SteviexOctopus wrote:The title is probably going to be changed.
Also, I have a question for the reviewers to answer (besides the usual review... the question, is, of course, optional)
1.) Do you have a better last name for Rose and her siblings? I want it to be simple yet strong sounding.
- Names it needs to sound good with: Jonathan, Marion Anastasia, Rosalie Elizabeth, Sebastian Theodore, Ian, Rose, Mary, William and Theodore.
Without further ado:
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Chapter One
A Series of Nightmares
The Guillotine is towered over the townsfolk, they were unusually cheerful for being in the shadow of the ghastly machine. I could barely see over the crowd of people standing in front of me. I had to know who was being put to death, despite my greater instinct I pushed through the crowd until I reached a red velvet rope, like the ones found in Theaters and museums.
I looked up onto the stage, besides the guillotine there were three guards and about half a dozen people in line to get their heads chopped off. One was already strapped to the machine. A King and Queen, dressed to match their playing card counter parts, watched in boredom as one of the guards finished his speech about the crimes of the victim. I shut my eyes tightly not wanting to see the blade fall, but I heard it: a short swoosh and a dull chop as the head was dismembered from it's body.
I opened my eyes as the head was lifted into the air for everyone to see. I recognized that face. It was a friend of my brother, Jaden O' Conner. His hair had been bleached but it was still him. I quickly looked away, instead seeing who the other victims would be. I quickly discovered that I knew them all, the first in line was Damian Hemming, followed by his twin brother Cosmo and their older brother Prosper, the last was my cousin Liam. But I had counted six earlier, now there was only four, Jaden was one of the two missing. So who was the last?
The next victim was being strapped into the guillotine, it wasn't until the guard said his name that it sunk into my mind. It was Ian, my brother. My mouth was suddenly dry, I felt like I could hardly breathe. My brother was about to die, and somehow it was all my fault. The guard finished reading the charges against my brother, any second now the blade would fall. I had to do something.
I looked to the King and Queen, still watching in boredom, how dare they be so in different! Then just like that I heard the swoosh of the blade.
"No!" I yelled, but I had been too late, my plea had been punctuated with a dull thud. Everyone looked at me, silent for a moment until someone shouted.
"That's the Piper Child!" The crowd erupted with yells and screams, demanding that I should share the same fate as my brother. The two guards abandoned the guillotine's next victim and came to me, I tried to runaway but the crowd wouldn't let me retreat. One of the guards unhooked the velvet rope and the other snatched me from the crowd. Then they both took an arm and dragged me in front of the King and Queen. I had done nothing wrong.
They would tell them to let me go, wouldn't they? Of coarse not.
"Off with her head," the Queen shouted without a second thought. Her manner was still indifferent. The two guards dragged me kicking and screaming up to the guillotine. Damian and the others looked at me as if all hope was lost, I had blown the one thing I was supposed to do - stay safe.
The guards locked my head into place, and without much of a criminal record, only my name was said:
"Rosalie Elizabeth Piper." I shut my eyes tightly, seconds before the swooshing of the blade could be heard, but there was no dull chop. I waited ten seconds, then 30 then a whole minute. Was I already dead?
I opened my eyes, I was suddenly in a room filled with children, my siblings is what I was tempted to call them. There was laughter and fun going on all around me. Balloons and streamers filled the room on a banner over the door said: 'Happy 7th Birthday Marion & Rosie!' Was this a flash back?
It couldn't be, I don't have a sister.
"Rosie! Help me!" I heard a girl yell through giggles, I turned around to see a little girl about seven years old being tickled by a younger looking Ian. My actions seemed to be controlled by someone or something else. I felt a smile cross my lips as I ran over to help the girl escape from my brother's clutches.
"Don't worry Mary! I'll save you!" I heard myself say, but it wasn't my voice, or at least not my current one. I looked down at my hands, they were smaller then I remembered. As I latched onto one of Ian's arms the room went silent. The laughter that had filled it seconds before was now like a distant memory. Everyone looked towards the foyer where three young men stood.
"Who are they Mama?" I heard another girl say, she was standing right beside my mother. Mom? She's alive? The girl never did get her answer. Suddenly the whole room was engulfed with flames. Ian pushed me and Marion onto the floor just as the flames reached us.
"Hurry, crawl towards the door." he said. Making no intention to move. "Go!"
This scared us into moving, we ran outside and waited, but Ian didn't follow. We could see flames coming from the windows and doors. I watched in horror.
"Rosie, come on!" Marion said from behind me. I turned around to see her at the edge of the woods. We weren't allowed to go into the woods. I shook my head no.
"We're not supposed to Mary." I told her.
"Fine then I'll go on without you," she said before turning into the woods. I looked back at the house then at the place where she had disappeared at.
"Mary! Wait!" I yelled before following her into the woods. My vision went dark.
I got the brief look of a party of five sitting at a table in an old cafe, but my mind couldn't take anymore of these nightmares and I woke up.
I felt my throat, there was no cuts in it. I was still alive. It had only been a dream. I sighed in relief then leaned back into my bed. I was just about to go to sleep when I had the eerie feeling that someone was in my room who wasn't supposed to be. I turned on the light, but before I could look around I white cloth covered my mouth and nose and I passed out.
Always spell the words out unless it is a fairly large number.