Rose Fall

Prologue

To @randomhappy 

You're supportive, nice, a really good writer... What else can we say?? You're just amazing!!!--and we give our thanks here. ;) winks.

This is how The Jewel operates. Status is our sole occupation. Gossip is our currency.

~Amy Ewing, author of THE JEWEL

She sat on the back steps.

A plane flew overhead, little puffs of old lady grey smoke its tiny entourage. That was wrong, all wrong, like the time Grandmother had used the soap to brush her teeth instead of the toothpaste, and clearly her sister knew it too, because she reached over and squeezed her hand. Hard, like she was suffocating her through her hand.

Like they would both disappear if she didn't.

The plane was moving so sluggishly, so much like the slowest of snails that you'd think it was just choosing  the perfect rooftop to make its runway and land on. They could hear the engine's rumble now, kind of like your stomach complaining when you haven't eaten a decent meal yet, louder than their family discussing politics back in the ancient redwood house. Her sister reached up as if she might stroke the side of the plane and swing herself into a seat.

The girl reached over, and, impulsively, squeezed her sister's other hand, anchoring her to the steps. That simple hand squeeze spoke volumes. If  you ever leave, it told her, I'll come after you.

*

People always said that time sped, hurried, flowed by. Or that it stilled, stopped, paused. They never mentioned how time could grip and strangle, bringing you to a fixed point and staring face-to-face with the girl whose family killed your sister.

And the boy whose family killed your father.

It all started on a Wednesday. The sun was up high, fiery rays baking the ground, and the sky was a shocking shade of electric azure. The three of us formed a triangle in the otherwise empty field, each of us slowly backing away from each other, no one wanting to get too close. Though I noticed that Yasmin was noticeably closer to me as compared to Ash.

"As I see it," Yasmin looked pointedly at Ash the whole time, "you stole from her. It's all your fault. Stealing is a sin."

Ash laughed, hard, dry, and bitter, and you didn't have to be a genius to know that he wasn't amused in the least bit. "My dearest Yasmin, I'm a thief. Thieves don't have sins. And as I see it, you shouldn't be sticking your extra-Long nose into our business."

I was beginning to feel that they didn't really see me anymore. Like I was transparent and they saw right through me. So much so that, if I wanted, I could just sneak away right now and they probably wouldn't notice.

I did want to do that, very, very much. But Roses were honorable- I wasn't going to become the first Heir to tarnish the Rose name.

Yasmin glared daggers at Ash, and I knew that if I were Ash, I'd start bawling so hard snot would dribble out of my nose, like the crybaby I am. It hurts to know I'm not strong like Ash or feisty like Yasmin. But I'm not the one whose family forged an alliance against us- the Peacemakers- and double-crossed each other as soon as they had finished killing people who were family to me with no greater pain than striking items off a list, and I honestly do pity them, just a tiny bit, for being born to such monsters. "I'm a Glass, my darling Ash," she tossed back her head while speaking in the same condescending tone Ash had used. "Everything is my business."

Well. I can't deny that's true.

"And I'm a Poison. Poisons are powerful," Ash snarled back, leaning in so close that a stranger might have thought he was about to steal a kiss. And that was only if the poor passerby hadn't already seen the feral way he bared his teeth.

Yasmin didn't even flinch, something I would have done, no questions asked. I suppose I have to give her credit for that.

"Roses are powerful. Poisons are powerful. Glasses are powerful too! Everyone is powerful, just different types of powerful," I muttered under my breath.

"Oh, really Cerise?" Ash shook his head again and again, even worse than the way he had spoken to Yasmin earlier. The Glass girl, too, was staring at me with pitying eyes.

All the spotlight had been shifted to me now.

Silence reigned, like a thick, heavy cloak. No one wanted to speak first, and silently I could tell Yasmin and Ash were urging me to blurt out something 'stupid' again so they could act like experienced adults and me the innocent, dumb kiddo. I hated it- they had absolutely no right to act that way to me. Especially when everyone knew the Roses were the ones sitting on the throne, wearing the crown.

Not them. Never them.

"Roses are the most powerful, you know,"I told them. "And we're not planning to fall."

Ash feigned a yawn, which was meaner than anything anyone had ever done to me. "Yeah, right, Cherry." I bit down on my lip, nearly drawing blood. My name-Cerise- means cherry red, which is fitting given my red hair, but I really didn't  appreciate the nickname.

"Everyone is going to fall eventually." Yasmin voiced out the words, so slowly, so carefully that it makes me feel like I'm disabled or something, not able to catch up.

Which I wasn't.

But I could see why they would think of me that way.

The Rose will never fall, was my lifesaver as a child.

And like the stupid girl I was, I clung on to that hope.

And when it abandoned me, I was flung out, away, into the darkness with no idea how to escape because I hadn't listened.