Once there was a beautiful princess. Her name was Laura and she had shiny, wavy orange hair, pale, sculpted skin and bright and happy blue eyes. She was fair and pleasant. Anyone she met loved her. Including a prince from another kingdom. They got married.










But there is no such thing as ‘Happily and ever after.’







Another beautiful woman, not royal, loved the king. She was a servent. She loved his curly black hair, his serious yet solemn green gaze and his slightly tan features. She confessed her feeling to him one day.





He demanded that she be banished by dawn. She was escorted by the harsh king’s soldiers to the Black Woods, a heavy forest known to be cursed by a so-called ‘innocent’ prisoner who was hung. The man lurked in the woods. He ate the souls of the guilty. He tortured and taunted the soul of the innocents.







The demon, however, fell in love with the blonde servant girl, her brown eyes seducing him into sparing her life. So, instead, he taught her his hates and confessed his guilt. She rejected his ways. But, eventually, a hate that had burrowed in her ever since she was banished took over. How could he? I loved him! And he so quickly rejected me with a flick of his wrist.....





She became consumed by her new-found hatred. She began to try to call to the demon. Delighted, he taught her how to summon more demons, how to cast spells, how to be a witch. She was happily insane with her new evil, sadistic magic. She called forth the Fires of H*ll and burned down the kingdom in her fiery and hateful will.





What the witch hadn’t known was that to fully achieve this power (she did not possess the power to create such a huge fire) was to sell her soul to H*ll.






The shadows took her body and left her ghost behind.






She decided to make roses. Beautiful, deep red roses with dark green stems, thornless. Except anyone who said certain words would die a fiery death, as she had.









Katy’s mom had let her go out, ‘Only for half an hour!’ she’d said. Katy took her friend Seth, Paula and Jane to the forest. Her older sister, Tonya, had said it was haunted by devil worshippers. She knew she had just said that to scare her, so she went anyway. Then leaped down to the hillside and into the full forest. No sunlight could penetrate its thickness.





They carefully climbed down its steep side. They could barely contain their excitement. They then saw a thick bush of roses. Paula jumped up to it in delight.





“Wait!!!!!” Katy shrieked just as Paula reached for one.





Paula froze.





“My mom said that roses have thorn,” she whispered.





Everyone began to murmur, wondering if they should touch them.Something about the seemed to addictively seductive, as if they whispering for them to rip their stems and play with them.





“Let’s risk it!” Seth said happily. They all cheered, agreeing. They each grabbed two and held each other’s hands, making a perfect little circle.




“RING AROUND THE ROSIE!!!” Paula shrieked. They all cheered. Seth and Jane cheered too. Seth didn’t mind playing girl games, as long as they could play tag right after.




They all began to spin, and spin, and spin.








“RING AROUND THE ROSIE,”




Their fingertips began to burn.










“POCKETS FULL OF POSIE,”





The rush! How powerful! Katy’s world was a blur, all she could see was her friend’s happy faces. She didn’t feel her hands turning to ashes around the roses.








“ASHES! ASHES!”





She began to feel her chest burn. She finally glanced at her arms. They were ashes, ashes, ashes.






“WE ALL FALL DOWN!”






They kids all disappeared. Dust covered the grass thickly. A blonde girl walked from one of the roses, examining their glittering and flickering souls dance. She smiled, picked them up, and blew them away.