time to reach the river bank but Violet didn’t get out of the forest. She turned to the right and that was when the second shooting happened in the silent woods. Running in a dark place gave her the advantage to avoid bullets, but it also slowed her pace although she was quite good at it. They didn’t give up easily. They kept trying to injure her. The forest seemed endless -she knew she’d lose, but giving up was not a choice. Before she ran out of breath, she found a place to hide –behind a big trunk, ready to fight back. Their footsteps approached where she was. Her right hand gripped the g*n while her left hand was ready to throw her phone in the other direction to distract them. She would shoot them right away. She was good at aiming, but not in the dark, either were they –she hoped.

She threw the phone to the opposite side. They turned there recklessly and that was when she shot them aimlessly. She was satisfied with her plan. One of them cried in pain while another one turned to her and mass-shot at her at once. Violet groaned as one of the bullets hit her in the leg, the lower thigh. She fell down after a few meters of running. But she would not lose again, would she? She bit her own lip, rose back and ran her life out of death despite the pain in her thigh. It was slow but she could sense their distance. She didn’t know if they were still searching for her. She hoped not. Violet fell down to the ground where she knew it was not a safe place, so she growled into a big bush of tall green grass nearby. She laid there with a blurry sight, listening to their footsteps roaming around the area but her hideout. She tried to hold on until she made sure they were gone. With all her might, she dragged her injured leg to the road and fell on the edge of the sidewalk, almost unconsciousness.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Joan was driving her car back home from her friend’s house whose daughter needed some first-aid care. She caught a glimpse of a body on the side of the road next to a tree –she knew someone needed help although she was told by her son that she shouldn’t be generous all the time because it might cause her some trouble like his father’s case. It sounded heartless, but sometimes selfish is self-love -there was a lesson.

“Help…” Faintly, Violet begged Mrs. Joan who had already squatted down beside the poor girl, and used her torch to check the wounds.

Mrs. Joan didn’t think twice, she helped Violet right away into her own car. She didn’t care if the girl was a runaway criminal or a thief or whatever identity she had –as a doctor her duty was to save people. Violet was still conscious before she made sure she was safe with a stranger who she shouldn’t have trusted, but it was not even necessary to mention when she was in danger –whoever came to recuse was a savior. She weakly asked Mrs. Joan not to take her to the hospital and the doctor agreed. No choice, the doctor put her first aid on the wounds to buy time until she could treat the injured girl properly at home. She was impressed how Violet didn’t even let out a groan of pain when she tightened the cloth around her thigh although she was covered in sweat. What a tough girl.

Mrs. Joan carefully carried Violet into her house. She made sure no one was watching before closing the gate. Laying on a bed, her blood soaked the mattress in a medium room –it was a boy’s room, Rith’s room. She was completely unconscious when Mrs. Joan started to do her job on the poor girl. The bullet on the right shoulder was there –not too risky to remove. Fortunately, the other one went through her left leg or it would make the treatment more harmful without going to the hospital.

Mrs. Joan stared at the stranger’s face after the treatment. It took her long enough to make sure the two wounds were treated properly. It was her day off, yet it didn’t feel like it. Instead of having patients at the hospital, she’s got one at home.

The facial features were familiar to her. The more she looked, the more she got the familiar feeling about that face. The flawless skin had got some scratches by some places –cheeks, forehead and chin which were covered by the ointment.

After checking Violet’s temperature, Mrs. Joan came out and made a call.