📰
ROSES
FOR
🍓 RACHEL
🐞#Episode_22🌙
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I stared into his soulless dark brown eyes. “What do you want?” I demanded.
The man gr@bb£d a knife from his pocket and held it up for me to see. “I want to finish what I started.” He said cryptically. “I don’t know how you survived that dungeon, but I won’t make the same mistake twice.” He lifted his chin as if he was trying to build his courage. “I’ll kill you myself this time.”
He took a step towards me, the knife extended, but I jumped back out of the way, slamming my back against the golden doors. I hurriedly turned to pu-ll on them, but of course the doors were locked. “Stay the hell away from me or I’ll scream.” I threatened.
“You’ll have a ha-rd time screaming with my knife in your throat.” He whispered. “If you even look like you’re thinking about it I will slit your throat and kill your friend anyway. If you just cooperate with me, she doesn’t have to die.”
“Leave. Her. Out. Of. This.” I said throu-gh gritted teeth.
The man laughed. “Keep giving me demands and I will just pu-ll out this phone of mine,” He said reaching into his black p@n-ts pocket, and pu-lling out a small black phone. “And I will call my friend who has little Miss Greer locked up in her room, waiting for me to tell him the job is done.”
“Why are you doing this?” I asked as he put the ti-p of his knife right in the hollow of my n£¢k, pressing very gently.
“You took something from me, and now you’ll pay for that.” He whispered with a shake in his voice. “I’m not the only one, though.” He paused. “It turns out there are quite a number of people who want to see you gone, that bossy little attitude of yours is ma-king the prince weak, and that isn’t good for him, or for you.” He drew the knife back and just before he brou-ght it back, stabbing me, he st©pped when we both heard the sound of laughing echoing throu-gh the corridors. The man wi-de-ned his eyes and looked worried. “Make a peep and I swear to god, your friend dies with you.” He said in a hushed voice as he covered my mouth with one hand, and held the knife to my n£¢k with the other.
The sound of girls laughing echoed off of the walls again, and a slow smile crossed my face. I’d recognize her laugh anywhere, as plea-sant as her speaking voice is, when Greer laughs it has this hilarious nasally sound. The man had his head turned, looking behind him, so I took the only opening I had.
I quic-kly brou-ght my hand up to cover my n£¢k, and lifted my knee to meet his groin at the same time. He let out a huff and doubled over, the knife sliding across my hand on the way down to the ground. “You bit-ch!” He shouted.
We both reached for the knife at the same time, but I gave him an elbow to the face and beat him to it. “Guards!” I screamed as I pushed him down, holding the knife to his own n£¢k. “Guards! Help!” I shouted and suddenly we weren’t alone anymore.
“Rachel!” Calvin’s voice boomed and I turned my eyes away from the creepy man to look up and see Cal and four guards staring at me in amazement.
The man bucked beneath me, but I held him down firmly, keeping the knife just far enough away from him to not cut him. “Well, is anyone going to help, or are you all planning on ma-king me handle this guy?” I said annoyed and finally a guard helped me up off of the man and the other guards gr@bb£d him up from the floor, securing his hands behind his back.
“Rachel, what happened?” Cal asked as he c@m£ to my side, brushing the hair that had come loose from my br@id back behind my ear.
“That little bit-ch ruined my life!” The man shouted, and Cal’s eyes turned black as he glared at the man.
“He’s the one who tried to have me killed in the crypts and he just tried to kill me again!” I explained to everyone. “He threatened to kill Greer and he is the one who killed Fern!”
Calvin walked over to the man and gr@bb£d him by the n£¢k, forcing the man to look at him. “Who are you?” He demanded.
“Fernando Pluxis!” He answered angrily. “That little girl of yours is the reason the love of my life is locked away, suffering, for the rest of his life!” He shouted into Cal’s face. “Because of her, he was thrown into the dungeons! And because of her, you’re becoming a weak ruler, just like your bloody father! They will kill her! They won’t let her become your bride!” He shouted, spraying spit with every word.
Calvin’s anger overc@m£ him and he reached out and snapped the man’s n£¢k so fast that if I’d blinked, I would have missed it. “Get rid of him.” He demanded the guards, and they were gone.
Calvin stayed on the far side of the corridor from me, pacing back and forth, his eyes black as midnight, cursing un-der his breath. He st©pped, turning to punch his fist into the stone wall behind him, leaving a sizable hole in the rock. He brou-ght his hand away covered in crimson blood and I ran to him.
“Calvin, oh my god.” I shouted as I tried to gr-ab his hand but he moved it out of my reach.
“Don’t.” He snapped. “It’ll heal itself.” He said. “plea-se just stay over there until I get control.” He said, tilting his chin to the other wall.
I backed away, then slid down the wall to sit on the ground while I waited. It took him a good five minutes, but finally his face started to look normal again, his eyes lighter. “I’m sorry, Rachel.” He said kindly, but still keeping his distance. “Are you alright?”
“I am.” I responded while I fiddled with the bo-ttomof my br@id. “Just a small cut on my hand, but it’s not bleeding anymore.”
He started pacing again. “I shouldn’t have done that.” He muttered. “I shouldn’t have left you here, and I shouldn’t have killed him. I should have kept him alive to get information from him.”
“Don’t beat yourself up, Calvin. He was a bad guy, he killed Fern and he deserved to die. As for me, you can’t just babysit me every day for the rest of my life. I can take care of myself.”
He laughed. “Yes, I can see that.” He said. “You really are something else, Rachel.” He smiled, but it didn’t last long. “What were you thinking though? Running off again without any guards or telling anyone where you were going? You could have been killed!”
