A rose should be red: Part 1 - Secrets

by Akaku Red

  “On the backside, there is an address on. She got adopted, but I don't know if she still lives there. You could try it, though.”

  My smile started to grow.

  “Thank you so much!”

  “No problem! I just hope … that Alice will find her friend again. She was a lonely child … And sad … But when she talked about a friend, who was living somewhere else, she smiled and shone so bright …Every time she did that, people called her a liar … Everyone thought she just had an imaginary friend … Even I thought she was lying because the picture didn't proof anything… anyway now, I do believe it. I wish you good luck!”

  My tears dropped as I heard that Alice was lonely.

  “Oh my, please don't cry. I am sure she is happy now. She always dreamed of seeing you again! I remember her clearly; she always hung out the garden. Such a lovely girl … it was sad to see her alone.”

  I wiped away my tears.

  “Thank you for telling me. I hope I can find her soon!”

  “I hope so, but be careful! I heard rumours that there is a strange guy looking for specific children. We had to put away some pictures so he can’t recognise them.”

  I started to shiver.

  This was the first time hearing something like this.

  Linette pulled me behind her.

  “Then where is the safety here? Everyone can get into this orphanage without any problem!” She stated.

  I agreed.

  There was no security, no cameras.

  “Well, everything is expensive.” She sighed.

  “But we are trying our best to make this a safe place.”

  This orphanage didn't care about the children … nobody cared about abandoned kids.

  “I see … I hope that no kid went missing.”

  Linette turned, slowly to face me.

  The lady didn't answer anymore.

  “We need to get going. We only have one hour left before the lesson starts!”

  Linette yanked me out.

  She was the one leading the way. I was still too dazed about the information that I have gotten.

  It was frightening, and I really needed to know more about this matter!

  The children weren't safe. I can’t leave them like that … I needed to help them!

  “Jenny, you need to calm down. You look pale.”

  Linette’s voice brought me back to reality.

  “I am sorry, it’s just a little bit shocking. I mean they even removed our pictures. But WAIT!” I started to rethink.

  `We had to put away some pictures, so he can’t recognise them.´

  “This strange man was looking for … children who were way longer in the orphanage. They wanted to protect the children who are no longer … Or maybe still in the orphanage!” I started to get dizzy.

  “Jenny! We don't know the facts. We should research first!”

  Linette sighed as our train arrived.

  This time there were no seats left to sit on, that’s why we stood at the entree and leaned on the train walls.

  “We can do our research in the library.” She suggested.

  “You want to help me?”

  “Of course! That’s what friends are for!”

  Her smile reached her eyes.

  “Thank you!”

  I looked down on the picture, which I still held in my hand.

  Alice was so beautiful, and seeing her like this made me remember the day in all clarity.

  I felt her warm hug, she always smelled like spring, and she liked to play with her long brown hair.

  This picture was taken on a Sunday.

  We didn't have school, and we were playing around.

  Some minder took pictures on that day, and as they saw us, they started taking some of us.

  Alice loved to pose, and I was more the type who got shy while hearing the word `camera`.

  But on this day, I smiled and posed with Alice.

  It really was a wonderful day.

  Carefully, I stowed the picture into the pocket of my jeans.

  Then I looked up to Linette. She stared at me with a gentle little smile on her face.

  “What?”

  “Oh … I just think it’s nice … the way you smiled, as you looked at the picture. You really did love her.”

  She noticed.

  “I still do.”

  My hair fell over and covered my face. I stroked them behind my ears.

  “I am sure she also smiles like that when she looks at the pictures.”

  Linette said.

  I wished she would do that.

  “By the way … you said you shared a room with her.”

  She got shy and tried to cover it with a little smile on her lips, but she couldn't hide the concern.

  “Yeah … I didn't want to tell anybody about it … Yet, I will tell you. But please, don't say a word to anyone about the orphanage or about my situation.” I said, as my heart was beating fast.

  I couldn't let her in the unknown since she wanted to help me out.

  “Why would I tell somebody about it? We are friends and secrets will be kept till death.”

  She made an oath, which made me smile.

  “You don't need to go this far.”

  “No! I just wanted you to know that I do see you as my friend! And that I wish you would see me as one too.”

  Slowly, I started to nod.

  Yeah… She is my friend, and I should tell her about it.

  But I didn't tell her everything, and I also didn’t go deep … I didn’t tell everything about what those monsters did to me. She just knew the parts, I wanted her to know.

  Her reaction was surprisingly good, she didn't show pity.

  But anger. Anger, because she thought that everything that happened was unfair.

  And she was right, it was unfair…

  We barely made it on time … okay, we didn't make it on time.

  Five minutes of the lesson had already passed.

  The teacher wasn't really pleased as we got in the classroom.

  She scolded us.

  Well, she was right to do so since we had enough break time to be at least punctual.

