¤ Three ¤ Roses ¤

[Noble Elf Lord]

Just a little story I made up wen I woke up. It just popped into my mind. Please comment. (Warning: contains some violence.) Corrections on my English are welcome. If there is anything to correct...


Three Roses ¤ ¤ ¤

The spring was coming. There were only small patches of snow left. Charlotte had but a fair month of school to do. She was driving home, and although it wasn't raining the weather was rather dull. This slightly depressed her, her being a summer-and-sun- fan. Indeed, her favorite band was Summer of Sunny Days. Her face brightened everytime she heard their greatest hit, "Three Roses".

She turned on the radio, just in time to hear the chorus of the "Three Roses". ..."Three roses for you, my love/fresh as rain/I'll send 'em by a dove/let them ease the pain/of our distance".... "Of our distance..." Charlotte sang along.

It was an hour and a half till she got home, which was a quiant little house situated near the sub-urban area. In five minutes one could walk from there to the local store, yet the building was well hidden behind the trees. Charlotte threw herself and her schoolbag on the only bed in the house. There was the tiniest cloud of dust as she did so, because for the last four days she had slept at her friends' places, for funnily enough, they had birthdays on 4th, 6th and 7th days of May. Naturally they wanted to make it a continious celebration.

After she had finished her essay on the title "Global warming- hot topic or cold lie?", she cooked herself a big helping of spaghetti bolognese. While she was eating, the door bell rang. She opened the door, and there stood a man holding a bunch of flowers. No, thought Charlotte, not a bunch - three. Three roses. " A delivery for... Miss Current?" "I am", replied flabbergasted Charlotte. "Sign here. You have an admirer." "Me?" She giggled nervously. When the delivery man had gone, Char smelled the flowers. The scent was sweet. After a little searching, they had found a place in a pink vase.

Charlotte was shopping with her friends; Emily, Norah and Mary had spent yesterday in a quiet convalescence of the partying. "So you got roses?" asked Norah, her ebony skin seemed to emit an aura of joy. "Tell us more", pleaded Emily. She was a drama queen, to the point of being somewhat too curious about other peoples business. Norah was mischievous but had a very warm heart, whereas Mary was the badass of this group; quite the opposite of Norah, she had a pale skin, serious - some would say cold - nature, and if you ever heard her laugh, it was a sarcastic, bitter laughter. Regardless, she liked these girls, and albeit she would sometimes drink like others, she was generally the rational part of the group. Or as Norah called her:"Killjoy." Charlotte was "Summergirl", Emily "Drama Queen", and Norah called herself "The Life and Soul of this lil pack."

"Yes, roses, so? The card said `a secret admirer`". "But isn't that exciting? In due time, he will reveal who he is", said Emily. "Or she", grinned Norah. Summergirl and Killjoy rolled their eyes in opposite directions. "TLS, I daresay it's a he." "Ugh, two more weeks of school, and then... summer!" muttered Mary. "The summer of love for Summergirl by the looks of it." "Honestly, Norah, drop it already. My, 17:30? Gotta go. Bye!" "Bye!" "See ya!" "Hopefully." "Love you too, Mary." Mary stuck out her tongue.

Again on next Friday, Char got 3 roses. Next Thursday she saw Matt, the football player, draw three flowers on his notebook. Ohmygodohmygodohmygod, she thought. Him? Matt noticed her and smiled. She could do nothing but blush and smile back, blush more and leave the scene.

There were no roses for Charlotte on the last Friday. On Saturday, when the school had ended, and everyone would be going their own ways, there was much crying, blessed sorrow, and goodbyes. Girls hugging, boys shaking hands. Charlotte saw Matt coming towards her. Blushing more than ever, she tried to look the other way, but couldn't help her self from stealing glances as he came. "Hiya." "Hi." "You must have guessed by now that... erm.. the roses were from me." "Yes." Awkward silence. "Well... care to go out with me tonight?" Charlotte knew she was redder than her dress. "Um... OK..." "Great. How about we go see a movie, then eat in the `Sushi Palace`?" She giggled. "Sounds good."

