“Rose, stay here. Okay? Don’t come out, not matter what happens, don’t come out.” Rose didn’t want to argue with her mum. They had gone out into the garden at night without guards to pick some flowers for the grand ball. Now something was chasing them into the woods.
“Yes mum.” Rose tried to get as comfortable as she could inside the small crevice without making too much noise.
“Rose, my beautiful Rose, I need you to hold onto something for me. Will you do that for me? Don’t take it off. Ever.” Her mother’s beautiful face was now marred with lines of worry. The queen reached for the necklace that would keep her daughter safe and imbued the last bit of magic into it.
“Mum? What is it? What’s wrong?” Rose’s heart beat faster as that something got closer.
“Rose, Rosie. There are things out there that want to harm our family. I should have told you this before, it’s too late for that now.” Her mother kissed her quickly on her forehead and ran in the opposite direction. Rose watched as her mother’s figure retreated and waited until she couldn’t hear anything to crawl out. She could barely see her feet in front of her but she kept going in the direction her mother had gone. Rose had been walking for a few minutes when a shrill scream pierced the silent forest and echoed throughout the valley.
“Mum!” Rose’s feet moved on their own accord towards the sound of growling and screaming. By now the guards must have noticed something was amiss and were searching for them. Rose crashed into a small clearing and watched as something ripped her mother apart. Something started to burn inside Rose and then nothing. When Rose woke up she was alone in the clearing and cold so cold.
“Princess! Thank God, Princess Rose are you alright? Are you injured?” Rose felt fine but when she took in a breath she almost choked from the pain of it.
“My…chest-” She looked down and saw that something was embedded in her chest.
“Princess Rose, don’t move. If you move it might cause it to go deeper. You! Go and tell the King that we’ve found her, and bring the doctor!” Her eyesight started to get blurry and the man leaning over her kept babbling nonsense.
“Guard…” She was having trouble speaking but she did her best to warn him of what she had seen.
“Don’t worry about that now Princess. Soon you’ll be back at the palace and we can make you all better.”
The King could not keep his fear at bay his poor wife, his beloved Queen was dead and his Rose, his beautiful Rose was dying. Once they were able to get her to the palace without causing her further injury the Doctor and his assistants took over. It took nine days to get the Princess back to normal, she would not speak of that night no matter how many times her father or her brothers asked. They would not let her out of their sights, the doctor warned them that her heart was weakened by her injury. The doctor was ordered by the king to find out what had almost killed his daughter.
“My Lord, the thing that killed your Queen ‘tis not normal.”
“Come on with it. I must know what did it.” The doctor flipped through some pages on the books stacked on his desk.
“Look here. The Italians call it Lupo, the Estonians call it Huntmees, the Czech call it Wolfe. They’re all connected, they all lead to one demon creature. ‘Tis not man nor human my Lord, ‘tis an abomination.” Just then, a howl echoed throughout the valley and into the night.
YOU ARE READING
A Rose That Bled
Romance"You were going to kill me." " No, Rosie it's not like that." I couldn't stand the look of fear in her eyes. "You were going to kill me!" "I have no choice. Either you die or everyone else dies." "Have? Blaine? Please, don't! You know I would nev...
