Anything For Rachel – Episode 30

#Episode_30

 

 

I stormed off the stage, the only sounds coming from the clicking of my shoes, and Calvin and Lexton’s muffled voices in the background. I got to the top of the stairs and the two guards there both dropped down to kneel before me before they stood back up to open the doors for me.

 

I was going to the elevator to go back to my room when something in my path made me stop.

 

One long stemmed rose was lying on the marbled ground right outside of the elevator.

 

 

My blood felt chilled in my veins and I stood, staring at it with my mind rushing in a million different directions. I told myself that I must be overthinking. Roses aren’t something that is singularly special to me. Lots of people like roses, and they have them here all the time. I assured myself I was letting my anxiety get the better of me.

 

I turned away from it and took the elevator up to the second level. As soon as the doors opened, I was running before I had even fully realized where I was going. Calvin had put maps in my room, and given me full layouts of the grounds that I had tried to memorize. I knew I was getting close to the kitchens and the blood storage area, but my feet were screaming in my

 

strappy shoes so I stopped to bend over and unhook them.

 

While I was bent over I felt a rush of air and then I was knocked over by something, causing me to fall back onto the cold floor. I yelped slightly, but when I stood back up, I was silent. Right in front of me was another red long stemmed rose. I spun around looking for someone, but there was no one around. I ran forward, knowing I was about three turns from the kitchen. My heart was pounding in my throat when I noticed someone had drawn a rose on the white marbled walls in what looked like blood.

 

My head was turned looking back at it as I ran by when I slammed into a person.

 

“Majesty, are you alright?” The man asked. I held my hands to my chest and tried to focus on my breathing, but when I looked up I was face to face with the man from the ballroom, the rose still pinned to his jacket. “Majesty?” He asked again, tilting his head and staring at me like I was insane.

 

“Why do you have that?” I demanded, pointing at the rose.

 

“This?” He asked confused, pulling it off of his jacket. “I always wear a fresh flower on my suits for special occasions.” He said. I couldn’t think what to say, I just stared at the rose in his hand.

 

“Here, take it Your Highness.” He said, passing it over. I shook my head, but he smiled. “No, really, it’s ok.” He said. “I can go cut some more.” He told me. “You take it.”

 

 

I took the flower from him with shaking fingers and as soon as it was in my hand he was gone, nothing but a gust of wind in his wake. I looked down at the bright red flower in my hand and I tried to rationalize with myself. I needed to be calm. I needed to breathe.

 

I screamed out as the flower in my hands turned jet black and withered away, falling in tiny little pieces from my hands to the floor where the pieces scattered like ashes.

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I ran away slamming into the white double doors labeled as the kitchen.

 

“Patrick!” I yelled and everyone turned to look at me, bowing their heads.

 

“Rachel?” Patrick said when he came around a corner in the back of the large industrial kitchen, followed by Octavia and Logan. “Rachel, are you alright?” He asked and Octavia shot over to me, pulling me into the back room that they had come from.

 

It was a small room, a little dark, with shelves lying the walls with fresh vegetables and a table set up in the middle of the room with a few stemmed wine glasses with pink liquid in them sitting there. Octavia shut the door behind her and they crowded around me. “I was just about to come to your room, what are you doing here?” She asked. “Where is Cromley?”

 

I was already starting to hyperventilate. “I don’t know.” I said between gasps for air.

 

“I saw what happened.” She said.

 

Patrick stepped forward. “I can’t fathom how Master Marco could believe he would get away with treating you with such disrespect.”

 

“The videos too.” Octavia said shaking her head. “I don’t know why Calvin didn’t rip his head off right then and there. Calvin was very clear about how tonight was supposed to go.”

 

 

“Rach?” Logan said my name softly. “Are you ok?” He asked, furrowing his brows at me. “That looked rough up there, but you totally showed the guy who was boss.” He tried to make me feel better.

 

“Stop it.” I snapped. “I’m not here because of any of that shit!”

 

“Then what’s wrong?” Octavia asked, her eyes wide.

 

I could hardly force my voice out. “Someone…a man…someone knows.” I gasped out. “Roses.” I shrieked thinking of the way the rose had died in my hands.

 

Octavia put her hands on my shoulders and steadied me, looking into my eyes. “Keep your voice down.” She whispered. “What are you talking about? What happened?”

 

Logan pulled out a chair for me at the table and Octavia led me over and helped me sit down and she pulled a chair close to me and sat with my hands in hers. “There was a man.” I whispered.

