Black Rose Chapter 1 Shadow of the Moon

Please be warned that there is some minor horror/violence in this post. Thank you, enjoy!

Chapter 1
Shadow of the Moon

THE FULL MOON
shone clear and bright, painting the cherry blossoms in the field outside in a layer of soft silver.
Lily looked up at the moon, it’s image reflecting in her wide, blue eyes. The full moon frightened her, and she quickly closed them and tucked her bed sheets closer. Her beloved stuffed animal bunny was clutched tightly to her fast-beating chest.
The door creaked open, and her mother, a woman named Violet, peeked inside. “Are you ready for bed, Lily?”
Lily nodded a hasty yes, and then curled up in the safety of her blankets again. “Mommy, can you close the curtains?”
Violet glanced out to the moonlit cherry blossom trees through the window. “Why, dear? The field looks so pretty in the full moon’s light.”
Lily looked around, as if searching the shadows for awaiting ghosts and monsters. She then sat up, slowly and cautiously, and met her mother’s gaze.
“The moon is scary tonight.” she said.
Her mom laughed and ruffled the seven-year-old’s messy brown hair. “The only thing bad about this moon is how bright it is, Lily.” she teased. When she noticed the genuine fear in her little girl’s eyes, she asked, “What are you really afraid of tonight, Lily?”
Lily shrugged and began gently petting her stuffed bunny. “Mommy, Black Rose will come out tonight.”
Violet stifled a small gasp of surprise.
“A-and, why do you say that?” she questioned.
Lily continued stroking the bunny, as if that action itself could make her nightmarish thoughts leave her.
“Her voice whispers to me at night, Mommy.” Lily told. Her small body began to shake with sobs. “Black Rose will come get me when the moon is full…”
“STOP IT!” Violet yelled.
Lily shrunk back, and began rubbing her tears away.
Violet rested her face in her hands. She did not want to hear about Black Rose, especially not from her young daughter.
Forcing a warm smile, she pulled Lily close and rocked her gently until she was on the fringe of sleep.
Laying her down and tucking the blankets around tight, Violet whispered, “It was only a nightmare of yours, sweetie. Black Rose isn’t real. I promise.” she gave Lily a light kiss on the cheek, and got up to leave.
As she pulled the door closed, she repeated, “Black Rose is not real,” more to comfort herself than her daughter.
As she walked down the hallway to go to sleep as well, she paused to look out the hallway window. The moon’s soft glow was being distorted by dark clouds. The cherry blossoms where left in a moon-less dark.
The sight gave her chills. “No more of this. Its not real. She must have heard her name once and it somehow has reoccurred in her bad dreams.” Violet scolded herself.
As she entered her bedroom, empty because her husband was gone on business for a week, she remembered what Lily had said earlier.
“The curtains.” she said, and left to go close them.
As she returned down the hall, a sudden bolt of lightening made her scream.
“It’s those dark clouds.” she thought to herself. “It’s only a storm.”
During the second flash of lightening, something by the hall window caught her eye. She then realized the window was now open.
It hadn’t been before.
She rushed to close it, cold rain stinging her skin. Her foot stood on something sharp.
“GAAH!” she exclaimed, automatically lifting her foot up. Looking down to see what she had stepped on, her heart almost stopped beating.
There was a single black rose, it’s thorns glistening.
“No!” she clutched her chest as she fell against the wall in shock.
She heard a helpless cry from her daughter’s room.
“LILY!” Violet called to her daughter, panic ripping through her body as she yanked at the doorknob to Lily’s room.
It wouldn’t open.
“COME ON! PLEASE!” Violet plead. The door burst open, throwing her to the rain-soaked carpet. She still hadn’t closed the window and strong winds and rain where tearing through it’s opening.
Running into Lily’s room, she let out a cry as she saw what she had feared.
The curtains were still open, leaving the shadowed moon in view.
A woman sat on the floor, in the shadow of the moon, a twisted grin spread across her face.
Lily was in the mercy of the woman’s hands, her mouth still moving as if she was continuing her cries for help.
The woman was choking her. Killing her.
Black Rose.