Life is a Bouquet of Roses

So I had the weirdest dream last night. I dreamt that The Smiling, The Slender Man, and The Rake were doing “The Creep” following The Black Dog, who was padding in front of them, looking nervous and turning to bark at them every once in a while. The Nightlanders even stopped their football game to watch it.

I woke up to…Sol. Fortunately not straddling me, but it startled me either way. “Where’s Elise?” I asked, sitting up and putting my glasses on.

“She’s taking a shower and asked me to be here when you woke up. Apparently if you wake up alone you flip shit or something.” Sol waved it away. Afterwards, I got dressed, and Sol and I went to have breakfast. Non-obfuscated Lucky Charms, thank the existing deities.

“So, you’ve been spending a lot of time with Sylvia recently, eh?” I asked him.

“Yeah, we get assigned to do a lot of stuff together, cuz Luna’s still recovering.” Sol replied.

“What kind of stuff do you guys do anyways?” I asked him, before eating a spoonful of cereal.

“Eh, the stuff you don’t do. Like, sometimes we do maintenance on the Tower. Other times we run errands. Not much, honestly.” Sol shrugged.

“Hm. I guess since Elise and I were here first, well, Sylvia was technically originally, but she was traumatized and whatnot, we get the priority jobs. Anyways, I gotta dash.” I said, putting my empty bowl in the sink and heading to Mistress’s room.

I heard a sound from her open doorway, and I stood in the doorway for a moment. Mistress was singing. “Although you’re untrue, I’m attracted to you all the more, why do I need you so? I need you, I need you, more than anyone, darling, you know that I have from the start. So build me up, build me up, buttercup, but don’t break my heart!” She glanced over at me standing in the door and immediately turned off the radio. “How…how long were you standing there?” She asked quietly.

“Long enough.” I chuckled. “But that’s not important at the moment. What needs doing at the moment?” I asked.

“Nothing at the moment…nothing big really happening. I don’t blame you for the whole thing with The Maenad yesterday. He was an asshole, from what I heard from Elise. So either way, just go on patrol or whatever and make sure nothing’s wrong.” Mistress ordered me.

“Alone? Elise hasn’t gotten out of the shower yet.” I asked.

“Yes, go alone, nothing’ll happen to you, don’t worry.” Mistress looked exasperated, so I did what I was told and left the Tower.

I walked around for about an hour. Then I saw two girls. I had my left hand on my knife just in case. They were grinning oddly, and that unnerved me. I thought at first that maybe they had just said something funny. I assumed the Burning Bride had proxies and they were them. “Hello!” I shouted stupidly. I don’t know what I was thinking at the time. I was probably thinking “Ooh, cute girls!” But I dunno. “Might you be proxies of the Burning Bride?” I asked them.

The first one giggled. “He thinks we’re proxies of The Burning Bride.”

“Why, uh, yes. Yes we are.” The second spoke up as we approached each other. “We, um, are.”

“Are you looking for Dolls, specifically one named Daniel Thompson?” I asked them, assuming The Bride sent them as messengers.

The first one giggled. “He thinks we’re looking for Dolls, specifically one named Daniel Thompson.”

“Uh, yes, we are. Why?” The second one responded.

“Because you’re standing in front of him.” I replied. “I’m Daniel.”

The first one giggled. “He thinks we’re standing in front of him.”

The second one took my hands. “Really? Good, I’m glad we found you.”

“Why is that?” I asked. Then in almost an instant, she was behind me, with my hands behind me. The first one produced a coil of rope from her dress, and tied my hands and legs with it.

“We’re not proxies of the Burning Bride.” The second said. “We’re Rose Brides, servants to The Smiling Man.”

“I…see.” I replied, struggling to retain my composure.

“Not soon, you won’t.” The second one smiled. “He’s coming this way soon.”

“But until then…” The first one said, taking out a battery-operated hair dryer and putting it near my face, turning it on.

“What are you doing?” I asked her, confused.

“Melting your face. You can melt Doll’s faces with hair dryers, yknow?” I swear this girl has some form of high-level autism or something.

Then there he was. “Hello, girls.” I heard his voice. It was high-pitched, almost feminine. The Smiling Man. They both stood up and bowed on either side of me. I made sure not to look at his face, and instead looked at his monstrous retractable claws. “Hello, Doll.” He grinned wider.

“Hello, Mr. Smiling Man.” I replied, trying to be as polite as possible, hoping to diplomacy my way out of this one. “To what do I owe the honor of being visited by someone such as yourself?”

“I’m using you as ransom.” He grinned. “That sweet little Elise girl you spend time with? Well, she found me once when you were staying behind me, and got away from me. I’ve been following her ever since then, but every time I get close, she goes into that damned Tower. So I have her partner. She’ll have to come get him, and then, that’s when I’ll get her.”

“And kill me, I suppose?” I asked him.

“You catch on quickly.” The Smiling Man responded. “I have a Rose Bride headed to The Tower to inform that dear girl of the situation. But until then…let’s have a bit of fun, shall we?” He grinned, standing me up and taking hold of my face. “Now…look into my face. I stared at his teeth. His razor-sharp teeth. He had dozens. He opened his mouth. There were teeth behind his teeth. He had no tongue, only teeth. Hundreds.

“Good…” He grinned. “Now look into my eyes.” He grinned, forcing my face up to look at his eyes. They hurt. They hurt. So much. So much they hurt. Ow. OW OW OW IT HURTS TO THINK ABOUT THAT. Anyways. Ahem.

It wasn’t long after that the two Rose Brides’s heads were sliced off by strings. Mistress? No. Someone else. Sylvia. “Mistress gave you string powers?!” I yelled at her. The Smiling Man dropped me, being startled.

“I here to save you!” Sylvia yelled, beheading The Smiling Man and cutting my ropes. “Now he get up soon. So hurry!” I ran to catch up with her, and we got out of there.

I made it to The Tower, where Elise was waiting. She saw me and kissed me. And kissed me. And we kissed. And kissed. And kissed. And we’re kissing as I write this. More kisses- I mean updates tomorrow. Night everyone.

~Thompson out.