The Scarlet Phantom: Finding the Light in the Darkest of Times

A Scarlet Rose

Peace. Peace is such a beautiful word, yet so cruel said by the wrong set of lips. It is used as an illusion, a lure, a trap...A drug. A fantasy. But in small pockets of this world, between the constant crossfire between rival nations of Westania and Eastails, are those who wish to transcend this fantasy into reality. Erza, was that what she was called these days, was one of those people. One of those foolish people who believed she could change the competition of spite and cruelty between Westania and Eastails. I was stupid, she thought as the streaks of grey began to color her once rich billows of chocolate and the wrinkles creased her once blemish free skin. Stupid. So stupid. And yet, this fantasy has entrapped her. Just as it had so many before her, Erza was trapped. Trapped in this cycle of striving for something she knew was unobtainable. Chasing after shadows and Ghosts she knew deep down she could never grasp, yet, she chased them anyway. The promises of living in a war-free nation. The impossible notion of putting an end to human suffering forever. Because it had never been about that goal, it was the thrill of the chase. The hope that those ghosts could grant this tired middle-aged woman her lifelong dream.

The worst part? She had dragged about a hundred young lives into this chase as well. This addiction to righteousness and dreams of peace and freedom.

The Gardner, they called her. All of her agent. All of her dear children who she had tended to and grew since they were nothing but seeds in the pit of her hands.

The Gardner....Erza...That wasn't even her real name. Just another mask she had put on. All of her, from the cloths she wore to the words she spoke, were all full of deceit. All her agents, her children, her roses who trusted her with their lives as their Gardner...their leader, their mother, their nurturer...They were enthralled by the Gardner's charm, the Gardner's feats, the Gardner's words that commanded respect and admiration. In fact, there were only two people in the whole world who knew her as anything beyond the Gardner...As Erza Holmes.

It was nearing dawn and Erza was sitting alone in her office, reading a long memo that was slipping through her brain without leaving the slightest trace of meaning behind. How long had she been awake? Sitting there going through the endless warrant of emails from The Eastailian government and secret police who were both breathing down her neck again.

"Twelve hours, fifty-nine minutes and forty two seconds. On the dot." Erza thought, not feeling the need to double check with her wristwatch.

All of her agents always looked to her as if she were almighty, like she had no pressure or oversight, but the "Garden" was just a name of her organization, its true nature could be encased in three words...Eastailian Secret Intelligence.

Another lie, another mask and another day. Erza's preaching as the Gardner to her agents of their goal to bring peace was also buried under the gapping fact that they were funded and hence under the direct oversight of the Eastalian Government. The strife for peace and ambition for neutrality was a conspiracy and a secret mission withing the Garden and did not leak into Westania or Eastails. No matter the cost. Otherwise...They would lose it all. It would be all over, that just for her, not just for her agents...But the whole world. Westania and Eastails would stop at nothing to annihilate each other, and all the innocents withing their borders.

Erza felt her jaw set. Here her agents were, risking their lives every day only to have all their hard work trampled on by a game of ego between politicians. She turned over the second page of the memo, saw how much longer it went on, and gave it up as a bad job. The message was not lost on her. We need results. And fast.

Just then, a sharp noise pierced through her trance. Heated from her thoughts, Erza found the courage to get up from her chair, which had become oh so overly warm and comfortable from her own body heat.