The crowd was highly animated as they waited for Calvin to come make his choice.

I've been here before, I know what to expect now. The council had just expertly killed my shot at a date tonight by putting forth a pretty nice smear campaign on me. I may know that Calvin loves me, and wants to go with me and not Lexton, but I also know he has to do the right thing for his people and after the show they'd just pulled, I knew he'd have to pick Lexton.

I waited, keeping a calm expression as he walked passed me, stone faced, and stood in front of Lexton. I was surprised by how he wasn't even pretending to be happy about it as he held out his hand to her.

"Accompany me." He said bluntly.

The audience cheered happily as she curtsied to him and then smiled, taking his hand. I noticed him turn his face towards me, but I kept my eyes straight forward. I've been embarrassed enough for one night. Giving in and looking over at him would only lead to people speculating what the look between us meant. I waited until they were both gone before I glanced over at Marco, giving him back the fake smile he was giving me.

He ran his hand through his thin hair and held the mic back up to his mouth. "Rachel," He said into it. "How do you feel?"

"Fine." I lied.

"Really?" He asked. "You feel fine?" He smiled. "Hear that everyone? She's fine." The crowd laughed and he turned back to me. "Oh, I'm not sure I remembered to mention this earlier, but this year's dates will be overnight dates." He grinned wickedly and I tried not to let it show that I felt like I'd just been kicked in the gut and then spat on. "This way both contestants have a fair chance to win over the King. I know last time we only had single dates, but this is what we saw after the dates with other girls were ended." He said, pointing back to the screens as a video of Calvin kissing Lexton on the hand at her door after their first date, and then you see him run off into another direction where the camera shows him catch up with me. We talked for a moment, and then I followed him onto the elevator. "The playing field is being evened out this year." Marco crooned.

I tilted my head and smiled at him. "What a fantastic idea."

"You think so?"

"Of course." I bluffed, but he just chuckled to himself.

"The dates will also have extended video that will be broadcast live." Marco informed everyone. "We wanted to do full date video, but our King thought that may be disrespectful to the feelings of these two dear girls, so we will only being doing a couple of hours, but I am sure they will be juicy nonetheless." I felt like the world was spinning around me and I didn't know how much longer Marco planned to keep me up here to torture me in front of all of these people. "Shall we take a look at what Miss Lexton and our King are up to right now?" He asked and the crowd was ear-piercing in their response.

I didn't want to look at the screens. I tried to just keep my head down as I heard Calvin's strained voice come over the speakers.

"I believe so, yes." He was saying.

"I've never played this before." Lexton giggled.

I was tempted to look, but I wasn't sure that I could take it. I jumped slightly when I felt hands on my face. Marco was lifting my face, forcing me to look to the screen and witness the love of my life spending time with another. They were in a dimly lit room and sitting at a small table with a green top with some cards out in front of them and little chips in the center of the table. Lexton was smiling brightly and asking all kinds of questions related to the game and at first Calvin was being brisk with his responses, but eventually he seemed to warm up and get into the game they were playing.

"I don't know how you've been here this long and never played vampire poker." He laughed. It didn't sound fake or even slightly forced. It was a genuine Calvin laugh.

I tried to look away, but Marco held my face firmly.

I'd had enough.

I tried to pull away harder once, but he held tighter, so I did the only thing I could do. I swiveled slightly and turned my body into him, bringing up my knee with force, connecting it with his groin. He dropped my face and fell back. I was pleased to know that the class I'd taken in self-defense also worked on power tripping vampires.

"You little bitch!" He hollered, dropping his mic, holding his hands to his trousers.

"No!" I snapped. "You seem to have me confused." I told him and he began to straighten up. I pointed to the center of my chest. "Queen." I said firmly, then I took a step forward to put my finger in the center of his chest. "Council member." I grinned and the people fell quiet. "Until this is all over, I will be treated as a queen is to be treated." I told him, my anger in my voice. "If you ever lay your hands on me again, it will be the last thing you ever do."

I turned my back on him but he called back to me. "Where do you think you're going?" He snapped.

