Empire of Roses and Nightmares

Chapter One

I run as fast as I am able to, the black scarf that I had wrapped around my signature red hair falling down to my neck while the scarf covering the lower half of my face thankfully stays in place. Behind me I can hear the loud steps of my chasers all of them shouting insults my way as they try to catch up with me.

A laugh escapes me, the thrill of being chased never fading or seeming different however many times I feel it. It is something like second nature at this point to be honest. I have grown into the thief I was destined to be and that feels me with joy even if it isn't something most people would be proud of.

I take a left turn and reach a street with a dead end. I momentarily panic and take a look around, the noise of my prosecutors growing louder as they got closer to me with each passing second. I look around the muddy street and on the walls of the faded grey buildings and see a ladder leading to the rooftop.

Bingo.

I begin to climb the metal thing, seeing through the corner of my eyes my chasers enter the street. It isn't easy for me to reach the roof as my arms have always been weak no matter how fast or strong the rest of me is. I can almost step on the roof when the ladder starts shaking as more people start climbing, trying to catch me.

I push myself to my limits as I reach the tiles of the roof taking a quick breath before starting to run again. The men after me aren't far behind me but I manage to escape their grasps for long enough, jumping from one roof to the next and running as fast as my abilities allow.

My feet come at a halt as I gaze in front of me, trying to find my balance again so that I won't fall to my doom. We have reached the edge of town and I am faced with the Thorn Cliff. No one has fallen or gone willingly down there and lived to tell the tale and I do not intent to follow their example.

I need time to pull my tricks together.

The men have now formed an offensive semi circle around me and are approaching slowly. They are all criminals, outcasts of society who live by doing the higher society's dirt work. I am a thief myself but not a slave. I would never take orders on how and what to steal from anyone but myself much less do some rich guy's unholy business.

"Give us the jewels back you whore!" One of them, a bald and muscular man, shouts at me. I smirk and cross my arms over my chest.

"Is that how you talk to all the ladies? I am sure they must be falling at your feet." I snap back, my voice filled with irony and my smile grows at the sight of his scowl.

One of them throws a dagger my way and I manage to escape it by kneeling down. The weapon flies past me and falls down on the deadly cliff behind us, making a clinging sound at its impact with the ground. My throat dries at the thought that that could have been me.

"Give up already Rose!" Another man with a long beard plaited in a braid that almost reaches the floor tells me. "You are surrounded! No trick can save you now!" He adds but I can feel the uncertainty in his voice and tone.

"Except if the thorns are also her allies!" One with an embroidered eyepatch snarls in a resemblance to a joke and they all laugh.

Only if he knew...

Rose is not my real name but rather a title I've earned in the streets thanks to the red of my hair. None of these mongrels and street rats know my real name and I prefer it this way. Rose has all the reputation in the streets and so she allows me to live a quiet life when I am not her. Plus over the years I have gotten really good at hiding my identity so that no one knows the girl behind the legend of Rose.

My tricks have made me famous, dissapearances I can pull anywhere at any given time allowing me time to escape any trouble I might have gotten myself into. But tricks take time just like magic. 'The best things take time My mother used to say. Preparation and a serene state of mind. That was another reason I had earned my title, my tricks like thorns allowed no one to lay a hand on me.