My name was Kylen T Mallory and two years ago , I thought I had everything . I was handsome … and vain about it . I was wealthy - family money as well as my own . I had a great job in advertising , a penthouse apartment in the city that I shared with my father , Regis , and a fiancée who was one of the rising names in modeling . My father and I still shared an apartment because neither of us was there enough to warrant finding another equally prestigious address … and besides , I expected to be moving after Laurel and I got married . I was sure that she would insist on picking a place and I really didn 't care as long as it was upscale enough . Not that that would have been a problem , Laurel was sure to spare no expense choosing the best address she could find . Sam and Mack took me out - it was maybe a week before the wedding but we all knew that Laurel had the week of the wedding scheduled down to the minute for everybody involved . She had included a bachelor party for me the night before the wedding but I knew better than to think it would be anything like a real one . Drinking with her father and his friends and watching movies of her grow up or something lame like that . So we were having a last fling before I was a married man - not that any of us expected things to change all that much . On the way out , I bumped into an old woman , knocking her down . Now , I 'd like to say the tequila was the reason behind it but I know better . I was raised in the city and had city manners - which is to say , none at all . " Watch it , you old bitch ! " I turned to Sam " Look at her , the ugly tattooed frankenskank ! She should be ashamed to show her face . " That 's what I said and I have wished I could eat those words at least a hundred times since then . " Ah , you 've gotten turned around . Let 's just find a place . I 'm getting thirsty . " I said . Then I spied a news stand still open on the corner . For no reason at all , I went over . Behind the counter was a girl , kind of pretty in a shy way but nothing to really arrest my attention . Beside the cash register she had those single roses you see for sale in corner markets and the like . I picked one out and handed it to her . " Thank you . " That was odd - no protests about she couldn 't or I shouldn 't - just ' thank you ' . She pulled off two petals and reached over to tuck them in my jacket pocket . " You should keep a little - just so you have the fragrance . " " Hey Kyle ! " Sam was motioning to me . I was glad they hadn 't apparently seen me with the news girl . That wasn 't like me at all . Ok , that was silly . I knew fortune tellers were fake and she 'd promise me riches which I already had and a happy life which I also already had … but why not ? So we went in . The place was done up like a parlor with a table in the middle and chairs , dimly lit and scruffy . Probably dirty as well but I couldn 't really tell in the low light . The gypsy was sitting at the table for all the world as if she was waiting for us . And maybe she was , I find I 'm a lot less skeptical now than I used to be . She didn 't take his hand , didn 't pull out cards or a crystal ball , she just started talking . She told him a little bit of his past and then a lot about his future . I don 't remember most of it but it wasn 't riches and happiness and some of it was very specific . Mack looked positively spooked . " And now , Sam . " Again she told him something about his past and then his future . I really really don 't remember what she said to him except that the last thing was " and stay out of taxi - cabs for the next two weeks . " " And now for Thorne . " Hey , wait a minute ! Thorne is my middle name but nobody and I do mean nobody knew it . And , come to that , she 'd been calling us by name but we hadn 't told her our names … " You 're to be married soon . It won 't happen . " What ? Wait … " Your life is about to change completely , although you will determine if it is for the better or for the worse . You have cared nothing for anyone but yourself and no one has cared about you . " She took my hand and pressed her thumb into my left palm . " Since you have done a small kindness tonight , you will have until the roses bloom twice to find someone to love you for who you are and tell you so . If you fail , you will stay as you are forever . " I don 't exactly remember how I got home . I was woozy from the tequila and I kept seeing green eyes blaze at me . But somehow I got home and into bed because that is where I woke up the next morning . I woke up in my own bed and alone but I was still dressed from the night before so I must have been pretty out of it . Still , I had no hang over and that was something . I stretched , feeling pretty good . It was Saturday so I didn 't have to work and I was seeing Laurel in the afternoon . I 'd made her promise no wedding talk so it might even be fun . Where the gypsy had pressed my palm there was a blooming rose tree tattoo going half - way up my forearm . I turned my hand over and it circled around to the back and disappeared up my sleeve . What the … ! Mirror - mirror in the bathroom … right now . I turned on the light and staggered a little backwards then leaned in for a better look . I was unrecognizable , even to myself . First off , I was bald . I 'd been more than a little vain about my hair and now it was just gone - even my