This is the story of a girl. This is the story of a girl that pretended to be a boy to carry on her family's name in their absence. This is the story of a girl who fell in love with a man she couldn't have. This is the story of me, Karren von Rosewald.

Now problems, those can be fixed. Unrequited love, however, now that's a tragedy. If you're into astrology, you could say we were star crossed-lovers, but I don't even think that captures how much pain it caused the both of us. Though, I'd never know if He felt the same about me. Because I died.

But that's the ending to this tragedy. Spoilers! Many, many things led up to this climax of my life. But, I think I was happiest when I died, so maybe my whole life wasn't for naught... That's up to you to decide, I guess.

So, let's start with the beginning, shall we?

Hans von Rosewald married my mother, Emma Tsukiyama at the beautiful age of 29 while she was 23. They had met while hunting one night for humans and hit it off from there. Both were from very distinguished families, so getting married was an easy task for these two lovers. After marriage, they settled in Germany, where my father's family mansion was located.

Two years later, my oldest brother Arnold was born. Arnold was a serious, handsome man who cared nothing for sports and everything for academics.

"He's going to be a fine heir to the Rosewald family!" my father used to say all the time.

My second eldest brother, Nathanael, was born four years after Arnold. He was a rambunctious and rebellious boy who loves to poke fun at everything and everyone. He cared little for schoolwork and always seemed to be covered in dirt, much to my mother's chagrin.

But Father didn't mind his ways, he even encouraged him!

"Go on, go have fun!" he would say. "Just don't wander too far!"

Arnold had a secret jealousy for Nathanael. Because all of the pressure weighed on his shoulders to carry on the family's legacy, Arnold never found the time to have fun or get dirty, but he always had a secret longing to explore the mansion grounds with his brother.

And finally, after my mother's long wait for a daughter, a third and final child came along on the 23rd of April, me, Karren von Rosewald.

Being the youngest and only girl, (and favorite, as my brothers would say) I was given free reign to do whatever I pleased because I wouldn't ever have the burden my brothers had. If anything happened to Arnold, Nathanael would take his place as the heir, so I would never have to worry about such things.

My parents adored me, and my brothers constantly had it out for me. I always got away with petty shenanigans, and my brothers claimed that they never got away with anything.

But that really wasn't the case. My parents loved and gave attention to each of us equally, despite Arnold and Nathanael's claims that I was the only thing they cared about.

Emma, my mother, was a stay-at-home mom and took care of us while my father was away at his business. The servants in our house taught us everything we needed to know academic-wise, but my mother insisted that we know other languages. Because her family was both French and Japanese, all three of us siblings were fluent in German, as well as French and Japanese by the time I was six years old, though we mainly spoke German.

My brothers and I got along swimmingly, though we did have our occasional brawls in the courtyard. Like if Arnold insulted me, Nathanael would always back me up and beat him up, or vice-versa. I was always too little to fight with them, but I didn't have any problem tattling on either one of them.

"Mama!" I would cry from the courtyard. "Arnold called me stupid!"

Arnold would roll his eyes and flick me on the forehead as he was called inside by either Mother or Father for a scolding. Nathanael and I would look at each other with grins filled with mischief as he started running around the grounds and I tottered after him as fast as I could.

I remember one day, all three of us were running outside by the garden. Nathanael started racing Arnold around the bushes.

"I want to race too!" I would say, lining up on the start line, a pile of rocks gathered into a line in the grass, trying to imitate them. I pulled my leg forward into a huge lunge as far as my little legs could split and set my hands in the grass, ready to race.

"Karren, you'll just cry if you don't win," Nathanael said. "Besides, you're too young to beat us. You're only five."

"I won't cry!" I argued, accidentally losing my balance from rage. They both snickered quietly as I heaved myself and my dress back up and got back into the ready position. "I want to race!"

"It's alright with me," Arnold said. "I won't come in last place this time."

"Alright. Fine, Karren," Nathanael said. "Run around the bushes and come back here. Whoever gets here first gets all the loser's desserts for a month!"

"Such high stakes," Arnold said, smirking. "I like it."

They both looked to me. I nodded, ready for anything.

"On your marks..." Nathanael said. "Get set... GO!"

We all sprung off the starting line, and started the race. I saw both Nathanael and Arnold sprint past me like gazelles. I tried to run as fast as I could, but my legs wouldn't carry me as fast as I wanted them too! When I got to the bushes we were supposed to go around, I began to feel dishearten and started tearing up, just like Nathanael had predicted. I heard their footsteps already cross the finish line. Nathanael had won yet again.

As the tears welled up in my eyes at the loss of my dessert for a month, I stopped running and hid behind the bushes so they wouldn't see me crying.

