Year of the Roses

Floral Season

Lysia's bedroom

Altsas

Lyza

IT'S MIDNIGHT. I can already hear the hum of the happy crowd from the hall many floors beneath my bedroom. Rosa has managed to coax me into an ecru gown made out of satin. The hems are blood red and Rosa has fastened a matching blood red veil to my hair.

"What's the point?"'I moan. Rosa gives me a puzzled look. "What's the point of the kohl to line my eyes and the henna on my skin?"

Rosa ...