eyebrows were gone . There were nasty keloid scars crisscrossing my face and a tribal tattoo coming over the top of my head and around my ear that looked like a thorn branch . I looked in the backing mirror ( I was so vain I had mirrors set to show my back as well ) and the tattoo went over the side and top of my head and disappeared into the collar of my shirt . I ripped the shirt off - it went down my neck and across my left shoulder - blade , then down my arm - or part of it did . It also went off down my spine with tendrils curling around onto my sides and around my right arm as well … I shucked off the slacks and there were tendrils of it on both legs as well . There was one unconnected clump of thorn branches just to the left side of center on my chest … looking closely , it was a heart made of thorns that branched out up to my throat . There were slashes of brands and more scars everywhere - parts of my skin looked like I 'd been badly burned and then healed up poorly . None of it hurt … but the total effect was astonishing . I didn 't even look human any more ! My first feeling was of disbelief … this was some trick , make - up or something . But it didn 't wash off and the scars … trying to pick them off hurt . Oh my god , what happened to me ? And , more to the point , how did I make it go away ? Ok , standing there staring at the monster in the mirror wasn 't going to make anything better . I started to get dressed … and saw a flash of green in the mirror out of the corner of my eye . I looked up and the gypsy fortune - teller was in the mirror . I turned to face her and she wasn 't there . I looked back into the mirror and she was still standing there looking at me . " Who 's the tattooed frankenskank now ? " She asked . I swallowed . I wished I could go back and swallow those words now . The gypsy or witch or whatever she was had a fine sense of the ironic . " But I decided to help you . A little . " " Find someone who will love you just the way that you are and tell you so . But they have to really love you . Oh , and just so you know , you can 't tell anyone that you are under a spell or it will become permanent . That 's rule # 1 . And if you don 't find anyone to love you in two years , you 'll stay this way forever . " " Yes , very good . She gave you two petals so I give you two years to reverse the spell . If , at the end of two years , no one has said ' I love you ' , you 'll never break the spell . " I didn 't join him for breakfast . Our housekeeper , Maggie , knew our habits pretty well and set out a buffet type breakfast on the weekends . So I waited until he was gone , probably an early game of golf or squash , to emerge . " No , no . Nothing like that . I was calling to invite you over now . I really need to see you . " Desperately . But I didn 't say that . " I 'd appreciate it . " She 'd remember I owed her a favor but if she got me out of this mess , I 'd owe her a bigger one than she would know . Favors from Laurel were invariably expensive either in time or in money or both but this time it would be worth it . I managed to dodge Maggie until Laurel got there . She was busy with her cleaning and it wasn 't difficult . I wasn 't in the habit of socializing with the help . I heard her staccato steps on the hall tile approaching . I 'd chosen the library because it had the fewest windows . With the thick curtains closed , it was very dim , almost completely dark . " Oh alright . I love you , Kyle . Now let me turn on the light and we can decide where we 're going to lunch . I heard of this great little bistro … " She turned on the light as she was talking and screamed . " Laurel , sweetheart , it 's me . It 's Kyle . " I wanted to go closer to her , hug her , but I didn 't move . If I did , she might run and now more than ever we needed to talk . Maggie looked around the corner behind Laurel . I 'm sure Laurel 's scream brought her running . She looked at me and her eyes widened but she didn 't say anything and slipped back out . " Oh , Kyle , you really scared me . That 's a fantastic make - up job but you can 't go out looking like that . Take it off . " " I don 't know that either . It could be . " I 'd do everything I could to make sure that it wasn 't … . but my first idea hadn 't worked very well . She was right . Advertising is all about appearances and my appearance was pretty awful now . " That 's not exactly on the top of my priority list right now . " I told her , a little annoyed . " Of course . I have to cancel the catering and the church and return all the wedding gifts and I don 't even know what else . You 've made quite a mess for me , Kyle . " She made a face . " We don 't have to call off the wedding . " This caught me completely blind - side . I hadn 't even thought about canceling the wedding . " You don 't think I 'm seriously going to go through with it now , do you ? I can 't marry you - I can 't even be seen speaking to you . Just think what that kind of publicity would do to my career . " " No , you aren 't . You would have made a great first husband - we were a cute couple and I could have met so many good contacts as your wife … but you can 't offer me anything I want now . " She wasn 't even looking at me any more . She 'd already dismissed me from her life without even thinking twice about it . Then what she was saying sunk in and my mental gears ground