Under the Roses

Writer's notes: This story has been a working progress for two years. It was first thought of after a rather bad dream and for a while left with just one chapter (Kyra). This however was changed due to one person complaining that I could not leave the story ending in such a way.
I would really appreciate feedback from others, so please let me know what you think.

I hope you enjoy this story.

Lyra




Chapter One - Daniel

Daniel sat in the garden in the middle of the rosebushes pulling the petals from the one of the flowers one by one. His hands were covered in tiny scratches, where the thorns had tried to ward him away. He heard the screams coming from the farm house where he lived and knew instantly what it meant, what it always meant… his stepfather, Phil, was back and probably drunk again. Daniel put the flower he had been working on in his pocket and ran towards the house. One thing was certain in his mind, as he made his way across the large garden to the farm house; this time Phil was not going to lay a hand on his mother. Not this time.
He pushed the door open and ran into the kitchen. His mother lay on the floor; blood trailed from the corner of her mouth and her right eye was red and swollen. The last blow must have been very hard for it to look like that already.
When Daniel’s mother noticed her son had entered the kitchen, she started sobbing harder and begging Daniel to go to his room so that he wouldn’t get hurt.
“Daniel… do as your mother says,” ordered Phil in a tone of voice that was filled with satisfaction as he mocked Daniel’s weakness.
“No,” shouted Daniel, curling his hands into fists. “You won’t hurt her again! I won’t let you.”
Phil just stood there and laughed, “You, a thirteen year old boy, won’t let me? How do you plan on stopping me? Are you going to hit me? Boy you don’t have the guts. Go on run to your room.”
Daniel ran forwards ready to strike his right hand raised. But before he could make contact he was knocked across the room into the wall.
“Phil don’t!” screamed Daniel’s mother as Phil walked slowly forwards towards Daniel.
“Shut up woman! Do you expect me to allow the boy to disobey me?” he grabbed a handful of Daniel’s clothes and lifted him to his feet. Tears ran down Daniel’s face as he tried to shield himself from an expected attack.
Phil dropped Daniel to the floor. “It’s pathetic. He’s still a baby. I’m glad this sprog is not of my blood; I’d have drowned him like a litter of lame dogs.” Phil looked down at Daniel curled up on the floor in a ball, “go on, hop it up stairs before I change my mind.”
Daniel scrambled to his feet, tripped, and left the room followed by the sound of his stepfather’s cruel laughter.
The screams from his mother seemed to last a long time and he had cried himself to sleep long before they stopped.

Daniel woke up just before dawn. At first he was not sure what had awakened him: some sound that was not normally there. He listened intently and after a moment he recognised the sound… a car’s engine. Daniel jumped out of bed and looked out of his window. A taxi was parked outside and he saw his mother climb into it. Her face was covered by a shawl and she was wearing sunglasses and holding a small suitcase. Daniel was going to shout out after her but he did not want to wake his stepfather so instead he ran out of his room, down the stairs, and out of the front door, just in time to watch the taxi drive off.
“Mum!” he shouted running after the taxi but he was too late and the taxi disappeared from sight. “Why didn’t you take me with you?” he whispered feeling angry, confused, terrified, and rejected at the same time.
How could she leave him with a monster that would love to see him dead? Didn’t she love her son anymore?
Daniel fell to his knees on the dirt road and banged his fists on the ground just to see if he could still feel any pain.
Then he slowly wandered back to the house hoping that his stepfather was still asleep and had not heard his shouting. ‘Oh god what am I going to do now?’ he thought.


