Blond hair cascaded over the pale blue pillow. The sheets of my full bed were plastered around my petite form. My sleep was peaceful and the room was silent save for the light thumping of the ceiling fan.

“Ugh . . . mom?” I turned over in bed, slightly woken by shuffling sound. Slitting my eyes a bit my heart skipped a beat then started beating double time as I saw an object so beautiful that it took my breath away, but blood and adrenaline pumped through my body as my instincts screamed at me to turn away. However, after a second of analyzing the situation, everything in my body that had warned me suddenly shut down and the warning lights went off as my eyes connected to my brain and told me what I was seeing. A magnificent rose was sitting on the edge of the bed. I gasped as I saw the moonlight shine on its deep red petals. I cocked my head and looked on in wonder at its majestic form.

A slight thump sounded in the hall and my eyes snapped away from the rose. It was like cold water poured over my head and my heart sped again. However, drawn back to the rose I stared dumb struck once again. I was conscious enough to scoot back in the bed and whimper as eyelids that at first looked as if part of the breathtaking petals opened slowly to reveal fathomless eyes and they stared with a slightly menacing gaze. Its expression was cold, hard, and slightly mocking. For a moment I was fearful, then my eyes were drawn down to its silken petals and stem. The petals were a deep wine red that looked black. The contrast between them and the vibrant green stem was amazing. My hands ached to hold it and bring it to my nose, to inhale the bewitching scent. Shaking myself from enchantment I was sure this was a dream, an exquisite magnificent, delightful dream, but a dream just the same.

I pulled my eyes away from the flower to look where it had come from, I gasped in shock. Beautiful, deadly vines twined around the room, thriving in the darkness and keeping to the shadows.
“Oh my God,” I whimpered in fear as I felt the thorns penetrate the comforter and two new flowers climb over the edge of the bed. They were as gorgeous as the rose but in strikingly different ways. The lily was a vibrant yellow that reminded me of sunlight in its purest form. The other I didn’t recognize but the word that came to my mind when looking at it was moonlight. It was a light pink and the petals looked as if they twined around itself. Looking at the majestic three I forgot the prison of vines slowly closing around me. The dark red rose seemed to have grown larger as I watched the others and now I noticed minuscule details that would be nearly impossible to determine from afar. Thats when I knew how close it must be, close enough to note the tiny wrinkles in the otherwise velvet petals. So close, but not yet quite close enough to smell potently. The possibility of the scent taunted me. I leaned forward slightly, desperately, and surrendering to the yearning, I inhaled. My eyes widened as my smell receptors breathed in the scent. How could something be both so wicked, and so lovely?

If someone had been watching they would have seen the small blond child’s eyes widen in fear and enchantment, then her expression go blank and her face slacken as her heart stopped.