A long post for a long day

The first sign of incoming danger was the giggling, then of course there were the flowers. Black roses being a sign of death. A bouquet that I had taken inside as soon as I had found it. I walked calmly to Tori's room when I entered the house.

"Geez Skye at least take me on a date first." She said jokingly after I woke her up, a spark of amusement in her eyes.

I felt my face heat up "W-what..?" I looked down, noticing I was still clad only in my boxers and I was holding a bouquet of roses. I'm sure this looked rather strange. "I'll b-be right b-back."  

I ran to my room and quickly threw on a t-shirt and some cargo pants and ran back to her room. After that we discussed what the flowers meant. This of course was obvious. This had The Smiling Man written all over it. The only question was why was he after one of us....more importantly who was he after?

She looked pensively at me. "The Smiling Man you say?" I nodded and tried to look at her without blushing. She had worn a sports bra to bed again and the sheets were pooled around her hips. 

"It's the only explanation, as you know he uses bouquets to warn his victims. Communicating these warnings through the language of the flowers. I'm no expert but even I know that black roses mean death. So it would seem he wants one of us, or possibly both of us dead." I leaned against the door frame shutting my eyes. "The question is why? What reason does he have for wanting one of us dead?" I opened my eyes looking at her. "You wouldn't happen to be afraid of serial killers would you?"

She shook her head. "No I actually find serial killers interesting. The way that their minds work is fascinating." An emotion flickered in her eye almost to fast to be recognized  But for a split second I saw an emotion was all too familiar. Fear. "I just don't want to become one." 

I sighed "I guess it doesn't matter why; he's after one of us now and there isn't much we can do about it."

She took the flowers from me and put them in a vase setting them in the kitchen. Placing an ace of spades in the window next to the flowers, muttering something like "damn cards indeed" with a fond smile on her face. I face palmed when I saw this, and I'll admit I chuckled. Oh yes let's just try to piss off the homicidal straitjacket wearing psychopath. A wonderful idea indeed. The rest of the day was quiet. That was until dinner. Dinner as usual was filled with silence, a comfortable silence.

Then there was the tittering. Echoing throughout the house as it had that morning. I stood and my eyes darted around the house trying to locate the origin of the sound. It was closer this time, not as distant as it had sounded that morning. Yes it was in the house this time. But then how had I not felt it? I didn't have time to worry about that right now though. Is was becoming louder, closer. In the corner of my eyes I saw Tori stand as well looking around for the source of the noise. This was a relief to me, I was not imagining this then.

It was then that a woman stepped out from the shadows, giggling. I examined the woman who had a psychotic grin on her face. Long red hair, eyes sparkling with madness. She stepped forward and Tori chose this moment to act. Taking out a throwing knife I had not known she had. With a flick of her wrist the knife sped at the women and planted itself into the wall behind her. The grin never leaving her face as she faded into rose petals.

"What a rude little girl you are." Her voice filled with mirth, I looked over at Tori, whose eyes were wide, the woman standing behind her. Tori turned taking out another knife and slashing at nothing but air as the women faded into rose petals once again. We could hear her voice echoing from all around. "Tsk, tsk didn't your parents teach you any manners?"

"You..." I looked over and could tell Tori was angry. "Come out you coward!" The only response was more giggling.

"Let's take this elsewhere..." I could hear the back door open and slam shut. I snapped out of my daze at the noise. I ran towards the back door, Tori following me. I threw the door open to see the women standing in the middle of the backyard. I slowly walked forward Tori standing to my left.

"I just don't get it!" The woman whined. "A threat?" she laughed "You're nothing but weak children." I gritted my teeth feeling that same anger that I felt when I encountered Slendy. She shrugged "Well orders are orders I suppose. Do try to make this entertaining will you?" I charged at her swinging, she just dodged the wild punches with ease giggling the entire time. This only proved to make me angrier. A flash of silver and a throwing knife sped past me. The women scoffed and tilted her head the throwing knife planting itself in to the tree behind her. The momentary distraction was enough however to allow me to land a punch to the women's ribs.

