The midnight moon hung lazily in the sky above the private little estate garden...

Nathressa held Aleyah?s hand as they looked upon the small bush of Azure Roses. A single bloom stood out among the buds as spring gave over to summer. The climate in the area they had been secreted away too was much different than home so they had been surprised to see the rare flower.

?Its mother?s favorite you know.?

?I know. It was daddy that gave it to her. So thats why its special.?

?I know that.?

Despite the sibling act of who knew more than the other, they squeezed the others hand tighter as they thought long and hard. Nathressa brushed her dark red bangs out of her eyes and looked to her mirror image.

Well almost mirror. They had their mothers hair. Wild, unruly waves, just a touch darker, their blue eyes where that truly of their father. The only thing was an unexplained birthmark at the corner of their eye. Aleyah could see her Father in Nathressa?s eyes, and Nathressa in Aleyah?s.

?Tomorrow is Father?s Day you know.?

?Yeah, I know.? with a pause, ?I miss him.?

?Yeah, I know. Me too.?

Both turned back to the rose and stared at it a little longer not wanting to be the first to cry.

Things were in their darkest of year, darkest hour and yet things would prove darker than ever before. But who could put out the love a child has for their father? The father whose arms now kill once protected, carried, held. Words that soothed so wise and undeniable, now cut friends and family deeper than any blade. The love they?d felt would never be dampened by the blanket of hate.

There is no other being in the world that, good or evil, could replace their father and nothing would fill that role be hero or monster...