Ghost in the Roses
Chapter 44

This fucking door! How I wish the priest remembered to give me the key to this. Instead, I’m stuck underground trying to break down this wooden exit in complete darkness. The lantern went out some time ago.

With each kick, all the dirt that settled in the beams over the years sprinkles my head and shoulders. Coughing and sneezing join in to the beat of kicking, but something breaks this pattern. Clicking on the lock lets me know that my struggle has been heard. Someone’s expecting me on the other side. Cautiously, I step back. The door opens and lets a fresh night breeze brush the dust off my face. The key holder is nothing but a berry-scented silhouette.

The mysterious shadow speaks. “Adrien?”

I recognize the voice. “Lada?”

“Run,” a sound of sorrow bursts out of her.

But a second voice is fast to contradict.

“I wouldn’t if you cared for her,” it laughs right behind her.

More laughs and smirks join in. Someone brings a lantern close to Lada’s face and I can hardly recognize her features. My body reacts to this painful sight. The blood in my veins boils and suddenly, my lungs can’t catch enough air to cool the raging rivers in my vein.

I’m starving for their pain and hunger to tear them all apart. The one and only thing that’s stopping me from feeding those bastards their own taste of blood and bruises is the knife at her side, right where her liver is at.

“You’ll pay for this,” I growl.

“No, Adrien. You will,” the hand tightens its grip around Lada’s neck. A face leans in right next to Lada’s and she’s forced to share her light.

“Hello, old friend. I hope you haven’t forgotten me,” his mouth speaks into Lada’s ear, but his eyes are on me.

The son of a bitch tries to get me to lose whatever little is left of my self-control and takes his closeness another step too far. I want to rip that tongue out as he savors the taste of blood on Lada’s face.

“I’m going to kill you, Jakins,” my teeth are on a verge of shattering.

He takes pleasure in rubbing my nerves raw. “Ha, ha, ha. I was about to say the same thing to you.”

“Let her go. It’s me you want,”

“Actually, at first, I only wanted Lada, but then you came along and got in my way. The original plan was to infiltrate the Knight’s Academy, but that stupid test shut that plan down the right way. So, I joined the Royal Guard. It was much easier than I thought and my plan B almost worked until, once again, you and your friends came in. I almost had Lada eliminated as my competition when I tried to arrest her, but again the knights got in the way.”

“All this trouble over two people?” I replace it hard to believe, that someone would take their vendetta this far.

“Don’t flatter yourself. I have much bigger fish to fry tonight. You see, it didn’t take long for me to realize that Lada and her Red Movement friends weren’t achieving much or as fast, so the ones who grew just as frustrated as I finally separated ourselves from the Red. As Rouge Red, we grew stronger in numbers and our time to strike has come. We brought results much faster than our old friends ever could, but somehow, they took the credit. Not only that but, the Knight’s Academy grew a political voice and decided to hold the Red’s and the Royals’ hands through it all. You, Adrien Rivers, have been a pain in my ass for far too long. Tonight, that pain ends for me and starts for you,” it’s nerve-racking to see the secretive and deceiving Noir Jakins unfolds into an open book.

Oh, fuck me! This can’t be good. Any villain’s confession is never a good sign because dead men don’t live to tell the tales.

“So, are you coming?” his invitation is a knife pressing harder at Lada’s side. She tries pretending that the pain doesn’t bother her.

“What choice do I have?” with my arms up, I step out into the open. For Lada’s sake. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have a problem with going down as long as I take Noir to hell with me.

“In exchange for that priest’s heart we get the heart of a knight and this night is only going to get better and better,” a delighted Noir signals for my arrest.

“Stop jerking yourself off. This isn’t over yet, Jakins,” the rope tightens above my clinching fists.

“You’re right, Adrien. This is far from being over,” in his smile I anticipate a long and slow night, we all enter the tunnel.

The lanterns in their hands are no use; with each mile, the passage feels to grow only darker and darker, colder and colder.

Somewhere, in this unground world, I’m thrown into a lonesome room. A bright color below my feet heightens my senses. There’s blood, lots of it, and still fresh. A canvas of red footprints and smears is spread all over the floor. Lada was here first. I don’t know where they took her this time. I can only wish and pray, that somehow I’ll see it through and that she makes it out of here okay, but right now, I’m at their complete and utter disposal.

The playmates Jakins set up for me don’t play fair and with my hands still tied, I brace myself to roll with the punches. Those fucking cowards. Here and there, I manage to return a kick in their guts, but the prize for their temporary stomach ache continues to grow higher and higher.

I never knew I had that much blood to spare and replace it frightfully amazing how it can replace all the ways to leave my body. This is not the way I want to understand how so many poets replace death and gore as inspiration for their art. Mine is written all over the walls and I don’t know how much more I have left to give. Every broken fiber in my body fights not to give them the slightest satisfaction of me begging them to stop.

My head pulses like a ticking bomb and I can’t wait for this internal timer to blow my head off and free me from this fucking hell. If this is my end, oh how I wish it would just come. Otherwise, being alive feel like a cruel joke. Nevertheless, a joke is still a joke, and something in me finally snaps.

“Oh, look guys. The walls match the floor now,” a bruised laugh gurgles the blood in the back of my throat.

Jakins makes an entrance.“They’re not done decorating yet."

Right behind him, his fellowship drags in Lada, then let go. Too weak to stand, she falls to her knees and my heart silently crushes down with her.

“Let’s go,” he commands my assaulters to haul their fists. “You got a lot of cement to mix and I’ve got somewhere to be.”

They leave me and Lada in this red room and lock the door. Alone, me and her break apart at the sight of each other. Somehow, we muster the strength to get close to one another and use each other’s shoulder as our only sanctuary that may be, our last.

“What are we going to do, Adrien?” she sobs into my bloodied shirt.

“Don’t worry, little rebel. I’ll think of something,” I kiss her head and secretly bury my tears deep into the tangles of her hair.

“We’re going to die, aren’t we?”

“No, Lada. We’ll live,” I dare to dream of having future days. I push back down my despair, so that she may still hope. “We’ll make it out of here and when we do, I’ll take you out to a real nice dinner and take you shopping as soon as we recover. You’ll see,” by some miracle, I might be telling the truth.