She looked at me surprised as she stumbled backwards. A growl escaped her lips. "How dare you strike me?!" She faded once again. Petals appearing in the air, forming a ring around me. I was confused by this. What was this? She appeared in front of me delivering a vicious blow to my stomach. I gasped for air as she disappeared as fast as she had appeared.

"Skye!" Tori yelled as she ran towards me. When she came close I heard her gasp in pain as one of the petals touched her. I looked at her seeing that the petal had left a cut on her cheek. My attention was drawn from her when I felt pain explode in my temple as the women delivered a kick to the side my head. I stood to my feet shakily. Only to be punched in the face. I stumbled backwards as she struck me again. My eyes darted back and force trying to track the woman's extremely fast movements. She struck me again. This was a Rose Bride? Another powerful strike. The beating continued on. My mind raced. What could I do? What cou-another strike.

The familiar taste of blood in my mouth. Wait! The runes...I had my runes.....I reached into my pocket grasping the small slip of paper. I had not used them in a combat situation yet. I had to make contact, I just had to make contact. The thought passed through my mind as I felt another brutal punch to my ribs. She appeared in front of me a smirk on her face as she struck me again. I tried to track her movements. I found it to be a impossible task.

"I'm disappointed, I expected more from you after that punch earlier. Is that all you have?" the voice was mocking me. It echoed all around me. "I grow bored of this boy, I might as well end it now!" the voice yelled still echoing all around me...no wait...It was coming from my left! I turned already anticipating the blow. I side stepped her punch and she was thrown off balance her momentum carrying her forward. I quickly delivered a palm strike to the center of her back. What she did not notice was the small slip of paper I stuck on her back.

She caught herself with her hand and lashed out at me with her leg. Delivering yet another powerful blow to my face. I fell back on to the ground. She stood up glaring down at me. "You have an opportunity and that's how you use it?" She asked in disbelief. I looked up with at her with a grin, a small trickle of blood escaping my mouth. "What's with the smile kid, it's over don't you realize that?"

"Yea I do...because I've already won." I said. She opened her mouth to say something before she began to convulse violently as electricity traveled throughout her body. The rune on her back glowing a bright blue. When the glow faded the woman fell to the ground unconscious. I stood up feeling slightly dizzy and noticed the petals that had been in the air had vanished.

I looked over at Tori still smiling. She smiled back tentatively, and I noticed that her arms were bleeding. "Oh, I tried to get her off of you but the bitch kept blasting me with her razor petals," she shrugged as if it was something that happened every day.

"Regardless," she smiled wider as she walked over to me and patted me on the back lightly so she didn't hurt me. "I think that's the single most badass thing I've ever seen you do so far kid."

I smiled back at her before looking over to the unconscious Rose Bride. "What should we do with her? I don't think she's dead, I just knocked her out."

Tori crouched down and pressed two fingers to the woman's neck, searching for a pulse. She stared blankly into space as she counted. "Well she's alive and her pulse is normalish for a human. Want me to just chuck her into the path?" Tori looked up at me from her squatting position and I noticed that the cut on her cheek was still bleeding sluggishly.

"Can't think of a better option... So sure," I shrugged. I watched as Tori carefully drug the Rose Bride by her arms into the shadow of the tree. I blinked and they were gone. A couple seconds later, Tori was back.

"Now let's make sure you don't have any fractures or internal bleeding." She was all business now. It was easy to forget that this was the girl who actually had medical books piled up in her room

"But you're bleeding Tori, at least take care of that first." She looked at me with that unreadable face before shaking her head.

"Fine, I'm pretty sure there's a first aid kit in the pavilion. I'll need help cleaning and bandaging the cuts on my back though," she called over her shoulder as she made her way to the center of the yard where the pavilion was. I followed her and assisted with minimal blushing and stuttering. She hissed in pain slightly when I cleaned out a few of the deeper ones, but other than that she was silent as we both cleaned and bandaged her.

"Sit." She pointed to the picnic table and I obeyed, sitting on the table. She started poking and prodding me gently with her fingers, asking occasionally if anything hurt and if it did to explain it. She'd hum when I answered, give wherever hurt another jab, and then move on. She concluded that I probably didn't have any broken or fractured ribs, punctured lungs, or anything like that. She did say that I would probably hurt like hell tomorrow from the beating I took though.