EXTRAS: Story Expansions

📼 Blooming Roses Final Teaser 📼

??? POV:

   It was a funny feeling when I woke up. The air around my head felt frozen while the solid floor had a tile feeling. I was on the ground with my arms under my head. The absence of light was the biggest concern as the only light came from under the door next to me.

   Where am I?

   The thought wouldn't leave my head along with the million other concerns competing for brain space. I got up, feeling an enormous weight hold me down. Feeling it's cold surface against my skin, I grabbed onto the wall for support. I heard light laughter and music come from behind the door where the light was leaking from. People were inside, and I had to know if they could answer my questions. Just out of my reach, I saw a silver doorbell next to it. I struggled to pick my arms up, feeling the weight keep my close to the wall, but I finally got my hand to press the button.

   The door opened, making the laughter and music louder. Out stepped a woman with dark brown eyes like me. She wore a gorgeous white ball gown and heels with her curly gold hair up. She looked around the doorway until finding me and smiling. "Oh, you're here! Everyone, she's here!" The woman used her hand to pick up her dress and step out then stretched out her other to me. "Come in, come in. We've been expecting you, darling." I had to fight to reach for her, but she soon took my arm and pulled me inside.

   When I got in, I felt that it was ten times warmer, and the weight had been left at the door. I looked around to see a the two people inside were dressed formally. I looked down at myself to see I was also dressed for the occasion in a dark purple dress with black heels and gloves. I didn't remember owning anything like it, but it was the least of my concerns. The last thing I remembered was being at my middle school graduation, so how did I get there? "Where am I?" I asked the woman.

   "Why you're just in time," she said calmly and took my hand.

   I tried again, "Who are you?"

   The woman held a smile, but she looked confused. "You don't remember me? Why, I'd figure I left quite an impact." She laughed, showing her bright teeth and kind eyes. Her smile was one I hadn't seen in a very long time, but it could never have left my mind. I knew this woman. "Mom?" I asked, getting a happy nod from her.

   "The one and only!" She boasted, holding out her arm over her ball gown.

   "But how? How are you here?" I tried to think of any possible reason that my long gone mother would be here..and I only got one explanation. "Where is this place? If you're here, does that mean tha-that I-I am—" The panicking thoughts started to I made my head while I stumbled over words. I started to freak out, but she was fast to calm me down.

   She shushed me and held my hands. "Don't worry, darling..this is the safest place you can be because, unlike out there, here you are gifted with a sense of utmost certainty. Nothing can interfere because here you know exactly what is to come." She said that, but I still felt like I didn't know anything.

   I stepped back from my mom and touched my arms. My voice shook with the fear of the unknown. "What's going to happen to me?"

   "Don't worry about that, love." My mom hugged me. She felt so warm that it actually helped. "Just stay for the show. I promise you'll love it," she told me. I quietly agreed, and my mom led me to the front of the room.

   We were in an old-timey theatre of sorts. In front of us was a large stage, lit up with old fashioned lights at the bottom and red, velvet curtains on either side. There were many rows of chairs to seat over a thousand people, yet no one was there. Applause, laughter, and so on would still be heard as if it were on a track, but we were alone. Me and my mom sat in the front and center chairs where we got the perfect view of the man talking at the mic.