 

“He was in the ballroom and he had a rose pinned to his shirt.” I said. “He…he just gave me the creeps the first time I saw him.” I tried to explain.

 

“Because he had a rose on his shirt?” Patrick asked with his expression confused.

 

I sighed. “I know it sounds crazy, but it freaked me out.” I told them. “During everything, I saw him again at the top of the stairs and I swear he was looking right at me when he pointed at the rose.” I explained. “Then when I left the ballroom there was a rose lying on the ground in front of the elevator.”

 

“Rachel, that could just be a coincidence.” Logan said gently.

 

I shook my head, getting angry that they keep interrupting me.

 

“Listen!” I snapped, then lowered my voice again. “I thought the same thing, but it did put me on edge so I was going to come here to talk to you Patrick because Pedro had told me if I ever feel like I don’t know who to trust, I could come to you.” I explained. “On the way here though, I got knocked down and when I got

 

 

up, someone had put another rose in front of me, and I know it wasn’t a coincidence that time. I stared running and someone had painted a rose on the walls, and then I ran into the man again, he gave me the rose on his shirt then disappeared.” I said, my voice rising an octave from my fear. “The rose turned black in my hand.” I said shaking. “It died in my hands, almost instantly.”

 

Finally their expressions showed me that they were understanding why I was so afraid.

 

Octavia leaned back in her chair, shaking her head back and forth slowly while Patrick was staring down at the table and Logan’s face was long and pale as a sheet.

 

“We need to find the man!” I whispered. “He has to be around somewhere!”

 

Octavia looked up at me. “I don’t think we can.” She said bleakly.

 

“What do you mean?” I snapped. “He was threatening me and my…” It clicked then. How could we send out men to find him without telling them about Rose? Even if we made something up for why he needed to be found, we couldn’t risk the wrong person finding him and him telling everything he knows about me and Rose. “Why can’t just do nothing.” I muttered.

 

“I need to talk to Calvin.” Octavia said. “He’ll know what to do, and who to trust.” She said.

 

“He’s a little busy on his date right now.” I snapped.

 

“Rachel.” She chided me but I rolled my eyes and crossed my arms over my chest.

 

Patrick looked over at me. “I’m so sorry.” He whispered. “You don’t deserve all of this.” He said.

 

I burst into tears at his statement. It isn’t me who doesn’t deserve this. It’s Rose. She’s never done anything wrong, but people want her because of who her parents are. How long will she have to suffer because of us?

 

 

Octavia pulled me up by my hands and hugged me tightly. “We will figure something out.” She whispered. “I promise you.”

 

“Rose is alright.” Logan assured me. “I just talked to her not even an hour ago.” He said.

 

“Come on.” Octavia whispered, pulling me towards the door. “Show us where you saw the man and the flowers, then we need to get you into your room where it’s safe.”

 

We walked out all together and I went the exact path I had come from, but all traces of the flowers, even the painted one on the wall, were entirely gone.

 

“I’m positive it was right here!” I promised them when they looked at me like I was crazy. “I am sure, it was right here.” I said. “Someone must have cleaned everything up.”

 

“You’re probably right.” Octavia said as she pushed me along to get back to the elevator.

 

I felt just as crazy as they probably think I am. Maybe I really had imagined it all. I had just been through all the crap in the ballroom and so maybe I had just let myself get fixated on the man who creeped me out in the crowd. It could have all been a part of my imagination.

 

When we got off of the elevator on level six, Octavia held me back, pushing me back onto the elevator. “Why aren’t there any guards on duty?” She whispered to herself.

 

“I heard they were having a meeting tonight during the competition since Rachel and Calvin were both supposed to be away.” Patrick told her and she nodded her head.

 

“That’s right.” She said. “I forgot.”

 

“So it’s ok?” I asked and she smiled.

 

 

“Yes, we are all going to stay with you though until the guards are all back.” She said as we exited the elevator again.

 

She pushed open my door and we all walked into the room together.

 

I had nearly had myself convinced that I really had just gone off the deep end for a while earlier until I looked around the room.

 

There were rose petals all over the floor, long stemmed roses all over the dressers and tables, and on the white duvet there was a large rose drawn in blood.

 

“Get her out of here.” Octavia snapped. “Where the hell is Cromley?”

 

Patrick looked terrified. “And take her where?” He asked, a crack in his voice.

 

“My room.” She said. “Logan, go with them.”

 

“What about you?” He asked, taking a step towards her.

 

She looked over at him and shook her head. “I need to get this under control.” She said. “Get her to my room and you guys stay put until I come get you.”

