TAINTED ROSE

Chapter 21

 “Oh no, you’re not.” Crystal’s strangled scream pierced the air. She dropped her knife, a small dagger protruding from her palm.

Helen strolled in and pushed Crystal against the wall, withdrawing the knife as Crystal winced. “Whose knife is pitiful now? Meet my butter knife, you piece of crap!” Helen shouted in Crystal’s face.

“Bind her.” Adolpha looked pale. She handed her knots to Helen. Helen nodded briefly, tying Crystal to the pillar.

 “Sorry…” Helen apologized, still gripping firmly to the knife.

Helen then went to the room to break open the lock. The window had a nasty hole in it. “The wonder of handguns, they really pack a punch…” Nat commented, reloading her gun casually.

“Adolpha, are you alright?” Sherry asked, rushing out of the room and hugged her.

“Yes. I think.” She choked. “Sit down and cry. You’ll feel better.” Pearlyn whispered.

“Hey…um… where’s Rose?” Natasha looked around.

“Wow. It’s not like the bimbo to miss any drama.” Helen remarked.

Bang!

Crystal gave a violent shudder and slumped forward.  A trail of blood trickled from her forehead. A deadly shot to her head.

Rose stood barely 10 paces away from her, holding a revolver in her bloodied hands. Her unpinned fringe hung down, covering her eyes.

Sherry was the first to speak. “Rose….Rose…you killed Crystal….” She stuttered.

“I killed Crystal….killed her…”Rose fell to her knees, dropping the revolver. Silent tears rolled down her cheeks, dampening her skirt.  An awkward silence hung in the air as everyone looked at Rose, wondering how they could comfort her.

Strange. Was it Adolpha’s imagination, or could she see a tiny smile playing at Rose’s lips? She shook her head. Rose must feel relieved that she killed Crystal.

“Stop crying!” Adolpha was surprised how strong she sounded. Hadn’t it been about fifteen minutes ago, when her sister tried to kill her? So why was she so confident now? Was it that the feeling of being hunted down all her life, had died with Crystal? Perhaps.

  “We need to get out. Everyone is gone. There is nothing left for us.” She glanced at the dead body of her sister with a clean state of emotions. Anger? Sorrow? Disdain? No one could tell, because this facial expression was new to them.

 “Where can we go then?” Katy shook her head, looking away from the body.

“Get the principal,” Rose and Adolpha spoke simultaneously, Rose's happy tone clashing with Adolpha's monotone. Raising her eyebrows, Adolpha looked into Rose's unpredictable eyes. She was hiding something but what? No one could tell.

 “He controls the place.” Trina glanced anxiously around the place, expecting some traps to spring out and attack them. Sherry picked up a knife from Crystal's body and gave it back to Adolpha who glanced at it with disdain.

“What's that for?” Adolpha growled, Sherry still offering it out to her.

 “If Crystal really is your twin, then that makes you his daughter too.”

 Katy, Trina, Pearlyn, Calista and Ally gasped, the ones that missed the drama of the fight between the sisters.

“Crys is your sis? Woah! You look so different though! She is like, so girly.” Rose gushed, ignoring the ugly looks the others were giving her.

Talk about kicking a person when she was down. It was her who killed Crystal in the first place.

  You're the one who killed her, Adolpha gritted her teeth, barely suppressing her snarl. Rose may be her friend, but she was acting weird lately. No one would act so ruthlessly…

Ruthless Rose…Strange how that name seemed to fit her now. She was certainly dressed for the part, with her hair tangled.

“Easy Adol,” Sherry rested a hand on her friend's shoulder to calm the stoner. No one has seen her angry before, only really stoned face.

“Anyway, where did you get the gun?” She looked at Rose who found a new interest in her shoes.

“In the toilet,” she sang, infuriating the agitated Adolpha.

“Answer me!” Adolpha snapped, walking towards Rose, who now picked a rose from the nearby bush.

“Pretty, isn’t it? A beautiful shade of blood red.” Rose smiled.

“I'm the princess, and she's just the wolf.”

 A eerily familiar voice tickled her ears, and Adolpha hit the ground with a sickening thud, Sherry suddenly shrieking with Pearlyn, Helen's mouth a huge O shape, and Rose. Rose was smiling, as she held the gun again.

 Adolpha turned to Crystal, whose glazed eyes gave only hatred and anger in her last moments.

“Sorry, sis.” as the world blacked out.

  The car served and slipped and went over the cliff as the railings did not prevent their fall.

“Go! Go Adolpha!”

“Mummy!” Screaming, Adolpha was shoved out of the car, tears streaming and falling through the air like crystals, and through misty eyes, Adele watched her mother and the car plunge down the cliff. A sickening thud and the taste of blood…

The face of a girl peered into her view, distorted by pain…

The scent of the sickening rose…

Rose…