Black Roses & Blood Thorns

Chapter One

"Does this place even have electricity?" I asked moving further into the house, noting the absence of any kind of lighting.

"It's a fixer-upper, I'll call the electrician tomorrow and see the soonest he can get out here."

"Okay, so no electricity, what about running water?" I asked a moment later, my mother let out a hmm sound from behind me, I glanced over my shoulder raising an eyebrow at her, "There isn't any running water either?" I asked disbelief coloring my tone, she sighed.

"They are going to come and get the water running tomorrow, I told you when we came here, that not everything was going to be perfect at the beginning." I snorted at her reply; so far there has been no electricity, no running water, and a house that appeared uninhabitable, perfect.

"How much did you pay for this place again?" I asked, turning around.

"That doesn't matter; can you at least give this place a chance before you decide to dislike it?" My mother's smile had vanished and there was a look of disappointment in her eyes, guilt began to gnaw at the pit of my stomach, I instantly regretted asking the question.

"I'm going to get the rest of the boxes in the car; you can go choose what bedroom you want upstairs." She turned on her heel and left, I stared after her cursing at myself silently.

I looked down at Sam, who had laid down; resting his head on his front paws, "Come on boy," I called carrying my bags towards the stairs. Sam followed behind me, his claws clicking against the wooden floorboards; he went up the stairs ahead of me, curious as to what was at the top.

The top of the stairs led to a long hallway, down it there were three rooms, and at the end of the hall, there was a door. I walked down the hallway, looking into each room, all the rooms were large, bigger than my old room back in the city had been, where we had rented a small studio. I reached the door at the end of the hall, I turned the knob and pushed in, and it didn't budge. I attempted to jiggle the knob, still, it didn't open, it was locked from the other side.

Before I could wonder what was on the other side of the door, I heard a thud downstairs followed by a loud curse from my mother; I dropped my bags off in the room closest to me and went back downstairs.

Downstairs I found my mother kneeling by a box of old books, specifically a box of my father's old books, she had dropped the box, and the books had all fallen out across the floor.

"I thought you got rid of these?" I asked her picking up one of the books. It was leather-bound and the complete works of W.B. Yeats.

"That was the plan, but I couldn't bring myself to yet." I ran my finger over the worn, dog-eared pages of the book, before I set it in the box, "It would have broken your father's heart to have seen me get rid of these, and you know how he loved his books." She said I helped her gather the rest of the books in silence, setting them all back in the box.

"The moving truck will get here on Thursday with the rest of our things; I thought maybe we could run into town after we unload the car and grab some stuff we need to get by," she said picking the box of books up.

"Okay-" I was cut off by the sound of someone knocking on the door, my mother and I both looked at each other in surprise. She hurried to answer the door, while I followed behind her.

"Hello," My mother said answering the door warmly, I hung back out of sight, watching and listening.

"Hi, I'm Lissa and this is my brother Flint, I thought we might come and introduce ourselves and all, considering you are our new neighbors." The girl's voice sounded bright and cheery.

My mother motioned for me to come forward, as she spoke "Well it is nice to meet you both, I'm Rachel and this is my daughter Rose."

The girl appeared to be my age, she had straw blonde hair, and bright warm blue eyes, while her brother was the complete opposite, he was tall dark and brooding, standing behind her, she appeared bright and cheery like the sun, while he was a dark storm cloud hovering behind her.

"Hi," I said giving them a small wave, the girl Lissa turned her bright gaze to me.

"If you ever want a tour of the town, or need anything let us know," Lissa said, she glanced up at Flint, who was standing there with his hands shoved into the pockets of his black jeans, then back at us, "We'd be more than happy to help in any way."

"Thanks, we'll keep that in mind." My mother said, a smile still on her face, I crossed my arms looking down at my converses.

"Well, we should be going, we just wanted to come and introduce ourselves," Lissa said turning around; I watched them go down the steps.

"It was nice to meet the both of you!" My mother called out as they got into a black Chevy, Lissa waved goodbye from the passenger seat. My mother closed the door as they turned around, pulling out of the driveway.

"You should take them up on the offer," My mother commented looking at me, I raised an eyebrow.

"No, now why would I do that?" I asked her incredulously.

"Because they looked about your age, and you could make some new friends here, it would be good for you."

"Seriously, trying to help me make friends again Mom, I thought we tried this one other time and it didn't work?" She sighed shaking her head at my response, I shrugged my shoulders, I didn't know how else she had expected me to respond.

"Rose it would be good for you," She responded, I scoffed.

"No Mom, it wouldn't be." I moved past her going out the door to the car, I could feel her eyes on my back as I grabbed another box out.

"Rose, you're going to have to let someone in sooner or later."