The Rose Noire

When you have a nightmare, appreciate the fact that what you just experienced only existed in the realms of your psyche and everything that happened, no matter how real it felt, no matter how much you felt, did not actually happen. Be grateful even if you felt like you were going to die that you... didn’t. Be grateful that you aren’t currently in an everlasting cycle of monotonous torture where every second lasts a lifetime and the obsessive ticking counts the remaining seconds left in your mundane mortal life.

Be grateful that you’re not Jaxon.

Jaxon sat quietly and obediently in his chair that he felt must have been shrinking at this point, or perhaps he was getting bigger, while he listened to the everlasting drawl of his teacher Dr. Deluca and wished he could be anywhere but there.

Shifting in his chair slightly, he slowly tried to reach for his phone, as this was banned contraband in Dr. Deluca’s eyes. He tried to slip his hand into his pocket and prayed that he remembered to turn off his volume. Slowly but surely, he inched it along, attempting to pull out the rather large phone from the contents of his pocket. After a few more pain-driven minutes of hard effort, he was finally successful, only to look at his phone in vain. He had no new messages.

He only had two regular correspondents, but, nevertheless, Jaxon was slightly crestfallen that neither of his two friends felt like it was worth the effort of giving him any more details of the “wonderful” night that was planned for them. Since Jaxon hated parties, his attendance would only be necessary because it was his best friend Dylan who had orchestrated it in his honor. Well, kind of in his honor, as it was a back to school party, and his birthday just so happened to be at the beginning of the week.

Nervous at the thought of being around so many people in an enclosed space, as he so often felt in most situations where he found himself regarding large gatherings, he began clicking his pen. Macey turned her head slightly so that Dr. Deluca would not notice her.

“If you click that pen one more time I will shove it up your nose,” she whispered loudly.

Jaxon abruptly stopped, but he wondered dully why she even bothered to whisper at all. Dr. Deluca was an old man whose hearing must have left him decades ago, but he still wished to refer to himself as a ‘younger man,’ and trading in a hearing aid that he desperately needed for a toupee did not quite fit him. “Jaxon why did you stop clicking your pen? It was music to my ears.”

This came from a boy whom Jaxon referred to as his best friend. While not as tall as Jaxon, his friend was already very muscular and had a prominent jawline. Jaxon must have looked like his younger brother as his face resembled that of a ten-year-old. “Shouldn’t you be devouring a baby puppy?” Jaxon’s friend questioned loudly so now everyone in the class, with the exception of Dr. Deluca, was now listening with bated breath. Macey’s face became redder than her hair as she struggled to think of a suitable comeback. Smiling, the boy teased, “I mean, that’s what harpies do, right? Steal little baby animals and feast on their cute baby flesh. And look at you trying to feast on everyone’s favorite puppy.”

“No... I just wanted-“, then the bell rang.

“Hey, thanks.” This came out almost as a whisper from Jaxon as he could feel his face to begin to get hot.

“Don’t mention it!” Derek slapped Jaxon’s back, “what are friends for? Hey, are you still going to Dylan’s party? It’s supposed to be crazy! It’s a great way to end a great first week back!”

The best thing about being friends with someone like Derek was that Jaxon never had to do any of the talking in their conversations as Derek would ramble on with whatever new thing he was pursuing in life.

And today was no different walking to 4th-period Biology, and, though Watauga High School was a small school and only had about 1,300 students, Derek was particularly interested in his new career of becoming a personal trainer. Last week was he wanted to be an actuary.

“Hey, Derek” this came from a rather tall girl with blonde Dutch braid in a group of rather mean looking girls in Jaxon’s opinion as each of the girls in the group did not make an effort to cease their giggles as each of them, in turn, looked back at Derek as they passed him.

“What’s up big D?” Someone Jaxon knew being on the football team. Walking to class seemed more like walking on the red carpet in a movie premiere. Without looking, Jaxon could feel him bumping into something... or someone, he should say.

“Sorry,”

He said, turning his head to look where the thing he bumped into was - until he looked down. A rather short girl with her dirty blonde hair in a braid had all her books on the floor. Jaxon, his face turning very red, almost fell to the floor to pick up the books he must have knocked out of her hands.

“Need any help, Jay?”

Derek stood waiting for him to catch up as the bell rang,

“No you go on; I got this.”

Derek looked like he was going to protest but did not want to be late on his first week of school, so he turned on his heels and walked away.

“I’m sorry.” Jaxon did not want to look at the girl who he, most likely, ruined the day of. He handed her books back to her.

“No, I shouldn’t be walking so close to...-” she trailed off, almost like she was lost in thought.

