Rose

Rose sat back in the buttery leather seats of the stretch limo and pouted as she tugged at the red gown she had on.

She hated it; absolutely HATED the damn thing.

Earlier, she had been dressed in a very pretty and expensive ornamental furisode. Her obi had been fastened around her waist so well. She had had ornamental chopsticks in her hair securing a noble-woman's bun. Everything about the outfit had been absolutely perfect.

Well, it was until her grandmothers estate representative, Chris, came at her with a swarm of seamstresses, hairstylists and makeup artists, all bearing needles, fabric, thread, hairspray, eyeliner, foundation, lipstick, hairbrushes and all the horrible torture devices used by seamstresses, hairstylists and makeup artists.

They had tugged and pulled at her outfit, replacing it with the ghastly thing she wore now. The scrubbed her face with powder and smeared special lipstick that, no matter how hard she tried, couldn't get off. And worst of all, they fucked up her hair by taking the chopsticks out and letting it fall down.

And while all that was happening, Chris had just been standing there talking to her as she was assaulted by those women (though, she suspected a couple were just very effeminate men). He had handed them ear-rings, contact lenses and a pair of lace gloves, among other things. Damn traitor!

She heard the sound of someone clearing their throat and snapped her head up.

'Speak of the traitorous swine!'

"Stop tugging at it; that dress' material is very expensive and fragile; it might rip."

Rose glared at the young man sitting across from her. He had short, spiked silver hair and blue eyes that glared right back.

"Well, I wouldn't tug at it so much if it didn't hug my body so much!"

"Ha! What do you expect? That dress was custom tailored for you."

"Whatever. All I know is that my furisode was comfortable and didn't hug me so tightly!" She said, tugging at it a little harder before giving up.

Rose looked out the window of the moving limo, scowling. Then she noticed something peculiar.

"Why are all the signs in English? I thought we were in Japan? Shouldn't they be in Japanese?"

"We ARE in Japan! Weren't you listening to a word I said earlier while you were being 'assaulted'?" Chris declared with accompanying air quotes.

"Those contacts in your eyes are actually very small super-computers that translate every known language into English; same with the earrings. As I tried telling you earlier, your grandmother was a lazy old hag and didn't want to take the time to learn Japanese, so she employed a staff of 4000 full-time technicians that she paid to sit around and invent stuff to make her life easier. All the accessories I had them put on you were actually highly advanced gadgets that could serve as many as 1000 different functions each."

Rose looked out the window and pondered as the limo drove out of the city.

"Even the silk gloves?"

"Especially the silk gloves; once you put them on- Wait, where are they? Have you even tried them on yet?"

"No, of course I didn't! Just look at them!" She exclaimed, taking the gloves out of her 'breast' pocket and holding them against her hand for comparison. "They're twice the size of my hand!"

Chris smirked. "Why don't you just try them on and see if they fit?"

"Are you retarded or something! I just showed- (sigh) Fine, if it'll make you shut up."

Rose rolled one of the silk gloves down her arm before it came to a stop just above her elbow. The glove hung limply from her hand.

"See? I told you! They're way to bi- AHH!" Rose screamed as the glove constricted around her arm.

Rose inspected the glove. "H-how did that…"

"Those gloves are designed to alter themselves to fit whoever puts them on."

Rose's eyes narrowed at Chris.

"So, these gloves were made by the guy who designed the tuxedo from The Tuxedo? Is Jackie Chan gonna come by the Emperor's house and kick some ass with Jennifer Love Hewitt bitching at him the whole time?"

"Ha, no; but those gloves probably have more than double the functionality."

Rose slid the other glove on and watched in tighten around her arm.

She smiled. "Too cool…"

The limo came to a stop at a gate outside of a large mansion. The security guard talked to the limo driver for a few seconds before going back into the guard booth and picking up a phone. A few seconds later the gate opened and limo drove inside.

It was too dark out to see much detail, but she could tell that the mansion was big. Behind it, she could see the faint silhouettes of fountains and a large garden.

The limo pulled up to the front door of the mansion and another security guard came and opened the limo door.

Rose and Chris stepped out of the limousine and the security guards escorted them through the front door to the emperor and empress.

Rose spotted them standing before a grand staircase; she felt a sudden flutter in her stomach as realization dawned on her.

'Oh my God… I'm about to meet the emperor and empress. I, Rose Black, am about to meet two of the most powerful people in all of Japan!'

Rose could feel her chest tighten as she nervously tugged harder and harder on her dress.

Unknown

Her clothes were torn and tattered, her face covered in dirt and her hands heavily calloused. She had several missing teeth, which showed as she smiled brightly.

It was like this that the little girl giggled as she ran through the field, chasing a small rabbit. It darted about every which way, seemingly humoring the child rather than taking her as an actual threat.

After a while, she became bored with the rabbit and ran off to some wildflowers in another part of the field. The rabbit, seeing he was no longer being 'chased', bounced to the spot in the meadow where its burrow was and ducked inside.

The little girl admired the flowers for a moment and began picking them. After she had nice bunch, she began weaving them into a crown. When she was done, she put the 'crown' on her head and began to weave matching bracelets.

A man stepped from the darkness of the surrounding forest and approached her nervously.

The little girl looked up at him and gave him a smile. He flash crooked toothed smile and shuffled closer to her.

"H-hello, little girl. Th-th-th-th-that's a v-v-very pre-p-pretty crown you h-have on." He stammered.

The little girl smiled more. She grabbed one of the bracelets she had just made and held it out to him, smiling.

He shuffled closer and cautiously reached out and snatched it from her hand. He looked at it for a second and put it to his nose, inhaling deeply. He let out a groan.

He looked back at her with darkness now in his eyes.

"Where are your parents, young one?"

The girl shook her head and shrugged.

An evil smile spread across his face as he stalked closer to her.

There was a scream.

Then crying and the sound of a knife ripping through flesh; blood spilling out onto the hearth.

Then silence.

A few hours later, the rabbit poked its nose out of its burrow. It bounded around in the field, looking for food. In its search, it hopped towards the wildflower patch to snack there.

It came to a rest at a large circlet of interwoven wildflowers. It sniffed them, recoiling at the coppery scent of blood. It approached slowly and sniffed them a little more and nibbled at the blood-soaked petals. Deciding it could ignore the metallic taste; it settled in and began munching on the flowers.

"Such delicious misery…" A voice emanated from the darkness of the forest, startling the rabbit into running back to the bushes.

A dense miasma drifted out of the woods, moving towards the girl as though conscious.

The girl's dead eyes flew open as her back arched into the air. Her mouth flew open, emitting a bone-chilling screech as the miasma invade every orifice the girl's body possessed; even the deep stabs in her abdomen and the slash in her throat.

Her body began to glow a deep, vibrant red as it rose into the air.

"Oh…" Spoke a disembodied voice. "Your pain is so delicious, please, let me have it."

The girl's body began to shake violently as her screeching intensified.

A woman appeared from the brush.

She was nude; her body appeared to have been flensed with knives. Her hair draped over her face like a long, black curtain, though her eyes, glowing a bright crimson, cut through the curtain like a knife.

She approached the young girl's body, making it still, though the screeching still continued.

"Yes, my child, sing for me your sweet song of sorrow…"

She bent down and put her lips to the screaming child's own. Slowly, the light poured out of the small child, filling the body of the other. Her screams died down; and then, they were no more.

She raised herself from the corpse, which had fallen back to the ground, and exhaled slowly, a cloud of miasma escaping her lips and enshrouding her.

"That…was satisfying." She spoke monotonously. She turned and disappeared into the forest.

To be continued...

A/N: Merry Christmas, guys! :D