Crel Ceren loved roses. She would travel the world, bring back exotic roses and decorate her garden with them. Her castle always looked vibrant, like a watercolour painting.

When she was slain, her blood splattered on her most treasured flowers, dyeing them black with hatred, sorrow, and regret.

×

When I came to, I was lying face down on a table. My limbs were outstretched, restrained by metal cuffs attached to said table. Even my neck was in a cuff. My clothes were stripped, replaced by hospital gown. My back felt breezy. I tried to look around as best as my neck could allow, and saw people that looked like scientists surrounding me. There were several soldiers as well, some carrying guns and other tasers.

“Hey! Who are you people?! Why are you restraining me! I didn’t do anything to you!” I said while struggling to break the cuffs, knowing there was no chance I could.

However, they ignored me and kept talking with each other in their indecipherable language. 

Then there was the sound of a door sliding open. They all went silent. A man with grey hair walked in, wearing the same kind of lab coat, but somehow seemed more dignified than everyone else. They bowed to him, handing him their clipboards. He looked at the papers for a while, nodded, then walked towards me. 

“------.---------?-------,---------------.” 

As he stood in front of me, he said something I didn’t understand.

“Um…Hello? I don’t understand…Can you speak English? I don’t know what I did wrong but…Can you release me for the time being? I promise I won’t run away…” I tried to plead to the man, smiling nervously. 

“...” He didn’t respond, but instead smiled gently at me. I suddenly felt a chill. His eyes didn’t carry the same emotion as his lips. While the lower half of his face felt kind, the upper half was twisted, crooked, like a kid who had broken all of his toys looking at his new one. The man’s facial muscles were contorted to the extreme, as if they were going to tear at any moment. 

He put his hand on my head and caressed it. I shuddered. My heart began to beat out of control. I have never met this man before in my life, yet as I was touched by him, my body was screaming for me to run away at once. 

The door opened again. A researcher pushing a tray walked in next to the man. On it was a tall glass dome, housing a patch of vine covered with thorns. On the vine was a single flower. It resembled a Damask rose, but much bigger - about ten centimeters in diameter and covered with countless petals. And while A Damask rose was bright pink in color, this one was dyed completely in black.

The vine moved. Twisting, wriggling like worms, it crawled around the dome. I stared at it in shock. What the hell is that? Is it an insect in the shape of a plant? But I have never seen something like that before. Am I still on earth?

The man also looked at the dome. He opened it and grabbed the vine. Its thorns began to wrap around his hand and dig into his skin, but he didn't seem to be bothered about it.

“-------!-------,-----------------!!!” The man raised the vine up high and said something in high spirit, as everyone else in the room watched attentively. He then walked to my right, right next to the table I was lying on. Due to the restraint on my neck, I couldn’t see the upper half of his body anymore. Yet I grew even more terrified. I felt his free hand rubbing against my back, making my hair stand on ends.

“.....AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!” Excruciating pain. As if my flesh was being torn apart, pain assaulted my back. Something was digging into my skin, eating its way through like maggots. I felt as if I was being boiled alive from the inside. I violently thrashed around, banging my head on the table like a maniac. I begged for help, but no one answered. They kept looking at me like a zoo animal, talking and writing on their clipboards like it was a normal occurance for them.

“AAAAAHHHHHHH…Urgh-Gurgh…” Then the thing which was invading my body started gnawing on my spine. I couldn’t even scream any more. The pain was so great I felt as if my bones were being crushed into powder, my eardrums tearing apart and my brain going to explode. My arms, my legs and neck were oozing blood because of my struggle with the cuffs, and I was drooling uncontrollably. All I could see was white. 

Unable to bear the pain, I fainted.

×

I awoke on an unfamiliar bed covered in plain white sheets. Around me were grey walls, a metal door with a small gap at the bottom, large enough for a food tray to pass through, a metal toilet in a corner, a light bulb in the middle of the ceiling, and no windows. There was not even a hole on the wall for me to see if it was night or day. 

My right hand was in a metal cuff, with chains that connected to the wall opposite to the door. On the back of the hand was the white circle that woman gave me, though I still didn't know why she did so, or what it could do.

I didn’t know how long I slept, but my body was still throbbing from the pain. My hand, stretched behind my back to rub it in order to ease the ache, caught something that wasn’t supposed to be there. An object, shaped and felt like flower petals, was stuck to my back in between my scapulas. I tried to pull it out, only to scream in pain, as if I was trying to tear a part of my body off. 

I lay face down on the soft pillow. .*Hic* *Sniff* “Mom, dad…help me…” Tears overflowed as I cried myself to sleep.