Phantom of Thorns - Prologue

A soft gentle breeze flows by as I took a deep breath. I start to open my eyes to see an empty white sky filled with nothing but a dim light that covers this entire area. I sit up to get a better look of my surroundings, only to see white until the eye can see. However, it isn't particularly empty within this space. I can hear the rustling of the leaves, the howling of the wind, and I could barely something dancing within the wind on this field I am sat on.

Where...am I?

As I shifted my body to look around more, I could suddenly feel sharp pain coming from my hand. I pulled my hand in reflex to see what had hit me. It was a small cut or a prick that had caused a small bleeding to occur.. Blood had already started to make it's way down to the bottom of my palm as I started to think of how I had gotten that cut.. The blood slowly dripped down to the ground, only to slowly color in a blood red rose. As the last drop of blood dripped to the rose, the entire field slowly followed along as everything around me had slowly turned into an ocean filled with blood red roses. As I looked around to observe the growing ripple of red, a faint voice comes into earshot.

"How could he...Why...Why did he do this to me?"

An echoing voice of a woman would be heard around me. Just then, a woman wearing a white and blue dress appeared just a few feet in front of me. Her hooded head twitched at every second. Her skin was pale as the world around me. Her body, completely overgrown and covered by roses and briars, the thorns piercing and extending from her skin and clothing. She stood there for a few seconds before growing a toothy smile. A smile that would immediately instill fear into my body. After such, she extended a hand and rushed towards me.

I turned to look away and within a blink of an eye, I was suddenly on the ground within a forest. The sound of singing birds and the rushing of water can be heard as I looked around. I looked back down on my hand to see my hand was still bleeding, but it seems like my injuries came from the thorns on a rose that was resting on my hand. The woman had also disappeared. My heart still beating fast from the sight I had witnessed.

"Elena! Are you alright?"

The voice of a man calls out to me. I looked up from my hand to immediately recognize who it was.

"Y-Yes, Yes I am." I replied without any hesitation. The man, named Fredrick, quickly approached and knelt down in front of me, gently grabbing my hand and analyzing the wounds that had covered it.

"What happened?! I thought you were just out collecting flowers...I don't remember you being this clumsy." Fredrick remarked as he quickly ripped a piece of his shirt to quickly bandage up the wounds.

As I tried to explain what had happened, my mind went blank and I suddenly can't remember...

Why am I scared? Why do I feel so exhausted?

As I ask myself these questions, I shook my head slightly before smiling back at my husband.

"I must've just slipped, is all" I replied innocently as Fredrick finished bandaging up my hand. He took a deep breath before he smiled back.

"Come now, let's head back before it gets dark." He spoke out while he stood up and shook off the petals that had landed on him. He then turned towards me, extending a hand in my direction. Without skipping a beat, I took his hand, interlocking my fingers with his as I gently stood up.

Standing beside him with a loving smile on my face, we started walking back towards our home within the town of Rosewood. The walk didn't take long, but I loved it either way.

As we entered town, carts and people littered the streets. Some people going about their day to buy some food by the local shops, some were delivering produce from out of town. Rosewood was a small town, but the community within was lovely.

Minutes pass by and we arrived by a wooden house set near a hillside. Fredrick let my hand go as he walked to the door, pulling out a key to open the door to a modest but comfortable home. Fredrick and I walked into the living room as we took a quick breather. However, Fredrick looked like he had something in his mind.

"Is there something wrong honey?" I asked as I walked behind him, giving a gentle hug.

"I've forgotten about something urgent. I won't be back for a while..." He replied as he left my embrace.

"Alright, I'll be here waiting for you. Come back safe okay?" I spoke back as I gave him a gentle kiss on the cheek, which was quickly reciprocated with a kiss of his own. With a quick wave of goodbye, I was left alone in the house.

I quickly turned around to take a quick scan of the house. With a swift sigh, I went to complete some chores in the house before doing anything else. As I cleaned around the house, my mind wondered about many things, however, I was more curious about that urgent thing that Fredrick had forgotten. Was it work? Was it something he had to buy? Did he have to meet with his drinking friends again?

Questions constantly grew in number within my head as I kept wondering about his urgency, I even asked myself if he was meeting with another woman... With a quick shake of my head and a defeated sigh, I gave up on my curiosity. Besides, thinking about my husband that way would be shameful of being his wife.

I took a quick look at the ring that wrapped around my finger. With a small smile on my face, I held my hand close to my heart.

"He wouldn't do that..." I proudly muttered to myself as I closed my eyes for a quick moment.

I took a deep breath to rebuild my optimism as I placed the broom back where I took it from. I quickly looked to see if everything within the house was finished, and they were. With a happy smile on my face, I took my apron and some cooking supplies to cook dinner in case my husband would come home. I would even cook his favorite dish.

After a while, I had finished cooking and setting up the table for dinner. I turned to look outside by the window closest to the table and saw that the day was starting to get dark. Worry fills my heart as I started to think about what could have happened to my husband.

"He isn't usually out this late..." I whispered to myself as I looked at the slowly chilling food on the table. I decided to think that something else might've come up, leading to his late arrival. So I waited...and waited. Before I knew it, minutes turned into an hour as I looked outside. The moon had already rose above the hills in the distance.

