Crimson Flowers

Chapter One (Cat and Rose)

Becca, only the age of twelve had an encounter that would make an adult fear anything and everything. She was on her way to her new school for seventh grade and saw a cat being chased by a gang of dogs. She immediately ran to the dogs and shooed them off. The cat seemed so frightened. She picked it up and fed it a rose petal. The rose was crimson red and very beautiful. She continued her long walk to school hoping the cat would be safe from the gang of dogs.

When she finally arrived at school she heard news that there were dogs running from a crimson demon in the form of a cat. She asked where this happened and sure enough she was told that it was by the bakery. That was where she fed the cat. She wondered if she had done something wrong and hurt the cat. She needed to know so she went there during her lunch period.

She finally went there and saw a full crimson rose lying on the ground. There was a path of red footprints that looked as if they were withering. She followed them to another rose with no footprints. This rose was glowing and the tips were withered. Becca picked up the rose and felt a shot of immense pain in her fingertips. She closed her eyes and pretended it wasn't there. She dropped the rose and opened her eyes to see something she never thought was real. She was in the demon realm.

The realm was large and full of people who had red eyes and claws. She looked down at herself and realized why she felt the pain in her hands. She had blue claws! She ran and ran to the bathroom and looked in a mirror, only to see her eyes were dark purple and her irises looked like they had purple flames on them. She had an imprint of the rose on her hands. She was scared beyond what she thought meant scared. She fainted and didn't know what she would awake to.

She awoke and there was a demon hovering above her. He didn't use his feet; he was actually hovering. She was in a spiral in her head as to where he had come from but she was interrupted by him asking her a question. "Are you the newly poisoned?" he asked. Becca didn't know how to respond so she said, "Maybe? I don't even know how I got here!" The demon boy immediately said he understood and said that his name was Barly and he had been poisoned a month ago while he was eating at the bakery. Becca then told him that she fed a cat the only edible thing she had by a bakery then showed up here when she returned to the bakery. Neither of them knew what to do so they said they would meet outside of the haunted quartyard in an hour.

When they arrived at the quartyard they saw lots of crimson flowers but Becca realized they were crimson because of blood. She wondered how Barly had managed to live in such a creepy place for a whole month. They began talking about the demon cat Becca had heard about and other things that had happened to them before they had come there. They both seemed to want to know how their actual lives were managing without them being able to be there. Maybe the realm had replaced them. Maybe they were deceased in that world and could never come back. These things consumed the rest of their conversation. They then concluded the conversation and Becca was shown to a hotel that demons could stay at if they couldn't afford the homes for sale in the realm.

The rooms in the hotel were not as terrible as she had thought. It had a nice bed with a red bedspread, there was a working area with bookshelves and in the hallway there was a sign that said "library➡️". She thought she might as well go and see if she could find any information on the human realm. She walked to the library and Barly was sitting researching the same subject. He waved her over nervously. Becca walked over and he pointed to a paragraph in the book he was reading. It said:

"The only way a human may enter the demon realm is if they have a strange encounter with an escaped demon who possessed a foolish human or animal. Some examples of this are the "Devil Dog'' on Valley Crossing Rd. Then there was the "Petrified Parakeet" who was the most blood curdling possession since 1842. And just 1 week ago there was the "Killing Cat" who "killed" a young girl. These are the encounters with demons.

"Wait, is that you and the Killing Cat!?" Barly exclaimed. "Yeah I think so." said Becca. They both then realized this meant Becca was dead in their home world. They kept reading about the individual attacks and it turns out Barly was "killed" by the Devil Dog when he was 8 years old. He said that wasn't possible because he was 13 and was poisoned a month ago. They assumed that time just went by faster in the different realms because it said Becca had been here for a week even though she appeared just that morning. Then they realized it was dark out so Becca headed to her room and Barly headed to his.