The Princess of the Roses (Under Severe Edit)

Chapter 2

" The little Princess was scared. Soon she had made a lovely friend in the woods, a small bear, named Mr. Derry. The bear helped her back, and she thanked him. She bear stayed by her side as she found her way back to the castle. But, her spirit was crushed as she arrived. Destroyed, piles of rubble were scattered around. A wave of sorrow ran across the land. The Queen and King were dead."

I sat, my legs crossed, at my parents funeral. My once shiny hair had become dull, and my twinkling eyes had lost their shine. I still had Mr. Derry sitting in my lap, and Anna, the social worker, sat on the other side of me. My aunt and uncle couldn't come to the funeral.

What kind of sister wouldn't come to the funeral? They claimed they had to get the room ready for me to stay in. Maybe she just couldn't handle the funeral.

I played with Mr. Derry's fur silently, it dampened by my tears. The priest rambled on, his voice so monotonous that I was sleepy.

Stay awake! Mom and Dad wouldn't be happy if I fell asleep.

The matching cherry wood coffins were lowered into the hole in the ground. Some people stood up with shovels, and tossed a mound of fresh earth into the hollows. My neighbor, Mrs. Herey, knelt in front of me, and offered me a small garden spade. "Do you want to help?" she prompted, expecting me to be childish and jump at the chance.

"No." I thoughtfully replied as I picked at the black lace on my dress. "That would be me insulting them. That would make it seem that I didn't want them up on the Earth with us, so I weigh them down with dirt." Mrs. Herey looked concerned, then glanced down at the shovel. She put it aside.

"That's a..." she thought for a minute, trying to put this delicately. "That's a creative way of looking at it." I noticed that she didn't go up to help bury them. A few more people came to talk to me, and I wanted to assure them I was fine, but everything I said came out cold.

"Have you talked to Elva?" one asked to another.

"Yes, she is in a terrible mood! She's acting like a brat."

"She just lost her parents! Give her a break!"

I turned my ears away from these conversations. I didn't need them to tell me how awful I was being. One lady in particular went up to talk to me, and I just couldn't be mean to her. The librarian was just a sweet old woman, like the grandmother I never had. "I am very sorry for your loss," she consoled, wiping the tears from her wrinkled eyes.

"Here," I handed her the books I checked out. "I'm moving to live with my aunt and uncle, so I can't keep these library books."

"Keep at least one dear! You've just lost everything, so consider it a present from everyone at the library." she looked through the books silently, then made a decision. "You can have this one." she handed me Princess of the Roses. "A nice fairy tale will cheer you up."

This is anything but a nice story. I have to be polite, like mom and dad taught me.

"Thank you!" I exclaimed. I took the book, and glanced at the red cover and ran my fingertips over the fabric.

Anna stood up, motioning me to do the same. "We have to get going," she said smiling apologetically. "You can go up there and give your goodbyes."

I nodded solemnly, and walked up to the gravestones. I knelt on the freshly buried graves, and spoke in a quiet voice. "I'm going to live with Aunie Mae and Uncle Tommy now. You guys never talked about them much. I remember going to visit when I was little. We stopped going when I turned seven. Why was that? Did you fight? Is that why she didn't come?" I laughed through the pain, trying not to cry. "You can't answer me now, huh?"

A single tear slid down my cheek, and I wiped it off. I looked at the matching gravestones, a single dove on each. "Carla York and Gerry York." I giggled at bit at my father's name, I always thought it was a silly way of spelling Jerry.

A wave of heart break passed though me, and I suddenly choked on my tears. "I love you mommy. I love you daddy."

-Sorry if this chapter was a bit short, but the horror element is coming in soon!-