CH.4 A promise you should never have broken
Iris stood in the middle of a vast void stretching into darkness.
As if the shadows swirling around her were speaking to her.
A quiet voice, just an illusion creeping into her mind.
Suddenly, from the dark sky lost in nothingness, white rose petals began to fall, fragile as the first snowflakes in late November, covering the ground in a veil of innocence.
She felt powerful arms wrap around her waist. They glided over her body with an almost unnaturally gentle touch.
She felt the warmth of his presence on her back, like the bright glow of fire.
He was much taller than her, she didn't even have to look back to see.
The shadow looming over her told her so.
He took another tiny step closer and pressed her to his chest. Her heart pounded wildly as she felt his breath on her neck, as if it wanted to break through her chest and escape.
And yet she relaxed in his arms as if she had found a home. When his hand wandered possessively to her neck. When his lips brushed gently against her ear. When he whispered those words to her.
"You are mine, Iris. Only mine."
She woke from the dream as if from a nightmare.
She was gasping for breath. She was shaking.
A strange feeling crawled under her skin, so captivating, but at the same time there was something warning about it.
And in the vase lay another rose, its color so innocent and its thorns as sharp as a blade.
But it was not the time of her birthday.
Iris didn't have a birthday.