  With a little apology and sad eyes to show our regret, the teacher accepted our apology, and we escaped a punishment.

  We just got back to our seats, as she kept on with the lesson.

  Sadly, Dean was there too.

  Well, it wasn't a problem that he was there; it was just his stare that made me nervous.

  Because of this, I couldn’t concentrate.

  He didn't even bother looking somewhere else. It was creepy!

  The lesson seemed endless, and the teacher kept on talking and talking.

  Nobody was interested, and some students even covered their faces, as they slept in class.

  We still would have chemistry after this lesson, and even I started to get sleepy.

  “What did you do in your break time?”

  Suddenly, Dean got closer and whispered a question into my ear.

  I got startled, which made him chuckle.

  His brown eyes looked deep into mine, as I turned to face him.

  “Hide from your fangirls.“ I said.

  One brow rose up. He looked at me with disbelieve.

  “What?“

  “Come on! You were the one who said, if I don't do as you say, then I will go through hell. And you saw me running away from your fans.”

  Dean really looked surprised.

  “This can’t be true. I didn't give my okay.”

  So, he needed to give them his blessing? What a jerk!

  He sighed.

  “Stop it, Jenny! Don't make your own conclusions! I know we didn't have a great start, but I would never do something to hurt you. Because I know … you have suffered a lot.”

  His words made me shiver.

  “Please don't pity me …” I muttered.

  “Oh, god! I don't seem to get through you. Everything I say makes you more distanced. I am not a compl
icated guy. I just don't know how to … tell my real intentions.”

  His brows twitched, as he seemed to think hard.

  “You might not remember, but I do. And … I really would like to hang out with you again, because you were the one and only friend – the one who understood me.” As he said that, his face turned red.

  He got shy, and … he really looked cute like this.

  But first, he acts like a bad boy, and now he tries to be nice?

  His behaviour didn't match his actions.

  Before I could answer him, the school bell started ringing.

  The students jumped up and grabbed their bags.

  “THE BELL DOES NOT DISMISS YOU, I DO!” The teacher yelled, which made the students sit back down.

  “I still need you guys to write down your homework.” She flipped over the board, where some tasks were written on it.

  “Tomorrow, I will collect it!”

  The students started gasping.

  “This is way too much!” Someone said.

  “You want more homework? Okay, no problem with that!”

  The teacher took the chalk and wrote down two more tasks.

  “You want more?” She asked.

  Everyone started to shake their heads.

  Wow … This teacher was a wolf … damn.

  “Good! Now then… have a nice day.”

  Now again, the students got up and started to leave the classroom.

  Linette sighed as she came next to me.

  “Let’s go to the library.”

  “I still didn't finish talking.” Dean interrupted.

  Oh, I nearly forgot him.

  “We don't care!” Linette took my school bag and pulled me away from my seat.

  “Linette, you should watch your mouth. You already got on my nerves!”

  I wanted to say something, but Linette was faster.

  “Ah … let me help you recall. You! Don’t! Have! Your stupid fangirls under control!”

  Her anger rose, and she didn't hold back with her words.

  “You’re just a spoiled kid, who never had real friends! And because you have a little bit of authority, you are acting all cool! But I will warn you, if you ever try to hurt Jenny, I will hunt you down.” Linette had the coldest voice. I had ever heard.

  Even I started to feel pressured because of her.

  “I won’t hurt her! What is wrong with you?” He asked with disbelieve written on his face.

  “Stop your damn lies.”

  Dean sighed again and looked down.

  Linette took the chance and pulled me out of the classroom, without turning back.

  “Such a jerk. I really hate this guy!” She muttered, but I could see that she had more hidden feelings than just anger.

  I would like to ask, but we needed to enter our spot safely first… unhindered from his fans.

  We needed to pass through the school garden to get to the school library.

  This time we didn't meet any fangirls, which made us sigh in relive, as we arrived.

  “Thank heaven! We didn't see those crazy girls.”

  I agreed, thankfully we had no problem now.

  “So how about we look at the newspapers?” She said with curiosity sparkling in her eyes.

  “You really want to check things out fast.”

  “Of course!”

  Linette sat down in a corner of the library, where nobody could see us.

  On the way to our seats, we took some old newspapers from different publishers.

  “But could you please tell me, why you said such mean things to Dean? I mean, he is not the nicest person, but still, the words were hurtful.”

  Linette sighed.

  “I have known Dean since we were little … he is also my neighbour, and I know him pretty well. But he doesn't want to act as he knows me in school. Anyway … As you thought, he is an asshole and pretty arrogant. He isn’t someone to trust.”

  I pouted.

  Well, he didn't seem bad … And he really looked like he didn't know what was going on.

  “Oh … Don’t tell me you have fallen for his words!”

  Linette looked at me with big eyes.

  “Fallen for his words?”

  “Trust me, just because he looks good it doesn’t mean he is good!”