 

Logan nodded to her and turned to me and Patrick, taking the lead out of the room. Patrick linked arms with me as we let Logan take us to Octavia’s room on level three. I recognized some of the area. I knew that the crypts were accessible from this level, and that Calvin’s mother’s room is nearby.

 

Logan produced a key from his pocket and unlocked her door, letting us step inside. I was instantly glad to see that there weren’t any roses waiting for me here. The room was bigger than my old one, but she did have pink silk like mine had originally. The bed was unmade and she still had a tray sitting out on her table with a glass and an empty plate sitting on it. Her closet door was open, showing the over flow of clothing she had, and her vanity set up on the opposite side of the room was so cluttered with different lipsticks and eye brushes that you couldn’t even see the top at all.

 

I tried to focus on little things like that to distract myself from the insanity that has been going on.

 

 

I jumped when the door opened and Octavia whooshed in. “I found Cromley.” She sighed. “He’d been taken from the ballroom and then released a few minutes ago.” She said quickly, holding her hand to her forehead as she spoke. “He’s gone to retrieve Calvin.” She told us.

 

“How is he going to be able to get him?” I asked. “I’m sure that he’s still being recorded with Lexton and it is supposed to be an overnight date.” I reminded her.

 

“I know that, but Marco and the council will just have to get over it.” She shrugged. “He’s getting a coded message and Cromley will bring him here when they are sure that no one is following them.”

 

I sat down at the table, pulling my feet up into the chair with me, not caring that I was messing up my dress, and I leaned my head down onto my legs. “What did you do in my room?” I asked her and she shook her head.

 

“I left it for now.” She told me. “I knew Calvin would want to see, and the guards were coming back from their meetings so it wasn’t a good time to be trying to clean that up. I will have it done later between shift changes.”

 

We fell silent. Each of us trying to make sense of everything. “I want to talk to Rose myself.” I said.

 

“I told you I just spoke to her.” Logan told me. “She was fine and getting ready for bed.”

 

“I don’t care.” I shook my head. “I need to hear for myself that she is ok.”

 

Octavia walked over to me and put her hand on my shoulder. “I don’t think it is a good idea.” She said gently but I shook my shoulder out from under her.

 

“I don’t care what you think, I want to talk to her. Now!” I yelled.

 

Octavia went to the back of the room and rummaged through a drawer before producing the satellite phone and bringing it over to me. “Here.” She said as she dialed in the numbers and put it in my hand.

 

 

“Hello?” Pedro’s voice echoed into my ear.

 

“Pedro.” I sighed.

 

“Rachel, darling, what are you doing calling again?” He asked.

 

“We need to be careful.”

 

I started to cry and he shushed me through the phone as Patrick reached across the table to hold my hand and Logan and Octavia both put a hand on my back. “Everything is going bad and I miss her so much, Pedro.” I cried. “I don’t think I can do this. Did you see the footage from tonight?” I asked. “That’s what I’m dealing with here, and then on top of all of the pressure from that, I had some creepy guy messing with me with roses today and he broke into my room.” I whimpered. “He painted a rose on my bed in blood, Pedro.”

 

“Rachel, calm down.” He said firmly. “You breathe, and listen he said.” I closed my eyes and tried to focus on the air going in and out of my lungs. “Listen closely.” He whispered. I stilled, and that’s when I could hear it. The heavy slow breaths that I would recognize anywhere. My eyes stung, but I didn’t want to make a sound and not be able to hear my sweet little girl breathing. “She is perfectly fine.” He promised. “She is sleeping in her little bed, happy dreams dancing in her little head and Prince is cuddled up at her feet.”

 

I shook as I tried to picture it in my head. “Thank you.” I whispered to him. “I just miss her, and I’m so afraid.”

 

“Listen to me Rachel.” Pedro demanded. “I have never in my long life ever met another young woman with as much strength, tenacity, spirit, or heart as you. I know that you might feel beaten down right now, but you are far from it. I know you, and I know you can handle this. It won’t be easy, it might even be the hardest thing you ever will do, but you will overcome this. You will come out on the other end of this with your perfect child.

 

Just have faith, Rachel. Have faith in me to take care of this end, and trust Calvin to take care of everything there.”

 

“I miss you.” I cried.

 

“Oh, silly girl.” He laughed. “I miss you too.”

 

Octavia reached over and tapped her finger on my nose just like Pedro would do if he were really here with me right now. “I trust you.” I said to him.

 

 

 

 

 

Story_Continues

 

 

ANYTHING FOR RACHEL