Kiss From a Rose

Matt drove home his head spinning with his discoveries. The woman he knew as Ember had too many dark alarming things surrounding her.

Her name was probably not even Ember. She wasn't in the database at the pharmacy and she suffered from some mental illness or illnesses.

Lastly and probably the most disturbing was that the house fire that she claimed had taken her father's life was purposely set to cover up his murder.

Matt still couldn't completely wrap his head around it all. Though she had been young at the time was it possible that Ember was a cold blooded killer?

Had the abuse from her dad she claimed she had been through sent her over the edge enough to kill him?

"I'm bad Matt nothing good will come from me." She had said. "All that I bring and cause is death and destruction."

"Was this what she meant?" Matt thought to himself as he arrived home.

As he opened the door the phone rang. Walking over Matt picked it up answering it.

"Hello?" Matt said.

"Yo Matt how's it going?" Brian asked.

"Hey Bri everything's good for the most part." He said.

"The most part?" Brian said. "What do you mean by that?"

"You remember that girl I told you about?" Matt asked.

"Ember?" Brian said. "Yeah I remember why?"

"Found some interesting things about her today." Matt said.

"Like what?" Brian asked.

"First off her name probably isn't even Ember." Matt said. "Second she has some mental illness and third a house fire she had survived was set on fire on purpose and her dad was murdered by swallowing a razor blade and pills."

Brian was silent for a while. "You think she did it?"

"I don't know Bri I mean she was only two when it happened but there was no one else in the house at the time." Matt said.

"What else did the police say?" Brian said.

"They're currently still investigating but the case has gone cold." Matt said.

"Knew this chick was fucked up." Brian said. "Have you talked to or seen her recently?"

"Yeah last night." Matt said. "I went to the theater where she performs at after getting a letter I thought was from her but it wasn't."

"When I got up with her after the show she had gauze on her arm so I brought her to my house." He said. "She tried to leave but I asked her to stay." "When she did started talking bout how she's a bad person who brings nothing but bad things."

"Further proof she's a loon." Brian said. "Continue."

"Well we had sex and I took the gauze off on her arm were the words you're nothing." Matt said. "Woke up this morning she was gone but she left a letter, a gray rose, and a ruby she gave me last night."

"She left a ruby?" Brian asked. "Why?"

"I don't know but she said keep it with me always." Matt said.

"Some kind of good luck charm?" Brian asked.

"Don't know but she showed me it when I went to her apartment said it's considered a powerful stone that it supposedly protects against evil and brings well being." Matt said.

"Yep she's nutty." Brian said. "So what are going to do?"

"Going to the theater and see if I can catch her." Matt said.

"Matt you're hooked in a chick who's sick and may be a psycho." Brian said and sighed. "Be careful man."

"I will." Matt said grabbing his keys.

Matt arrived at the theater and got out walking to the ticket booth.

"She's not here any longer." The girl said looking up.

"She's not?" Matt asked.

She shook her head. "She came here two nights ago saying she couldn't work here anymore cause of personal problems."

"Shit." Matt said. "Did she say anything else?"

"Nothing much except she said something about moving probably." She said.

"Moving?" Matt asked in disbelief.

She nodded. "She didn't tell you?"

"There's a lot she didn't tell me." Matt said.

"She didn't tell anybody here much either." The girl said. "She was always so secretive and a bit of a recluse." "The only time she interacted with the others was when they had to perform."

"I believe that." Matt said. "Anything else about her that seemed off?"

"There was one thing that was strange." She said. "One time she came to work with a pretty nasty bruise on her stomach." "Then a couple of days later it wasn't there."

"It could've been covered up with makeup." Matt said.

"True but the thing is one of the other actors said she got wet there but the makeup didn't wash away not even a little." She said.

"On tip of that the story she gave just didn't add up." She said. "She said that she had tripped and hit herself against a drawer but the bruise was bigger than what a dresser would've caused."

"What do you think caused it?" Matt asked.

"I don't know but it looked more like someone had either hit or punched her hard enough there to leave a bruise."

Matt returned home with more questions. Now the question was how could he reach Ember before she moved?

As he switched on the TV news report came up talking bout a car crash.

"Authorities are trying to find the unknown driver who crashed into and left the young woman inside for dead." "She is being admitted into Huntington Hospital she is severely injured but alive."

Matt came back into the living room and dropped the sandwich he had been eating.

The woman they were wheeling away from the crash was Ember.