The White Rose 

Chapter 1

It was a cold, dark night.

John put some flowers on the grave of his wife, Rose. He was crying.
She had died in a car accident the day of their wedding anniversary when, she had gone to buy a gift for him. She was crossing the road when she was run over by a car.
John wanted to return home that night, but he was got drunk instead, as he always did. He had become an alcoholic after his wife had died. He walked with little steps, staggering, dazzled by the light of the street lamps.

When he finally arrived home, he tried to open the front door but he had difficulty in putting the key into the lock. He was too drunk, so he sat down on the sidewalk and started to cry again. Then he lit his last cigarette and threw away the empty packet.
The letter box near him was full of letters. Since that terrible day, John hadn’t read any letters. He had just left them there – in the letter box. Then it started to rain, so John went to the door and opened it.
It was dark inside, too. The room was full of dust and there were many spider webs hanging from the ceiling. There were also a lot of bottles scattered on the floor. He was tired. So he lay down on the sofa, an old dusty sofa – his bed for the night. He had been sleeping there for some time when he suddenly woke up. It had been a nightmare. He was confused.

There was a storm outside, and suddenly lightening lit up the room and John noticed there was some writing on the wall. It said "too early the petals of this rose were cut. This rose shrivelled too early. Now, it wants to be avenged"
John was frightened. He wanted to drink and forget everything, but he couldn’t find anything. All the bottles around him were empty.
He sat down on his sofa. He didn’t cry. He couldn’t cry. No more tears. But he was angry. Now he wanted to know the truth.
He rushed outside. He didn’t care about the rain. He ran very fast – faster and faster. He was heading for the graveyard. He wanted to be with his wife – but when he got close to it he saw that his wife’s grave was empty. He turned his head and saw a man wearing a black raincoat with a strange, evil smile on his face.

“Who are you?” John asked.
He answered “Never mind. Don’t you worry. It isn’t important. Don’t you want to know who killed your wife?”
John was getting very angry now. “Who killed her?” he asked at the top of his voice.
The man was laughing now and gave him a scrap of paper with an address on it. Then John raised his head to know more but the man had disappeared. John was even more confused now.

He started looking for a taxi because he need to find out more. And along the way he was trying to understand what this was all about.
It was the address of an old factory, a big, black abandoned building – extremely old with graffiti on the walls. It had been closed down long ago.
After having paid the taxi driver he got out quickly and the first thing he saw was a broken window. He ran into the factory. It was dark and smelly inside. He could hear the mice running about and other scary noises. He used his lighter to shed some light and guess what he saw?!

Author: Domenico Spinella, class III^A
Teacher: Marta Bartolini, Italy

February 2009

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Chapter 2

He was petrified. What he saw let him without any forces. He wanted to move.. But every muscle of his body was paralyzed. He had never been so scared before. There were ten shapes. Ten men. But only two seemed to be real. The others were like ghosts. A sort of hologram. The one in the middle, the leader, started to speak:
- “I last met you all so long ago!!!. But now the time has arrived, now it must begin…..Judas … is it he?

One of the two who looked real answered: “Yes, without any doubt.”
John recognized him…. he had already seen the man who answered in the cemetry…it was him to give him the address.

- “ What the hell is going on here….? Who are you ?
- “ I’ve already told you that it doesn’t matter..”
-” Stop it Judas ! He must know….. that's why I’ve told you to bring him here … now our plan starts…we will bring pain and sufferance to the world……and John will help us.
John, threw the lighter away, and he tried to hit Judas with a fist, but he stopped him easily , and he hit John‘s stomach with his knee . Then John fell to the floor. Judas took his sword but the leader spoke again :
- “Enough ! We need him alive !” and then to John :
-” Now, calm down and listen: you are nothing, you are just sand blown away by the wind. This world has taken everything away from you. Also the one you loved most hasn't it ? “
- “ What are you talking about ? “
-” It wasn’t an accident my dear John, your wife was killed, she was killed with no piety, and the one who killed her is still alive and free.
The storm had become stronger and stronger…. the wind blew and the factory creaked. Jokn shouted:
-” How can I know it’s not a lie ?…how can I know you aren’t kidding me ? Where is the body of my wife ?” John’s voice became stronger and stronger and his hatred too. His heart started beating very fast and John was going to faint. The leader spoke again :
-” At this rate you will die soon, and it isn’t useful to you….look at you… you do not have much choice…you can listen and follow me…or you can die without knowing the truth about your wife. So, I just want to hear your answer.” John closed his eyes….he was remembering….remembering his woman…his life…the reason why he lived so long….when she died …he thought it was an accident…and he resigned…but now…., now he has got to know that someone had killed her…tears were dripping down..and then he opened his eyes and shouted :
“ YES !!!! ..the one who did it must pay …..!! “ The leader looked at him …he looked into John’s eyes and he saw revenge and hate. He smiled. He raised his hand :
-”Good, you’re very tired , now for you it’s time to sleep. “ Then Judas hit him again…he fell again and Judas with this sword cut his hand three times. The pain was too strong and John couldn’t make a sound. He saw his hand dripping blood and everything getting darker and darker…and then nothing.

