Blood Savored Roses

The story I am about to tell you took place not too long ago, you�ll still find clippings in the paper about the smoke that could be seen that day. It started on an island just outside of England. It was a small island, nothing like Ireland or New Zealand�an island big enough for a house, a small forest and some ocean front property. It rained the day that the three arrived. The water was quite choppy out on seas, the atmosphere was dark and obscured, only lit up by the occasional purple ribbons in the air with crashing drums right behind them. The little speedboat brought the three to the island's well-kept-wooden dock. The waves violently shifted the boat and the three quickly stepped off into the pouring rain, not that they weren't already drenched. A small pebble pathway greeted them at the edge of the wooden platform to lead them to the boundary of a lush looming forest, around the magnificent, trimmed garden and up onto the marble steps of the colossal house. Tall columns bordered the porch, they seemed to extend forever in order to make the trio standing before them look in awe and in turn, feel quite small against the magnificent white wash, yet terrifying house. The mansion seemed to hold a secret within its walls, it was proud, and quite beautiful, but it also seemed deadly, the kind of feeling that those who went inside, never came out.

Before a fist could penetrate the door it opened with a fluid movement as a black clothed butler stood before the small group, ushering them into the house. And so they entered, one by one, but not without being watched intently by the owner of the house, myself. Of course I remained unnoticed and soon stepped back into my library where they were to meet me in due time.

Victim One � He was the first to enter my study, his skin a light copper, much resembling my own, his hair with a light brown and ran in strings around his face. He was quick to get jealous, quick to react but not very bright. He was literally all strength and no intelligence to go with it. He wasn't exactly romantic, and not at all the best lover for a girl to have. He was defiantly cantankerous and loved to argue and control those who were supposed to be his loves. His name was David; his desires were Shara and myself. His enemy was the next one who entered my library.

Victim Two � He was naturally the second one to join us. His eyes were a light piercing blue, his hair a tinge of blonde and his skin lightly tanned from being out in the sun. He believed he could control the universe and all those who lived in it. He was intelligent unlike David; spoke in metaphors too often yet lacked the knowledge on where to use his intellect or used it so incorrectly that a fifteen-year-old could disprove him. There was a slight scent of expensive cologne mixed with the smells of outside that dwelt on his skin. His name was Chad.

Victim Three � She was the last and final one to join us in our Alice and Wonderland tea party. She, on the other hand, was emotional, insecure and desired above all else a sexual relationship with my second victim. She was not thin, but not what you�d call obese either. She kept her hair long and untamed, she had no strength, no true intelligence worth mentioning, she was average but what set her apart was her pagan beliefs and her blatant ability to trust no matter how much one lied.

The three gathered with me around the fire as the lovely spectacle flashed before the room filled with windows. One wall was filled with transparent glass, the second with books in their cases, the third held my desk and all other equipment and the forth with other random decorations of portraits and maps. In the middle of it we sat on chairs, couches and other various furniture. It had been agreed that we would spend a week here for our vacation though I have to admit it was a pity that we never actually stayed the full week.

That night we talked of many things, we talked of the weather, of the marrow, of the trip, of all of it and hour after hour Boris, my butler, kept presenting us with more tea and more cookies, crackers and other goodies. It was a bit past midnight till we finally retired, David was the first to drift off into his own room before the real problem started. Chad and Shara just so happened to excuse themselves at the same moment before they left me in my library. I sat there for another hour or so in silence, listening and watching the storm outside. It wasn�t too long till I heard voices coming from down the hallway.

I left my library, leaving Boris to put out the fire. My feet softly padded down the halls, though made a diminutive amount of noise. It wasn�t hard to figure out what room the noise was coming from, after all light spilled through the crack of the slightly opened door and formed a thin thread of yellow upon the floor of the dark hallway. I stepped closer towards the door, my shadow filled the slight crack but the inhabitants were too engrossed to notice anything. There, before my eyes stood Chad and Shara, his arms drawn tightly around her, drawing her closer to him while she obeyed his every whim.

I have to admit, it was not a sight I enjoyed to watch, there within my place of residence was a love rectangle, or love square, which ever was preferred. It was one that would start the series of events that was to occur over the next day. It was at this very moment when a deep jealousy cut it�s incision through my heart, that very moment when I decided that if that was what Chad wanted, then he would surely die by a woman�s wrath. The question was how to do it. I stepped into my own room, full of fury and stayed up that entire night debating, thinking. I decided it would be painful, but that he would know that it was I that had done it.

The next morning the sun was brightly shinning, the storm gone and the day charged ahead like the night had never happened. Natasha, the cook and maid, was in the kitchen fixing our breakfast quite early and by the time we all slowly and sporadically filed in she had the table set and the food before us. It wasn�t hard to figure out that Shara and Chad had spent the night together. And it wasn�t particularly hard for David to figure it out either.

The four of us were seated around the cold wooden table; two candles and a vase were set in the middle for decoration, decoration that was never noticed. That breakfast was silent, a tense kind of silent that made everyone a little nervous. David had a scowl on his face, as he subtly smelt the scent of Chad on Shara. Chad tried to make a conversation about the weather but failed miserably while Shara shifted the eggs, bacon and biscuit around her plate with her fork. All in all the breakfast was a silent one until David finally tossed his chair back and rushed off to his room for some inexplicable reason, though of course I knew why. The moment he left the conversation lightened immensely.

