1 Burning the bloody rose bush

The new moon.

It resembles me.

It was invisible. if you where to look for it you wouldn't be able to find it. When I was born, there was a new moon. My mother didn't love me. My father didn't love me either. They called me a demon because I was born with orange hair. They put me in the basement's dungeon they had under the mansion.

It was dark and humid and it was infested with rats. The cold stone walls sometimes made it hard for me to breathe, but it wasn't bad. There was a tiny window in the wall. It had iron bars in it so I wouldn't escape. I would never get to see the sun set or rise. Only the moon.

I would talk to the moon. Praying to it, laughing with it, dance in its light. On new moons I would take all of the save rations I had saved from left over meals and party with the stairs.

I was never alone when I had the moon with me. It didn't last for long. I was moved to a new cell room they called purgatory.

It was lined with different torture tools and equipment. They wanted to test something, and I was their experiment.

I slowly got used to it. The pain soon turned into numbness, and I rarely got sick. My brother and sister would try and get a reaction out of me when I was in this state. They still kept my limbs intact saying, "When you get sold you will be the perfect little slave."

My eyes light up at the thought. Slave.I was excited to become a slave. It would give me something to do rather than sit here and wait for the next finger nail pulling, or whipping session. I could see in the dark so walking around the damp room wasn't hard. I danced with joy as I would become a slave.

The next night they came, they had grandfather come and look at me. It was horrible. I was stretched on the stretcher and had to stand on nails.

It got worse when I asked for something. "May I go to sleep now, Grand Duke?" I asked gingerly to my grandfather. He looked at me like he just saw a cockroach. He grabbed my hand and walked me to a room that had windows linking together. There was a table sitting in the middle, with a wheel counter next to it. There was no light but the full moon.

It was my the first time out of the basement in a long time. I was strapped to the table with my back facing to the ceiling.

"Now, I am about to give you a new type of torture. One that will last your whole life. Every night there is a new moon these iron nails called moondip nails, will move more into you body. Once the full moon is gone they will move back to their orginal spot." Grandfather explained. He continued on and on how they will not rust and keep themselves clean like surgical steel. As he did so I was wallowing in pain. The nails where hot and pushed slowly into my back. They where placed carefully near pressure points but never hit them. They where placed away from major arteries. Everytime I let out a cry for help he would put one into my feet.

I had two in each foot.

When he was done he made me walk down to the basement. With nothing on but tattered rag pants. My bloodly foot prints showed the line I walked.

It had been four days and the nails where still flexing and bending in place. the new moon had finally ended but nails still had the energy they absorbed from the new moon.

But that night I smelled smoke. Burning ash that was not from a fire place or torches from this old mansion. It soon became brighter and brighter from under the purgatory's door. Even the ceiling started to turn brighter.

'This is where I am going to die.' Was my first thought.

'I am going to die in this dark place from something as pure and bright as fire?' Was my second.

I could hear a pair of steps above me, moving to find the hidden basement door.

'I didn't deserve something as nice as this. But..'

The door feel off of its hinges, as the pair of steps became louder and louder.

What I could see was a towing big figure covered in fire. Most would have thought demon, devil, or the grime reaper. The big tan fluffy ring of the coat made me think bear. When I was the red hair glow and piercing gray eyes in the raging fire. All I could think of was an angle of fire.

"If I am ment to die tonight then I shall die willingly. But." I said lowing my head as the smoke started to get to me.

"If I may have a request angle of the pure fire. I would like to see the world beyond the purgatory's walls." I couldn't see nor breathe that well. The purgatory had no windows.

I had no idea of what happened after that night. I remember seeing the mansion and the woods around it burning and a loud group of people whistling and shouting profanities about my family.

All I could see was the mans face that was lit by the moon.

He had a scar that ran down his check to his neck, but it could have gone to his shoulder but you couldn't tell because of the big heave jaket that he had on. He had a dog color on with big spikes. It had a large golden dog tag that said 'R2' on it. His dark red hair was short, minus his side bangs that flowed in the wind. His cold and calm gray blue eyes did not stray from the biring building.

That was the last thing I saw before blacking out that night.