to a halt . " Oh , of course . But now you 've ruined it . Don 't call me , don 't text me - just pretend you never met me . I 'll manage the damage control . " She spoke as if she were doing me another favor . " Now I have to go - I have a lot to do . Good - bye Kyle . " I didn 't see her to the door . But then , I don 't think I 'd ever seen her before . I didn 't feel angry , just kind of all - gone , like someone had punched a hole through me that ought to hurt dreadfully but was to serious to feel yet . I collapsed into a chair . I stared at her . " Am I ok ? My face is ruined , I 'm bloody bald and my ex - fiancé doesn 't ever want to speak to me again . On top of that , I still have to tell my father . And my job . " I still needed to consider what to do about the job . I wasn 't ready to actually quit until I was sure that my face was permanently ugly . Right up until that moment , I 'd thought of Maggie , when I thought of her at all , as a timid , mostly efficient , fixture of the house . It hadn 't occurred to me to think of her as a person . She changed that right then and there vehemently . " Well , sitting in the dark moping about it won 't change anything . " She came into the room and stood in front of me . " Now you need to get up and call that job of yours and tell them that you need to start you vacation a week early - you were taking a two month honeymoon vacation anyway so it 's already in place - and tell them that the wedding is off . Miss Laurel may remember to call them and she may not but that is one place where you need to be the one who tells them . Another is your father and you can tell him when he gets home tonight . " I couldn 't do anything except stare at her . I felt galvanized , as though I 'd touched a live wire . But she wasn 't done . " And as for that Miss Laurel , I don 't think you should spend too much time being upset over her . I never did think she loved you enough , or in the right way . The way she looked at you when you weren 't looking ! Not adoring , but like you were something to eat . And then leaving you at the first little bit of trouble ? You may not feel it now but you 're better off without her . " I had to say something … but what ? She was right … ok , I didn 't know about the way Laurel looked at me … but she was right about everything else . " Why , Maggie , I didn 't know you cared . " " Mister Kyle , you 're a pretty smart man , but you don 't see what 's right in front of you most of the time . Now I need to be starting supper and you need to be calling your job . " She started to leave and turned back in the doorway . " And don 't you go turning off the lights and just sitting there . You remind me of my son sometimes - he used to get petulant when things were bad too . " That shook me up a little more . I never thought of Maggie having a family . And then it made me mad - couldn 't she see what I looked like now ? My life was over and she 'd practically called me a spoiled sulky child because I couldn 't just keep going . Actually calling my job was not too bad . As Maggie pointed out , I was already going to be away so it was a simple matter to extend the time to six months . By that time I should know if I was going to have to quit or if I could go back . Or if I wanted to go back … I didn 't actually have to work , I mostly enjoyed working because not working left me feeling like a wastrel . Of course , my boss was curious about why the wedding was called off when it was so close but I didn 't elaborate and he couldn 't demand to know . As he came in , he reached for the light switch . What is it with people that they always have to turn on the lights ? " Don 't turn on the light ! " I said - louder and harsher than I meant to . Ah , damn it ! At least he didn 't scream - Laurel had been enough on that front . But I did have to go through the whole rig - a - ma - role of proving to him that I was still me even if I didn 't look like it . And even then he looked at me like I had just crawled out from under a rock and he wished I would crawl back . " Oh , hell no ! " How could he think I would ever want to look like this ? Besides , couldn 't he see that I had scars - scars don 't come up over night . First you have to have cuts and then they have to heal … even tattoos take weeks to heal and no tattoo artist in the world would do such a massive whole body tattoo all at once . Even without me telling him , couldn 't he see that something else was going on ? Over the next several weeks , we must have seen every top doctor in the country . None of them could help me in any way . One very young and very bold doctor did try to remove one of the scars on my face … it made it worse . And the laser tattoo removal - that was a disaster . In a few cases , laser tattoo removal results in something called ' paradoxical darkening ' . It means that the treated tattoo , instead of breaking up and disappearing , gets darker and more prominent . Which is what happened to me . On the plus side of the medical examinations , I was healthy as a horse and would probably live to be a hundred and ten . Assuming that no villagers took up pitchforks against me , of course . On the down side , I overheard my father telling one of the doctors that we 'd risk anything to make me look more normal . Which let me know just exactly how important my appearance was to him - more