An hour later we had all dismissed ourselves and went our separate ways, David had still locked himself into his room and had not been heard from since, Shara and Chad had both gone off, doing whatever they so desired, and I again drifted into my library but this time for a different reason. Casually my slender fingers found the book I wanted, I quickly pulled it out and searched for the page that I was looking for, which didn�t take too long. In the meantime the wooden bookcase opened to reveal a stone stairway lit by brass light fixtures attached to the wall, obviously Boris knew that I would be coming down here. A soft smile toyed with my features as I stepped down the spiral staircase and into the area below.

Carefully I placed the book on a table set out before me and started pulling out vials from a glass cabinet. Somewhere from upstairs a piano had started to play followed by Shara�s occasional laughter, which in turn only fueled my hatred for the man and the time he spent with Shara. I never exactly loved Chad, but that mattered not. I mixed powder after powder, plant after plant and chemical after chemical till I had fashioned the concoction till it was perfect. By the time it was finished many hours had flown by and before I knew it Boris was before me offering me a vial in which to place my mixture. I gladly accepted it with a thankful nod and placed the smooth liquid in the thin glass tube to cool.

"Lunch is ready." Boris said softly while watching me.

I nodded and replied with a sly grin, "When it is dinner, make sure I have this vial." He knew that whatever I had in mind was not to be questioned and instead nodded. I carefully put up the crimson liquid in its place before the two of us drifted up the stairs.

Lunch, fortunately, was quite different from breakfast. Shara, Chad and myself sat downstairs for at least twenty minutes before my patience finally took its toll on me. I left the two in the dining room, staring after me as I climbed the steps. I walked down the hallway to David�s room and yet I could hear the two scampering behind me. By the time Chad and Shara had caught up with me I had already checked the door and found that it was locked. It was Chad who designated himself to do the honors and slammed his weight against the door; obviously the lock was badly made because the door swung open to leave Chad sprawled across the floor in surprise. Shara gasped with shock and she too fell to the floor with a thud, apparently she had swooned over the sight. Chad slowly climbed to his feet, standing before me aghast.

There, before the both of us was David. That was not the surprising thing, what was appalling was the condition in which we had found him. His wrists had been slit by the thin blade of a kitchen knife. On the nightstand beside him was the very knife, standing erect in the wood. The part closer to the handle was covered with his blood while its tip stabbed a letter to Shara. A blood red rose was laid next to the carefully scrawled note. David was without a doubt dead; his blood covered the sheets with two gigantic scarlet spots. Pity was he had bled all over my favorite sheets and that the nightstand had been an antique. For a long moment we stood in silence, each for our different reasons, Chad was baffled, Shara of course fainted and me out of respect for the dead. After a long space of time I called in Natasha and Boris to clean the room. Chad had taken Shara to her room to wake her and I returned to the lunchroom to clean the table, after all, lunch was now forgotten. Later in the evening I had instructed Natasha to place my concoction into the wine glass of a certain party member before checking in on Shara. When I got there she had just awakened and was apparently starving, Chad and I agreed that since lunch had been skipped, perhaps an early dinner was in order. We decided we would eat it out on the veranda and in time the three of us were outside speaking of light things trying to keep our minds off of what had happened earlier, and much to my delight, the wine from all three glasses had quickly disappeared.

The rest of the night passed with speed and was quite uneventful; we retired each to our own rooms, except of course Shara and Chad, who again stayed the night together. It had been the first night since they had arrived that I had slept well. I awoke early the next morning to watch the sunrise and enjoy the silence before a piercing scream echoed through the morning atmosphere. By the time Boris, Natasha and I had arrived at the scene Shara was in tears over the body of her beloved Chad. He too was dead though without an apparent struggle, other then his desire to get out of bed and get some air. Unfortunately, his scramble out of bed had been futile and in the process he had managed to break a glass vase, the water had already soaked through the carpet and the white roses were spilled across the floor, apparently Shara had slept through the noise and had not noticed until she had awoken.

His death too was covered and forgotten about as quickly as possible and Shara and myself found ourselves downstairs again in the dining room, the very room that seemed to somehow be connected to everyone�s death in this place. It was silent for most of the time till Shara finally turned on me. Her first defense was that I had been the killer, which of course I had but I played innocent far too well. The two of us got into a verbal argument for a few minutes till she tried to throw dish in my direction. Shortly the argument turned physical with items being thrown. I was lucky that she lacked much of an aim and so, with a carefully aimed rose glass figurine, her body crumpled to the floor for the second time in a span of twenty four hours. I left her upon the carpeted floor and carefully reached over the table and debris, lighting the two pristine candles. Natasha and Boris did the duties I early told them to do and soon they were waiting for me by the entrance to the dining room. I glanced over at her one last time, she had a gash on her forehead. Blood trickled from her wound onto the floor, broken fragments of glass surrounded her from my figurine. Her face was forever imprinted in my memory, that final glimpse of her. At this point in time I casually knocked the two sticks of wax over and in a slow motion kind of form, the fell upon the edge of the carpet. The flame quickly caught onto the fringe and would soon spread throughout the room.

The day had gotten darker through it all and it was again pouring rain, though that would not stop the inside of the house from burning. All good items had been salvaged and placed into the main house on the island of England. The three of us left the vacation house, with Shara in it, awaiting her death. Boris drove the little speedboat across the water to England while behind us a pile of smoke soon began to rise. We stepped off into the docks of my main house; it was then that I stopped to look back at the haze that was slowly forming on the horizon. A wise person once said, "...untold was the pain the day when you left me with but a rose in the rain..." And how right he was so, my love, it was the pain inflicted by you that I felt and it was you and your companions that paid the everlasting price.

Rie

Astarael

ObsidianWings.net