Chapter Two - Kyra

In a small village closed off to anyone who did not live inside the fence boundaries. A sixteen year old girl called Kyra walked to the phone to dial the number of a girl that she had met only yesterday. Kyra was small with long flowing black hair, bright green eyes and a slim, fragile-looking figure.
The phone rang and she waited for it to be picked up at the other end.
“Hello?” came the response after a while.
“Hi, Lena? It’s Kyra. Do you want to come round to my house? I’m having a small party later today.”
“But I can’t get through remember. I’m not supposed to cross the fence,” answered Lena sounding afraid.
Kyra’s mother, Jane, stepped into the room.
“Well I’m not supposed to cross the fence and go through to your side either but I still do.”
“Kyra, you can’t have outsiders round. You know that HE won’t allow it.”
Kyra’s face fell. She was fed up with hearing the rules that had been given to her and the other families that lived inside the fence boundaries. She wanted to explore the outside world and meet new people; instead she was like a prisoner in her small area.
“I’ll meet you at the gate… and bring some other people with you,” she said before hanging up. Then to her mother she said, “I’m bored following HIS orders. I want to have some fun.”
She ran from the house before her mother could stop her grabbing her coat as she went and followed the path that led to the gate of the fence. Behind her the watchtower, a six floor high building that marked the centre of the village, seemed to follow Kyra’s every move as if the building itself had eyes. When she finally reached the fence she noticed that the gate was locked as usual but at the side of the gate was a small opening that Kyra used frequently to get in and out.
She greeted Lena and the six people with her one of which looked similar to Lena and Kyra guessed that it might be Lena’s brother; both of them had dark blonde hair and pale blue eyes, though the boy was slightly taller than Lena. Kyra lifted up the wire a bit to make the hole bigger so that it was easier for them all to squeeze through.
“This is Alex my brother,” said Lena making Kyra realise that her suspicions were right. Then she pointed to the rest of the group in turn. Amanda, a tall lanky girl with dark hair looked nearly as nervous as Lena did, Michael and Mathew, the twins both had red hair and freckles and they nodded their heads when Lena introduced them; Sarah looked extremely bored and had short brown hair and brown eyes; and A.J. had spiky pink hair and was holding a guitar which made Kyra wonder whether the boy carried it around everywhere. A.J. flashed Kyra a warm smile when he was introduced.
She led the way back to her house and opened the door to let them in.
“Kyra!” called a voice behind her and she turned to see who it was; only to look up into the eyes of the one person that she was scared of. At six foot HE stood nine inches taller than Kyra and his blue eyes seemed to look right into her core.
“We need to talk,” HE said.
Kyra ran away from HIM, away from her house towards the football pitch near the edge of the village.
Ten guards were playing ball and they instantly stopped to block Kyra’s path. Kyra turned sharply to run in the other direction but HE had already caught up with her and he grabbed her by the shoulders.
“Yet again you defy me,” HE said. HE was angry with her yet HE spoke calmly, “I won’t ask you to send your friends away. Instead I insist that you meet me inside the watchtower at twelve tonight.”
Kyra nodded slowly and walked off. Confused, she opened the front door again and was greeted by the sounds of loud music and laughter so she smiled and joined her friends forgetting what HE had said.


Later that night when all her friends had returned to their side of the fence and the loud music had finally stopped. Kyra climbed up the stairs and headed to her bedroom. But before she reached the door she heard screaming coming from her younger sister’s room. Kyra ran up the stairs to the top floor of the house and then she darted along the hallway to Felicity’s room only to see one of the scariest sights she had ever seen. A rose bush was rapidly growing from a flowerpot that sat on the windowsill and it had wrapped its branches all around Felicity’s body. The flowers on the rose bush were bright red and for some reason, unknown to Kyra, they shone like a mirror ball in the light coming from the hallway. Felicity stopped screaming and her body hung limp for a while before it disappeared completely. Kyra let out a scream before running away from the room and the rose bush that was now stretching out its branches towards her.
“Mum!” she cried, “we have to get out of the house. The rose bush has got bad programming again!”
Jane ran down the hall towards her daughter.
“We must head towards the watchtower and report what has happened so that it can be fixed,” she said and Kyra nodded nervously. Tears were running down her eyes and she was still trying to figure out that her sister was gone.