than my life . That was when I told him no more . Driving back to the city , he was unusually quiet . I think he 'd actually turned his phone off , for once . But when we got close , the driver turned off in a different direction than our apartment building and pulled up in front of an old brownstone in a radically different neighbourhood . We went in . All of my things were already there and Maggie was dashing about cleaning and putting things away . I didn 't have the heart to look around much but I did notice that it was only my things . " You 're keeping the apartment in the city ? " He pointed to a room across the hall from mine . It was completely empty . " I 'll be right here . And Maggie 's here - she 's going to stay in the house with us since we have so much more room . Now , I have an appointment in 30 minutes but I 'll be back later tonight . " He hugged me and left . I didn 't expect him to come back that night … or any other . All the time we had been doing the medical exams , he tried but it was obvious how hard it was for him to look at me or touch me . To his credit , he had tried harder in the past few weeks to be a parent to me than he had since I was in junior high school but he just didn 't have it in him to love something ugly . So my face was gone , my job was gone , my fiancé was gone , my friends were gone and now I had lost my home and my only family . Somebody once said that freedom 's just another word for nothing left to loose . If that were the case , I was the freest man in the history of the world . I must ask pardon for not writing too much about this time , For one thing , little changed from day to day . For another , mostly all I can remember is grey days fading into stygian black nights dawning into more grey and hopeless days . The leaves on the rosebush tattoo were starting to turn colours and fall . An unmoving fog seemed ever around the house . . fitting for the haunted house of a monster , I suppose . Maggie assures me that it was no more foggy than any other autumn in the city . There were sunny days and rainy days and so on and it was only my own gloom that created my perception of constant fog . She 's probably right - she usually is . I don 't know what I would have done without Maggie . She badgered me to get up in the mornings , to eat and to keep moving . She refused to coddle me over much and would not let me lapse into total immobility . At first , I admit , I was an uncooperative brat . The only way she could get me out of bed was to dump frozen ball bearings on me . She only had to do that twice - after that hearing them rattling in the can was enough to propel me out of the bed . But once up , I moped and when I didn 't mope , I sulked . I refused to see anyone and I never left the house so that no one could see me . When I did get up , the only movement I did willingly was to occasionally take heart - felt but mostly ineffective swings at the punching bag we 'd installed in one of the larger rooms . I think it was originally meant to be a ballroom but it was never going to fill that function with me living here . The eyes started to fade and I called " Wait ! " They came back into focus . " I have a question about rule # 1 - if I don 't tell but someone guesses , do I have to deny it ? " " Humm . Yes , okay . If they guess , you can confirm . But be careful - telling anything they did not guess will be breaking the rule . " Laurel . Laurel getting married … to Sam . I watched the whole program with Maggie darting sidelong looks at me to see how I was taking it . When it was over she asked me " Well ? " I had to think about it a bit … but while I was a little angry , I wasn 't hurt . I didn 't even wish either of them anything but well . " Well , I don 't suppose they could have invited me but it might have been nice for Sam to let me know . " It occurred to me that it had only been about six months since that horrible day when my life as I knew it ended and Laurel walked out . " Yeah , he 'll make her a nice ' first husband ' … and she had to hurry - that dress will be out of style by spring . " I was pretty sure that was her motivation for the rush . She 'd spent a fortune on that dress - by Vera Wang or somebody - and had it altered so it couldn 't be returned . I did wonder if Sam had managed to curb his tendency to play the field or if they were both doing it … and if they were , were they telling each other ? Or were they playing the happy couple for each other as well as the public ? It didn 't matter - I was just glad it was Sam and not me . I felt more like laughing than I had in months . I didn 't entirely stop sulking after that but my black mood did lighten just a bit . Maggie no longer had to push me to get up and I started a workout routine which helped . The more I moved , the less bad I felt so I ended up doing a lot more . I started exploring the house - not that I hadn 't dragged into every room before - but really seeing it . While I couldn 't make myself look any better , the house had a lot of untapped potential , including a rooftop garden . Working on the garden was a bit problematic for me because it was exposed … until I realized that in the first place , most people never look up and in the second , even if they did , I was too high to be more than a silhouette . They might wonder what I looked like but they wouldn 't be able to see . So I worked on the garden as much as I could and planned a greenhouse so that I could still grow some of the plants in the winter . The greenhouse turned out to be one of my more eclectic home improvement projects . I didn 't want workmen in the house so I had to learn how to do pretty much everything myself , which , I 'm sure was good for me . I found in the attic a number of old windows - fabulous old windows - some had stained glass insets and others were leaded glass and it was out of these that I planned my greenhouse . I scraped my hands and I hammered my thumb more than once but eventually I got it together … and realized I had no idea what to plant . I did put in several pots of herbs for Maggie after asking her what she liked to cook with most but they only filled a very small corner . While that was the most difficult , it wasn 't the only improvement I made to the house . I laid a cork floor in the kitchen - because cork is easier on the feet and legs when cooking but still easy to clean . I fixed doors and window sashes and stripped and refinished woodwork … and stripped all the hardwood floors and refinished them . Then I turned painter and painted or papered every room in the house . There was one I made into a bedroom … although goodness knows I was never going to have a guest … at the top of the house . I painted it some shade of green called bamboo and helped Maggie fix up the soft furnishings in all shades of green . It had a leaded glass skylight that opened into the greenhouse and it turned out to be the prettiest room in the house . We actually fixed several rooms up as bedrooms - mine and Maggie 's of course - and the room at the top of the house - and the room that my father never moved into . That last was so depressing that I didn 't have the heart to finish it . I knew my father and I knew he placed great value on good looks - he works in television - so I knew he was never going to spend even a single night there , no matter how many time he said he was coming . He would always have a reason to cancel at the last minute . I knew she was right but I kept procrastinating - or trying to , there wasn 't much else to do . Maggie kept the house spotless and , with only the two of us , she didn 't need any help . Indeed , she had more spare time than ever , part of which she used to write long letters . I later found out that she had always written the letters … but she never mailed any of them . She didn 't even address them , just wrote a date on the envelope and added it to a file box with dozens of others . Finally curiosity got the better if me and I asked her about it over dinner one night . We had abandoned eating separately early on . With only the two of us , it seemed stupid as well as lonely . " Oh , Maggie , I 'm sure they do . You said you had a son ? " She had never told me anything about her family … but then , I hadn 't ever asked before . " Two … and a husband . They 're in Ireland , fighting in the IRA , and I had to leave . I couldn 't stand the violence any more . " " Of course I do ! I tried to get Liam , that 's my husband , to come with me but he wouldn 't and the boys are already following in his footsteps … or they were when I left . I still wish they would drop all the revenge and hate and join me here but I don 't see any way of that happening . " I felt bad for Maggie . I knew all too well how lonely it is to have a family that doesn 't want you . I wanted to help but frankly , I didn 't see any way I could . I didn 't blame her for being a little confused . I 'd brought it up out of the clear blue . " Everything 's changed - I 've changed . So much so that I don 't even feel like the same person any more . ' Kyle ' is dead and gone . " Eventually I finished my father 's room . I 'd drawn it out longer than was reasonable but there were limits . And now I had nothing at all to do . The house began to close in on me like a prison and I felt that I had to get out or go crazy . I didn 't have to stay in the house - I was only trapped by my reluctance to be seen . Was it possible to go out without being seen ? I had a car - Maggie used it for shopping - and all the windows were tinted . If I went out at night , the chance of someone getting a good look at my face was remote . I don 't mean that literally , I didn 't intend on staying gone , but I snuck out the back door and went for a walk . I kept my hood up and my head down and turned my face away whenever I passed anyone . Mostly I stayed in the shadows . No one saw me , at least , no one saw me well enough to stare or scream and I felt freer than I had since my bachelor party . One frozen bright morning , the doorbell rang . I expected it was someone selling something - insurance , religion , girl scout cookies - something . But when I looked through the peep - hole , it was a young man , not much older than me . " The tutor ? Your dad hired me . I 'm supposed to move in today . " How like my dad - he hadn 't even bothered to send me a text message to let me know about this much less ask if I wanted someone else in the house . " Come in . I 'll get Maggie . She 'll welcome you to hell , fix you up with your own bedroom and explain what happened to me and what I did to deserve this . Oh , and please , please , hang with us . Gouge the old man for everything he 's worth . He deserves it . " I started to go get