Jone woke up. He was at home ..he was on his sofa…
-“Another nightmare “? He thought …” but it was so real … “ He looked around and the the fear invaded him again. The same writing was on the wall, he looked at his hand and it was cut and there was an “ R “. He was trembling….near the sofa there was a white coffin with a white paper on. On the paper there was a writing in red : “ You asked me how I know it, You wanted the evidence that it’s not a lie. Open the coffin dear John and you will see…..”( to be continued)

Author: Flavius Bors, 3D liceo scientifico sperimentazione linguistica Brocca, Follonica (Grosseto), Italy

Teacher: Marta Bartolini

March 2009

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Chapter 3
 

John was in a state of shock, his hand was trembling and blood was oozing out of his hand. He was trembling. Very slowly, he moved towards the coffin. With trembling hands, he slowly opened the lid. And lo what did he see??? His eyes met the most dreadful sight. He saw a picture of his wife being murdered by a man in black clothes. The man's face could not be seen as he had a hat on his head which covered a lot of his face. The only thing he could see was a wicked smile on his face.

John could not believe it. But then he realized that all that was going around him was for real and his wife actually was murdered. A wave of anger swept through him. Fuming in anger he ran out of his house and went back to the old factory. He found the place with the usual stillness it was known for. It was dark as it could be and no one was there to help him find his wife's killer. A sense of desperation ran through his body. John went back to the bar and started to drink again. The very thought that his wife was murdered, made him cry.

It was raining cats and dogs. It seemed nature was also crying out its heart. Totally distressed, he took his way back home. As he was walking, the street lamps started flickering and went off. The street became a dark place and a sense of fear prevailed John. Lightning struck and guess what he saw? He saw a black figure across the street, the same figure he had seen in the picture murdering his wife. Was it an illusion or was it for real!!!!!

He ran towards the man with the feeling of revenge burning in him, but he tripped over a stone and fell down. He lay there unconscious. When he woke up, he found it was a bright sunny morning. He realised that he had slept on the road the whole night. He got up and looked around for the man but there was no one to be seen. He regretted for having drunk at a time when he had to hunt for his wife's murderer. He decided he would change. He took a promise that he would never drink again and would spend day and night searching for his wife's murderer................
 

Author: Chirag Khatri,Disha Sethi and Srishti Jain, Grade 10, St.Mark's Sr. Sec. Public School, New Delhi, India

Illustrations: Kashish Goyal

Teachers: Ms. Seema Arora and Ms. Geeta Rajan

April 2009

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Chapter 4 (ending # 1)

John was running fast back home. His legs couldn't stop running. In his mind only anger and a strong desire of revenge. He hurriedly opened the door, went to the bathroom and had a freezing shower.

A million of words, a million of images of his wonderful wife crowded his thoughts.

He cleaned up every centimetres of his house and threw away all the liqueur bottles: from now on he wanted a new life, but above all he wanted to kill the murder of his wife.
He decided to come back to the old factory searching for Judas and all the other mysterious figures. It was midday.

No one was over there, better, no one that he could see. There was a light wind, a few sunbeams filtered in through the broken windows, and in a small corner there was a little piece of old paper.

John opened it and found a message written with blood:

"You can see us only when it's night, now we are just invisible. We are always in your house to guard you, we need you alive!! Come back home, look at the wall, we will write our messages there and you can shout your answers. Don’t forget we can hear you ... always."
John was upset, he had always refused to believe that someone not human
could exist!

Immediately after he set foot in his house he saw a message on the wall:
"John, I'm Jacob, the leader of my group. We want to help you, we know where is the one you are searching for."
John shouted: "Give me the address, I want to see him dead. GIVE IT TO ME!"
His eyes seemed to spit out flames!
His mouth seemed to spit out poison!

