The Last Rose

        Cosmina stared out of the observatory's large glass window, taking in the spectacular view of the Nebula beyond. The Pillars of Magic was its fabled name, although she liked to simply call it The Hand. As she gazed outwards, she dreamt of its story; of a powerful god creating the universe and all the life within it. Tendrils of rusty cosmic dust, snaked around the five fingers, as they rose up from the main body of the dazzling cobalt blue Nebula. It was truly a wonder to behold, and luckily for Cosmina, the observatory where she worked was placed perfectly in line to see it in all its glory. 

       Her work wasn't your ordinary kind, by any stretch of the imagination. You see, Cosmina was a witch, and a damned good one at that, well at least she liked to think so. Her kind had lived on Earth for generations, hiding from the ordinary and magic-less population. But, as global warming and war descended upon earth, they seized an opportunity to rise up and help repair it, at last coming out on top. Their magic made them gods among ordinary humans and they were worshipped. They built a vast empire upon their magic, but like all good things, it eventually came to an end.

        A new authoritarian government, The Terran People's Republic, rose up out of nowhere, spurred on by that typical human blindness to reality, coupled with the innate need to follow the masses. They fought for freedom from the witches, yet supported a regime that eventually enslaved them all. The result of the uprising? Banishment, for all the witches who had given so much to Earth and its people...the final insult. But that didn't matter now, Earth was nothing more than a molten ball of rock and metal, destroyed by humankind. Cosmina didn't know exactly how it had happened, but she guessed that the human condition for war had finally taken its toll on the planet. Perhaps if she were to one day visit it, she would find old and frozen missiles still floating in a distant and broken orbit, evidence of a war no one had won.

        Cosmina was suddenly pulled from her thoughts when the door behind her slid open, allowing light to cascade into the darkened observatory. She turned and looked behind her, squinting at the light from the door. She couldn't make out the face; only a shadow stood in the doorway, unmoving and silent.

        "Ava, is that you?" Cosmina asked, hoping against all odds that it wasn't Adria, the clan's matriarch, omnipotent leader, and also her mother.

        "No, it's me, Serra." The voice announced. "Ava sent me to check up on you, apparently you haven't submitted your report yet and she was getting worried."

        Cosmina's shoulders suddenly relaxed and she squinted at the shadow of Serra. "You can come in you know, you don't have to stand there in the light like that."

        Serra stepped into the room, closing the door behind her with a wave of her hand. She paused for a moment and smoothed down her long blonde hair while her eyes adjusted to the darkened environment. The observatory was small, with a tidy desk sitting by the far wall, a singular computer screen lighting up the space around it, with its pale blue glow. Next to the desk was a large bookcase, filled with journals and books regarding the magical studies on the 'Unknown Qualities of Dark Matter Magic'. The other three cupboards in the room had been pushed right back against the left wall, making space for a large and intricate pentacle drawn out of white chalk, with similarly coloured candles, sitting on each point. In the centre of the pentacle, taking pride of place, was a dead and blackened rose, sealed within a domed glass container. Serra stepped towards the pentacle and bent down, examining the lifeless rose from a distance. It was well and truly dead by the look of it, certainly no hope of saving it. She stood back up and looked down at Cosmina, noticing a small black notebook sitting neatly on her lap, partially hidden.

        "What are you doing?" Sera asked, her voice filled with concern. "This doesn't look like any dark matter experiment I know of. Where are the rest of your testing apparatus?"

        "Gone," Cosmina replied, partially lost in thought as she looked out at the Nebula. "They can wait."

        Serra moved closer, hoping to get a quick look at the notebook, but Cosmina turned around and caught her, quickly hiding it out of sight.

        Frowning, Serra folded her arms. "If your mother finds out that you aren't doing your experiments she'll..."

        "That won't matter soon enough." Cosmina interrupted. "What I'm doing here is far more important."

        Cosmina didn't like having Serra in the observatory one little bit. Not only was she one of the nosiest members of their clan, but also the biggest gossiper by a large stretch. On top of all that, she was now interrupting Cosmina's important work, something that she couldn't allow.

        "Please tell Ava that she'll have her report shortly," Cosmina explained, brushing an errant brown lock of hair out of her eye as she spoke. She waved her hand and the door behind Serra opened, flooding the room with a bright white light.

        Serra turned and looked at the door, and then quickly returned her focus to Cosmina. "I'm not leaving till you tell me what you're doing with that rose. Why are you being so secretive?"

        Cosmina stared up at the shadow of Serra. "You're just Ava's assistant, nothing more. I don't have to explain myself to the likes of you, so just run along and stop interrupting my work."

        Serra stood there in complete silence, as Cosmina's words flooded over her. Biting her lip, she strolled out through the door, intending to leave, but something inside her made her stop and turn, an itch within her mind that told her to have the last word.

        "I wonder what your mother will say when I tell her what you're really doing in here!" She jibed.

        Cosmina leapt up from the floor and charged at Serra with fury in her eyes. Pushing her against the shiny metallic wall of the corridor, she pinned her there, whilst bringing her face close.

        "You won't be telling her anything, because if you do then I'll personally make your life a living hell. You forget that I'm the matriarch's daughter, and I can get away with things that you can't. Right now you're pretty safe, working for Ava, but that can quickly change!"

        Serra's face turned a crimson red as her eyes began to well up. She didn't offer any spoken response, just a quick gasp as she tore from Cosmina's grip and bolted down the corridor, trying to escape before her tears came gushing down the side of her face in a stream.

        Cosmina didn't move, or apologise; she just stared at her reflection in the metallic wall of the corridor, taking a moment to calm herself down. She gazed into her own eyes, thinking about a time when they had been a vibrant shade of blue, back when things had made sense...when she had been happy. Looking at them now, they were a deep, almost iridescent purple, an unusual side effect of studying dark matter magic. Not only had her eyes changed, but also her heart too. It had grown heavy with sadness, shadowed by a strong longing to be loved again.