Follow: Book 1 The Rose Tree Chronicles

Chapter Five: A House of Horrors

The officer who had threatened Gerardo in Cair carried Rein Bow back to the poison shop which proved that dreams really do come true... even the bad ones. The interior was entirely decorated with conserved pixie corpses, and although the shop had much more to offer, this was the only aspect that grasped Rein's attention as ruthlessly as the officer grasped her. The sadistic owner of this shop had her kind suspended from the ceiling, framed and hung on walls, cased like bugs, tied and strung together to make wreaths and garlands, displayed on shelves like porcelain dolls; they were dressed up in ruffles and bows with their faces painted in ways that were unnatural for pixie-kind, and altogether the scene was really quite horrific. If Rein had been searching for comfort at all, she most certainly would not have found any form of it in here.

Rein wondered if she had known any of the pixies hanging around the shop personally and a feeling of dread sunk into the pit of her stomach. She couldn't help but timidly examine some of the bodies for familiar faces while also fighting the bile that rose into her throat. To her relief, she didn't recognize anyone. However, her search was less than thorough, so the possibility of having known someone there still lingered in the back of her muddled mind. After all, she was only able to quickly scan the area for a short moment since her captor was in a hurry to hand her over to the shop owner.

The officer progressed behind the front counter and through a door which led to an office. Here, the owner of this horror show sat at his white desk and shuffled through a mess of parchment while mumbling to himself and swearing under his breath. His human body emulated the color of a blue ogre, which was coupled with the appetite of one.

The officer cleared his throat to get the owner's attention. The ogre-human hybrid looked up from his work with fiery eyes, immediately fixing them on Rein. Then he bared his rotting teeth at her with a bloodthirsty grin. It seemed all anyone had to do to make this creature happy was bring him a live pixie.

"Ha ha!" the hybrid exclaimed leaning back in his chair. "Jed, you found another one!"

The officer laughed along with him. "Of course I did. And this one was harder to get, too."

"Was it now?"

Without paying much attention to Jed, the ogre-human mix lifted himself out of his wooden chair and slowly maneuvered around his desk. Not once did he take his eyes off of Rein, who cowered in the officer's hand. He studied her intently, his sneer never leaving his grotesque face. Now directly in front of Rein, the hybrid glanced back up at Jed, who stood a least a foot taller than him.

"It's a feisty one, eh?" He diverted his gaze back at Rein. "How much trouble did it cause you?"

"Most of the trouble came from its owner," answered Jed. "I almost had to kill him to get it."

Still shaking in Jed's hand, Rein felt a bit irritated at the way they referred to her as an "it."

"Did you now?" said the hybrid as he hungrily assessed Rein. "What's your name, Butterfly?"

"Well it's not Butterfly," Rein spat, desperately trying to hide the tremor in her voice.

"Of course not. So what is it?"

"... S – Sun."

"That name sounds familiar," he said, glancing to Jed for confirmation. "What's your last name?"

"Beam," Rein lied.

"You deceitful little imp," he growled. "I killed Sun Beam yesterday. Now give me your real name!"

Rein's little heart fluttered inside her chest and a wave of emotion rose from her core, demanding a release.

"That's my name!" she hollered. Then she immediately descended into uncontrollable weeping.