A Rose’s Secret

Aya

by Aya

Story

Raven stirred around in her bed all night. No matter how hard she tried to stop thinking about it, she couldn’t. She couldn’t stop thinking about the tall rose field outside her bedroom window. Raven had been raised strangely. Her parents were very protective. They never showed much affection to her. She was never allowed to leave outside her home. The only time she was allowed to leave her home was on Sundays in the springtime and summer. She loved using the swing and laughing at the silly shapes in the clouds. But what the girl loved most were flowers, especially roses. Her parents had hundreds, perhaps thousands of tall roses behind their home. To a small girl like Raven, they were a massive maze. Her parents never let her go near the roses. Raven heard her parents talking often about something in the center of the roses. Something they had hidden from everyone.Whenever she asked them what was in the rose field, they would tell her it was a secret. The little girl was curious. She always stared at the field, wondering what that secret thing was.

A few years later, the girl had had enough. She wanted to go out and do all the things girls her age were doing. She wanted to go shopping at the mall, she wanted friends, and she wanted to try all the different food she had seen on TV. But the thing she wanted to do most was find out what was in the center of the tall rose field. Raven’s luck seemed to take a turn for the better when, suddenly, her parents needed to leave at once. They told her they were going to a work event and gave her specific instructionsā€¦ ā€œIf you hear anyone who’s not us, hide in the room in the basement, hide in there and do not let them find you.ā€ Those were her mother’s exact words. Finally, they left. Of course, the girl wasted no time going outside. As she stepped onto the porch, she felt the cool air fall on her skin. As she was walking around the house, she noticed the rose field. She thought about it, she knew she would get in trouble. Closing her eyes and taking a deep breath, Raven stepped inside the rose field. She opened her eyes and took another step, onto a path. The fragrance of roses was clear as ever. It smelled like heaven.

Raven was walking on the path for what felt like forever. Suddenly, the path stopped at the center of the rose field. She looked down at an empty patch of dirt. She knew her parents would be home soon. She dug the patch up with her bare hands, only to find a black box. She took the box out and opened it. Inside the box was a notebook, a picture of a little girl around the age of two with an old newspaper article. On the side was a more recent article. Raven glanced at the journal opening it, on the pages were scribbles, clearly made by a child. She picked up the old newspaper. It was about a missing child and a sad story about a couple searching for the girl for years. She moved to the more recent article. Her father must have read it and placed it there. Raven read the headline, her heart dropped .it readā€¦ā€˜The Raven Hart Caseā€™.

Ā© Aya 2023-02-08

Hashtags