Chapter 7

                                    

                                          
The morning light warped around her blurry eyes until the dark blue covers molded into shape, and Sam's freckled baby face yet harsh sculptures said hello. His eyes were hidden beneath his closed eyelids, and his face a calm frown. He looked purely innocent because of his vulnerability, but. . .wasn't everyone vulnerable while they slept? A thump from outside caught Rose's attention. She got up on her knees and looked out the bay window behind the bed at a white canvass of fog, and a large empty tree voided of leaves. There was a nest in that tree. Then, she looked down and saw a dead little black bird, belly up with white stripes licking the tail feathers. At that moment, Sam was awake and sat up next to her. 
"Sam, I thought I told you—" 
"Shhh. . ." Rose looked over at him, but he refused to do the same. He instead pointed to a flock of magpie that began making their shiny nests out of silver ribbons. "Aren't they beautiful?" 
One by one flocks of magpie flew down to the dead tree, posing as black leaves. It was peaceful for only a few seconds until Sam hit the window with his fist.
"Sam! Don't do that!" In an act of surprise, the flock flew up, swarming the tree and started dive bombing the window. Whap! Whap! Whap! One by one, each black bird plummeted head first into the window, killing themselves on impact. 
First, it was a few in succession, then every black bird hit the window at their first chance. Rose, shocked and terrified, ducked down shivering from the stress of being scared. Sam, on the other hand, softly laughed like a child, but as the birds covered the window, he began to yell out maniacally. His psychotic laugh and the whapping of the bird's bodies echoed in Rose's ears. 
"Make it stop! Make it stop!" She bursted, and so they stopped, but when she opened her eyes again, the window was clean, the dead bird was still dead beneath her window, but Sam was gone. 
—-
I never noticed if Sam had brought anything into my house, or if he left anything, but I had to be sure I wasn't hallucinating again. I ran down stairs and reached for my phone dialing the first number I had: Doctor Comfrey. As it rang, I bounced anxiously about. Maybe it was my fault I went out looking for Sam again. Maybe it all was just a false reality. Maybe his sudden disappearance was an expergefaction to my world—My real life. 
Doctor Comfrey never picked up, nor did he ever call back. Maybe he was just a figment of my imagination too. Maybe all of it was. The life outside died beneath the cold winter year, and yet there were many birds about squawking to each other in their demonic tones. I scoffed at the crow's intelligent ability to recognize my disfigured life, degrading me with those beady little eyes. He sat there—at the top of the light pole, like a king looking below at his subjects, scoffing at the meager lives which they lived. It was because of that crow that my day was ruined right then and there. I would have been fine if it weren't for that look of anger from that awful creature. 
I stole my neighbor's black carbon fiber bike to ride down to the floral shop, and on my way there, I noticed how chilled the town has gotten. Maybe it was because of the dead winter, or maybe because they really were hoping for snow but were deceived by the weather. When I got down to the shop, everything had lost its color and turned a distasteful grey. The store was still alive with the bland white, and now compared to the colorless town, appeared richer. It was additionally empty to my surprise with not a flower in sight. The door opened with a distant happy jingle that came off post apocalyptic.
"Hello?" I spoke out not expecting a reply.
"Rose?" A sweet high pitched flowering bloom whimpered out from the dark storage room.
"Darcy? Why are you hiding?" Darcy walked out into the pale light with her hair colored black. 
"Hi Rose. I wasn't hiding. I was just getting the new roses. Ha, get it? Rose." Darcy put down a basket of black painted roses on the counter. 
"Boss sent them over and said to put them up." I reached down and touched the midnight blossoms. They were in fact real roses, but how they gave them their dark petals perplexed me.
"They say roses are turned black by burning them." Darcy sneered. 
"Why?" I looked up at her. 
"Why, what?" I hadn't noticed until now, but the color of the floral shop was being sucked up by the black hole at the center of the basket.
"Why did she send us these?" Darcy shrugged.
"Said it reflected the dark feeling of winter. Ah! Here, come on I need to do your hair." Darcy rushed over and dragged me behind the counter where she dyed my hair back to its original black color. In addition to that, she did my make up and lended me one of her black sequined dresses.
"No, I'm not wearing a dress." Darcy let out a sigh of frustration and instead forced me to wear the hellish creation. I abhorred the idea. Just then, the light beautiful blue sky walked into the shop with the jingle of spring and summer at his heels. 
"Sam?" Everything came back to life: the flowers, the colored pink interior, and even Darcy, though her hair was still black. However, the one thing that didn't come back was the warm summer sun that would have colored my hair blonde and the simple feeling of what mattered most. Sam walked up to the counter with a lollipop stick hanging out of his mouth and innocently smiled. 
"Rose, you have to come see this beautiful picturesque meadow I found behind the forest!" I stared with eyes furrowed at his enthusiasm. He continued to blabber off about paintings and perfect pictures.
"Sam, Sam, please, calm down." After he finally finished mid sentence, I spoke up about my current situation. "Sam, I can't. I have work."
"Work?" He asked puzzled.
"Yes, can't you see? I have to put up these. . .black. . .roses?" The roses weren't black anymore, but now a solid deep bloody red. 
"Rose, if you want to go out with your 'friend' here, I can do your work." I turned to Darcy.
"Really? Thanks." Then I turned to Sam. "Okay I'll come, but it's not because you are dictating what I do, it's because I want to escape this  dastardly winter." I turned to Darcy and she gave me the thumbs up. 
"You tell him, girl!" She praised me. Sam and I jumped into his light blue cadillac and sped off until the sun finally peaked through the clouds to wave hello.