Destiny's Withering Rose
Destiny's Withering Rose
by Lady Mika Maxwell
Despite my pleas of innocence,
I fell in too deep to know.
I stared in silent contemplation,
I was Destiny's Withering Rose.
"Damn!" I banged a fist on the table where I sat, bathed in the afternoon's golden sunlight. I stood and pushed the chair I was sitting in away from me. I grabbed at my silky blonde hair in a vain effort to calm my nerves. The workload I had been trying to finish recently had been over bearing. I rushed out of my office and past my questioning secretary in a blaze. The office seemed suddenly so confining in its own way. Pulling the keys to my silver Jetta out I slipped into the front seat and started the ignition. I was very on end and really should have taken a vacation long ago. I pulled my car out of the parking lot and before I knew it I was zooming along on the free way.
I rolled down the glass windows on the driver's side and let the wind wisp through my honey colored hair. Lost in the enjoyment of being free I failed to realize that I had begun to accelerate highly over the speed limit. In my stress I had been so eager to get out of the job that had weighed down my young shoulders for years that I had become rather careless. The fresh earth air whipped my hair around behind my head in a carefree way, and the birds in the surrounding trees sang happily as the sun beamed down. The day was immaculate, making me realize what I had been missing out of my life for so long. This thought made me compulsively push my foot down even harder on the rubbery petal.
Suddenly, it was as if my life was in slow motion. I opened my cerulean eyes to be met with the evergreen trees that grew scattered throughout the sides of the forest. Then, on second inspection, I noticed a car pulling slowly from the median, into my path. Knowing I couldn't slow down in time to spare the driver's life I swerved my steering wheel voraciously to my right and immediately I was spinning uncontrollably into the trees. Automatically I held my arms, crossed, in front of my head before I saw the tree come incredibly close. Then I heard it, the sickening crunch of metal as it wound tightly against the tree, and then darkness.
Slowly I opened my eyes to be greeted by the loud obnoxious sirens of nearby emergency vehicles. For a moment, I couldn't remember who I was, and while trying to remember I noticed some one standing off to the side of the car I happened to be in. It was a man, I finally decided, wearing all black and a priest's collar. The details about him were obscured do to the fact that I was looking through shattered glass. As I tried to keep my eyes open I heard footsteps approaching my position. I pulled my hand away from the steering wheel of the car I was seated in and felt a warm, thick liquid on it. I stared at it for a moment, unable to comprehend what it was. It was then that the boy in the black garb tried to reach out to me, but before his hand could clasp with mine, the door of the car wrenched open and I was being pulled, carefully from the wreckage.
Somehow, before I left I managed to have a gaze back at the scene I had just been saved from. I wondered then, after seeing a small silver car wrapped mercilessly around the base of a large tree, how I had managed to survive that. In one moment then, it seemed, all the pain hit me. Before I was just rather numb to the thought of it. 'Why am I here?' I wondered crazily as I slowly fell back into unconsciousness. 'Was there anyone with me?' I shuddered slightly at the thought of the boy, as I recalled his morbid position. 'Who was he?' Was my last thought before I faded away, undoubtedly welcoming the solace the darkness held.
I awoke sometime later to a blinding light filling my vision as I was walking up stairs, peering into the endless oblivion. I breathed in a gasp as I saw a vision of a tattered body lying in wait on an operation table. Doctors and nurses ran around wildly calling for supplies and silently praying. I gave the body a glance over before noticing it was I who lay in the hospital bed. Blood oozed from almost every crevice it could have while nurses swarmed the many cuts, trying to slow the blood. I noticed a large gash in my lower stomach, shreds of glass still shining ominously from it as doctors worked furiously on it. The sight made me feel strangely calm.
Compelled to move on from the room I did so, entering one were a desk sat in a corner. Many people were seated in the room, some with worried looks, others with tears, and most, with hopeful eyes. 'This has to be the waiting room in the hospital.' I thought sullenly. A sudden conversation struck a chord in my lost memory. The woman seated behind the desk with kind eyes held the phone's receiver in her hand while trying to inform someone of obviously bad news. "Is this Mr. PeaceCraft?" She waited a moment and then continued, consolation shining in her eyes, even though she was on the phone. "Sir I have called to inform you that Relena PeaceCraft.."