With a heavy heart, I decided to change my clothes out for new ones. After covering the food on the table, I threw a hood over my head as I left through the door. I started to look around the town, seeing if I could find any clues as to where my husband could've gone to. I went to the bar, the shops, and even back at the house, but there was no trace of him. Desperate, I decided to visit my friend Marianne. She might know where my husband might've went.

After a short walk, I had arrived at her house. It was a lot bigger than ours, making this visit slightly intimidating. Nervously, I reached over to knock on the door, but on a single hit, the door slightly swung open. It wasn't locked? At this hour?

Hesitantly, I placed a hand on the door and slowly pushed it open. Making sure that I would be as quiet as possible as to not disturb any of the residents. I leaned forward to take a peek within the dark interior of the house. Looking around, I couldn't see anyone in particular except for light that seemed to be shining somewhere within the upstairs rooms.

"Marianne? Are you here? Pardon the intrusion..." I spoke out quietly as I took a step inside. Looking around the different rooms would be futile as moonlight was my only way to navigate through the dark house. Curious about the light, I slowly made my way up towards it. Looking down the hallway, I could see that the light seemed to be coming from Marianne's room. As I slowly approached the door, I could hear yelling from the inside. Both from a woman and a man. My mind immediately jumped to the thought of a burglar or a murderer coming for Marianne's riches.

"Marianne!" I yelled out.

Instinctively, I rushed to push her door open, only to be shocked at the sight that I had seen. Tears ran down my cheeks as I stood there, frozen in disbelief. Various emotions filled my mind as I tried to comprehend the scene in front of me. My husband...and my best friend...? How?...Why?...WHY?!

"E-Elena? W-What are you doing here?" Fredrick asked as he moved the bedsheets to cover himself.

"Elly? O-Oh no..." Marianne remarked as her pleasured face soon turned sour the moment she had realized what had happened.

Fear turned to shock, shock turned to anger, and anger into sadness. As I quietly cried, I bit my lips and quickly turned around, running away from the horrible sight I had seen without even saying a word.

"Elena wait!" Fredrick yelled out from behind me as I didn't even turn to look, quick footsteps could be heard behind me before I could reach the stairs. As I took a step down the stairs, a hand quickly turned me around, causing me to lose my footing. As I started to fall down the stairs, I could see Fredrick with his hands out with Marianne behind him, holding his other hand.

Time seemed to have slowed down as my life flashed before my eyes. Is this really how I die? My heart broken by the man I love...My soul crushed by the affair of my best friend... I wanted to see him again...but not like this. Why did it have to be me...Why...why...why...WHY?!

Before I knew it...My head had hit the edges of the stairs, eventually hitting the sharp edges of the railing and within a blink of an eye, I was suddenly not lying down in the cold wooden boards of Marianne's house. I was standing...on an ocean of red and a space of white. Looking around, all I could see was just an empty expanse of red. The ground seemed like blood as it started to ripple the moment I moved my feet. As I continued to look around, sudden whispers filled the space. These whispers seemed restless for a few seconds before they gathered to speak a few words.

"Vengeance...Blood...Fear"

The voices repeated the same three words over and over again before they stopped. The voices seemed to have now connected to a singular voice, that seemed to belong to a woman.

"Vengeance...Blood...Fear...Vengeance...Blood...Fear..."

The woman repeated the same words in echo until the voice was heard behind me. Turning around, all I could see was a woman, wearing the same clothes I have. The voice seemed to belong to her. As she kept chanting, dark silhouettes of various people started to rise from the blood and repeat the same chant. As they continued to chant, visions of what had happened kept flashing. I clutch my head as I wanted this to stop. The chanting, the visions...everything, started to make my head ache.

"Please...make it stop...MAKE IT STOP!!!" I yelled out and before I knew it, the chanting had stopped and the woman, within a second, had grabbed me by the neck and lifted me up high. Her head slowly rose up to reveal her face. This woman...was me, but it wasn't at the same time...Her skin was as pale as snow...Her teeth seemed monstrous and her eyes were simply as black as the void...

Without moving her mouth, she utters one last chant...

"Vengeance...Blood...Fear...REVENGE..."

As she ended her sentence, I was now left alone. Dropping on my knees to what seemed to be a field of roses. As I knelt there, I had realized that I cannot simply die...I have to make him pay...Yes...I have to make them all pay...They will know my suffering...My sorrow...My despair...

I clutched my head as a maniacal laugh escaped my mouth. As I continued to talk, the roses slowly crawled up on my body, and slowly grew on the spots where blood had dripped down from. Within a few moments, thorns had wrapped itself around my waist, legs and arms. A small patch of briars slowly wrapped my head to make a crown and grew to make horns, in which a gentle bush of forget-me-nots grew from. Blood red roses soon bloomed from the thorn vines that grew from my heart.

With one last, almost non-human laugh, I opened my eyes to see that I was now staring into the midnight sky. i turned my head to see that my lifeless body was being dragged by a man who seemed to look like Fredrick. Without any hesitation, my body bent and moved in a way that wasn't human and clutched the man as I bit down into his neck and slowly ate away at his body as the briars slowly grew out of my body and wrapped the man in the neck, strangling and piercing him.

Minutes pass by as my mouth was covered in the blood of the man who was now slowly covered by blood red roses. Before the body was totally covered by roses, the face was seen to be a stranger...Oh well... I stared into my bloodied hands and slowly laughed and sang a small tune...

"Never forget the woman who roams...

In blood and thorn, within the dead of night...

Never forget the roses that grow...

Within the night of which blood flows..."