Roses are Red

The treacherous climb was starting to wear me down, with every movement I feel my aching hands searching for the stony mountain edge to end. My breath rasps and rattles in my chest.

I don’t know how many hours pass until my hands finally touch the soft yet spiky grass at the top of the rocky cliff. Blinking back tears of joy and pain, I help the rest of the group up, including the frail old Healer Sophia and we continue along the hillside to a flat clearing surrounded by two large oaks.

Everyone helps to pitch the tents before nightfall, two of us in each. I’m paired with Malory. The other tents have Lucy and Kat, Vicky and Clarinda, Skarlet and Tulip, and last but not least, Healer Sophia. 

You would think I would go to sleep like a switch that night but no. From my head to my feet my muscles throb as they slowly unwind but the real thing that keeps me awake this night is knowing the climb down tomorrow may be easier but more dangerous by far. Slowly-very slowly, my body and head creep towards a fitful sleep. 

“Nooo!” I shrill, as my nightmare returns, watching my parents tediously slipping out from my sweaty grasp and into the hungry mouths of the savage green beasts below - their teeth shattering my parents to death. Then the calm hand that pulled me away, away from the rough cliff edge, away from the fierce wind that whipped up my clothes and hair and into the fire-lit cave. 

I wake, a sweaty mess, tears slipping down my cheeks. Sitting up I check my phone, 3:00 am on the dot. Something feels off. This is too much of a coincidence. A witchy cackle fills my ears. 

Shaking Malory awake we slip outside. The chilly air bites at my bones sending shivers down my spine. We search the clearing with our eyes, straining in the dark but find nothing. 

“It was 3am when my parents were killed” I say turning to Malory. “It feels, I don’t know, it feels like something terrible is coming” 

Malory’s face is pale in the moonlight,. I put a shaky hand on her shoulder trying to give both of us courage. 

“Mia,” Malory shudders, wide-eyed “Theres light it it’s-” 

But her lips close against the quiet darkness and she points, points to where Healer Sophias tent is pitched. 

Secretly we were all scared of her, with her strange cackles and grey hair always tied up in an all too perfect bun. I take Malory’s hand and together we inch towards her tent. I cautiously unzip the faded blue canvas.... A bright white light streams out blinding us. I vice my grip on Malory's hand in fear before everything goes black.

I am lying awake in my tent, the alarm is beeping signalling that it’s twenty to eight. As I unzip my sleeping bag, I notice Malory's not up yet, I step over to her stretcher and shake her awake. 

‘Bang!’ a RIPPLES chip packet bursts open sending chips flying everywhere. It's morning tea time. I’m jumpy so when Malory taps gently on my shoulder, my head swivels around so fast I whip her in the face with my hair. I can tell she's unsettled too, her lips are smiling but her eyes shout the opposite. She beckons for me to follow her. 

We end up on the other side of the clearing. A waterfall thunders down a rocky ledge into a crystal blue river flowing down the hillside. I feel the soft spray hitting my face and taste that the water is a good quality for drinking. Malory clear’s her throat. 

“You know how um last night you woke me up,” she starts, “Well,” she exhales all her breath at once as I nod.

“do you remember what happened after we entered Healer Sophias tent??”

“Not really” I hastily scan through my memories of last night, “all I remember is waking up this morning and being in our tent, do you?” 

She shakes her head, “ It’s as if it's some type of magic…? Is Healer Sophia really some kind of…sorceress?.” Malory stammers. 

“We both know magic isn’t real, right?” I murmur frowning deeply.

“Speak nothing of this to the others ok.” I whisper and turn back towards the group. 

That night when everyone’s asleep we creep back into the darkness outside our tent and slide through the damp grass towards Healer Sophia’s.

We peer through the insect netted window. Empty.

“Not much cackling tonight” Malory murmurs.

“Yeah,” I shiver back.

I feel the air shift, a bony hand settles on my shoulder and my body gets heavy. I force my head to pivot until my eyes are resting on the Healer Sophia’s face.

“Are you trying to spy on me?” Her raspy voice scratches in my ears.

Mallory looks grey,

“But how can you - you’re a hologram?” . 

“We, I….” I stammer.

The boney hand on my shoulder seems to be pulsing ice into my bones. The clearing grows darker, my eyelids droop. 

I can hear Malory whimpering desperately, something about stopping, yet the ice keeps on snaking its way into my blood, my bones, my soul.

I look up into the stone cold expression on Healer Sophia’s face and it dawns on me, she’s not a healer at all, she’s some kind of witch, a sorcerer, an image of the green beasts that mercilessly crushed my parents beats on the walls of my brain. 

“It was you, it was you, you traitor!" I rasp.

Looking over I see Malory lying motionless and hollow on the grass, her eyes fixed open but the world closed to her.

I dredge foggy vision back to the Healer, my heart echoing around the empty chamber that has become my head. Her eyes are cold, I don’t understand, “Please” my life is streaming like light from my body, pooling on the grass at our feet, it’s almost beautiful “please”, I’m begging, with my heart, my eyes…. my knees buckle, “please don’t do it.”