-It's burning.

The room was dark, only lit by a single aposs and the light glimmer of the metal stove beside it. The stone hard walls and the iron bars surrounding the entrance door reflected the dim light, a small barred air vent permitting the moonlight inside.

-It won't stop burning.

Underneath the white sleeves of her dress, the cracks in her flesh were slowly spreading, creeping inch by inch across her skin. Maphori incanted over and over but no matter how many times she did so the wounds would always reopen. She pulled back her sleeve, the pain ever increasing as the nerves tore after every reconstruction.

"Why won't it stop." Her voice quivered.

She slipped and fell over in exhaustion, her legs shaking as as she had been at this straining task for ours now. Attempting to regain her balance she slumped herself against the wall of her room and reaching into her skirt she pulled out a surgical knife, her fingers grasping the handle tightly. Her lips parsed together as she exhaled sharply.

She drew the blade across her forearm, the skin peeling away from the tissue. Her teeth clenched, her jaw tightening as the muscle was exposed. Blood dripped down her wrist as the wound refused to repair. She then traced a line around the flower. The black rose. The mark that now beat and convulsed as if it were alive and breathing.

She wiped away the blood with her sleeve and with a single swipe cut a chunk of flesh out of her arm. She screeched, her mouth gaping, her lungs heaving. She hurled the knife across the room. The blood poured freely from the new wound as she pressed down with her other hand and focused.

"Please. Just stop."

The blue glow of the aposs flickered, as it mingled with the moonlight.

"Please!" She begged before chanted once again. She held her arm tightly as the skin began to reform and regenerate.

Her eyes peered down at the floor, her head resting against the wall. The blood puddle was large, her eyesight becoming blurry. A prayer left her lips, "god, please just make it go away!" She slowly let go of her arm, as she slid onto the floor, her back stiffening to the cold and her eyelids fluttering shut.

She lifted her forearm over her head then let her eyes open once again. The red hue had faded, the veins no longer visible. The wound had healed. The black flower remained.

She dropped her arm, her hands limp, her breathing ragged and uneven.

"Damn this-" She whispered, the tears trickling down her cheeks. Turning to the fire place, she dragged herself across the floor and rested her forehead against the warm stones. The flames burned brightly, the red light hot and soothing against her face. The flames flickered, the fire dancing and swaying while she lay beside it, hope gradually dissipating.

She smiled.

-I have to try.

She closed her eyes, the warmth engulfing her, the smile still present. Grabbing hold of the tongs she reached into the fire and pulled out a solid red rock. Before she had time to hesitate, she plunged it into the flower.

Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

-I will burn you out!

Her screeches echoed through the halls, the stone walls carrying her cries. As the pain disoriented her thoughts, strange images began to float through her mind.

She was chained to a wall, her wrists and ankles red with blisters and her clothing stained with sweat. A woman dress in pink approached, her appearance slim and slender, her hair braided and violet. The woman reached out and touched her face, her finger tips cold and sharp.

"This is no longer procuring results. Bring him in and place him on the heated grill."

-No, please.

Too hours later she was kneeling, her back bent over and her hands curbed, holding a lifeless corpse close to her bosom. The walls were cracked and the bricks had fallen and crumbled around her.

-Don't leave me yet.

"It has been accomplished." The woman said, "A genius has been created. All thanks to you, doctor."

"I am just as surprised as you, my lady. But it is an honor you speak such praise of me. And please, we are too close to be addressed so formally. You can call me Emar."

As Maphori slowly came back to reality, she peered down at her forearm with the red ember boiling and burning a hole from the center of the tattoo. She raised her arm, her finger tracing the circular area which had been seared away. Once again, the healing did nothing to remove the living mark.

-The boy in green mentioned him.

Her memories of the rose could be traced back to the doctor's final visit. It began to react the day after the boy in green was taken in a day after he had supposedly seen Emar die. It couldn't have been coincidental, after all the empire wanted her dead. The boy had something to do with it, but it was what she was to do about it that troubled her more.

-He knows.

Maphori stumbled, her legs unable to support her weight as she limped out the door.

"Dammit. Where is he?!" She cried.

She had kept the flower's reaction from the others, all with the exception of Farial, but she had left without a word for a month now and Maphori could not wait much longer. The flower was going to kill her.

She stumbled down the hallway, her body falling forward, her chin cracking off the floor.

-I have to use it.

She chanted, her fingers drawing a line across her legs. She grasped the wall as the muscles moved and morphed, growing and stretching her skin till they almost tore.

-I'll do my arms if I have to kill him.

As she approached the dining hall, she heard the door open.

-There he is.

The door opened and the boy Touji left the room, his gaze facing forward. He seemed to tip toe away as if not wanting the larger man to hear him.

"Why are you sneaking around here?!" She bellowed.

He turned, his face paled, his body slowly backing away.

"Uhhhh, no. No. Nope. We are not doing this now please. I don't want to disturb that very big man back there in the other room."

-I can't kill him. Not yet.

"Don't play tricks with me. What have you done?!" She began to approach him, her shoes clacking against the stone floor, leaving a trail of blood droplets.

Touji not noticing such a fact, shook his head profusely, "Nothing, and besides I thought we were good?"

"Good?" Her expression becoming increasingly sharper, "Good? I know your pulling something behind our backs. I can smell it."

Touji's face lowered as he noticed something happening inside him. He was losing control. The mask he was wearing was slipping off.

"If you did anything to Fairial I will-"

"-What are you going to do? Kill me again?" He snapped.

The hallway fell silent. Maphori stood stationary.

Touji covered his mouth, "Shit."

"What do you mean by that?" Her eyes were piercing, her expression dark and solemn. These words were uttered in shock, but not at what he had said, but what she saw. The air behind him seemed to split, as if reality was being cut open and the atoms in the room were being torn apart. A portal began to materialize as the cracks in space opened in a menacing oval shape. As it did a spherical object lay behind with millions of red veins pulsating and twisting.

Touji seemed oblivious to the scene that was unfolding behind him. The white ball rolled in a grotesque and disturbingly unnatural manner to reveal an iris. The pupil dilated.

Maphori froze, her body quivering in fear.

-Ah, we are all dead now.