the thorns of a rose {Marcus}

[bella]

Night. The most beautiful yet dangerous part of the day. The moon, full as ever, shone brightly as it sat high in the sky, casting a ghostly light over the lands. The stars speckled the sky, making their lovely formations that could be picked out easily if one looked at them just right. The night held such beauty, and yet humans made night the time of death and disaster. People knew that night was the best time to kill because the human eye was not made for seeing very far in the blackness of night, therefore, there is no one around to hear the screams or gunshots, and the victims can't ever see it coming. Humans lived in such a horrible world of evil, but there was really nothing that anyone could do to stop it. The Earth held beauty and before humans were set upon it, it was a kind, balanced world. With the humans, it was a harsh, disastrous world.

California Hope Leone was one of those humans, but she was one who had always wished for a world with peace and no harm. She was a young girl of about sixteen that let light blonde hair fall below her shoulders and had piercing blue eyes. She was a short girl, but she didn't mind. She attended Hawthorne Academy, a place for troubled teens. It was weird, though, because she had not really been troubled until her brother had died. She had fallen into a depression, feeling lonely, scared, and suicidal. Her nanny, Patience, had done everything for her back in England, but nothing could ever bring her brother back. It had been California's choice to start attending Hawthorne, thinking that maybe the school could help her overcome her brother's death. She had only been there a week, though, and she had realized that the Academy didn't really do anything except keep the troubled teens inside it's walls. It was like a rehabilitation center.

Of course, that was what half of the kids that attended the academy needed was just a place to keep them, but California needed more. She needed the comfort and support to get over her brother's death, and she needed someone to help her know that he would always be with her no matter what. Even though she hadn't gotten these things from the academy, she had found life again. She had made friends that would probably stick by her side through everything, no matter what, and that was a plus about the place. Then again, she had also made a few enemies because of her big mouth, and she constantly felt like she needed to watch her back. She had made psychopaths her enemies, and now she was really feeling the terror of it.

She walked through the gardens, slightly lost in the high walls of hedges and flowers that lined the path. Cali had taken a wrong turn somewhere within the maze, and it had led her to a part of the gardens that she had never been to before. It truly was beautiful with tall, brightly colored flowers and a few trees that sprouted around. It was a truly magnificent place to be. Of course, being lost in a seemingly endless maze just brings more terror into a person when they have psychopathic enemies running around wanting to kill them. Right now, though, Cali was lost in thought, wondering if she would be in the academy if her brother were still alive with her.