Midnight Rose

Chapter 4 Dreaming of the Past

When I woke up, it was still dark outside. Then I heard what had woken me up: voices in the living room. One of them did not belong to my mother or father.

I groaned and looked at my alarm clock. It was six in the morning. I groaned again. What was somebody doing here this early, and on a Saturday, too?

I yawned and decided to go downstairs to investigate.

There was a man standing there talking to my parents. He had a ridiculous looking suit of armor on and wings sprouting out his back.

Is he an otaku or something? I wondered sleepily. He turned his head.

"Princess Rosalie, I cannot believe I have the honor of being in your presence again." He said, bowing deeply.

"Oookaaay.... And you aaaaaare....." I responded uncomfortably.

"Not an otaku, let me assure you."

It's like he read my mind... Am I so tired that he can pretty much see what I'm thinking?

"No, milady, I'm afraid that's not the case. I apologize for intruding, but I must know if you remember."

"Remember what?" I thought back to the first thing I could remember: my parents finding me alone in the woods. Was he talking about something that had happened before then?

"I was afraid this would happen..." My mother whispered behind me. I looked at her. She was chewing on her nails so much, she was practically biting her fingers.

"I'm confused. What's going on?" I asked.

My father and the man in the armor exchanged a look, and then my father nodded reluctantly.

"Princess, I'm terribly sorry, but it seems there is something blocking your memory. If-"

"Something like amnesia?" I said. "Look, I'm sorry if you think my memories house some great world-changing secret, but I can't remember anything before mom and dad found me."

The man in the armor forced a smile. "I am offering to recover those memories, miss. May I?"

I stood there, dumbstruck. "Can you really get my memories back?"

"Yes. Are you alright with that?"

I nodded, and he gently touched my forehead with his finger.

I woke up to a pounding on my bedroom door.

"Rosalie, please open the door!!!" My mother cried. I groggily stumbled over. Some 5th birthday this was starting out as. It was still dark out!

I opened the door and started to ask what she needed, but what I saw startled me into silence. The entire hallway was ablaze, and my mother was barely able to keep up a protection spell.

She shoved me back into the room and started dressing me in traveling clothes.

"Mama, what's going on?"

"Listen to me, Rosalie," she said, cupping my face with her hands. "Go with Sir Percy. Listen to what he says."

"What about you?"

"Daddy and I will meet you at le Jardin de Fleurs, okay?"

"What's going on?"

"Go!" She said, pushing me.

The next thing I knew, I was almost a mile from the castle, sobbing and watching it burn.

"And that shall be the last thing you ever see." Said a voice behind me. I heard the shing! of a sword being unsheathed.