Tearing Petals - Part 2

Anna ran her hands through the hot water around her hips as she smiled idly at the memory of Vivian staring at her aghast as she watched her new room-mate swell up like a leaking mess. That had been the first time Anna had ever had her welts break open. The only time. Until today that is. She reached up and trailed the water over her body, hoping to bring peace, but all it did was cause the stinging sensation to intensify. Anna sighed deeply as she stood, water sluicing down her body, she felt heavy and she was starting to wheeze a bit. She knew she may have to go the hospital this time.

Anna stepped one foot out of the tub and felt herself slip. Oh, God, she thought before hitting the floor, they are going to find me naked.

She opened her eyes what felt like moments later, her head throbbed. She reached up to her head and winced at the pain. Her hand came away red. Blood. Great, now she had no choice but to go the hospital.

She slowly got to her feet, being very careful so as not to sleep again. James lived next door to her. They each had a key to each other's apartment and she knew he was home, he had to. Anna glanced at the clock. It was getting later, she pulled on some sweat pants and a thinning t-shirt forgoing underwear as it would be massively uncomfortable.

Anna's image in the mirror did nothing to quiet the panic inside of her. Her face was beyond recognition. Her lip had swollen four times its normal size, she had one eye that had swollen completely shut and the other had a very heavy eye lid. She had a welt across her chin and her cheek. Even her nose looked misshapen. She had blood smeared on the left side of her head where she had fallen. She looked frightful.

The wheezing was getting worse; she was literally gasping for breath. She pulled on her bedroom slippers and shuffled her way out of her apartment carrying nothing but her phone and house key. Once Anna was outside of Jame's apartment she reached out to try the doorknob and frowned when it easily turned in her hand. Which was odd, as James typically locked the door behind him always. He was weirdly fanatical about it.

She pushed the door open and noticed his clothes strewn on the floor in his entry way. She followed the clothing, notching other articles of clothing that weren't his intermingled. She felt sick to her stomach as she reached the bedroom door. It wasn't fully. She could hear whispers and giggles coming through. Her stomach knotting, she reached out one swollen, blood smeared hand and pushed the door open.

Tears running down her cheeks, setting her raw, blistered flesh ablaze she look at her boyfriend. Her sweet, sincere, loyal boyfriend laying in bed with another woman. All Anna could really see was blond hair and tanned legs intertwined with Jame's own pale thighs. His eyes met hers and widened in horror. The woman also must have noticed Anna standing there as she began to shriek. Unconvincingly. Anna turned and ran for the door. She heard fumbling behind her as James came after her, calling her name.

She stumbled out of his apartment and to the elevator, when the doors shut she saw James running towards her clutching a sheet around his waist. Anna gasped as her stomach roiled. She looked at her phone. Only one person would come to get her at this moment.

She hit send on the phone. “Vivian,” her voice thick with emotion, “ I need to go the hospital.”

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STAY TUNED FOR PART 3! 

Read Part 1 HERE.

Tearing Petals

Hello world! I have been toying with a short story for a while in my brain and I've put fingers to keys so to speak and I have a few paragraphs I wanted to share. I may turn this into a blog serial for my readers. :) This is completely unedited so forgive any mistakes I've made. I do hope you enjoy!

Anna felt something tickle her face and smacked at the offending object as she slowly awoke. She pushed her face deeper into her pillow and slowly stretched her limbs out on the bed. The first few moments of waking were always the best. The warmth and the feel of her body languidly moving. Before her eyes even opened she smelled them. And fear shot straight through her body.

The cloying smell of roses permeated her room. She started to feel them sticking to her naked skin. Oh, God, no. James did not...the thought was cut off as her eyes popped open and saw exactly what her boyfriend of one year had done.

There were roses everywhere. Petals on the bed, on the floor, bouquets on every available surface. A huge heart shaped box was sitting on the bed beside her. Her eye twitched. Anna hated Valentine's Day. Maybe she had time to take the pills. She raced from the bed and looked in the mirror.

Too late. It had already started. Her long brown hair was tangled around her, mascara from yesterday had smeared down her cheek in what looked like a melted raccoon's eyes. And the blotches. One on her cheek. Another on her neck. Her shoulder sported a welt.

Having been allergic to roses all of her life she knew what lay in store for her. First came the blotches and welts. Then came the swelling. Her eyes, her lips. By the time this was over she was going to look like a raccoon version of Quasimodo. Her alarm went off. Music blaring about knowing he was trouble and Anna rolled her eyes.

She glared at the beautiful pink rose bouquet that stood between her and the mirror and reached over to push them off her dresser. She turned back to the bed and slowly made her way back to the poisonous bed, reached out and snatched the box. Chocolate. She could at least have that, right? Nope. She pulled the box open and there was the most gorgeous red, strapless dress she had ever seen. A dress she couldn't wear. Due to the welt she felt puffing up on her left ass cheek. And the one now spreading across her right breast. She sighed deeply and tried dodging the petals spread across the floor, stepping on them as she tip toed her way to the door. Anna stumbled from her room and sighed with relief. She opened her eyes and drew in a sharp breath.

Everywhere. He spared no expense. Left no stone unturned. Roses were everywhere. Their petals were scattered down her hall, what she could see of her living room was now a florist shop with every color, size and type of rose. Her house was going to kill her. Her twitching eyelid began to feel heavy.

It appeared swelling would come early. Happy f'ing Valentine's Day, she thought sarcastically.

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Two hours later, Anna was sitting in a tub of hot water trying not to scratch. She scrubbed the tub after she had found a bath drawn with the dreaded petals floating in the water. She cried as she her skin began to sting before she had even sat down in the hot, steamy bath.

Anna sat still with her knees drawn up to her chest and her arms wrapped around her legs. This is probably the worst case of the hives she had ever experienced. Anna remembered the last episode she had had, it had been many years ago. Her first week of college and her room mate had turned out to be a nightmare. “Gothic” was a fluffy way to describe Vivian. Vivian was very much her own person. The walls had been plastered with posters of pentagrams and other occultist things that Anna had never seen before that day. Images of sacrificial virgins and chicken blood popped into Anna's head and she had started to cry. Vivian just looked at her like she was a crazy person before walking over and hugging her. And that had been when Anna smelled it. Rose Water. Vivian, marshmallow that she turned out to be, washed all of her laundry in Rose Water, she even used it on her hair. Within 10 minutes Anna had been a blotchy mess.