Finally they reached the watchtower, the tallest building situated in the centre of the village, and Kyra hesitated before pushing open the door. She looked at her watch, which read one o clock, and a shiver ran down her spine. She was going to be in serous trouble for being late especially if HE realised she hadn’t intended on coming at all.
“I need to find the loo. I’ll meet you up there,” said Jane leaving Kyra alone.
Reluctantly, Kyra climbed up the stairs to the top of the tower and then she walked passed many doors without looking inside. Finally she reached the last door and she turned the handle and walked in.
“You’re late!” stated one of the guards in the room.
“I know. I’m sorry,” answered Kyra weakly as the guard shut the door behind her.
“HE’s waiting for you in the office. Follow me.”
Kyra did as she was told even though all she really wanted to do was run in the other direction.
“Kyra sit down,” HE ordered when she entered the office.
Kyra sat and fiddled with her fingers nervously.
“You keep breaking my rules and disobeying my orders. You’ve let outsiders onto my land twice now, you never arrive on time for anything, you are an hour late and you have been out passed the gate more times than I can count.”
Kyra looked down at the floor and did not answer.
“What am I going to do with you?” HE said only this time HIS voice was a little softer. “If I didn’t like you so much I would have deleted you already.”
Kyra did not know how to respond but she knew that this time she had really crossed the line.
HE stood up and took her hand and led her to another room. This time the room was quite narrow, but along the back wall was a big window, which let you look into the next room. In that next room sitting on one of the chairs sat Kyra’s mother, Jane, and in the corner of that room was a small rose bush.
“Watch this” HE said before pressing a button on a control in HIS hand
The rose bush started to change shape and twist and bend. Jane watched in fear as it moved and she began edging away from the plant.
“What are you going to do?” asked Kyra her voice shaking
“Just watch” HE replied a smile on HIS face.
The branches stretched towards Jane who now stood banging on the wall furthest from the plant and calling to be let out.
“No” whispered Kyra “stop, please stop.”
The branches wrapped themselves around Jane who was now screaming. Then she was suddenly quiet. Her eyes closed. Then they flickered open again she looked around and did not seem to know where she was.
Kyra watched as the branches of the rose bush began to retreat and return to how they were before. Then the door to the room Jane was in, opened and a young boy stepped inside.
Jane bent down and hugged the child and fussed over him as if she had known him forever.
“You killed my sister!” accused Kyra; suddenly understanding.
“She was never really your sister” HE replied, the tone of voice softer still.
“She felt like my sister,” Kyra retorted. “Why?”
“She can be replaced,” HE stated bluntly.
Kyra backed towards the door.
“Maybe I need to reprogram you and make you a little more obedient… but then I do like you this way. Or maybe you just need to be punished.”
HE turned away to get something and Kyra took her chance and opened the door and ran down the hall. She did not like the idea of being punished, reprogrammed or shut down. She ran down the stairs to the back door where she struggled to undo the lock. Just before she could get the door open HE had caught up with her and grabbed her around the waist and turned her around to face HIM. She punched HIS chest, screamed out and tried to pull away but she did not hurt HIM for HE was stronger than she was. HE opened the door and carried her outside.
Outside there were rows of people who lay sleeping under the roses and Kyra saw many copies of people that she knew from the other families in the area.
She looked up at HIM in horror her eyes still filled with tears.
“Now do you understand?” HE asked.
Kyra shook her head slowly as more tears flooded her eyes.
“Scream if you want to, it won’t help.”
Kyra felt weak and she buried her head into HIS neck and wept. She knew now that whatever HE planed for her, she would be unable to stop it.



Chapter Three - Lena

Lena picked up the phone on the forth ring “hello?” she said.
“Hi, Lena? It’s Kyra. You met me yesterday. Do you want to come round to my house? I’m having a small party.”
“But I can’t get through remember. I’m not supposed to cross the fence,” answered Lena. She thought that the strange village, where Kyra lived, was quite scary.
“Well I’m not supposed to cross the fence and go through to your side either but I still do.” answered Kyra
Lena didn’t know how to answer that but it was defiantly true that this strange new girl was a lot bolder than herself.
“I’ll meet you at the gate… and bring some other people with you,” she said.
Before Lena could protest anymore the phone was hung up at the other end. Lena picked up one of her blond plats of hair and started chewing on the ends nervously while she thought about whom to take with her.
“Who was that?”
Lena jumped “Alex!”
Alex smiled, “sorry sis didn’t mean to startle you. Who rang?”
“It was Kyra. Remember I told you about her. She lives in that little village about a mile from here,” said Lena. “She invited us to a party tonight.”
Alex gave Lena a big grin before walking off
“Hey where are you going?”
“To tell Amanda and the twins next door, that place is so mysterious that I bet they would love to take a look inside!”
Alex was right of course. Over the period of eleven years the village had quickly grown, at first there were just a few houses but then more were built and it had seemed like they had appeared overnight.
“Hey don’t forget about A.J and his sister!” shouted Lena just before Alex closed the front door.

Lena walked slightly behind the others chewing on her hair again, becoming more nervous as they came nearer to the fence. Alex squeezed her hand slightly knowing how she felt. Even though she had been into the village briefly yesterday she was still freaked by the feeling of the place. Something about it felt wrong. When they neared the fence she noticed that Kyra was already waiting for them.
“Hi,” Kyra called as she walked forwards and raised the wire of the fence to help them get through
“This is Alex my brother,” said Lena then she introduced the rest of her friends. She noticed the big smile that A.J gave. He always seemed to like girls with black hair.
Kyra led the way back to her house and opened the door to let them in. but Kyra did not follow them inside for instead she had been called by a man.
A.J opened his guitar bag and plugged in the amp and after tuning for about five minutes began singing a song that he had written.

