Chapter 15: Black Roses
John Peter
As he falls back to sleep, he falls into dreams.
John walks the mysterious dark cavern, his heart races as he heard footsteps from behind his back.
"Hello? Is anyone there?" He called. No one answered back. He continued walking, snooping around and lending his ears to the sounds of the dripping blobs of water from the ceiling of the cavern.
Two shadows appeared in his sight. One of an average standing man, wearing a cloak and the other is a small old woman.
"Who are there?" John moved forward. The shadows didn't move from where they stood. He finally reached their places.
"I am happy to see you, welcome home." A deep voice from the man began.
"Home?" He thought curiously.
"You've grown into such a fine young man." The old woman added. Their voices were familiar to him.
"We're glad to see you here."
"Father? Grandma?" John called back.
"Am I dead?" He added.
"Of course you are not." His Grandma replied.
"I'm glad you found the way to Barnania. . .help it out. Undo the twisting before everything gets all messed up."
"Don't put such a heavy burden to your son's shoulder, Chronotaurus." His Grandma scolded.
"I'm not pushing him hard, that's why I brought him company."
"Company? Who are you talking about?" John asked, his voice started to get shaky.
"The Crimson Witch, the Writer, the Necromancer, the Residual of the Babe, Welcon and the Demon Marcus?"
"What?!"
"Wake the red witch whom heart thy put asleep
Awake the demon who's slumbering deep
Find the pen, ergo the Writer can write
Mess with the mess and set everything right,"
"A riddle?" He asked as the riddle vibrated inside his head again and again. The shadows thinned and disappeared.
"Good luck" were the last words he heard from them.
He opened his eyes and witnessed the creeping of the sunlight inside the room. He sat on the mattress, thinking deep. The persons on the bed beside his bed were still asleep.
"Is this really Barnania? It looks differently odd from what I imagined." He hissed in the air.
"Barnania, you say?" The spiky blonde boy yawned which shocked him. Well, he really was used to morning surprises occasionally brought to him by his twin brother. The very same scenario is bringing him a sad memory. A nostalgia that made him missed his brother.
He sighed before saying: "You pulled my soul out of my body."
"Eh?" The boy replied, moving out from the mattress where he was lying into.
The blonde boy shook the black haired girl who's still deeply asleep. She opened her slanted eyes and wiped the edge of her mouth.
"What happened?" The girl asked.
"I have no freaking idea." The blonde boy replied. His grumpy expression is kinda creepy. He is tall and lean and white in complexion, he wore a black tee-shirt and black jeans.
The girl stared at him.
"You were the boy in my dream."
She continued scanning him.
"You were the boy inside the cavern whom the man told the prophecy with."
"How do you know that?" John asked shocked.
"I dunno. I see things lately and I can predict what is to happen. This feels like bullshit!"
"Excuse me?" The blonde boy interrupted.
"Who are you?" The blonde boy asked, his black eyes look serene.
"I'm John Peter of the West."
"Is that your full name? Like "of the west" is your last name?"
"Last name?"
"Yeah, I'm Maricar Stein and Stein is my last name."
"Is that so?"
"You're a weird dude."
"And who are you?" John asked the blonde boy.
"I'm. . ."
"He's Walter Rey Lawrence Dan of the Unenlightened, the Writer." A woman's voice bombarded cutting what was the boy was saying.
"Don't you say my full name ever again!"
"Fatima?! Appearing out of nowhere? You scum cat!" Walter screamed angrily as he stands up straight.
A beautiful woman with a pair of tantalizing eyes, red lips and a sleek long black hair stood beside the bed next to Maricar. She wore a white cloak, with an emblem of an eight-rayed sun knitted into the colors of blue threads.
"I apologize for spilling your full secretive name and for suddenly appearing and disappearing, Walter."
"Nevermind." He turned to face her and fixed his spiky hair.
A thumping of footsteps broke the tension in the air.
"You're all now awaken. I'm Arthur and welcome to Haven Cabin in Barnania." His spunky voice began. He smiled sheepishly and looked at the different expressions on the faces of the persons around. He wore a white robe and he holds a tray of baked cookies in his hands.
He moved inside and brought the tray on Walter's now unoccupied mattress.
"Want to dig. . ."
Walter had now helped himself and devoured two cookies at a time. Maricar grabbed two also and started eating.