  She snapped with her tongue.

  For me, it seemed like she was mad at Dean, but not just from this situation … and I didn’t think she opined those words too.

  But to start a discussion now wasn’t a perfect idea. That’s why I began to change the topic.

  “Let’s begin with the research!”

  We looked carefully at the newspapers, but we didn't find anything about the orphanage or a strange man looking for children. I tried to focus also on articles where the content was about suspicious people, but even there wasn't anything informative.

  After we looked through all of them, we started to search online for information.

  The library had computers, and we took a seat next to a window.

  Thankfully, there weren't many students so that we could take our time.

  Well, just the school bell could make us stop, but no students who would want to use the PC.

  On a note over the desk was written that students could only use a PC for fifteen minutes, if more students were present, who also wanted to use it.

  Linette typed the name of the orphanage, and then we started to scroll down the news.

  We looked through everything, yet we couldn't find anything suspicious.

  Maybe those news were not talking worthy … Or perhaps someone didn't want to publish negative headlines and tried to cover up the story?

  “Maybe the woman wanted to make a bad joke and told us a scary bedtime story.” Linette sighed.

  This could be thought too.

  “This is creepy…”

  “Well, we should look for the address on the picture of your friend, maybe we have more luck with this.”

  I nodded, this was a good idea, but before we could make a new plan, the school bell started ringing.

  “Oh, shit! We can’t be late again!”

  Linette jumped up from the chair.

  She took some newspapers and tossed them in her bag.

  “I thought you need to scan this … when you take anything from the library.” I said, confused.

  “Well, yes … But I have a special privilege. I work here voluntarily, and I know what I am doing.”

  She smiled and winked at me before we started running.

  We passed through the garden again, but as we did that, a group of boys stopped us.

  “Hey, cutie! How about hanging out with us?”

  One of them said.

  “How about you go and play with yourself?” Linette retaliated.

  “Uh … this girl is showing some nuts – ha-ha!”

  The guys looked well trained, and they were all tall, their appearance made me gasp.

  And Linette was making the situation worse with her words.

  “We didn't talk with you shorty! I am talking with the new girl.” He looked and pointed at me with his finger.

  I tried to flee with Linette, but they circled us.

  Other people behind them started to gather together to watch the show.

  A lot of strange faces, people that I didn't know.

  Linette and the guys started fighting with words, she argued, and they countered.

  But it was getting out of hand, as the guys started touching us.

  The situation made me dizzy.

  “Hey! DON’T TOUCH US!” Linette screamed.

  One of the guys put his hands on my hips, and I started to shiver.

  This was disgusting!

  Again, I started to hate myself more because I couldn't do anything.

  My body couldn't fight; it was like I had no control over it.

  Even if I would say something, I was sure that there would be no sound or even worse … I would stutter.

  And if I
started to stutter now, they would make more fun of me.

  I closed my eyes, as I tried to get my body moving, but again it didn't want to listen to me.

  Linette was cursing.

  I needed to help her, but these nasty hands … reminded me of Thomas.

  It made me tremble.

  He was moving his hands everywhere while muttering nasty words.

  But suddenly the hands disappeared.

  I heard a loud fall on the ground.

  “Don’t you dare touch her again!”

  Surprised by the deep voice, I opened my eyes.

  Dean was standing in front of me. The boys which circled us stepped back and looked at me with shock written on their faces. I mean, I also was in shock, because he was the last person I was expecting …Yet I was glad that somebody stepped in.

  “Who allowed you to touch her?”

  Dean was furious, his eyes were glaring, and it seemed like he would kill somebody.

  His muscles flexed, as the one who touched me started moving.

  “Talk!” He commanded.

  “Jessica … said that you wanted to tease the new girl. So, we just wanted to help.”

  The boy started to breathe heavily as if he had been punched hard in his stomach.

  Maybe Dean did that.

  I didn’t know … because my eyes were closed.

  “So, it is like that... and where did Jessica get this information from?”

  The other boys started to meddle in, but they got silenced by the death glare of Dean.

  “I don’t know man! I just have this information.”

  They helped him up, and Dean started to get near me.

  He looked around as if he was making sure that there were enough people.

  The next thing he did was getting his arms around my shoulder.

  “I told you to leave her alone” Linette said, but she froze, as he glared at her too.

  I need to say, his arm around me wasn’t as uncomfortable, as the guys around my body.

  Even though he was angry as hell and glaring like a devil.

  His touch was soft and careful.

  “Everybody, listen up! This girl is under my protection! If you ever do something to her or if you try to talk bad about her, I will personally hunt you down! Is this clear?”

  This made me speechless, and I could see from the corner of my eyes, the sightseers too.

  But the most surprising thing was that all of them started agreeing without any objection.

  He really was a ruler!

  “Good! Now go and tell everybody about it! I don’t want to see any of your faces!”