Now this girl, whose name was Hope, had two things in the world that she loved very much. One was a friend, a kind and caring girl to whom Hope told everything. The friend's name was Veo. Hope's other's love was a secret love. She secretly adored a boy named Robo who went to her school. He was tall and strong, with a big smile and bright white teeth that sparkled when he spoke. He always wore a gold ring on his littlest finger, and was always very polite to her.
Hope, who was quite shy, finally worked up the courage to ask Robo what he thought of her. Veo went, and as the sun neared noon she came back.
"He likes you," said Veo, "But I don't like him."
Hope didn't notice the second part of what Veo had said, as she never noticed anything bad anyone said about Robo.
"He likes me?"
"That's what he said. He said he wishes you to give him a white rose."
Hope was overjoyed and quite a bit surprised. The white rose, a symbol of a girl's maidenhood, could only be given to one person. She immediately went and found a white rose in the city garden. She picked it and carried it with her to where Robo was talking with his friends. Hope looked shyly up at Robo as she handed it to him, and the thorn of the rose pricked her finger. She was so entranced, she didn't notice the blood running down the stem. He smiled down at her and took the rose in one hand and her arm in the other.
As the sun slid down the sky, Hope heard of a dance to be held in the garden. She was very excited, and asked Veo to help her with a dress. The one she chose was silver and glittering like the stars. Hope noticed that Veo was in a bad mood about something, but was too happy to ask.
They arrived at the party, and Robo took her arm in his firm grip. He looked dashingly handsome, and his gold ring flickered as they danced.
The sun was rapidly setting when another boy asked Hope for just one dance. She, radiantly happy, would have accepted, for the boy was a quiet, serious, but gentle fellow she slightly knew, Veo's older brother Sé. But Robo stepped in front of her and challenged the fellow, chasing him away. Hope smiled. Though pitying the other man, she was pleased that Robo loved her enough to fight any who even looked at her.
Hope was standing in the last light of the moon, getting a little tired, when Robo said he would get her a drink. She gratefully accepted and went over to talk to Veo, who was leaning against the wall. Robo poured a glass of sparkling, evening-colored punch from the bottle on the table. As he bowed gallantly, handing it to Hope, Veo thought she saw with her sharp eyes something more than bubbles flashing in the depths, but she wasn't sure.
Hope happily drank and danced some more with Robo. But the party was winding down, and she was very sleepy. Robo carried her to a chair outside under the moon. She looked up into his kind eyes and he said, "I'll take care of you."
Some time later Hope woke up very bewildered. The world seemed distorted, and everything around her too loud and too big. She thought she must be sick, and then she remembered Robo's careful help, and heard his voice saying again, "I'll take care of you. I've got you, you're safe now." Comforted, she went back to sleep.
Veo went to school and wondered where Hope could be. She remembered her friend leaving with Robo, so she went to ask him if she'd gotten home all right.
Robo said he hadn't seen Hope since after the party, when she had fallen asleep, but he said he had made sure she got back to where she was safe. Just as Veo was leaving, she noticed Robo's new ring. It was gold like his old one had been, but it had a thread of silver running around it.
"Oh, it's not new," he said. "I just modified the old one."
"It's very nice," said Veo.
Hope didn't come back to school for some time. The moon set and the stars shone, but Hope didn't return. Veo went to talk to Robo again, but he didn't know anything more, and was upset that she continued to question him. He frowned at her and looked put-upon, and rubbed his silvered ring with agitation until she went away.
Veo sat alone, thinking. No one seemed to be worried that Hope wasn't in school. Veo was worried, but didn't quite know what to do, so she went to talk to her brother Sé.
As the dark began to lighten again, Sé and Veo went back to Robo. Now openly suspicious, Veo raged at him, but he only looked helpless and offended. Sé, in a tone of quiet menace, tried to reason with the fellow, but still he told them nothing. Finally Veo lost her temper and slapped Robo hard. His eyes darkened with wrath and he turned on her, raising his left hand and striking her back. His ring scratched her face, and then it caught on her pointed nose and fell off his finger, marked with a streak of her blood.
Robo lunged for it, but before he could recover the ring it made a musical sound and began to fray like rope, threads of silver and gold unraveling. As they spooled free they grew and grew, and to Veo's amazement, each thread in twenty-five of them stretched out into a very confused-looking girl in shining party clothes. Last of all, Hope stood before her friend.
"What happened?" she asked.
"He put a spell on you," said Sé, his voice trembling with indignation. He flew at the larger, younger boy, but Robo threw him off easily. Hope then turned to meet the eyes of her former object of affection, devastated.
"How could you? I trusted you!" She tore the white rose out of his hand, and the thorns raked his palm, scattering his blood on the floor. He looked angrily at her, but before he could retaliate, his hand went pale as the blood ran forth, and then it went cold and hard. In a slow metamorphosis up his arm, his entire body grew still, and his envied pale skin turned to alabaster, his deceptive blue eyes the last to freeze into opaque, clouded marbles.
Wearied, betrayed, Hope began to cry, and Sé took her into his arms. She looked at him through her tears, and he seemed as beautiful as any man she had ever seen. Needing someone to lean on, she offered him the rose still in her hand. He smiled gently at her, took it, and cast it aside. "You don't have to give me that," he whispered as he led her away. "That's not what I'm here for."
Veo smiled after them, and the other freed girls looked at her. Veo's smile grew knife edges as she reached out and tapped the statue lightly. It teetered, toppled, and crumbled as it struck the floor, and the other girls embraced her and scattered into the early morning light.
posted by Rivaine # 6:52 PM 