I whipped back around. "I'm sorry, was I in any way unclear?" I spat. "You are not the boss of me, and you never will be. I do not answer to you, and I am done with this."

I stormed off the stage, the only sounds coming from the clicking of my shoes, and Calvin and Lexton's muffled voices in the background. I got to the top of the stairs and the two guards there both dropped down to kneel before me before they stood back up to open the doors for me.

I was going to the elevator to go back to my room when something in my path made me stop.

One long stemmed rose was lying on the marbled ground right outside of the elevator.

My blood felt chilled in my veins and I stood, staring at it with my mind rushing in a million different directions. I told myself that I must be overthinking. Roses aren't something that is singularly special to me. Lots of people like roses, and they have them here all the time. I assured myself I was letting my anxiety get the better of me.

I turned away from it and took the elevator up to the second level. As soon as the doors opened, I was running before I had even fully realized where I was going. Calvin had put maps in my room, and given me full layouts of the grounds that I had tried to memorize. I knew I was getting close to the kitchens and the blood storage area, but my feet were screaming in my strappy shoes so I stopped to bend over and unhook them.

While I was bent over I felt a rush of air and then I was knocked over by something, causing me to fall back onto the cold floor. I yelped slightly, but when I stood back up, I was silent. Right in front of me was another red long stemmed rose. I spun around looking for someone, but there was no one around. I ran forward, knowing I was about three turns from the kitchen. My heart was pounding in my throat when I noticed someone had drawn a rose on the white marbled walls in what looked like blood.

My head was turned looking back at it as I ran by when I slammed into a person.

"Majesty, are you alright?" The man asked. I held my hands to my chest and tried to focus on my breathing, but when I looked up I was face to face with the man from the ballroom, the rose still pinned to his jacket. "Majesty?" He asked again, tilting his head and staring at me like I was insane.

"Why do you have that?" I demanded, pointing at the rose.

"This?" He asked confused, pulling it off of his jacket. "I always wear a fresh flower on my suits for special occasions." He said. I couldn't think what to say, I just stared at the rose in his hand. "Here, take it Your Highness." He said, passing it over. I shook my head, but he smiled. "No, really, it's ok." He said. "I can go cut some more." He told me. "You take it."

I took the flower from him with shaking fingers and as soon as it was in my hand he was gone, nothing but a gust of wind in his wake. I looked down at the bright red flower in my hand and I tried to rationalize with myself. I needed to be calm. I needed to breathe.

I screamed out as the flower in my hands turned jet black and withered away, falling in tiny little pieces from my hands to the floor where the pieces scattered like ashes.

I ran away slamming into the white double doors labeled as the kitchen.

"Patrick!" I yelled and everyone turned to look at me, bowing their heads.

"Rachel?" Patrick said when he came around a corner in the back of the large industrial kitchen, followed by Octavia and Logan. "Rachel, are you alright?" He asked and Octavia shot over to me, pulling me into the back room that they had come from.

It was a small room, a little dark, with shelves lying the walls with fresh vegetables and a table set up in the middle of the room with a few stemmed wine glasses with pink liquid in them sitting there. Octavia shut the door behind her and they crowded around me. "I was just about to come to your room, what are you doing here?" She asked. "Where is Cromley?"

I was already starting to hyperventilate. "I don't know." I said between gasps for air.

"I saw what happened." She said.

Patrick stepped forward. "I can't fathom how Master Marco could believe he would get away with treating you with such disrespect."

"The videos too." Octavia said shaking her head. "I don't know why Calvin didn't rip his head off right then and there. Calvin was very clear about how tonight was supposed to go."

"Rach?" Logan said my name softly. "Are you ok?" He asked, furrowing his brows at me. "That looked rough up there, but you totally showed the guy who was boss." He tried to make me feel better.

"Stop it." I snapped. "I'm not here because of any of that shit!"

"Then what's wrong?" Octavia asked, her eyes wide.

I could hardly force my voice out. "Someone...a man...someone knows." I gasped out. "Roses." I shrieked thinking of the way the rose had died in my hands.

Octavia put her hands on my shoulders and steadied me, looking into my eyes. "Keep your voice down." She whispered. "What are you talking about? What happened?"