A message reply appeared on the wall:
"Ok! You will have it but everything has a price especially this! You will have what you want and more, only if you accept my condition. Do you want to know it? Do you want to know something interesting about the death of your Rose?”
"Yes, yes absolutely!! What do you know about my wife??" John shouted back.

"We will bring Mr R. in front of you and it will be yours…you can kill him once and for all! But then we must transform you in a  figure like us! Forget everything belonging to a normal life if you want your revenge! This is my condition. If you don't want to accept this we will disappear; but if you want your revenge at midnight come back to the old factory we will wait for you and you can accomplish your revenge. It will be painless and you will be happy....”
“Fine, fine” Said John “ but what do you tell me about my wife? What do you know about her murderer?”

Over the last message another writing appeared:
“You will see him tonight ,if you come."
Suddenly all the wall turned back white and remained only one sentence:
"Think and make the right decision"
Time passed faster and faster, John kept walking along the corridor, inside and outside the rooms nervously. It was 11:45 pm and he made his decision:
MIDNIGHT TO THE OLD FACTORY.
Yes, he wanted to go there and make his revenge.

The abandoned factory was becoming a dark place full of red candles. Black cloaks without body were walking around and the one who had a violet cloak stopped in front of John: "Goodnight my dear John I'm Jacob. Are you sure of your decision? Over there, near the coffin there is Mr R...."

John looked at the man who was lying on the floor, unconscious. John already felt happier and happier.
"Yes I am sure now. I accept your condition!!"

John was proud, satisfied and it didn't matter about his destiny. He took a knife and with all his strength thrust it in the heart of Mr R, the murderer of his wife, his Rose. Suddenly Jacob made John asleep with a strange movement of his eyes, the last thing John could see was a white rose in the hand of Jacob.

Everything was ready for the transformation!
 

Author: Benedetta Marrocco, class IV B Liceo Scientifico Tecnologico, ITIS S. Cannizzaro Colleferro, Roma, Italy
Teacher: Daniela Ianni
June 2009

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Chapter 4 (ending # 2)

John walked the empty streets, he had a hangover. His steps were heavy, his mind was dark and when he opened his front door Judas stood inside. John noticed the dark shape right away. Judas said: “We have found out more about the R-man. I suggest we go to the factory right now”.

When they came to the factory they walked into a light made by the sun in the middle of the big empty hall. Judas’ gang came out from the shadows. Two of the men carried a white coffin. Judas took a screw driver out and started to loosen the lid. When he was done removing the screws, he asked John to lift the lid. John felt sick. He was pale and looked with big eyes at the coffin. With a trembling voice John asked: “Whose coffin is it?” “It doesn’t matter, just open it”. In the coffin were 11 pictures. They all pictured a different woman who sat with her hands tied behind her back on a chair. Next to the woman stood the R-man, with his back to the camera so you couldn’t see his face. John flicked through the pictures until he found a picture where upon the woman was his own wife – Rose. She was very pale – like a white rose and he could see the fear in her eyes. His hands started to tremble and the R-sign on his hand started to sting. “What is the meaning of this?” asked John. Judas answered: “What has happened to you has happened to all of us. The pictures of the other women were once our wives. Their names were Roseanne, Rita, Rie, Rosa, Riana, Rosie, Renée, Rebecca, Roxy and Roxanne. That is why he is called the R-man. He only kidnaps women whose name starts with an R”. John looked at Judas. “What has happened to my wife?” One of the other men stepped out from the shadow. “We don’t know, maybe she’s still alive, maybe not”. John looked closer at the picture. He thought that he could recognize the chair but he was not sure. “But what about the picture of my wife getting murdered?” John asked confused. One of the other men came out of the shadow. “It was not your wife, but mine just with a wick on so she looked like yours. The woman you see getting murdered on the picture was already dead”. The man began to cry. John looked on the picture in his hand. What was it with that chair? Suddenly it hid him where he had seen that chair before, but could it be true? He needed to think – alone. He touched his head. “I need some sleep, I need to go home”.