But Jaxon got it; she wanted to see Derek. Perfect, pretty boy Derek. Looking up, he was surprised to see her eyes - large, perhaps due to the glasses she was wearing, and stark-grey. They almost seemed to see through him like she was looking into his soul and not his face. Though she had acne, it was obvious that she was still very pretty. Jaxon could feel himself lose his composure, as he still had the books in his hands and had not let go of them yet.

She awkwardly broke the silence, “Um. . . Thank you.” Jaxon was regaining where he was. He snapped back up to his full height where he stood almost a foot over her. “I’m sorry, here you go.” He thrust the books into her hand and took off into a run to go to class.

The rest of their day was not that exciting as 4th period melted to lunch, and lunch turned to 5th. Then 6th, and, finally, 7th period came and went. Jaxon didn’t drive as he was secretly afraid of driving. Though he did already have a license, he felt as if he never wanted to use it or own a car. Derek loved driving which was good for Jaxon as he got free rides from school and back.

“So, the party starts at 8; you should come!” Derek brought up as nonchalant as he possibly could while keeping focused on the road.

“You know I hate them. They are so loud, and all people do is get drunk and stuff,” Jaxon said, rather embarrassed.

“You know that isn’t true; it’s a great place for networking and making new friends. You should get out more and not stay locked up in your room all day. It’s unhealthy, you’re looking quite pale, and you only need to stay for an hour. If you don’t like it, that’s it after that. I will personally drive you back home, and I will never ask you to come to another party ever again. It won’t be like our freshman homecoming. I promise,” Derek said with confidence.

Jaxon did not want to think about that night ever again, and the very mentioning of that party gave him a mild heart attack. “Derek, shut up. You’re not allowed to talk about it again,” hissed Jaxon. The response? “Fine, but only because you have been driving me around for so long.”

At 7:45, Jaxon felt as if he had made the biggest mistake of his life. What would he wear? What would he say? Who would he even talk to other than Derek and Dylan? He did not have a large group of other friends that he could talk to whenever he wanted to. “This is stupid,” he thought out loud, “I have four other books to read and really shouldn’t be wasting time embarrassing myself in front of a large group of people.

" If it were not for Derek and his history, he would think that he was being set up. Looking at himself in his bathroom mirror, he looked as good as he thought he possibly could, though his clothes were rather short for him at this point. He felt a small vibration from his phone, a text from Derek. “I’m here, time to party, come outside now.” Smiling to himself, he thought, at least someone was excited.

Arriving at Dylan’s house, it looked almost bigger than he expected or remembered. “Gosh, I can’t believe his parents just left this place all alone, letting any kid or kids do what they want with the place,” Derek said while admiring the extravagant door, “looks like a lot of people too.” The two were already late.

“Fashionably late,” Derek said while waiting in traffic before they had arrived, “the lives of the party are always fashionably late. Well, here we go,” He said as he began knocking on the door with his large hand. They could hear the door unlocking as a loud burst of music filled the two’s faces. Not just music but light flashing in an array of neon colors - flashing so brightly and fast that he was surprised no one was having a seizure. On the contrary, it was evident that everyone was dancing.

A girl leaned against the door while the two stood looking into the house. “Well are you coming in or should I just close the door again?” she questioned. She seemed rather bored and annoyed. Jaxon did not recognize her as being a student at the school, but if she was, she looked most like a cheerleader with her angular hollow face and her thick black hair that was tied in a very messy bun on the top of her head. In the night, her face look flawless, like she had her make-up artist at all times, yet she did not look as if she had any on. Jaxon thought she did not need any, but he did not think eyelashes got that thick and curly. But none of that was what caught his attention with her; it was her eyes. They were a piercing blue like ice that could freeze anything they looked at with a singular glance which made her seem very intimidating and mean. . . But also gorgeous.

Derek must have been under her spell too, but he was able to recover much faster. “We are here because we got a call about a disturbance,” he said coolly.

She did not laugh and did not seem amused but tired and bored still. “Ha Ha,” as she opened the door. “I’m sure someone here will think you are cute.” She walked away. One of Jaxon’s biggest fears was getting rejected but to Derek:

“It’s just how the cookie crumbles!”

Twenty painful minutes passed as Jaxon got a quick look around of the party goers. It seemed like everyone from school was here except for Dylan. Jaxon sat on a rather large couch as he waited for 9 o’clock to come so he could return home. He sat holding a large red cup filled with a drink he hoped was red Kool-Aid while watching the rather large TV screen. Even while watching TV to speed up the time, it seemed to go as slow as it does in Dr. Deluca’s class. He thought if he closed his eyes time might speed up, a trick he does frequently in class, but that resulted in making him fall asleep.

With his eyes closed, he did not even notice that someone was sitting next to him. He only ended up noticing because she coughed rather on purpose more than on accident. It was the girl from the hallway, but Jaxon almost did not recognize her with her hair let down.

