- This is a short story I wrote a few years ago, for a youth competition with the theme "Creative writing, ". We were only allowed to write two pages, so I did (Even though I prefer writing longer, like four-six pages, because then I get more time to describe settings, feelings, places and so on, which I didn't get here). I originally wrote it in Norwegian, I just translated it into English so I could post it on here.
Red roses and white snow
Elaine walked and walked, and the more she walked, the more it seemed like she was walking in circles. The snow fell slowly in the dark night, and a raven cried someplace above her. She kept her eyes on the path, but the snow, the snow made everything look totally alike, and the trees looked all the same, and how, how was she supposed to find that tree, the tree she was searching for, the tree nobody but everybody knew about, the tree everybody feared, the tree full of mystery, and pain, that tree ?
In her hand she held a bunch of red roses.
The night was cold, the night, it felt like a thousand knives against her skin, but she kept walking, and the silence almost freaked her out, but then the silence was broken, like everything else, and she heard a noise.
She quickly turned to see where the sound came from. She saw a glimpse of something, a shadow, moving between the peaceful falling snowflakes, but the snow was like a blanket in front of her eyes, so she couldn't see what it was, that moving thing. Her heart was now pounding inside of her chest, as she whispered to herself:
"I'm not afraid, "
"Elaine, "
Someone called her name, she swallowed, turned around, tried to see where the sound came from, she didn't see anything.
She heard it once again.
"Elaine, "
It was the voice of a woman.
"Elaine,"
Elaine turned around again, and she saw her, the woman, dressed in a fur coat, with black boots with white snow on the tips, her hair was black as coal, and she had skin whiter than the snow between them, but her eyes was warm and welcoming, brown as hazel.
And Elaine knew this woman.
Carmen was her name.
Carmen, a close friend to Elaine's family, she lived on a farm, not too far away from where Elaine lived, and the farm was close to the tree, the tree Elaine was searching for.
that tree.
"What are you doing here, all alone in the night, far away from home?" Carmen asked, took a step closer, one more, then a last one.
Elaine mumbled: "I.... I... was going to put these roses... Under. ..." She was shivering. Something, something in Carmen's eyes scared her.
"Poor, little girl. You must be freezing. Do you want to come over to my house and sleep there, so your parents can come for you tomorrow? " Carmen asked with an innocent smile, and it really was an innocent smile, but Elaine's knees felt like jelly as she answered with a low voice:
"Okay," And started to follow Carmen to the farm.
The farm was not big, consisting of just a small, red barn, a small white house and a small lawn, where Elaine used to play with Carmen's dog when she was younger, but now the dog was old, and all it ever did was to sleep.
"After my husband died, I've been very lonely. And the worst part of it is that I don't even know if he's dead. He just dissappeared one day, after we had a fight..." Carmen said, as she opened the door, and walked inside, walked in to the comfortably warm living room, Elaine followed, still clutching the roses in her hands, holding them close to her chest as she fell asleep on the couch, and she slept deep and dreamless, and she felt peace while she was sleeping in the warm living room.
Until something woke her up.
The darkness if the night was still hovering over the landscape outside, and the dark was now also surrounding Elaine inside if the house, as the clock was showing 02:00 AM.
"Carmen?" Elaine whispered, went to Carmen's room, still with the roses in her hand, she opened the door, looked after Carmen, but Carmen wasn't there.
"Carmen?" Elaine said, a little louder thus time, but she got no answer. She went through every room in the house, she still couldn't find Carmen, she ran outside, and there, she saw some footprints in the snow, and she followed them.
They lead to the tree.
That tree.
Elaine saw something underneath it, lying down at the ground, as she came closer, she could see that this was a human, and this was Carmen.
She was dead.
Elaine was scared.
It was just like her heart wanted to jump right out off her chest when she heard a sound from behind herself.
She had to turn her head to look.
And there, behind her, was a man, dressed in dark clothes, and in his hand he was holding something.
A knife.
Elaine became paralyzed.
Had her brother been killed by a heartless murder? Was this really the secret of the tree?
The man came closer. Something in the way he moved reminded her of someone she knew, but who, she couldn't remember, she wanted to remember it, she needed to remember.
He lifted his knife.
An overwhelming pain filled Elaine's chest, and she fell down.
Was she now dying the same way as her brother, under the same tree, by the same murder? Had Carmen already been killed this way, also under the same tree, by the same murder, and who know, maybe it was the same knife which had taken those lives?
Elaine's eyes closed, but she kept on holding to the red roses, and then, she remembered who this man was, everything became clear, she knew everything now, but it was too late.
Everything blacked out. She lost the grip of the roses, and they fell down beside her.
No one ever saw either Carmen or Elaine ever again.
The only thing the Police found was a bunch of red roses, withering on the ground, lying on the white snow.
