Set in Stone: The Rose Secret

Chapter 3: Carved 🍴

After suffering through all the fighting noise and clutter from Sasha and Antonia, I strolled over to Blue who was still mid conversation with Iren. "Hey White Rose" Iren greeted. "You don't have to call me by my last name" I mentioned. "Sorry, I just am constantly running past your mailbox every now and then when I go for a run. The name WHITE is just on my mind when I see you two" he grinned. Blue giggled, I could tell it wasn't genuine. An awkward silence grabbed the conversation. As no one spoke for a moment or two.

I stood for a second as I glanced back at the fighting squall of girls. "Looks serious" Iren joked. "Yeah" I nodded. "What are you doing here anyways, I thought you hated the ocean and café" I questioned to Blue. "About that" she mumbled. "I thought you didn't like going near the ocean because of the hot sun?" I grumbled. "Yeah, Yeah! I have something important to talk about with you. Only you!" she said as she looked at Iren. "Ok" Iren responded as he surrendered his hands in the air and walked away.

Blue was not close with me or my friend group. She usually hangs out with Milos, Sasha's older brother. They play dungeons and dragons all day in the coziness of her room. Sometimes I wonder if they are vampires because of their pale face complexion or for their hatred of the sun.

Blue led me to a vacant table and sat me down. "What concerns you"? I asked trying to hurry along the conversation so she could get to the point. "Well..." she thought.

Blue and I are very different, we do not share the special twin adjoined minds, even though we look identical. I quite never can ever understand her feelings. She is hard to crack, but she can always find a way to break my links and dig down to my feelings. Which in the most part discomforts me.

"I received this the other day" she said unraveling a piece of folded cloth from her pocket. The cloth revealed a sharp blade with a wooden handle. A knife. "So what? Its a knife" I asked. "Not just a knife" she warned. I started at the seemingly random knife in disbelief. "You will see" she told me. She rotated the knife showing the other side. "Look" she shook. She pointed her skinny finger at an engraving in the blade. "YOU ARE NEXT" It had carved in it. "Probably just a prank someone is pulling on you as an early Halloween scare" I groaned. "Ya, but what if it isn't"? She argued. I sat in silence stroking my fingers through my hair.
"Who gave it to you"?
"The mail"
"From whom"
"There was no address or name"
"As I tell you, its a prank"
She shook her head in disbelief. "You don't get it do you"! She yelled. "What is there to get"? I said. "Everything"! She screamed as she ran off. Her chair slammed into the concrete floor.

The café went quiet. The bundle of eating people started to stare at us. What is going on? What are these people thinking? Where is Blue wandering off to?

Moments after the sudden silence, the crowd of townspeople and tourists went back to their business. The clatter of their forks against their plates and the constant chatter continued. I gathered the materials Blue left on the table including her carved knife, half eaten croissant and a couple of receipts that fell out of her bag when she left. I shoved the materials in my backpack.

A sudden thought came to mind, whatever happened to Sasha and Antonia. I twirled around to get a view of their table. Sasha was having a conversation with Elton and Antonia was hunched over fidgeting with her cassette player. I gathered to my feet and went over to their table. The seat was cold which meant I was with Blue for a while. There was a napkin set on my chair, it had blue pen written on it.

I read it out in my head:
"Its not just a knife "

I lifted the napkin to discover another napkin:

"A rose, the most beautiful flower of them all! But eventually its fate that all roses die!"

Pretty harsh! Who put these on my chair? Was it Blue?

"Blood red rose, red rose blood."

Ok now this is getting weird!

I shoved the napkins in the trash. "Don't die on me" Antonio yelled mashing buttons on her cassette. "Are you preforming CPR on your cassette or what" Sasha joked. Antonio rolled her eyes like dice. "No" she said.

Someone bumped into me from behind. "Excuse me", they said quietly as they brushed past me. I looked at the person who hid their face and out from their trench coat came another napkin. I picked it up.

I read:
Im afraid your too late

My eyes shut. "What does this mean" I yelled. Antonia looked up from her plate. "Are you ok, you look like you saw a ghost?", she said worriedly. I nodded.

I stared at Eltons black apron. The one that covered up his swim suit he would use later to cool off in the ocean. Big letters on the apron read "hi my name is Elton, how may I help you?". Yah you can start by telling me why the heck Blue has a weird knife and why some creepy person left me messages behind on a napkin!

Was Blue mad at me? Was she up to these messages? When Blue and I were ever in an argument, it would be settled the next day. During any fight we wouldn't talk, not even at all. I was baffled by the fact she may be behind these creepy messages. It was just a knife, why should she care?