The whole conversation blurred as visions of a young girl standing in the cold snow shown before me, as if a slide show. She knelt before a grave, recently dug. "Rest in peace." She said before turning and crying into her hands. The scene switched and I was standing once again before the same girl but she was older. She seemed frustrated and tense and was speaking with five other men who wore equally different expressions. "Miss. Relena," A blond haired, green-eyed man started. "You should take a break." The others nodded in unison as she looked down at the papers stacked ominously on her desk. "No time she stated before picking one up to read it over.
I stood wobbling; once again back in the waiting room, grabbing at my throbbing head. 'So that was me.' Reaching out a hand I grabbed the desk's surface. 'What did my life amount to? I had to ask myself that as five young men walked in. 'The same one's...' I thought numbly as I stared at them. I gasped suddenly as I saw one of them, wearing a grim expression and clothes to match. 'It's the boy next to the car..!' He still wore a black outfit and priest's color. Now I could thoroughly see him and stared for a while at his long chestnut braid and violet eyes.
The other's he was accompanied by all sat in silent reverie. A blond, pale boy with wide green eyes, had worry etched on his face while another with brown hair and darker green eyes sat silent and still beside him. On the other hand, there was a Chinese looking man, who stood pacing, slightly while another just leaned against the wall. No expression was showing whatsoever on his stoic face. I walked closer before them and observed for a while before a tall nurse waltzed over to them, hope clearly emitting from her inner being. "She is in the intensive care unit now, she should awaken from surgery soon." They nodded and gave their conformation that they understood what she was saying. "Unfortunately," she spoke slowly, carefully choosing her words so as not to upset the men too much. "She has a very slim chance of survival." After her last sentence I felt a surge of energy, as if I were being sucked back into a cage, one that confined me to a small area of being.
Bright illuminated light streamed through my lashes and into my eyes as I awoke from surgery. I didn't know how I knew, but I did, that the whole last vision I had was real. I looked at my stomach to see stitches and felt mild pain throughout my body. IVs and other various instruments prodded my body, as I lay immobile in my bed. At the rustling of fabric I looked to my left to see the boy in black. I sat up and trained my eyes on him. For a second, he just regarded me grimly, and then finally he extended his hand to me, which peeked out beneath black robes. Violet eyes pierced mine, and shimmered with unshed tears. It was then that I noticed the glowing scythe he held in his hand and the stunning gold cross that adorned his neck.
His speaking finally interrupted my thoughts. "I've come to take you." That was when realization hit me. Tears brimmed on my eyes as I remembered the five men I had seen earlier, my friends, my companions. "So," I sobbed slightly. "I have to leave this world?" If it was plausible his expression became even sadder as he stared at me in silent contemplation. His silence was enough of answer for me and I threw myself into his arms, to his shock, crying openly now. "What about Milliardo, what will he do?" I sniffed at the thoughts of my older brother. He wrapped his arms gently around me and lifted me to my feet as I turned slowly to see the body I had left behind. It had a pale face and the eyes were closed peacefully. The mouth was set in a gentle smile, but the most disturbing thing was the constant beep of the heart monitor.
People began to run frantically into the room and I heard cries of distraught people in the hallways. A light voice filled the room and silence seemed to fall like a thick blanket over the room and it's people. "Time of death, 12:00." A young nurse stifled cries as she scribbled it down and I continued to watch on as they rolled my body away. "Where are they going?" I turned to face the man who stood quietly behind me. "I wanted to say goodbye...to my friends...my brother..." My vision was blurred by crystal tears and I followed a doctor as he stepped solemnly into the waiting room. I stood quietly off to the side, the braided man still by my side, bidding me my last request.