I stood up, straightening out my dress, trying to decide what I was going to do. I know I should tell him about his father’s advances, but at the same time, he is alre-ady so upset, and I don’t want to see him angry again. Ultimately, I decided now was just not the right time to drop something like that on him. “I’m sorry, Cal.” I whispered. “I just nee-ded some space from everything.” I lied.
Calvin was suddenly right in front of me, his cold hand lifting my chin. “You don’t nee-d to be sorry.” He whispered. “I just worry about you.”
“I un-derstand.” I nodded.
Calvin gently brou-ght my face up to his and he k!$$£d me softly. “I missed you today.” He said against myl-ips, then k!$$£d me again, dee-per this time. My mind was turning to mush, as his hands wra-pped around my w@!st, pressing my b©dy to his, and a soft whimper escaped myl-ips. He pu-ll-ed away slightly, leaning his forehead against mine and looking into my eyes. “Did you miss me too?”
He asked se-ductively. I couldn’t speak, so I just nodded my head, feeling my heart hammering around in my che-st. “Good.” He whispered against my cheek, then the leaned down, holding my h!ps, while he k!$$£d along my jaw line, and then I felt his coldl-ips pressing against my n£¢k. My head was going crazy with thoughts I’d never had before as he turned me so that my back was pressed against the wall behind me and he brou-ght his hands up my b©dy and then wra-pped them behind my n£¢k, k!ss!ngme hungrily again. I roamed my own shaking hands up his firm che-st, and then around his n£¢k, letting my f!ngerstangle in his hair at the back of his n£¢k.
We were so lost in each other that we didn’t hear anyone approaching until it was too late.
The area was filled with shocked g@sps and Calvin sh0t away from me, p@n-ting with his back against the opposite wall from me. “Ladies.” He said breathlessly and I turned my head to see all five of the other girls standing there, eyes wi-de, staring at me.
“Well, well.” Tessa spoke first, her blonde hair pu-ll-ed into a ponytail high on her head. “Looks like we’ve interrupted something.” She giggled obnoxiously.
“Yeah, I didn’t realize we all get to have pri-vate times with you, your highness.” Frankie win-ked, her stupid dress ha-rd ly long enough to cover her bu-tt. “Just let me know when it’s my turn and I promise I can show you a good time.”
Regina looked a little more concerned than the other two, but she recovered quic-kly, elbowing Frankie in the side. “You are so bad,” She joked. “Maybe we can be bad together.” She smiled at Frankie and then to Calvin.
Lexton was standing behind them, beside Greer, with big we-t eyes and red cheeks. She turned away and ran back up the corridor, disappearing around the corner. I felt really bad for her and the situation until Calvin called to her, then ran between the group of girls to follow Lexton out, leaving me behind.
“Uh-oh.” Tessa smiled behind her redl-ipstick. “Maybe you aren’t the prince’s favorite after all.” She laughed, gr-abbing Regina and Frankie by the arms. “I guess he just slums it with you.” She added as she pu-ll-ed the others away.
“Skank!” Frankie called over her shoulder before they walked around the corner together, all laughing.
Greer and I were the only two left at the end of the corridor. “Rachel?” She whispered my name. “Are you ok?” She asked coming over to my side. I didn’t realize that my eyes were full of tears until she said something. I numbly sat down on the ground and she c@m£ to sit beside me, pu-lling her light brown hair to the side. “Everyone knows he cares about you.” She told me. “That’s why they give you such a ha-rd time.”
“Clearly I’m not the only one he cares about.” I said shakily. I hated myself for being this girl. The one who is sitting crying about a boy, feeling low and jealous, but I couldn’t help it.
Greer reached over to put her hand on my knee. “Rachel, try not to be so upset.” She coaxed. “Lexton is just really s-en-sitive and he probably just wanted to make sure she was ok. You know you have nothing to worry about. Not like the rest of us.” She whispered. “You know tomorrow night is an elimination, right?”
“Yeah, I know.” I replied staring at my white ballet flats.
“I’m really scared, Rachel, like, scared to death.”
“Don’t worry, I’m sure out of the choices, you are not going to be the first one to go.”
“But what if I am, Rachel?” She said concerned. “I don’t want to go back out there, to that auction again. Master Marx told me that since I was one of the girls brou-ght for the prince that I will most likely be sold to a high up official, and that I might get to even stay in Castrum de Petra, depending on who buys me, but still.” She whispered. “Look, I hate to ask this of you, but I know you and the prince are close.
Can you plea-se ask him not to eliminate me? Or ask him to not sell me? plea-se, Rachel! I don’t want to be sold or fed on. Can you do something?
plea-se?
For me?” She gave me her puppy dog eyes and squee-zed my arm.
I stared at her in disbelief. “This is why you suddenly forgave me and said you wanted to be my friend again, isn’t it? You’re just buddying up to me because you hope I have some pu-ll over the prince that can save you?”
“Look, Rachel, you don’t un-derstand. He’s not going to s£nd you away, you don’t get what it’s like to be one of the ignored girls. I have to worry every second of every day about what kind of vampire I’m going to get sold to and whether or not they’re going to kill me. You don’t have to worry about anything!” She huffed like a spoiled br@t.
“You are so selfish, Greer.” I snapped as I stood up.
“Don’t be like that, plea-se, just help me!” She called as I walked away.
I stomped back to my old room, feeling utterly alone. I don’t know what all these emotions are, or what they all mean, but I know they su-ck.
I walked into my room, happy to see that the carpet had been replaced, so all traces of Fern’s death were gone. I went lazily over to the clothing racks that were now pretty picked over since they’d moved most of my things up to Calvin’s room, and found a pair of yellow silk pajamas and dressed myself for be-d.
I snuggled beneath my covers and let a few tears escape my eyes before finally falling to sleep.
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Story_Continues