Day 9 - Write a scene working from the title, "Roses are Red, Violets are Dead."
This a Flashfic based on a prompt from ravenswept's 30 Days of Flash Fiction Meme
My 30 Days of Flashfic Index Page
Day 9 - Write a scene working from the title “Roses are Red, Violets are Dead”
Roses are Red, Violets are Dead
I'm not sure what gave me the idea. I knew it was stupid. Strike that. I knew it was one of the most bone headed and foolhardy things I could do. But once it came to me I knew I had to do it. I'd been free for five years, if you could call five years on the run freedom. Five years today.
I told the others to stay behind. We stick by each other whatever happens. But this wasn't their memory. Cally had a reason of her own to return, and when I looked at the calendar...
Halfway there I passed a florists shop and spotted the last piece. It's almost Valentine's Day, so of course there are mounds and mounds of roses. Piles of pink, amber, and red filled the shop windows. But it was what I saw past them that caught my eye.
Inside the florist was trying to salvage some violets. They were in pots, obviously intended to be sold for people to keep, not simply toss out after a week. Really, I'd never seen the point before in giving someone cut flowers. Why give someone something that was already dying? But seeing these pots of dead and dying violets I could see a reason.
I had to smile at her reaction. She clearly thought I was foolish to be so excited at buying the ugly wilted things off her. Even more so she looked delighted not to have lost the money she'd paid for them.
Five years was plenty of time to clean up, but arriving at the field I could see signs of the battle that had taken place. A charred tree stump sat to one side of the clearing and a puddle filled a crater that had never properly been filled in.
I sat in the middle of the field and held the dead flowers in my fists. "I'm free. I'm free and you can never touch me again." I let a touch of my power out sending sparks dancing around the flowers. "It's funny. If you weren't so greedy you could have had so much. A trustworthy psycher can write their own ticket. But you always had to have your games."
I like to think I'm hard to sneak up on, but I didn't realize anyone was there until he spoke. "Well, isn't this a surprise. You do realize returning to a crime scene on the anniversary isn't a smart move, right?"
The flowers scattered as as I jumped and spun around. An angry blue ball spitting sparks cupped within my gloved left hand. "Back off!"
"Whoa, easy! I'm not on duty now." Something looked familiar about the man. His comment about duty made me picture him in uniform.
"Donaldson?"
"You remember," A cocky grin appeared. "Then again, I'm sure you haven't almost drowned that many men." He spread his arms and made a production of showing he wasn't armed. Or at least not with anything that showed. "Besides, catching you isn't my job anymore. I simply happened to be in the area and remembered your file and the date."
I slowly reabsorbed the ball lightning and nodded. "Just closing that chapter of my life." The flowers had spread quite a bit when jumped. Frowning I collected a good handful and looked up at the man who had once hunted me.
"I happened to simply be in the neighborhood as well when I remembered the date. I thought it was time to finally cut the last strings PsyMinder might have on me. I might have set up her fall, but in the end all I did was run from her."
"Hey, from what was in your files I have to say I would have run too, first chance I had. I'm certainly not going to condemn you for that."
"Just trying to run from the stab in the back afterwards." I held up a hand, "Yeah, I know, not your decision, just doing your job and all that. Anyway... On the way I saw these. The same color as her eyes. And like her these violets are dead." Squeezing my fist I pour out the power again flashing the flowers to ash in a moment.
It was perhaps foolish to be so trusting. But something in Donaldson's look made me want to believe he didn't mean me ill. So we sat and talked until next thing I knew Brandy shocked us both by uncloaking our ship right overhead. Perhaps he wasn't chasing me now, but I still enjoyed the shock on his face as leapt up into the cargo bay and he was left behind.
This came out longer than my self-imposed max length, but I like it. Assuming the idea in my head cooperates with me, tomorrow's piece will return to the setting and some of the characters from the first day's "Hello" scene. Tonya will probably get a break while I ponder filing the serial numbers of the background. Not out of any fear of fanfic cooties, but simply because I don't really have enough knowledge of the Marvel universe to feel comfortable writing in it (wasn't worried in the game as it was intending to quickly leave Earth for the larger universe ).