“I never got to thank you for helping me, so... Thank you,” she said rather fast, “I’m Alice... Alice Hart.” She held out her shaky hand.

She looked quite nervous which made Jaxon feel slightly better about his own anxiety and what had happened earlier that day. “Jaxon,” he responded rather feebly , taking her hand, which he held a little too long, but she smiled all the same.

“I’m glad you made a new girlfriend, I wish I could say I planned it for your birthday present!!” That sentence came from a overexcited voice, startling Jaxon making him knock his drink all over Alice, flustered and angry her looked up and noticed it was Dylan. He could feel his face getting hot. “Sorry!“Jaxon said apologizing profusely, while trying to look at Alice without making any eye contact. “I will try to find you a clean towel”.

Turning to Dylan “I don’t even know her,” he protested quietly as he let her hand go. Getting up, he went to go to the bathroom to get a towel .

“Hey, walk with me. I still haven’t given you your present yet!” Dylan gestured for Jaxon to follow him to the back of the house. Jaxon obeyed and followed him outside.

Dylan’s backyard was very large and even seemed to have a koi pond. Dylan closed the door to inside. He stood rather close for Jaxon’s comfort, putting a cold hand on his shoulder and looking fixedly at Jaxon’s rather exposed neck, moving closer to smell it.

“You look great and smell even better. Is that a new cologne? ” Dylan asked with a little too much enthusiasm. He was smiling a lot, and Jaxon could see flashes of his straight, white, sharp teeth.

“I’ve never met any guys who smelt as good as you, man! I mean, have you seen some of the girls in there? They look great but smell even better!” Dylan said, looking him over hungrily. “But you, my friend, are the bell of the ball!”

Why is he talking like this; why is he even out here right now? “What did you want to give me?” Jaxon questioned hesitantly, his eyes darting back and forth between Dylan and the door.

“I just wanted to give you this awesome new book I know you will love. It’s a book about vampires since I know you love the stuff! I mean, we both loved reading together as kids.” Dylan said like it was so obvious.

Jaxon considered this, but after a few moments, he realized that he never read with anyone as a kid. He would have kept it as a more quiet obsession since he would have been made fun of if he was caught reading a book. Plus, he hated anything about the supernatural.That’s impossible, he thought, we have been friends forever. But the more Jaxon thought about the two when they were younger, the less he remembered Dylan.

“What’s the matter man?! You know it’s rude not to accept a present even if you don’t want it!!” Dylan yelled as he stood there like a madman with no evidence of having a book in his possession.

Jaxon could see Dylan had his eyes set on him and could even see him begin to drool. Jaxon began to walk cautiously back to the door. Goosebumps began to cover his arm. He felt like his distance to the door was much farther than the walk out where the two stood should have made it.

“What is wrong with him?” Jaxon thought desperately as his eyes darted from Dylan’s hungry face to the door. He looked for his opportunity to make a run for it.

“Look at the time! My aunt wanted me home before it got too late, so I think I’m going to go now,” he said casually as he looked down at his phone for the time.

The next thing he knew, filled with a deep, unbearable cold, Jaxon could feel his body begin to tense up and his head becoming lighter. He could feel someone hugging him. . . No, not hugging - grabbing him, holding him tight from behind him. He could feel the sharp sting as it felt like he was injected with two needles, in his neck.

How did Dylan move so fast to get behind him?

His body felt like a rock beginning to grow numb. As a sharp pain stemmed from his neck and began to spread throughout his body, he tried to yell, but his mouth failed him from moving, and his voice dissipated. He could feel himself falling lower and lower to the ground. Then he fell the floor, and it felt like all life was being sucked out of him.

Then nothing. . .

But there was a trembling cold. Jaxon felt like he was being submerged in icy water. He slowly blinked his eyes as he tried force them to stay open, but it was too hard, as they would continuously close once again. Then a flash of hair, long, shiny, and black, whipped past him as he laid there motionless on the floor.

Jaxon thought he must have imagined it. He tried to move his body around to find the source of the sleek hair, but, with is eyes heavy with fatigue, he was forced to close them again. When Jaxon opened his eyes it was because he could feel that he was not on the frozen ground anymore, and it felt like he was flying. Not on his own but with the assistance of another. . . almost like an angel lifting him.

Wanting to thank his savior, he looked up in horror to see that the angel looked less like an angel than he could imagine. Her hair was so dark that it blended with the black night sky. It contrasted with her eyes which were bright scarlet and seemed to have a faint glow to them. The only thing that was angelic about her was her face which seemed to be perfect in almost every regard, but his admiration of her beauty only waned as the feeling of pure darkness replaced it. If she was an angel then she could only be an angel of darkness, and Jaxon suddenly wondered if he was meant to even go up there.

Thinking on the subject dully, tired, his eyes closed, thinking he would never open them again...

as Jaxon Royse.