{Red Roses} ~Rafe Cameron~

32. Mom?

"What do you think it is?" Dean asked.
"Gotta be money, right?" John B shrugged
"That or a couple of keys with street value to the low-to mid-mils!" JJ shook his head.

The teens were all crowded around the black bag.

"Can we please just open the bag?" Pope shut everyone up. "Wow, Pope." John B smiled
"That's a rare outburst of emotion." Kiara waved her arms in the air.
"Okay. You guys are literally killing me with anticipation." Pope rolled his eyes.
"Jeez." JJ shrugged.

"We almost died over this." Pope exclaimed. which was very true. John B pulled the black cover off and revealed a silver canister. He tipped out the contents. Out came an old compass and a ziplock bag with a piece of paper in it.

"Oh, wow. Yup. That's about right." Pope rolled his eyes
"Good job, everybody. We found a compass. And a secret love letter." Ophelia moved closer to it. The compass looked awfully familiar. She stared at it for a bit. Until she moved her eyes to the zip locked bag. There was a note in it. The hand writing looked very familiar too.

She opened the bag and pulled out the paper. She opened it carefully and read the cursive writing.

I gave birth to you, but you came with no instructions. all I knew was that I loved you long before I saw you. I know I made some mistakes and for that, I am sorry, but I was doing the best I could with what I knew. Everything I did for you, I did from love. You are my child, my life, my dreams for tomorrow. I will always love you and there is nothing that could ever destroy my love for you. But I have to go. I know this isn't easy, but, I have no other choice. So lia, If you get this, I want you to know that I'm watching you from up here. Fly my little bird. Travel the world. Be brave. What good are wings without the courage to fly.

It's a suicide note.

Tears were steaming out of Ophelia's eyes. She didn't try to stop them. She stared at the note in her hand. There was blood on it. Dried up blood on the brown piece of paper. She saw a green stick looking thing pocking out Of the envelope. She pulled it out slowly. Her fingers were bleeding. There were cuts on her fingers but she didn't care. Small trickles of blood dropped on the white envelope tainting it with the pretty colour.

These drops don't sound like water drops. The sounded like... cries from the devil. The devil was crying. Haunting her. Drawing blood from her without pain. She pulled out a rose. A bright red rose. The green stem was now covered with the bright red colour. Blood from her fingers.

"Dude, what? It's not worth anything." Popes voice pulled Ophelia out of her thoughts. She looked at John B lying on the ground holding the compass.

"This was my father's." He spoke quietly.