Roses and Thorns ~ The Tale of Roses and Thorns 1.

Dark. It was really dark. Ivelle couldn't see a thing. And it was cold too. Like during winter.

"Hello?" she shouted. Her voice echoed in the distance. She was scared. She stood up and took a few steps. "Where the hell am I?" she thought. She tripped over something. Maybe a stone. A loud roar came from somewhere. And then another. She could hear steps. The steps came closer and closer and now she could hear the roar from closer. She backed, but bumped into a stone wall." I'm going to die..." she was frightened. Something came closer to her. It looked at her. It had red eyes. It came closer and closer... Now she was scared to death. That... something attacked her and...

"HELP!" she yelled and sit up in her bed. "Another nightmare..." she'd had these strange nightmares for weeks now. Every dream was the same: waking up in a cold, dark place, hearing roars, then steps, seeing red eyes, and then waking up. Every dream was so, so real. The emotions, the stone, the cold, the darkness. Everything felt real. She was covered in sweat. She looked at the clock. 5.30. She looked around. Her eyes stucked on the box she got yesterday. She got up and approached it. She took it's cover off. Books. She took out one. Not books, it's more like a... journal . She opened it. The pages were filled with drawings and strange writings. Somewhere in the middle there was a drawing which caught her attention. It was a woman with long brown hair and blue eyes. Her face was long. She looked like her mother. She read the note under the drawing. "Tanith". Then it's not her mother. Then who's she? She turned a page. The same woman, but now her whole figure was drawn. She was slim, and wore long white dress. Two serpents were at her feet. She looked down at them, like she was telling something to them. The same word was written under the picture. "Tanith.". What does it mean? Is it the woman's name? "Interesting." she thought and put out another journal. It was the same: drawings and writings. Then put out another one and another. All of them were the same.

She couldn't tell how long had she been examining those journals. Even though she couldn't understand it, it caught her attention. The most interesting things were the writings. They were written in a strange language: it resembled to latin, she understood a few words, like war, dragons, or escape, but the grammar was very different and she was only a beginner in latin.

A loud knock interrupted her.

"Elle darling, are you awake yet?" it was her granny.

"Umn... Yes I am." quickly, she put the journals back to the box.

"Great. Come, I made some breakfast."

"Just a second, I put something on."

"Okay darling, but be quick."

"Okay." she looked at the clock. It was 8.30. She opened her wardrobe and put on pants and a jumper. She made a quick bun, and went to the kitchen.

"Good morning, darling. Did you sleep well?"

"Yes. What's that smell?" She changed subject quickly.

"Pancakes."

"Yummy." she sat down to the counter.

"What's your plan for today?" asked her grandma with a smile.

"Umn... Don't know. Allan invited me to a party, you know, to make friends... " she tried to imitate Allan's voice" But I'm not sure I'll go. "she grabbed some pancake.

" Why not? Allan's right, you have to make some friends. "

" I don't know... I'm not really a party-person... "

"Have you tried?"

"Noooo..."

"Then, how do you know?" her grandma raised her eyebrow.

"I... Well... I just know." she looked down at her plate.

"Wrong answer. You should go."

"I'll think about it." she murmured.

"Yeah, yeah, seeing is believing, darling." she sighed. Ivelle could hear the defeat in her voice. She finished her breakfast and went to her room. She opened up her laptop and opened her research. "Now...let's see if I can finish this today..." she started typing o her keyboard.

She had been working for hours when the buzzing of her phone interrupted her. She looked at the screen. "Allan's calling. Shit."

"Hey, Allan." She answered the phone, forcing herself to sound cheerful.

"Hey. So have you been thinking about the party?" His voice was hopeful.

" Umn... " she hasitated. What was she supposed to do? Should she go? Or would it be better if she staied at home?" Umn... Yeah... I'd be happy to go... "

" Great. " his voice was cheerful. "I'll send you the details. Is it okay, if I pick you up at 8?"

"Yeah, sure."

"Great. See you later."

"Yeah, later." she hanged up. "I'm pretty sure that it'll be the biggest mistake of my life..." she murmured to herself and went back to work.

At 7 she turned off her laptop and opened her wardrobe. She browsed for a few minutes and put out black torn jeans and a black t-shirt with black lace on its shoulders. She went to the bathroom, put on some make-up and braided her hair into two. By the time she finished it was already 7.55. She went to the hall, and put on her black high-heeled ankle boots.

"So you decided to go." Her grand-mother was standing in the kitchen door.

"Yes."

"I shouldn't have thought."

" Well, there's always a first time, right?"

"Right." Her grand-mother examined her "You look great."

Ivelle looked in the mirror. She indeed lokked great. She was slim, but the T-shirt and the jeans made her look slimmer. The mascara made her long eyelashes look longer and the eyeshadow highlighted her blue-green eyes. A knock interrupted her. She averted her eyes from the mirror, and opened the door. Her grand-mother disappeared to the kitchen.