I could hear Arnold's angry yells at Nathanael who was being rather cocky. Arnold was begging for just one more race as the tears started falling down my eyes. I sniffed hugely and wiped them away with the hem of my dress and crouched down on the ground to sob quietly.

"Karren?" I heard Nathanael say. "Are you coming, slow poke?"

I buried my face in my dress and didn't respond.

"Come on, Karren," Nathanael prodded. "It's not like you actually though you were going to win."

"Stop, Nathanael," Arnold said. "Don't be mean."

I heard them walking towards me so I crawled further into the bush to hide from them. This overwhelmingly sweet smell filled my sensitive nostrils and made my eyes water a little bit more than they already were.

"Karren, come on out," Arnold asked. "Nathanael didn't really mean you'd have to give up your dessert."

"What?"

"Shut up," he muttered under his breath. "Karren!"

"Karren!" they called for me, but I refused to reply.

"I can smell you right here, you know," Arnold said. I could see their silhouettes from inside the bush.

"All I smell is roses," Nathanael admitted. "You sure she's here?"

"Yes," he said defiantly. "Karren, come on out. Don't be sad, ok?"

"Yeah, I didn't mean it, Karren," Nathanael cooed.

I wiped away my tears and asked, "So... I can really still have my dessert?"

"Yes," they said together, squatting outside the bush.

"Even... Even an eyeball?" I inquired further.

"Even an eyeball," Arnold assured me.

I smiled hugely and stood up in the bush. As I tried to walk out, I got caught in the vines of the bush and couldn't move. I was completely and utterly stuck. I struggled further into my entanglement, and soon the thorns on the bush began to sink into my skin.

Now I know what you're thinking. How could thorns pierce into a ghoul's skin? Aren't they, like, ten times more resistant that humans? And you're right, but not young ghouls. Their skin isn't as impermeable as adult ghoul's skin.

"Ow!" I screeched, struggling to get out of the thorns. I started screaming and wailing for my brother's help.

"Karren!" they both said, alarmed. "What's the matter?!"

"It hurts!" I cried.

"Go get Papa!" Nathanael yelled at Arnold urgently.

I heard his footsteps run away quickly.

"Karren, keep still, Papa's on his way," he said, trying to comfort me. "I'm gonna try to get you out, ok?"

Yet, I still floundered around, trying to break free from the thorns, only entangling myself further still. I saw Nathanael trying to reach his hands through the bush to see if he could help untangle me. Amongst all my screaming and wailing, Nathanael tried to do everything he could to free me from the thorns, but he just could reach far enough.

Finally, Father arrived and ripped away all the thorns that blocked me from getting out. He scooped me into his secure arms and held me tightly.

"Are you alright, my darling Karren?" he whispered in my ear.

I bit my lip and tried to smile, but the tears in my eyes wouldn't stop. "I'm ok," I whimpered.

"Let's get you all fixed up," he said, walking me back inside the manor.

"What were those things?" I asked.

"Rose bushes," he said. "The flowers may look beautiful, Karren, but the thorns are pretty sharp. Never forget that, alright?"

"Ok, Papa," I nodded.

He set me down on one of the tables and began picking each and every thorn out of my skin carefully. When he was finished, he ruffled my hair and said, "There, good as new!"

I couldn't help but to laugh again. With the thorns out of my skin, the little cuts all around began to heal themselves. Within minutes, I began running around the manor, looking for my brothers after my little encounter with my new least-favorite thing in the world, roses. When I had found them in the courtyard, I gave them both huge hugs for saving me.

And from that moment on, I never went near that rose bush or any others unless I absolutely had too. The smell I had once thought sweet now sickened me and disgusted my nose.

By the time I was seven, when Arnold had just turned fourteen, Father decided that it was time for his first hunt. Mother was completely opposed to the idea, but Father eventually convinced her.

"He's not going to have us forever, you know, Emma," he said. "Sooner or later, he has to become a man."

That was around the time that he and Nathanael had started playing around with their kagune. Both were ukakus, like Mother. I was super jealous of them because, at the time, I still couldn't bring my kagune out yet.

They teased me relentlessly about how apparently I was adopted and actually a human, only kept in the family for emergency food in case of a shortage. But Father punished them severely for that lie, so they stopped almost immediately after they had come up with that fantastical story. He didn't let either of them eat for a whole month and had to postpone Arnold's first hunt until further notice.

After the time came for Arnold to embark on his first hunt with Father, he came back with a corpse of a human women and a successful first hunt story. I was enraptured by the idea of killing my own food, but Nathanael almost got sick while Arnold described his gruesome account.

