Again

It was a crumpled sheet of paper, rather dirtied. Dear Rosa, it read, as always, you are invited to Lilac Grove this Halloween for dinner. Stay the night, sweetie. The letter was signed, Mrs. Milford, my friend Jane’s mother.

I loved Lilac Grove; Mr. and Mrs. Milford were wonderful people and Jane and I were very close.

Then, of course, there was Albert. The thought of Jane’s elder brother brought a faint tinge of colour to my cheeks.

Time to pack, time to pack, I told myself, bustling around my room, not locating anything anywhere.

“Oh, where did I put my red dress?” I huffed, finding my wardrobe empty, “I’ll have to do with the one I’m wearing now. This white one’s not bad. Honestly, where on earth do I keep things I never seem to find when I need them?”

Sitting before the chipped mirror, I rummaged through the drawer for a hairbrush, which, of course, I couldn’t trace, again. “I’m so clumsy! Wherever did I last place the comb?”

Staring in the distance beyond the sill on this bleak October day, I smiled to myself. It'll be such fun at the Milfords. Last year, there was… so much noise! Everyone was so loud! What were we up to, again? I’m a bit fuzzy on the details… Ah, I’m getting a headache, it’s quite severe. I think I’ll take a short nap before taking a cab to Lilac Grove.

**

The manor and the garden were as lovely as ever, the clumps of lilac welcoming me with their mauve beckons.

I knocked on the large oak door and it was flung open by none other than Albert himself. Falling to his feet, he gazed up at me, his expression a mixture of elation, sorrow, and guilt. "Thank you, darling Rosa! I can finally-”

“Albert! Please stand up… That look on your face… I can’t bear it!”

“Forgive me, Rosa, for calling you here! But I’m so glad you were able to make it to Lilac Grove tonight!”

“What are you talking about? I love visiting this place! Where are the others?”

“About to dine.”

“So I arrived just in time.”

At the dining hall, Albert fetched a chair for me beside him, along with my food. Jane sat opposite us, her parents on either end.

“How’ve you been, Jane? It’s been a year, hasn’t it? And Mrs. Milford? Having fun with gardening? Mr. Milford, show me some of your art again!”

We all dug in, but suddenly, I didn’t feel like eating.

“You don’t have an appetite, do you, darling?” Albert’s emerald eyes displayed naught but dismay, his strikingly dashing demeanour so aged and hopeless.

Then, out of the blue, Jane leapt up from her seat with a yelp. A trembling finger pointed at something behind me, she shrieked, “B-blood! Trickling from beneath the window!”

Her mother screamed, clapping her hands to her mouth, “Look at the curtains! They’re getting stained scarlet as well!”

Mr. Milford dashed forth and pulled apart the blinds. I gasped in sheer horror as I noticed crimson fluid streaming down the glass pane. “The table! The lilac outside!” He cried out in alarm, glancing about, “All covered in blood!” His hands were besmirched.

Jane stammered, “R-Rosa!”

“What is it?” I managed to breathe out.

“Jane, calm yourself,” Albert addressed his sister, “you’re terrifying Rosa!” Jerking her head around at her sibling, Jane’s eyes widened in shock.

Why was he so composed?

“Darling,” Albert spoke in a tone soothing and gentle, “let’s get you to a comfortable room, yes? You don’t need to see this.”

Taking me by the hand, Albert steered me upstairs toward the third room on the second floor. I sat down on the bed, he knelt on the floor on one knee.

“Hold out your left arm, Rosa.” Albert fished out a ring from the breast pocket of his dark olive suit.

“Wait…” I whispered, “are you…?”

“I was too cowardly to propose last year. Hence, I lost my chance. And now, you are paying the price.”

I frowned, confused.

“Rosa, in this household, no one can see you except me.”

Huh?

A sharp spike of white-hot pain shot through my skull.

“Ugh… ugh…”

“I’m sorry, my beautiful Rosa, it was my regret that brought you back.”

Empty wardrobe…

A dress that was completely white…

A crumpled letter that was obviously old…

A broken mirror…

A drawer with nothing in it…

Forgotten details about last year’s Halloween dinner.

Loud noises…

The table laid out for four, not five…

No appetite…

No one responding to my greetings…

“Al-bert… h-help…! My head… is killing me…”

“Yes, yes, sweetheart,” he put the ring on, the discomfiture subsided, “I desired to share my life with you for a while now. ‘Strike while the iron is hot’… I suppose the saying isn’t wrong… That night, there was a robbery. I discovered those men running away and tried to stop them. As they aimed a revolver at me, you shoved me aside. You were shot instead. Rosa, my dear, you crashed against the window and fell on the table. You see, that’s why-”

“-there was all that blood.” I let out a bark of bitter laughter. “No wonder Jane was scared! She thought I was the customary Halloween ghost, heh! But you know,” I sobered, “I don’t think it was your regret alone. Maybe I wanted to see you once more as well.”

Albert got up and wrapped me in a powerful embrace, wiping my tears with a thumb. “I decided to follow you in death right after, but the thought of the ring stopped me. Halloween is a time when the realm of the dearly departed approaches closest to us. I kept on hoping, praying, that you’d come knocking again.”

“You know, Albert…” I began, taking a hold of the lapels of his suit and resting my head against the dark green fabric, hair shielding my swimming eyes, “I had a lot of dreams… Me, getting pregnant… You, kissing the growing bump every day… Watching you gaze in awe at the new-born infant as though it was the most divine being in the world… Feeling so cherished as you hold me tenderly while I fed our nursling child, loving the baby together… But, not one of them shall bear fruition now.”

“I will make sure you are never alone, Rosa.” Albert lifted my face with the crook of a folded index finger, jaw clenched, mien one of tremendous resolution. “Since this wretched man was incapable of granting even one of your wishes, he shall turn away from the light of this life.”

He strode towards a cupboard and extracted a tiny bottle.

“What… What on earth are you trying to do, Albert?” I nearly yelled, “Don’t! You mustn’t! I don’t even exist! Forgive me, I didn’t mean to make my foolish ramblings sound so pathetic! Albert, please!”

“Worry not.” He turned back to face me with a smile that shattered my soul. “I will not do anything to upset you or my family. I won’t die, I shall merely give myself up to you entirely, yet still keep myself rooted to this fateful place where I first fell in love.”

Uncorking the lid, he swallowed quite a number of sleeping pills, staggering to hold himself straight while trying to trudge back to where I sat. However, I grabbed him before his knees made contact with the floorboards.

He planned to never wake up, to stay in a coma till his body crumbled to dust.

Before passing out, he touched my lips for an instant, our tears mingling, becoming one.

Albert had chosen the path of the Undead, consummating marriage with me in the netherworld, yet sleeping with a rose amidst the bleeding lilac in this life.

Thus, I swore…

I wouldn’t ever rest in peace, cradling Albert’s sleeping head on my lap till I became nothing more than a wisp carried away by the wind.

The mauve petals turned redder and redder with my blood.