The date was a success. When Char got home, she made a violent but silent "YES!" pose. During that summer she had many more dates, and while they grew fewer during the months, the quality didn't wane. First kiss occurred on the 3rd date. Matt took her shooting on their 10th date.

She wanted to try the hand guns. Matt had a custom gun called "Three Brothers". It shot three bullets at once, so aiming was a challenge. Char soon became rather adept a shooter with twin hand guns. "No skill is ever wasted. If you decide to get a license and a gun, it's good for your self defence", said Matt. "I wasn't going to shoot anyone as the first thing after I'd get a gun, you know". "I know. That's exactly why you could be allowed a license."

After that meeting, their dates grew even fewer. Summergirl felt a little sorry for this, so she decided to have a present made for him: custom bullets. She was wondering whether she would have something written in them, or pictures. She decided to give them on the last day of summer, so as he would think of her while she was in school. Charlotte had been accepted to the Biology Department of an appreciated university.

A week before she would go to the university, she had the first set of custom bullets sent to her, as well as her license and weapon, sister to Matt's gun:Hydra, with three pipes. She wrapped the bullets in a yellow paper, full of smilies. When she was walking to Matt's place she heard two voices. "Where's that little fool of yours?" "Oh, propably daydreaming. You can't believe how easy it has been to cheat her." Charlotte grew rather white on the face. Surely it wasn't...? She jumped behind some bushes when Matt and some snobbish- looking girl went by, kissing and caressing. First there was nothing but shock, but then, grim hatred filled Charlotte.

On the last day of summer Matt was home reading. He heard the doorbell. It was Charlotte. "Hi!" "Hiya, honey." They went in. "I see you got your license", Matt said, pointing at the Hydra. "Yes, and I have a present for you. Custom bullets, just for...you." She gave him the box. "Thanks, dear." "No." "Excuse me?" "That's not the whole present yet." "Oh? Hey!" Shouted Matt as she aimed the Hydra at him. "Three roses for sir", she said in a shaky voice. A gunshot. Matt fell. "Returned to the sender", said Charlotte, and fainted.

Later, when it was confirmed in the autopsy that Matt Field had been murdered, by shooting, and the bullets were cleaned and archived, a police officer noticed that there was an ornately carved, blood-red rose in each of the three bullets. ¤ ¤ ¤



Ah well. Please tell me what you think.

[Mari]

I like the story. Bit grim in the end, but well-told.
I am however wondering if you aren't trying to pack too much information in the part about her friends. You are briefly describing the people and their characters by giving them nicknames, but by using those nicknames within the story (i.e. by having them call eachother by those names) you make it a bit busy.
Of course that is just my opinion

For the rest okay.
I did wonder where you got the name "Hydra" for the gun though? "The Three brothers" is easy enough to guess. And why did she get herself a trigun while you stated before that she got adept at firing two normal handguns?

[Tessar]

Very interesting! It felt a little choppy overall, but I think you have the basis for a very interesting short story if you choose to expand it further. The ending is great, IMO .

[Noble Elf Lord]

Originally Posted by Mari

I like the story. Bit grim in the end, but well-told.
I am however wondering if you aren't trying to pack too much information in the part about her friends. You are briefly describing the people and their characters by giving them nicknames, but by using those nicknames within the story (i.e. by having them call eachother by those names) you make it a bit busy.
Of course that is just my opinion

For the rest okay.
I did wonder where you got the name "Hydra" for the gun though? "The Three brothers" is easy enough to guess. And why did she get herself a trigun while you stated before that she got adept at firing two normal handguns?

If the story had had a happy ending, it woulda been a fairytale.

And the reason why she got herself a trigun, was that: a) she wanted a gun similar to her "boyfriend", and b) she wanted a challenge.

Tessar, what do you mean by choppy? Just asking 'cause I don't know the word.

Anyways, thanks for comments. I may well make more of these.

[Morwen]

I like the three roses/three bullets parallel. It works really well. Really chilling and interesting...I like it a lot!