"Hey Allan." She greeted him with a smile.

"Hi. Are you ready?" He smiled back.

" Yeah, I'll bring my jacket and we can go." She took a denim jacket off the coat hanger and turned back to Allan. She noticed that he had been examining her.

"What? Is something wrong?" She raised an eyebrow.

"No, no, you...umn...you just look amazing." He screatched the back of his neck.

"Oh, thanks."

"Can we go?"

"Umn... Yeah, sure." She grabbed her pursue and her keys and left.

After 10 minutes they arrived to an old-fashioned brick building. They stepped inside, and went to the elevator. Allan pushed the button with the number 5 on it and with a loud creek the elevator began to rise. After a few minutes they arrived to the fifth floor. They stepped out and the door behind them closed. She could already hear the loud music and the chatting and loughing of the people. Allan led her to a door at the end of the hallway. He ringed the doorbell. They waited and then a tall blond guy opened the door.

" Allan! " They gave each other a hug.

"Will! Thanks for inviting me." He smiled. "This is my friend Ivelle. Ivelle this is Will, our host."

"Nice to meet you, Will." She smiled.

" Nice to meet you too. Come on in." He led them inside. In the flat around 20 people had been dancing, chatting, laughing and drinking. The flat was spacious and very modern, despite the old-fashioned building.

"Wow." She wondered.

"Have a nice evening." Will beckoned them and went back to his friends.

"I'll get us something to drink." Allan told her. He had to lean close to her ears to make sure Ivelle hears what he says. " Try to blend in."

"Okay." Allan left her, and Ivelle was standing there like a statue. She didn't know what to do. A group of party-goers approached her.

"Hey." A tall dark-skinned and black haired girl greeted her. "You're new."

"Umn...yes I am." She scanned the group. There was another girl. Brown haired and quite short. Then a tall boy -she reconned that he was the black haired girl's boyfriend- and a short boy with brown hair and glasses. They looked nice, so Ivelle decided to introduce herself. " I'm Ivelle Preston."

"Nice to meet you Ivelle. I'm Nora Clark. This is Anna." She pointed to the brown-haired girl" And this is my boyfriend Tom," She pointed at the tall guy "and last but not least, this is Liam, a real geek." She pointed at the shorter guy.

"It's nice to meet you." She gave them a weak smile.

"Oh great, you've met my friends." Allan came back with two cups. "Here." He gave one of the cups to her.

"Thanks. What's this?" She looked at the pinkish liquid.

"Punch."

"Nice."

"So Allan, is she your girlfriend?" asked Anna with a naughty smile.

"What? Nooo. She's just a friend."

"I see..." She didn't look convinced.

The time passed fast. Ivelle was really surprised how good she felt herself. She made a few new friends and had a great time. She'd never thought that she could enjoy a party, but she did. However she felt really tired, so she looked for Allan to say goodbye. Soon she found him. He was standing on the balcony with a girl. She didn't want to interrupt so she wrote a message.

"I'm going home. Thanks for inviting me, I really enjoyed the party. See you on Monday. :) "

She sent the message said goodbye to Will and the others and left. She decided to walk home, since it took her only 10 minutes. While she was walking she had a really bad feeling. She felt like someone was following her. She looked back but she couldn't see anyone, except a large dog. If she wasn't in the middle of London she could have sworn that it was a wolf. The wolf, or dog, or whatewer it was, looked right at her. Even from meters apart she could see, that it had yellow eyes. "Strange." she thought. She took a few steps forward it. It didn't move. She took another one and than another. Nothing. "Maybe I'm just imagining it. What did they put in that punch?" Another step. And one more. She was really close to the wolf now. She reached out for it, but the wolf ran away. She stood there for a few minutes. "That was interesting. It didn't run away until the last minute. Why?" She looked after it. It sat down a few meters away. She looked into its eyes. And then something really interesting happened.

She was in a forest. The trees are enormous, sunshine was dancing on it's huge leaves. Birds were chirping. Suddenly she heard footsteps. She hid in the bush. It was a little boy not older than 10. The boy looked around. He was looking for something. More like someone.

"What are you doing here?" A tall man asked him.

"I was looking for you!"

"Go home. It's dangerous out here."

"Please, Dad!"

"Go home Son." suddenly the man knelt down and...

...and nothing. She was standing in London again.

"What was that?" She asked the wolf, but it ran away. "I'm going crazy." she shook her head and turned around. On her way home, her mind was around the strange things that happened to her in the last two days. First the man, now the wolf. "It must've been coincidence, right? What else would it be?"

Still deep in thoughts she arrived home. She couldn't even remember how she got there. She went straight to her room and she dropped off to sleep. She fell asleep fast. She had no idea, that these were just the beginnings of the strange things.