someday you will be loved.

    Years and years ago, I met a wandering boy with a guitar.

    I found him in the park, of all places, playing a song to the trees. It was summer that year, and the air was crisp and dry. A cold breeze washed over me as I watched him from a safe distance-close enough to hear the strum of his guitar, yet far enough away to not be seen.

    His head was down so I could not see his face, and yet I knew there was a kindness about him, although he seemed rather unapproachable. He had been dressed in all black, in a classy sort of way, and his chocolate hair was brushed softly over his eyes by the wind. His skin was light, pale as paper, and it seemed, at the time, like he'd spent his entire life behind the safety of brick walls.

    I fell asleep listening to him play, my back against the trunk of a tree, and woke to the same gentle rhythm. A song that could only be described as mesmerizing slowly pulled me back to reality. As I opened my eyes, a rose petal danced through the air, aiming to land next to me. I watched the crimson heart twist and turn in the breeze. It's beauty was almost as mesmerizing as the soft notes of music that drifted into my hungry ears. I smiled as the petal bowed deeply, and gasped as it hit the ground. There were five words written on the petal in a beautiful black script:

    Someday you will be loved.

    Shock took over my face as I slowly reached down and lifted the petal in my shaking hand. The words didn't vanish or flutter, as I expected that they would. The words where real. But who wrote them? My mind instantly wandered to the boy with the guitar, but I laughed softly at myself. How could he have dropped a rose petal from a tree when he was performing for the ones behind me?

    I knew it was insane, but I couldn't help but sneak a glance at the boy. Carefully, I turned around and looked past the trunk of the tree that had served so kindly as my bed. I gasped once more. The boy was gone. And, yet, the heavenly music still danced through the air. I turned back, and smiled. The boy was sitting in front of me. His legs where crossed Indian style, just like a child, and his guitar was seated silently on his knees.

    No surprise or shock radiated from my eyes as he smiled back at me. "Hello." His voice made me weak in the knees, although I too was sitting down. "Did you like my song?"

    My mind went blank. I didn't know what to say, and yet words flowed easily from my mouth. "It was a beautiful song." He smiled brighter at my reply, and the wind pushed his hair from his eyes. I starred into them, hypnotized by the pools of gray and blue and silver. He starred back, directly into my eyes, and a chill ran up my spine. He seemed so caught up in something that he saw, and I could only hold back laughter. What ever could one see in eyes that looked like a pools of mud?

    He nodded gently before his gaze dropped downwards, to the emerald fingers that brushed against the fabric of his pants, and began to softly strum his guitar. My eyes closed on their own, and I found myself taken to a world beyond my wildest dreams. All around me there was beauty. Flowers blossomed in slow motion as I gazed in awe at their petals. The boy's melodic song swam in the air, seeping into my skin and soaking into my very soul. A shinning sun was born from the sea that licked my naked feet, and the horizon exploded into a rainbow of dancing figures. I watched them in awe, mesmerized by their graceful sways as they slow-danced with one another through the golden edges of the golden universe.

    With careful steps I walked through the sea, smiling as the salty water caressed my skin. Suddenly the bright sea swallowed me, and the figures in the sky bowed as waves crashed over me. The sane would have panicked, but I just smiled and closed my eyes, letting the warm water take control and sweep me this way and that.

    Without warning I was back in the park, watching the boy smile at me. He was no longer playing any music, but his latest song was still beating along with the rhythm of my heart. He didn't speak, and nor did I. Words would have just ruined the moment - there was magic hanging softly in the air.

    He began to play once more as the setting sun lit the sky on fire. I closed my eyes, smiling at him. But before I drifted off into his world again, I drifted into the land of sleep. Strange bits and pieces of dreams haunted me in a melancholic sort of way, and as all faded to black I found myself sitting atop the highest of mountains. His song rushed through my blood, and cold petals of rain fell all around me.

    It should have been cold, freezing even, but his land was warm, just like his heart. I wandered around, looking for him, when he appeared in front of me. Of course he was there the whole time. I just didn't see him, because I just wasn't looking. He turned to me and smiled. Then he took me in his arms. A simple hug, that's all it was, but sparks flew in that moment and all around us the snow exploded into white rose petals. The sun blossomed into a blood-red rose, and rain poured down from the cloudless sky.

    The giant rose in the sky began to wilt, and the falling white petals turned to crimson. He released me, and took my arm with a solemn look on his face. His song died away as he pulled back my sleeve, exposing the lines carved into my skin. They'd been there for years, and new ones came as I saw fit, but never had someone else seeing them brought such fear into my heart. I pulled my arm away, and his eyes burned through my very soul, leaving two black holes that where charred around the edges. I reached out to him, but suddenly I was in my bed, back at the place I loosely referred to as home.

    I tore off the sheets to find thousands of crimson rose petals scattered all around me. I stood up, starring in shock at them. My feet touched something delicate, something fragile, and I looked down. Thousands more petals covered the floor. Blood was splattered across the walls, sending chills up my spine. I opened the door with fear in my eyes, and ran down the hallway and out the front door, disturbing hundreds of blood-colored petals with every step.

    Without a destination in my mind, I ran. Every stride sent hundreds upon hundreds of rose petals into the air, and they danced around my legs, nipping at my empty skin. I ran and ran until I reached the park, my naked feet pounding against the broken asphalt of the streets as I went, grinding against glass and dirt and nails. Suddenly I knew where I was going. I ran through the park to the trees I first saw him playing under, and found only his guitar. But something was there that hadn't been there before.

    A gray, worn tombstone was sleeping in the grass behind the guitar, and I threw the blood soaked instrument to the ground. The tombstone bore no name, nor did it display any years or signs that it was really a gravestone at all, but I knew the truth as his song erupted in a cold rain as black words stung my heart from the core of the rock. They'd followed me all day. They'd been on every petal, every wall, every tree, every car, every window.

    Someday you will be loved.