The Truth Untold || KTH || ✔️

Part Two

I watched from a distance, wanting to know the reason, but too afraid to get close. I thought she was beautiful in the moonlight, but now I had a better view of her, I was moved to tears.

Unlike me, she was unflawed and beautiful. She had no disfigurement or ugliness that she needed to hide from her peers. Nobody ran in fear or screamed or cried when they saw her face. They all accepted her graciously offered rose, depositing a coin in her outstretched, perfect hand.

I moved closer; just enough to be in full earshot. It was then I heard it.

Whispers and sympathetic sighs.

The words brought tears to my eyes and a sad still to my chest. The beautiful, perfect woman with skin as pale as moonlight was not naturally pale. Her slim face was not supposed to show off her high cheekbones and her slim fingers were actually not slim. They were thin.

My rose thief was sick. She was dying.

I immediately understood why she took my roses to sell. I knew that medicine was not cheap in this little town, and she had no way of acquiring it without a job - that she could not do due to her illness.

Without realising it, I moved towards her, and she turned her beautiful brown eyes to me, a smile on her plump lips.

I was momentarily taken aback by shock. I didn't even notice that I had moved, yet I was stood in front of her. She looked at my mask, yet did not shy away.

I needed to help her.

I shakily held up one finger, trying to keep the rest of my body hidden under my cloak. She smiled and lifted one of my roses from her basket, and I took it with a trembling hand. I quickly reached into my pocket and dropped a few coins into her hand, before turning and making my way quickly back to my home. She called out about me having given her too much, but it was all I could do to help.

The rose sat next to me in a small glass on my window ledge as I stared out over my garden when I returned home. She would never be able to earn enough money to get both medicine and food with just my roses, but I didn't know how else to help her.

She was so perfect that seeing someone like me would scare her away. She wouldn't accept my help or money due to fear.

While worrying, I had dozed off at the window, not waking up until it was dark. I heard the familiar clink of her squeezing through the iron bars of my gate and my heart raced in my chest.

She was a beautiful constant for my night time loneliness, making me feel as if I wasn't truly alone. She stood out like a lily in my garden of roses and my heart ached as I watched her select the perfect flowers to pluck.

I had grown to enjoy her silent, night time visits, and couldn't help but smile as she moved deeper into my garden.

She wouldn't make enough just by selling my roses, but she still never gave up.

She wouldn't make enough.

It wasn't enough.

A sudden idea shot through my mind. I wanted to help, and by giving her roses I was, but it wasn't enough. I knew how I could help, but in a different way.

I was ugly, yet my roses were beautiful; I had grown them that way. But they could be more beautiful. They could be like her; a perfect blooming flower in the moonlight.

The very next day I got to work. It would take a while, but I would do what I could to give her some assistance.

I selected my most beautiful rose plant and separated it from my garden, carefully putting it into a large pot and setting it near my window. It would take some experimenting and hard work, but I would help her.

My beautiful rose thief.

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AN: ok, so there will be a third part haha