A Twisted Rose

Chapter Five-Tom.

There they stood, in the rain, holding each other in silence. Gethin chuckled. Victoria was rather perplexed; she had thought it were a dramatic, romantic moment, not a humorous one. But then he pointed to the sky, and she understood. In the vast night sky, only two stars were visible- and they were close together. “That’s us.” He said. Victoria smiled. The frightening discovery of the rose and her fury at Gethin seemed to be in the distant past. Then Gethin noticed Victoria was shivering- it was, after all, a chilly November evening, and she was wearing only pyjamas- so ordered her(jokily, of course) to go back to her bed.

The next two weeks were two of the best Victoria had experienced. December began(Gethin added a large black overcoat to his usual attire) and with it came Christmas spirit in Victoria’s house. Adam had made two new friends at school and asked Victoria to go shopping with him to pick out Christmas presents for them. After a trip to the local shopping centre- in which Adam point blank refused to visit “Santa’s Grotto”- they had a DVD for one boy and two posters for the other. Adam was pleased. Prior to the rose, Gethin had insisted the stalker had given up on Victoria; perhaps to pursue another. But he was now forced to admit they still had quite a problem.

At school, Victoria breezed through lessons, not really listening. Her mind was never there, in the chilly classrooms- it was two miles away, in a certain little purple detective’s office. She did not sit alone at break and lunchtimes. She had recently befriended a boy in her year, who’s name was Tom. He had approached her a few weeks ago and now they were good friends. Tom was chatty, clever and kind. When they were together they discussed classes, people in their year, what they had done at the weekend.. Tom was the only person in school to know about Gethin. Of course, at first he was a little disapproving of Gethin’s being seven years her senior. But, one day, after school, that feeling disappeared. That day, Victoria and Tom had been streaming out of school at the end of the day with the rest of the school, rather like fish swimming downstream. Then, blinking to assure herself she wasn’t dreaming, she saw Gethin, leaning casually against the railings. And Gethin was not wearing his typical black suit, but baggy dark jeans, a fitted white t-shirt, and most surprisingly of all, a leather jacket. He smirked at her, raising his eyebrows-or should I say, eyebrow- and shrugging. Victoria laughed in spite of herself. Then she heard Tom’s voice beside her. “Is that Gethin, Vicky? Man.. he’s cool.” His voice was admiring. Victoria very much agreed with Tom. She rushed up to Gethin and, in an unusually public display of affection, embraced him tightly. She then drew back and introduced Tom, who was in awe of this intriguing stranger. Gethin and Tom regarded each other as friends after that, and Tom often went places with Gethin and Victoria. He added liveliness to the group. Victoria was very happy.

But she knew this ecstasy would be short-lived. She knew that danger, pain and darkness were all to come in more than healthy doses. She knew she would one day-and one day soon- have to tell Gethin of her terrifying, horrific secret. But she held back and held back. For him, in this case, ignorance was bliss. She told herself she would tell him soon enough. But, as it turned out, she did not tell him of her secret until the very night, mid-December, when it burst into the open, when it was unleashed unavoidably into the World.