Maggie and then came back . " You know what ? Obviously he forgot to spin the borderline hostile act of hiring a blind guy to tutor his creep - show son . As for continuing education , I think I 'll take a pass . " I left Will standing in the hall and sent Maggie to settle him in . I wasn 't mad at him but I was so angry that it spilled over . A tutor ! I didn 't need a tutor . I was already done with school years ago . I had a bachelor 's degree in … oh . Advertising . A field for which I was no longer qualified . Eventually I was going to have to learn to do something else - something where no one would see me . Maybe a tutor wasn 't such a bad idea . In spite of this realization , I avoided Will for the most part at first . Partly because I didn 't want to find out what he was supposed to be teaching me and partly because he made me ashamed of moping about aimlessly . I couldn 't avoid him at dinner and I found myself liking him quite a lot . He had a wicked sense of humor which he turned on himself as often as he turned it on anything . Maggie sensibly moved him into what we had been calling my father 's room in tacit acknowledgement that my father was never coming near this house . Which put him right across the hall from me … and Will had ears like a bat . One morning , I came out of my room just as he was finishing dressing , the door partway open . I was barefoot but when I came a bit closer to see what he was doing - choosing a tie by the feel of it - he startled me by speaking as if he knew I was there . " Defying expectations , Blindie keeps up his bitchin ' sense of style . A hold - over from my seeing days . " He 'd mentioned that he had been able to see until he was 15 - which sucks worse than never having been able to see at all . He knew what he was missing . " Point being , it 's not about how others look at me , It 's about how I look at myself . Mental Rubik 's cube , I know , but one day it 'll make sense . " He waggled his eyebrows at me and we went down to breakfast . One thing I had noticed , I didn 't seem to be sleeping nearly as much as I did before the change . I could spend the day bantering with Will and Maggie and then slip out late in the evening for a walk … and still be up for breakfast . I didn 't go out every evening at first but as I grew more confident of not being seen , I went out more and more . My walks started out being random … and one evening as I was leaving I saw a flash of green from the mirror . I went in to the room , thinking the gypsy wanted to tell me something … and there was a street scene in the mirror . It was the fortune telling shop . Ok , the message couldn 't have been plainer - I went there . The shop was there alright , but it was closed . The sign in the window said " Come Back Tomorrow " and while it might not have been a specific instruction to me , I decided that I should do exactly that . I really , really didn 't want to make her any more angry with me than she already was . From the shadow beside the building , I could see the news stand where I had bought the rose . It was closing up and the rose - girl was just locking the door . I felt a sudden rush of gratitude to her - she had bought me two years . Maybe it wouldn 't do me any good , but I still felt I owed her . Even though it was late , she didn 't seem to be afraid of the city at night . I followed her , keeping well back . I 'm not even sure why I followed her . She led me into a neighbourhood that I never been before - decrepit and derelict - and went into a building with ratty little shops on the first floor but apparently tenement apartments above . In a minute or two , I saw lights go on in a second floor window . I watched the window for awhile and could see glimpses of her beyond a short row of plants on the window sill . I stayed until I saw the lights go off - all but one dim one . She was leaving the light on for someone . I pondered this . It could be a roommate . . or a boyfriend . No , wait , she told me that she didn 't have a boyfriend . Of course , that was months ago and things could have changed since then . As I walked home , I took note of places I wouldn 't be seen . Behind fire escapes , in the mouth of alleys . And there were plenty of shadows , the streetlights were not good here . Next evening I went earlier , in hopes of catching the gypsy shop open but it still had the sign in the window . Had it been open at all ? There was no way I could know . Since I had nothing better to do , I watched the news stand . The rose - girl was working again and she was nice to watch . She was pretty but not in the glamorous way that Laurel was pretty , she looked fresh and effortless . And she was friendly , she had a smile for everyone and called several people by name . As it got close to time for her to close , I noticed the homeless men ( and one woman ) stopping by , one or two at a time . She handed all and sundry cups of coffee until there was no more . Then she cleaned the pot and put it away . This was obviously something she did every night - giving away coffee instead of throwing it away . She knew every one of their names and they knew hers … which is how I found out that her name actually was Rose . I hadn 't been so far off in thinking of her as ' the rose - girl ' . So I followed her home again - just to make sure that she was safe . She might be friendly with the