The War General

37

Rose sits across from me in the library, the small amount of light provided very little visibility for us to see each other. Yet that doesn't matter, I've gotten better with my aim. I didn't need light to put a bullet between her eyes.

I can only make out her face and shivering form as she hunches over using the towel I gave her to help warm her up. Her feet are caked in mud and the bags under her eyes look painfully swollen. The wound on her forehead is still bleeding and staining the floors a crimson red. I don't care because I needed answers, answers that would decide if she lived or died.

Her being here could be a set up or she could have actually came here to seek shelter. Knowing Rose I wasn't going to put it past her to make a move to get me sent back to Unity. Just like Margie and Richard she was a power hungry bitch but little did she know how much her little sister has changed over the year.

My gun rests on my thigh, my finger on the trigger as I watched her look around taking in her surroundings. "This place hasn't changed much at all." She says, voice shaky.

She sniffles a little and glances up at me, our eyes meet but the only response I can give her is a blink.

"I didn't think there'd be anyone here, this place has been abandoned for years." She tries again only she is met by silence.

She sigh her head dropping low in what I am to assume is shame? Rose? Shame? I never thought in a million years that I would be using Rose and shame in the same sentence. "W-will you please talk to me?"

"What do you want me to say Rose? Last time we saw each other you threatened to have me killed." I spit out angrily. Hearing her voice was starting to piss me off and my finger was twitching to pull back, I almost felt trigger happy.

Once again her eyes lower and I swear a see a few tears trickle down her cheeks. "I wasn't going to do it, it was all a lie." She whispers.

"A lie?" I laugh as if she had told me that most funniest joke in the world. "Who the fuck lies about wanting to kill their sister because she may or may not get crowned Rose? Tell me because I'm just itching to know?"

Rose sniffles a bit, it's a mix between a oncoming cold and sadness. "I didn't mean it... I just-"

"You're just what? You're just a cold hearted bitch that had a lot to lose?"

"No." She whispers.

"Really? Or was it that you just couldn't help yourself because you've been harboring some unknown hatred for me for years."

"No."

"Then what Rose I'd love to fucking know how my big sister had easily turned her back on me without even blinking an eye."

"No! No! No!" She cries out, "whatever you had gotten yourself into I didn't want to get caught up in the aftermath as fucked up as that may sound. The King and Prince Anthony had been breathing down my neck asking me if I had any idea of what you had been doing. Of course I didn't but they didn't believe me and started accusing me of all these horrible things. I was just so upset because my life was exactly where I wanted it to be and now I felt like it was all being snatched out right from under me. I didn't even believe it at first and then when Prince Anthony felt like his people were going to revolt he started hitting me."

Rose looks up at me a fresh set of tears flowing down her puffy cheeks. She cups her large swollen belly delicately. I had no idea how I didn't notice it before and maybe it was because seeing her brought out a ugly anger in me that made me see nothing but her face underneath the foot of my boot. "I had to do something to protect myself. I had no choice but to make it seem like I wanted nothing to do with you."