"in." Arthur finished, smiling meekly and offers the tray to John. John got two and ate, the cookies tasted good unlike the last cookies he ate which were hard as rocks.
"Don't we have a decent meal?" Walter demanded and got another two.
"Of course you have, I just got here to check on you. Especially her." He pointed at the sleeping auburn-haired gal who sleeps beside John's bed.
"Who is she?" Walter asked curiously as he bites another cookie.
"She was the one who knocked us out," Maricar replied as she brushed the chunks of cookie from her maroon shirt.
"She's dying." Fatima blurted out morbidly.
John can hear the shallow breathing of the dying gal.
"Will she be alright?" He asked worriedly.
"She won't," Fatima replied quickly, making everyone to look at her in disbelief.
"She will." Arthur opposed.
"I'm certain of it."
"So am I." Arthur strongly rebutted.
"How certain are you that she'll live? She got at least a day to survive." Fatima questioned.
Arthur just smiled and calmly replied.
"She won't die if you get her a treatment."
"How would you possibly heal a cursed heart?"
"The black rose." Arthur clenched his hand and opened it, his palm showed a holographic image of a black rose, it looked so real as he twisted it on his hand.
"There's no such plant existed."
"There is, at. . .I'm not sure where, but I guess there are black roses in a secluded area in. . .to be sure, if you do basic research into the black roses, they apparently grow only in a village in southeastern Turkey, it might seem promising." Walter quizzed. John, Arthur, and Fatima looked at him with puzzled expressions.
"What?"
They looked away quickly and Walter continued nibbling on his cookies.
"There are lots of black roses in the west past the River of Cimmerian."
"Chim-merean?" Walter asked, his mouth full of chewed cookies.
The people in the room turned their heads on him.
"It's sə-ˈmir-ē-ən," Arthur pronounced.
"Of course I know how it is pronounced," Walter wiped his mouth and enunciates the word slowly.
"sə-ˈmir-ē-ən, meaning very dark and gloomy."
"Yes. So, the four of you will get some black roses in this place and we'll heal this gal."
"No!" Both Maricar and Walter raised their voices.
"We're not helping that woman who brought us here, she even knocked me out. I want to go home." Maricar spatted glumly.
"Yes, we won't. If it means crossing another body of water and meeting disgusting creatures, hell way, no way!" Walter grumbled.
"If this girl dies, all of you would be trapped in here, no more home to go back to." Arthur threatened and smirked awkwardly. His pimply face crimps.
"She wasn't the one who brought us here." Fatima interrupted and glared at John accusingly.
"It was not me. . ." John stammered.
"It was the locket, it's in my. . ."
He looked at his neck and found out the golden locket of Chronotaurus was gone.
"Where is it?" His expression deepened into a glum.
"No other choice but to make this gal the vessel to go back to where you came from." Arthur paced, bent and grabbed the empty tray and walked his way out.
"Think deep for I'll prepare a breakfast for y'all." He waved his free hand goodbye and sashayed out.
"We need to fulfill the omen I sought." Maricar stands and looks at them one by one.
"Omen?" Walter sat on the verge of the mattress uncomfortably as he occasionally gulped his saliva.
"It's about the riddle my father had told me," John paced in his bed and look at them. Fatima stood behind Walter's back while Maricar stood in front of Walter who sat uncomfortably at the mattress.
"Wake the red witch whom heart thy put asleep
Awake the demon who's slumbering deep
Find the pen, ergo the Writer can write
Mess with the mess and set everything right," John stated the riddle as it vibrated in his head, he wasn't yet at ease thinking that it was his fault that these people were brought with him in the foreign land which filled with secrets, he looks at the lying gal who heaves in her sleep.
"That's not my version," Maricar announced.
John looked at her, his mind grows fuzzier.
"Heed the voice who speaks of deaths
Wake the witch who barely breathes,
Roam the land of unknown myths
And sail the sea to the wreaths
The demon is not to trust
Do not crumble up the past
Failing the twist is a must
Mess with mess 'til the tales rust,"
"I didn't remember my father telling me that in my dream?"
"But that's what I heard from what I saw."
"Now what?!" Walter interjected.
"What a hassle." He frowned and lied on the bed.
"We'll follow what the Babe had said," Fatima muttered.