Logan pulled out a chair for me at the table and Octavia led me over and helped me sit down and she pulled a chair close to me and sat with my hands in hers. "There was a man." I whispered. "He was in the ballroom and he had a rose pinned to his shirt." I said. "He...he just gave me the creeps the first time I saw him." I tried to explain.

"Because he had a rose on his shirt?" Patrick asked with his expression confused.

I sighed. "I know it sounds crazy, but it freaked me out." I told them. "During everything, I saw him again at the top of the stairs and I swear he was looking right at me when he pointed at the rose." I explained. "Then when I left the ballroom there was a rose lying on the ground in front of the elevator."

"Rachel, that could just be a coincidence." Logan said gently.

I shook my head, getting angry that they keep interrupting me. "Listen!" I snapped, then lowered my voice again. "I thought the same thing, but it did put me on edge so I was going to come here to talk to you Patrick because Pedro had told me if I ever feel like I don't know who to trust, I could come to you." I explained. "On the way here though, I got knocked down and when I got up, someone had put another rose in front of me, and I know it wasn't a coincidence that time. I stared running and someone had painted a rose on the walls, and then I ran into the man again, he gave me the rose on his shirt then disappeared." I said, my voice rising an octave from my fear. "The rose turned black in my hand." I said shaking. "It died in my hands, almost instantly."

Finally their expressions showed me that they were understanding why I was so afraid.

Octavia leaned back in her chair, shaking her head back and forth slowly while Patrick was staring down at the table and Logan's face was long and pale as a sheet.

"We need to find the man!" I whispered. "He has to be around somewhere!"

Octavia looked up at me. "I don't think we can." She said bleakly.

"What do you mean?" I snapped. "He was threatening me and my..." It clicked then. How could we send out men to find him without telling them about Rose? Even if we made something up for why he needed to be found, we couldn't risk the wrong person finding him and him telling everything he knows about me and Rose. "Why can't just do nothing." I muttered.

"I need to talk to Calvin." Octavia said. "He'll know what to do, and who to trust." She said.

"He's a little busy on his date right now." I snapped.

"Rachel." She chided me but I rolled my eyes and crossed my arms over my chest.

Patrick looked over at me. "I'm so sorry." He whispered. "You don't deserve all of this." He said.

I burst into tears at his statement. It isn't me who doesn't deserve this. It's Rose. She's never done anything wrong, but people want her because of who her parents are. How long will she have to suffer because of us?

Octavia pulled me up by my hands and hugged me tightly. "We will figure something out." She whispered. "I promise you."

"Rose is alright." Logan assured me. "I just talked to her not even an hour ago." He said.

"Come on." Octavia whispered, pulling me towards the door. "Show us where you saw the man and the flowers, then we need to get you into your room where it's safe."

We walked out all together and I went the exact path I had come from, but all traces of the flowers, even the painted one on the wall, were entirely gone.

"I'm positive it was right here!" I promised them when they looked at me like I was crazy. "I am sure, it was right here." I said. "Someone must have cleaned everything up."

"You're probably right." Octavia said as she pushed me along to get back to the elevator.

I felt just as crazy as they probably think I am. Maybe I really had imagined it all. I had just been through all the crap in the ballroom and so maybe I had just let myself get fixated on the man who creeped me out in the crowd. It could have all been a part of my imagination.

When we got off of the elevator on level six, Octavia held me back, pushing me back onto the elevator. "Why aren't there any guards on duty?" She whispered to herself.

"I heard they were having a meeting tonight during the competition since Rachel and Calvin were both supposed to be away." Patrick told her and she nodded her head.

"That's right." She said. "I forgot."

"So it's ok?" I asked and she smiled.

"Yes, we are all going to stay with you though until the guards are all back." She said as we exited the elevator again.

She pushed open my door and we all walked into the room together.

I had nearly had myself convinced that I really had just gone off the deep end for a while earlier until I looked around the room.

There were rose petals all over the floor, long stemmed roses all over the dressers and tables, and on the white duvet there was a large rose drawn in blood.