Mila sat on the small bench inside the confessional booth which is a small , enclosed space found in Catholic churches where people can go to recieve sacrament penance and reconciliation . Thankfully the confessional is divided by a partition where the priest cannot see the trembling and anxious child of the known business man Maxwell Woods .

Mila's hands were shaking while she tapped her feet on the floor continuously in a nervous pace . The Priest soon greeted her and she greeted him back , her voice barely steady .

"What disturbs the peace of your life dear child of God?" The priest questioned , his voice warm and normal , unlike the voices that she had come to here in the past days of her life .

"Father ," Mila starts before she pauses and she gulps down the bile rising on her throat while tears filled her eyes and blurred her vision in sight . As if the priest could sense her distress , he comforts ," It is alright dear child , you can tell me anything , you are in a safe place ."

The words did not hold any value , they did not comfort her . She did not retort and say that no place is safe , rather she swallowed back the words and muttered ,"I do not know where to start . But it all started on my eighteen birthday , father . I had recieved a banquet of red roses , beautiful red rose , but they had thorns . No one knew whom the gifter was , and no one paid much heed to the matter as my mother thought that maybe it was from my younger sister who is across the country and maybe she is pulling a prank on me . It was until the party ended and I had retired to my room , where I found a bunch of red roses , all with thorns . They were all over the room ." Tears spilled silently down Mila's cheeks . She sniffled and wiped the tears away ," It didn't stop there . It went on for my every other birthday and every night since then , I will have nightmares that felt too real to be just nightmares . I started to see shadows wherever I go too . I thought it was him."

"Now it is even more worse , because I think I am about to marry that mysterious gifter ."

--

The sound of her brash ringtone filled her ears . The sound was distant through her sleep , yet she managed to hear it . Her expression turned into one of annoyance , hating the disturbance . She rolled over to the other side where she lifted her arm and she searched for her phone on the counter with her ears closed .

Finding the phone , she rolled back to the side and answered the phone call . Instantly after placing the phone over to her ear , the loud scream of her friends filled her ears ," HAPPY FRICKEN BIRTHDAY BITCH!"

A small smile managed to graze her lips before she sat up and yawned lightly while her two friends , Victoria and Sophia sing the traditional birthday song over the phone for her .

After they were done her two friends cheered on the top of their lungs . She softly giggled at their silly action before she leaned back on the headboard and listened as Sophia spoke ," Guess what we have planned ?" Her voice full of sinister and Mila could only tell that it's a very bad and naughty thing that Sophia had planned .

"It was my plan !" Mila heard Victoria shout from the distance of the phone , seeming that maybe Sophia diverted the phone away from Victoria so that she wouldn't hear when Sophia takes credit for all the work .

Mila could picture Sophia roll her eyes when the latter spoke ," Yeah , yeah ," Sophia groaned before she continued ," Anyways ," She drawled ," We have reservations at The Pearl Room !" Sophia and Victoria cheered at the end .

Mila threw her head at the back before she groaned slightly . She heard the aggressive chewing of Sophia , who is always chewing a bubblegum on the phone before the latter spoke ," I know right . And you can not miss it . It's a moment once in a lifetime ."

Mila heard the sound of the bubblegum popping before she responded ," I can't ." Before her friends could even be given the slightest chance to speak and trap guilt her , she continued ," Jasmine is coming and you girls know that it has been so long since I have seen her and Mom planned for us to spend the whole evening together before midnight arrives where there will be a party that she organised ."

Every once in a year of her birthday on the thirteenth of October where the red moon always appears , her mother always makes it a must-do-thing-or-else-i-die to plan the most extravagant and bougie celebration where there would be elite people that are way older than her that she doesn't know but always meet them ever month but makes it a goal to forget them by the end of the night . Yeah , the party is pretter boring , other than when it ends and she retires to her room to see the room filled with red roses with thorns on them . How does this person even enter her room ? Well they had come past that , seeing that they have tried multiple times but they still have no clue nor a single piece that leads them to this mysterious gifter . And in the past days her mother has come to burry the situation saying that the mysterious gifter doesn't hurt her so they do not seem her or him a threat in her life , for now .

She heard the dramatic groans of her two friends on the end of the phone before Victoria said ," Why don't you just come by with Jasmine than?"

Jasmine is Mila's younger sister who does not like her friends . Mila had thought Jas would atleast tolerate Victoria since she is not like the wild cat , Sophia who doesn't bother with being polite and sophisticated . But Jas doesn't like her two friends , so her younger sister would not agree , a hundred percent . "With my mom too ?" Mila questions , not wanting to say how Jasmine thinks they are just wild , troubled skanks that she wouldn't befriend even if they paid her a million dollars .

"I guess it will be me and V than ." It was Sophia who spoke .