Lena noticed that there was a girl watching from the top of the stairs looking extremely worried and Lena decided to go and talk to the girl.
“What’s wrong?” she asked
“HE is going to be really mad about this party.” Answered the girl softly
“He, your father?”
The girl laughed slightly “No HE owns this place. Sets all the rules. HE does not like people from the outside seeing this place. Yet Kyra always breaks the rules, soon HE will get angry with her and I am scared”
“What’s your name?”
“Felicity, I’m Ky’s sister”
Lena walked away feeling slightly confused but she decided that this was a mystery she really wanted to solve. Who was this man and why did he have everyone in this village acting strangely and being so afraid to do something wrong.

It was coming up to twelve when the party finally ended and by the time everyone was ready to leave it was ten past. Lena told her brother that she was going to stay behind for a while and help Kyra clean up. Alex had offered to stay as well but Lena insisted that he go straight home. She would return in an hour, she promised. Once Alex was gone Lena stayed for ten minutes and then said goodbye to the family before also leaving but instead of returning home she walked around to the back of the house and listened for a while through an open window on the ground floor. After waiting for thirty minutes she heard screaming and then Kyra calling to her mother that the rose bush had bad programming again. When the mother and daughter walked to the watchtower Lena followed them, keeping to the shadows so that she would not be seen. When she was sure that they would not see her entering the watchtower she entered and walked up the stairs to the first floor, she would have gone further but she was spotted by a guard and she ran down the long hall trying to escape him. She was caught quickly and a rag was placed over her mouth. Soon all went black.



Chaper Four - Alex

The alarm was the first thing Alex heard the morning after the party at Kyra’s house. He swore at the annoying noise as he felt around the clock trying to find the off switch. He pulled the covers back over his head and decided on trying to get another five minutes before Lena decided to order him out of bed like she enjoyed doing every morning.
An hour passed before Alex woke again this time he got out of bed straight away and ran to his sister’s room.
“Lena? Why haven’t you… Lena!”
But Lena was not in her room.
Alex ran downstairs and searched all the rooms but there was no sign of his sister anywhere in the house.
“Oh I have a very bad feeling about this” he muttered as he grabbed his coat and headed in the direction of the fence that led to the strange village.

When Alex reached the village the first place he decided to look was at Kyra’s house but when he arrived he found that the house was completely empty. Not just of people but of everything. No furniture, no carpet, no wallpaper… he suddenly noticed in the corner of one room a small half dead rosebush. Alex walked back towards the front door feeling rather confused. He turned round just before he left and noticed that the branches of the rosebush were following him. Alex ran from the house and noticed Jane, Kyra’s mother, pushing a young boy on a swing. Jane looked up as Alex approached.
“Where’s Kyra and Lena?”
“Who?” she asked as she stopped the swing and nudged the boy to go into the house.
“Your daughter and my sister” said Alex
“I don’t have a daughter just Danny my son.”
“Stop playing games with me I know my sister’s here as she’s not at home!”
Jane backed away from Alex “I really don’t know” she said before running into the house.
Alex shrugged and headed towards the watchtower. Surely he would find an explanation there.

