Rose

"A rose...HA!"

The delicate flower fell to the ground. Its blood red petals crumpled on impact. It made no noise yet was as loud as the explosion of a world, shattered for all eternity, fading into nothing. All that could be heard was the dull clunking of shoes, echoing in the dark, growing fainter and fainter as they walked away.

* * * * *

"Rose! ROSE! Where are you?"

A young girl was playing in a creek. Her shoes and socks were on a nearby bed of grass. She heard her mother calling, but did not head her. Her toes were wet. She was enjoying the cool clear water running over her feet far too much to want to leave. She loved the feel of the smooth pebbles and giggled as a minnow brushed by her foot, scaring it away with a wiggle of her toes. She gathered up the skirt of her crimson dress in one hand as she bent over to pick up a particularly nice rock. As she did so, her long wavy ebony black hair fell in front of her face. She stood up again, smiling at her new treasure as she pushed her hair back over her shoulder. She turned around to step out of the stream and gasped. Standing before her was a tall dark man, looming over her like a mountain.

Without pausing to think, tightly clutching the stone, she turned and ran in the opposite direction, further and deeper into the woods, away from her home and her mother. Her barefoot feet rushed madly through the underbrush, hardly noticing how much they were starting to hurt from running over sticks and pinecones. She wasn't sure whether the man was following her, but she kept running anyway. She ran and ran until she could run no more, finally collapsing in a small copse and immediately falling asleep.

* * * * *

"Rosa. Come here to Mama Rupa, child. Let me dress you up for the carnival." Rose turned her dark head and smiled at her before coming over. She was already almost as tall as the squat gypsy woman.

"I saved some nice red cloth just for you, Rosa. It goes so nice with your thick dark hair and eyelashes. Your fair skin." Rose quietly cooperated with her as she dressed her in the splendid scarlet clothing, and decked her with shiny stolen jewlrey. "You're growing into a very pretty young lady, Rosa. Now turn around so I can plait your hair." The woman's hands deftly tugged and knotted and braided Rose's hair into a fabulous labrinth of ebony that fell down her back. "Beautiful." she murmured as she turned her around and topped her off with a gold headdress inlaid with a ruby stone.