The First Encounter

White roses. Just like the painting in the corridor. What could that mean? The plaque had my name on it, but was it really me in the painting?

Part of me didn’t want to know the answer to that question. I got a cold feeling when looking at the painting before. The girl depicted there may have been a bad person.

I heaved a sigh and walked over to the flowers. The flowers had an elegant beauty to them, and the thorns on the stems made them more alluring. Beautiful but dangerous. The girl in the painting was surrounded by white roses…. did we share a name, or are we the same person?

“Who are you?” A girl’s voice asked, causing me to jump out of my skin and turn towards her.

When I did, my heart began to race. Here was proof that other people existed. The light-girl entity was one thing, this girl was another. I could completely make out her features. Her light chocolate skin and long black hair. Her brown eyes and delicate nose. Even her dark green blouse and brown trousers. Unlike the light-girl, who didn’t really have any distinguishable features. Aside from the “being made of light” thing.

“Who are you?” The girl repeated, a serious expression spreading over her face. This time, she pulled something off her back and aimed it at me. I couldn’t tell what it was from that angle, but it set alarms off in my head.

“I’m… Marceline,” I answered, standing up straight. “Who are you?”

“You don’t need to know that, peasant,” she growled, clearly trying to seem threatening.

“Ok… well, what is that in your hands?”

“It’s a bow. You've never seen one of these before?” I shook my head. “Well, you’re about to feel what it can do. Unless you leave. Now.”

“But… I don’t want to leave yet. I just got here.”

“Are you stupid or something? A bow is a weapon. I can kill you with it,” she warned, looking a bit annoyed.

“Why would you though?” I asked, trying to think of what ‘kill’ meant.

“You’re trespassing!”

“What’s ‘trespassing’?”

She let out a loud ‘ha’ then one of her hands let go of her bow. I barely had time to react before a small stick flew into my left shoulder. Pain shot through my torso and my legs felt a little weaker. I sank down to a sitting position and held my shoulder tightly. It helped with the pain… but only a little.

“Stupid peasant. Should’ve just left,” she huffed, pulling a small stick from the pack on her back. Her hands were shaking as she pulled the stick free. Something told me the first stick wasn’t meant to hit me.

I was able to get a better look at her ‘bow’ as she notched the new stick to it. It was basically just a long stick with a string tying both ends together, causing it to bend. So, basically, she used it to launch a smaller, sharper stick at me. For some reason, that, combined with the pain, made me smile a bit.

“That hurt,” I said, unable to stop smiling. She looked at me with a surprised look, then aimed the bow at me again.

“Are you insane?! Why are you smiling?! I shot you with an arrow!” She exclaimed.

“I… I don’t know. What’s ‘insane’?” I asked, trying my best to stop smiling. “This really hurts you know. But… even this sensation is amazing. I’m so used to only feeling cold.”

She let fly another arrow, but this time it missed me by a few inches, and lodged itself into the bed of roses.

“Stop it! I don’t care about your insanity! Leave, or the next one will be in your heart!”

I lifted myself off the ground, pulling her ‘arrows’ out of the flowerbed and my shoulder as I did. She had cut a few of the flowers in two, their petals scattered around the flowerbed. Even that didn’t force the smile from my face however. It even scared me a bit that being hurt put a smile on my face.

“Why do you want me to leave so bad? Can’t we share this beautiful place?” I asked, taking a small, shaky step toward her. She immediately pulled another arrow from her pouch and aimed her bow at me.

“Don’t come any closer!” She warned, becoming visibly frightened. “I-I mean it!”

I put my hands up in defense, or at least tried to, but didn’t stop moving forward. My left arm was going more and more limp with each second that passed. I couldn’t even feel it anymore. It was even starting to get hard to walk.

The girl seemed to get more and more scared as I moved closer. I thought she’d shoot another arrow into me, but she didn’t. I got close enough to touch her before everything started becoming fuzzy.

“Here. You really shouldn’t be shooting these at people,” I pointed out after handing her the arrows she shot. “It really… hurts…”

All at once she went from frightened to concerned. As she lowered her bow, I felt the world fall out from under me. She caught me before I hit the floor, tossing her bow aside, and lowered me to the ground gently.

“What is wrong with you?! You’re losing a lot of blood,” she exclaimed, looking even more concerned.

“What’s… ‘blood’?” I asked, trying to focus my vision. It kept blurring while the world wobbled all over the place.

“Damn it… hold on, I have some bandages in my pack. It should be enough until I get you to the doctor,” she assured me.

I was about to ask her what those things were, but as I tried, the world faded away into blackness.

I probably would’ve panicked if I was still conscious after that.