The trip home was long. He was confused and walked around dazed. He bumped into many people along the way, stumbled over flagstones, he seemed drunk. He fell on the couch and he barely hit the pillow before he fell asleep. He woke up after few hours bathed in sweat. He had had a strange dream about Rose. He dreamt that Rose was alive and that she had said that she needed help. He woke up by the sound of the doorbell but he wasn’t sure if the doorbell had sounded or if it was just his dream. He went to the door and noticed a letter on the doorstep. He took it and went to the kitchen to make a cup of coffee. He opened the letter with shaking hands and at the same time the clouds pulled together. It became all dark and it began to rain a lot. He read the letter and it said that if he wanted to see his wife again he had to come to Nr. 13, Groove Street at midnight – it was the church’s address. It gave him a little hope that Rose was still alive. He ran to the bedroom and picked up his gun from the closet.
Now he was ready for midnight. The letter had also made him sure in his case about where he had seen the chair on the picture before. The picture was taken in the church cellar. He recognized the chair from all the conversations he had had with the reverend after Rose’s “death”. He was restless and decided to tell Judas and his gang about the letter he had received. He ran the whole way to the factory, barged in the door and shouted out Judas’ name at the top of his voice. Judas and his gang came rushing forward. Together they created a plan about John entering the church alone while the rest was hidden behind the grave stones and at the sound of the first shot Judas and his gang would come to John’s rescue.

The waiting time until midnight felt long. At a rapid pace John walked quiet towards the church door. Before he went in he looked across his left shoulder to make sure that Judas and his gang were in position. Luckily they were. Slowly John opened the big heavy church door. It was completely quiet in the church. He found the stairs to the church’s basement and he carefully sneaked down it. He could see light at the end of it. As John came down into the basement he could see that the light came from a room where the door was half open. John peeked. The reverend sat at his desk writing. John entered. The reverend looked up in surprise, smiled and bid him welcome all the while he tried to shove some papers into the drawer. “Good evening John. I didn’t hear you. What are you doing her this late?”. “I am looking for my life”. The reverend smiled: “Then you are in the right place. Have a seat John, and then I will get you a cup of coffee”. In the same moment the reverend had left the room, John went for the desk drawer to see what it was the reverent had hidden. John had a shock.
On the paper stood names and addresses on women whose name started with an “R”. At some of them there was drawn a cross, by others there was a date. He also found Rose’s name. The date which stood at Rose was the date she had gone missing. There wasn’t a cross – yet. In total there were 9 crosses next to 9 names. The reverend had to be the R-man. He could hear the reverend’s footsteps. Quickly he put the paper back into the drawer and sat down. John smiled at the reverend when he entered the door with two cups of coffee. The reverend gave John a cup. “What are you doing here this late?” asked John. “I am getting ready for a funeral” answered the reverend and sipped at the coffee. John also took a sip. It tasted a bit bitter. John could not hold back his anger any longer. “Where is my wife you miserable murder?” shouted John while he fumbled for his gun. “How are you John? You look a bit pale”. With fumbling fingers John got hold of his gun, he found the trigger and fired a shot. He wasn’t aware of where he hit but he could hear some glass break before he fell. Everything turned black.

When he woke up he was in the hospital. He could dimly see a shape in the bed next to him. The room was dark. Suddenly he could hear Judas’ voice. “Are you awake John?” John turned his head and he noticed Judas in a chair next to the bed. “What happened?” he asked. “My whole body hurts”. Judas leaned forward towards the bed and told: “The bullet you fired was shut through the basement window into the cemetery where we were hiding. That is why we came running and in the last moment as well. When we came barging through the door in the basement the reverend were dragging you into another room. You were all gone and the doctors have said you were poisoned. “It must have been in the coffee he gave me” said John. John turned in the bed with a bounce and stared at Judas. “Have you found Rose?” Judas leaned back in the chair and smiled. “We found Rose as well as my wife in one of the church’s basement room. Your wife is actually lying in the bed next to you. She has been given some tranquillizer so she is asleep”. John started to cry, but this time it was from happiness and relief. Judas told on: “We quickly overpowered the reverend and there was found enough evidence in his desk and in his closet was the coat with the R-brand on the back”. “The police have him in custody down on the police station. It has already been in the news”. “But why did he do it” asked John. Judas sighed deeply: “He said something about a girlfriend who once rejected him in favor of other men. As comfort he seeked the church but his anger from the defeat he suffered made him hate all women who reminded him of his great love who also happened to start with an “R”. John turned his head and looked at his wife. The tears rolled down his cheeks. “It’s over now, it’s over”. Judas padded his hand. “Yes, it is over”.

School: Herfoelge School, Denmark

June 2009
 

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Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4 (ending # 1)

  Chapter 4 (ending # 2)