As Alex climbed the last few stairs to the top most room he felt as if he was being watched. Finally he pushed open the door and was instantly grabbed by the branches of a rosebush. The thorns dug into his skin tearing it.
“You’ve ruined everything” said a voice behind him. “human’s in my world! It’s totally unthinkable. It will take ages of reprogramming to make this place better. A long time to repair family ties. Ages to fix Kyra. And your sister, I can’t decide whether to kill her or download her. With you the decisions easy but with her a fragile girl, I protect them.”
Alex struggled against the branches binding him but they only got tighter.
“Who hurt you!” Alex shouted and he noticed that the words had brought out a little pain from the man.
“Someone hurt you didn’t they?” said Alex this time gently “that’s why you’re hurting my sister and Kyra like this. It’s why you’re hurting me now. Who hurt you? Family? Your father?”
He whacked Alex across the face and if the rose bush had not been holding him, Alex would have fallen from the force of the blow.
“He was never my father” shouted the man.
Alex kept his focus on the man “what happened?”
“I don’t need you to act as a counsellor! I don’t talk to humans, just my programmes”
“Whatever that man did to you. you are doing the same thing to my sister. Oh it might not look that way to you; you might even think your helping her. Your not, you can’t treat people this way, as for your programmes it’s not right you hold so much control and you feed off their fear. Yes they are scared. Kyra showed me that last night.”
“Shut up! You don’t understand anything! He used to hit my mother nearly every day! He was nearly always drunk.” The man’s voice lowered “I tried to protect her, she was so weak but I was just a boy and powerless ‘poor little Daniel still a baby powerless at thirteen’. She ran away and I was left behind. Everyday He would take out his anger on me telling me that her leaving was my fault.”
Alex kept quiet. There was nothing he could say
“When I turned fifteen I accidentally pushed him down the stairs. I told no one and no one seemed to notice instead I buried my self in computer programming and after a few years I decided to look for my mother and tell her that he was finally gone so that she could come home to me. Five years after she walked out on me I finally found her. Do you know what I found when I did find her? She was with another man and she had a daughter but that wasn’t what upset me, the man she had married was just like Phil. I walked in to find her curled up on the floor crying. Her pretty hair a mat of tangles her face covered in bruises and her daughter, my sister, hiding under a table just as scared as her mother.
“I realised It was all my mother knew. She only understood pain. Of course I killed that monster that she had married. I thought she would have thanked me instead she rose to her feet yelling ‘how could you?’ and started slapping me around the face.
“I left after that and came back here…” he trailed off
“I’m sorry” whispered Alex “it must have been terrible. But it still doesn’t give you the right to take my sister. Look free me and Lena and turn off your programme and I won’t get the police”
The man actually laughed at that “if you remain here the police won’t know”
“My parents won’t rest when they find Lena and I have gone missing. They know about this place. They know about Kyra and they know we went to a party here last night. I think their smart enough to guess that this is where we’ll be”
Daniel sighed and then walked to the computers and typed something on the keyboard. The rosebush disappeared and Alex fell free
“You’ll find them in a room three doors down from this room”
Alex rubbed his wrists and moved his jaw to see how much it hurt. Then he nodded and walked down the hall.
He pushed open the door and walked in to find Lena lying on the floor and next to her was Kyra and her mother. Daniel followed Alex into the room “I thought you ended the programme” said Alex
Daniel nodded “they’re real” he said. “I wanted to keep my mother from making the same mistakes again I wanted to protect my sister from becoming like my mother. I never wanted to hurt them.”
Alex knelt down over his sister and softly called her name she raised her head looking confused.
“It’s alright you safe.”
Kyra sat up quickly her eyes darted around the room and when she noticed Daniel she started begging not to be deleted.
Alex walked over to Kyra and knelt in front of her blocking Daniel from her view “how long did you do this for?”
“Eleven years”
“Kyra, listen to me. You’re safe now, your brother wont hurt you any more.”
Kyra blinked at the word brother “I don’t understand.”
“You’re not a programme Kyra, you’re real he’s been tricking you for a very long time.”
Kyra pulled back from Alex “mum!” she called crying “mum!”
Jane opened her eyes and looked around then she threw up.
Alex looked to Daniel “as remarkable as it is that I am going to say this! Daniel we need to put them back inside the programme”
Lena stood up at that “you can’t!”
“We can teach them about the outside world slowly so that they can accept it.”
“Or put them into a hospital and give them the care they need. Damn It Alex look at her! You can’t seriously think of putting her back inside a machine. How can you even trust HIM to release them for a start?”
Daniel raised his head “I can’t do it anyway I programmed a virus to attack my programme so that I would not try to use it again”
Alex sighed and finally agreed with his sister but he really was not sure what to do with Daniel.
He picked up Kyra and then led the others down the stairs and out of…
“A farm house?” breathed Lena “wasn’t this the tower?” she turned to Daniel but he was not behind her “where did he go?”
Alex put Kyra down and ran back into the house looking in each room. He heard a gun shot and ran up the stairs to find that Daniel had ended his own life.



Chapter Five - Jane

A few years had passed since the death of her son and some days Jane actually mourned that he was gone. Though she really did not want to admit it out loud she had realised that the programmed world her son had held her in, had made her happy. A male hadn’t mistreated her unless you counted eleven years of mind warp as mistreated.
She walked into her daughter’s room. The girl who she thought she knew was not the same, Kyra had retreated into herself and was still hugging onto the world created by Daniel. She still could not accept the vastness of the world around her.
Jane was very surprised that Kyra could not understand. She had been the one who always explored outside the boundaries of the programme, was always looking for more: expecting the word to be bigger than what she could see of it, defying every rule given to her that was supposed to stop her from finding the truth. In fact it was Kyra’s curiosity that had really helped them to finally be free.
Jane pulled the covers back over her daughter and then turned off the light and said a silent prayer that her daughter would one day be like she was again, before leaving the room and drawing the door behind her.
Jane walked out of the house into the garden to a rosebush and laid some flowers on the pebbles surrounding the plant. It was Daniel’s grave and he lay, under the roses.