I always dreamt that the reason Nathanael didn't like killing was because he was secretly in love with a human, but that would never have been true because we had never interacted with many humans before. Father had loads of times because he was the head of a major corporation with many human employees. Nathanael was content on eating the food the servants provided us instead of actually hunting, which Father disapproved of, but couldn't do anything about.

Father told us about the dangers of humans and the many organizations that hunted us ghouls for the simple fact that we existed, which didn't make sense to me. It's not as if the cattle try to kill humans for eating them! He even warned us about the human food that was toxic to our bodies, and that sometimes we'd have to eat it in order to avoid suspicion.

Mother didn't encourage Father's stories of the humans because she thought Nathanael and I were too young for the horrors of the human world. Father admitted I might be a bit too young, but that I'd have to learn about it sooner or later.

By that time, Mother had been teaching me everything I needed to know about being a proper lady. And by then, Nathanael had grown out of his rebellious phase and began studying hard like Arnold.

I missed them fervently. I missed when we raced around the grounds, I missed playing hide-and-go-seek with them, I missed Nathanael shoving Arnold into a wall to defend my honor and vice-versa. I missed my brothers and I missed how it used to be.

But they both gave excuses to me as to why they had to go off and study something while I was left alone and without entertainment. To fill my lonely time, I asked my mother if I could take up an instrument.

"Sure, that's a great idea!" she said. "But which one? Do you have something in mind?"

"The violin, perhaps," I suggested.

My mother's eyes lit up when I said this. She thought it was the most perfect plan in the history of the world.

The only reason why I thought of the violin was because during some of my parents' dinner parties, our servants would play different instruments to entertain the guests. The violin had always intrigued me with its peculiar elegance and enrapturing sound.

I was completely terrible when I first started, but after practicing copious hours in the drawing room on a particularly hard piece at the time, I finally found the courage to play in front my family.

When I had run through the piece with virtually no mistakes for the fifth time in a row, I ran downstairs to tell my family.

Father was in his office working while the rest of them were in the dining room. Mother was tutoring them in some subject that didn't matter to me at the time.

"Mama!" I said excitedly. "I got it! I can play that piece you picked out for me!"

She stood up and smiled brightly. Nathanael and Arnold both looked up from their work.

"What do you say, boys? Shall we hear it?" she asked.

They both nodded at each other and Nathanael replied, "Sure."

I ran back upstairs in the drawing room with a giddy step, grabbed the music stand, violin, bow, and the sheet music. On of the servants caught me running down the hall and helped me carry everything downstairs.

We set up everything in the dining room quickly and Mother had gotten Father to come watch as well. Even some of the servants showed up to listen.

I looked out to my audience. Everyone was staring at me with smiles of anticipation.

I gulped and looked at the sheet music, readying my instrument to my neck. I held the bow in my delicate hand and started playing. The notes seemed to glide in the air and swirl melodiously around the ears of everyone who listened. I played the piece absolutely perfectly, even I was surprised.

At last, when I lowered the bow and violin to give a curtesy to my audience, everyone stood up and clapped for me. My face flushed red at the amount of praise I received. My Father even spun me around in the air to congratulate me.

"That was absolutely beautiful, my darling Karren!" he extolled. "Simply wonderful!"

"Way to go, Karren!" Nathanael cheered, clapping louder than everyone else in the room.

"Looks like we have quite the little virtuoso in the manor," Mother gleamed with praise.

I don't think I'd ever felt so happy in my life than in that moment.

When the applause stopped and everyone had gone back to what they were doing previously, my Mother sat me in her lap as she tutored the boys.

"You know, Karren," she said. I looked into her eyes as she spoke, "I used to play the violin, too."

I gasped and said, "Mama, why didn't you tell me?"

"Oh, I don't know," she said. "That piece I recommended, I didn't think you'd master it so soon. It took me months!"

"Really?" I asked, suddenly feeling a surge of pride. "But I got in in two weeks..."

"It's a special gift, Karren," she said. "Music brings people together. How do you think I got your Papa to date me?"

I laughed, but was immediately shushed by Arnold who was working on a complicated problem.

"Sorry," I whispered.

Everything was absolutely perfect in those days of my youth. Despite my brothers not playing with me as much, we still got along as harmoniously as ever. Father's work was beginning to take up more and more of his time, so he began to take longer and longer to return home from working. Mother seemed to be worried about him more than usual. I could tell she wasn't sleeping well from ever-growing dark circles under her eyes. But whenever I asked her about it, she always brushed me off like everything was fine.

Until it wasn't.

(I do not own Tokyo Ghoul or any of its characters. This was made for entertainment purposes only and no copyright is intended.)