My 30 Days of Flashfic Index Page
Day 9 - Write a scene working from the title “Roses are Red, Violets are Dead”
Roses are Red, Violets are Dead
I'm not sure what gave me the idea. I knew it was stupid. Strike that. I knew it was one of the most bone headed and foolhardy things I could do. But once it came to me I knew I had to do it. I'd been free for five years, if you could call five years on the run freedom. Five years today.
I told the others to stay behind. We stick by each other whatever happens. But this wasn't their memory. Cally had a reason of her own to return, and when I looked at the calendar...
Halfway there I passed a florists shop and spotted the last piece. It's almost Valentine's Day, so of course there are mounds and mounds of roses. Piles of pink, amber, and red filled the shop windows. But it was what I saw past them that caught my eye.
Inside the florist was trying to salvage some violets. They were in pots, obviously intended to be sold for people to keep, not simply toss out after a week. Really, I'd never seen the point before in giving someone cut flowers. Why give someone something that was already dying? But seeing these pots of dead and dying violets I could see a reason.
I had to smile at her reaction. She clearly thought I was foolish to be so excited at buying the ugly wilted things off her. Even more so she looked delighted not to have lost the money she'd paid for them.
Five years was plenty of time to clean up, but arriving at the field I could see signs of the battle that had taken place. A charred tree stump sat to one side of the clearing and a puddle filled a crater that had never properly been filled in.
I sat in the middle of the field and held the dead flowers in my fists. "I'm free. I'm free and you can never touch me again." I let a touch of my power out sending sparks dancing around the flowers. "It's funny. If you weren't so greedy you could have had so much. A trustworthy psycher can write their own ticket. But you always had to have your games."
I like to think I'm hard to sneak up on, but I didn't realize anyone was there until he spoke. "Well, isn't this a surprise. You do realize returning to a crime scene on the anniversary isn't a smart move, right?"
The flowers scattered as as I jumped and spun around. An angry blue ball spitting sparks cupped within my gloved left hand. "Back off!"
"Whoa, easy! I'm not on duty now." Something looked familiar about the man. His comment about duty made me picture him in uniform.
"Donaldson?"
"You remember," A cocky grin appeared. "Then again, I'm sure you haven't almost drowned that many men." He spread his arms and made a production of showing he wasn't armed. Or at least not with anything that showed. "Besides, catching you isn't my job anymore. I simply happened to be in the area and remembered your file and the date."
I slowly reabsorbed the ball lightning and nodded. "Just closing that chapter of my life." The flowers had spread quite a bit when jumped. Frowning I collected a good handful and looked up at the man who had once hunted me.
"I happened to simply be in the neighborhood as well when I remembered the date. I thought it was time to finally cut the last strings PsyMinder might have on me. I might have set up her fall, but in the end all I did was run from her."
"Hey, from what was in your files I have to say I would have run too, first chance I had. I'm certainly not going to condemn you for that."
"Just trying to run from the stab in the back afterwards." I held up a hand, "Yeah, I know, not your decision, just doing your job and all that. Anyway... On the way I saw these. The same color as her eyes. And like her these violets are dead." Squeezing my fist I pour out the power again flashing the flowers to ash in a moment.
It was perhaps foolish to be so trusting. But something in Donaldson's look made me want to believe he didn't mean me ill. So we sat and talked until next thing I knew Brandy shocked us both by uncloaking our ship right overhead. Perhaps he wasn't chasing me now, but I still enjoyed the shock on his face as leapt up into the cargo bay and he was left behind.
This came out longer than my self-imposed max length, but I like it. Assuming the idea in my head cooperates with me, tomorrow's piece will return to the setting and some of the characters from the first day's "Hello" scene. Tonya will probably get a break while I ponder filing the serial numbers of the background. Not out of any fear of fanfic cooties, but simply because I don't really have enough knowledge of the Marvel universe to feel comfortable writing in it (wasn't worried in the game as it was intending to quickly leave Earth for the larger universe ).