"Are you the relatives of Relena PeaceCraft?" The doctor asked tentatively. The group of five young men stood slowly, but I noticed as the hope flickered from their eyes, that one man was missing and in his place was my brother, Milliardo. "I regret to inform you that Relena Dorlian PeaceCraft has died from fatal injuries to her stomach." All of the sudden it was like a knife could have cut through the tension in the room. That was when the cries for forgiveness and pent up grief erupted, and I turned away. Turned away from the people I had left behind and from the past I had given up on, the future that had been mercilessly torn away from me. Their cries echoed in my head and it was official, I, Relena PeaceCraft, was forever banished from the world of the living.
But all at once, I had to stop again when the next words that left the Doctors mouth tore my heart in two. "Also, I know this is hard for you all, but, Duo Maxwell has been pronounced dead due to self inflicted wounds to the wrists and major arteries." My world as I had known it had crumbled, but now, it had vanished. Muttered curses and cries came once again from the group, but I could do nothing but stare at the enmity before me. "No..." My voice was like the breeze, not even really existent any longer. "Duo!" The figure before me cringed at the mention of his name. The thoughts and questions bombarded my mind as I wondered why he had killed himself.
Sorrowfully I returned my gaze to the strong young men who had now been crushed by the weight of this news all at once. Milliardo, my dearest brother, Quatre, my closest confident, and Trowa, my listening ear, all cried openly whilst Heero and Wufei exchanged perplexed looks, not yet ready to comprehend the news that had been so willingly shared with them. In a rage I recalled the events of my life, wondering if I had done anything to help these people. Distantly I hoped that the other driver I had swerved to miss was alive and healthy. Blaming myself was something I would be forever plagued by.
In an instant, a hand lifted my chin and I was forced to face Duo. His violet eyes bore deeply into my soul, and his hair was the most gorgeous I had seen in my time, even in this crucial moment I had to resist not to run my hand through it. His soothing voice broke my thoughts. "It is time to except the hand fate has given you, although it has been cruel." He stopped and leaned down to kiss me, causing my eyes to widen in shock, but I savored the taste of his mouth on mine, while our tongues mingled. Reluctantly we pulled away and I felt slight guilt for having enjoyed something so immensely while my family sat in tears. "And I won't let you go alone." He said huskily in my ear as I started to slip away, still in his embrace.
For some time, I just stood there, contemplating nothing intensely. I couldn't feel that I had a body and yet I was still aware, but not really. A warm feeling still clung to me and slowly I felt minor changes. A feeling of descending started to pull the warmth I had held to away, and I realized that warmth was Duo. I consciously grabbed at him as he desperately cried for me to stay away, that he always knew he'd been banished to hell for all of his wrong doings, and that I was meant to be an angel, and watch everyone from above. Despite all of this I wouldn't, no, couldn't let go. Visions of me in the future, present, and past flashed and before I knew it, I had a body again, but it was the me of the future. The woman I was supposed to become. And all became bright with light again, as I looked at the handsome young man that was his ultimate self also. "Duo!" My heart ached for him and only one decision was present in my mind at the time. "For you, Id willingly become the god of death's advocate and join him in hell." A slight smile crossed his face and he was immediately enveloped in a bright light.
"DUO!" I heard myself scream, but I still held a hand in my own, and none the less, it was his. As the light receded I got a look at him. He was his future self and was garbed in black robes, a silver cross adorning his neck in brilliance, the same clothes he had been in when he retrieved me from my death bed. He pulled me down to him and welcomed me in his arms, and we both descended together. At one point in time, I felt my body grow heavy as black robes weighed down myself too, but I paid no mind, my conscious was busy at the moment.
Our lives seemed to flash before our eyes before they landed on the scene that was in the present time, where our friends and family lay crying in anguish. A solitary tear traced its path down my cheek but he brushed it away carefully. "We are together in death, together in eternity. We'll see them again." I nodded and forced the images to the back of my mind as we shared a deep kiss, and held each other's bodies close. "Hell," I said before we disappeared. "How immaculate you make it sound."
So when I descend to hell with you,
And the cold heartless wind blows,
I feel the life I lead come to a close,
I am Destiny's Withering Rose.
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