homeless people but this was also close to the Dead Rabbits gang territory . With that in mind , I started showing up every night to shadow her home . It was unaccountably important to me that she be safe . I 'd been doing this for several days when she came back out of her building almost as soon as she got there . She walked around the neighbourhood for quite awhile , looking for someone . Eventually , she found him - her father - and managed to get him to come home although he was obviously intoxicated on something . This made me very late getting myself home that night and I heard about it at dinner the next evening . Will was teasing me . He could do things I never imagined a blind person could but sometimes he did make a mistake . That night he was refilling his water glass between dinner and dessert while Maggie was getting the confection of the evening . He managed to pour it almost full … and then poured a bit more … and then I stopped him before he over - filled the glass . He chuckled at me … since he 'd been waiting for me to stop him . " Isn 't the good thing about having no parents that you have no parents ? Get off my back . " I grumbled at him . I really didn 't want to tell about following Rose - it sounded too close to stalking . " You know , since we last talked , I 've been thinking , and is there any kind of eye operation ? Because I saw , like , every doctor in the country . " " The benefit of you being blind is you can 't see how I should so never say ' wassup ' . " I could just imagine what the response to that would be . But we ended the meal in high spirits . It was good to have friends who believed in me even if the odds were definitely not in my favor . Even though I no longer expected to catch the gypsy 's shop open , I kept going back . I found I could get close enough to listen to conversations and read the titles of the books she read between customers . Rose read voraciously and I began ordering the book she was currently reading as I would be able to read it as well . Will found out that I was reading more and we had some satisfying discussions about some of the more classic works . While he could teach math and history , his passion was for literature , especially classic English works . I had mostly found his favorites to be dry and boring before we discussed them but he made them come alive . It was a little while before I realized that he loved teaching and agreed to informal classes . I didn 't need a literature degree but it was only a formalization of the discussions we were already having and it made Will happy … or at least happier . Besides , I found that , if I brought up a book at dinner , he was less likely to tease me about my increasingly late nights . And I was staying out later and more often . More and more frequently , Rose would go out looking for her father after work . Whatever his addiction , it was getting worse . I didn 't like it when Rose had to go out again late at night . When she walked home from work , there was a spring in her step and she made me wonder if she liked to dance , the way she moved . When she went out later , she was not happy - her movements were subdued . Perhaps she was trying to avoid attention but there was no bounce in her walk . I couldn 't tell if she was frightened or just worried … or possibly both . Occasionally she found her father quickly but usually it took an hour or more . Those nights I didn 't dare leave her . She managed to stay under the Dead Rabbits ' radar but she frequently crossed over into their ' turf ' . One night , she didn 't have to go very far at all . Her father was just behind her own building … but there were two men with him . They were arguing about money - money Rose 's father owed and hadn 't paid for drugs . Ok , that was not going to happen . I rounded the corner , not even trying not to be seen . The whole group of them was on a fire escape , two stories up . And one of the men was brandishing a gun . Rose 's father pushed her behind him … and she tripped , falling down one set of stairs and over the railing . I don 't think I 've ever moved so fast . I managed to catch her before she hit the ground but she must have hit her head falling because she was unconscious . I carried her inside , away from the fight , and laid her down on a bench in the lobby . Her colour was okay and her breathing was good so I didn 't think she was badly hurt . She 'd probably have several bruises and a sore spot on her head but nothing major . Then I heard gunfire . I stared at him for what seemed like a long time but probably wasn 't . " I want her . " I know I must have been frightening in that dark alley - I still hadn 't covered my face . He stared at me just like I had stared at him . " I won 't hurt her - I want to protect her . " " Did you hear what he said ? The entire gang will be after her - I 'm guessing it 's the Dead Rabbits - and there 's no way you can protect her from all of them . I can . I can take her away where they will never find her . " I don 't know how I knew she would be safe with me … but I did . " So they won 't know even where to start looking . You killed one of their own - they won 't ever stop now . The money , you could have paid back . This is revenge now . " I felt like I was trying to explain something that should be obvious but I couldn 't tell if I was getting through . " That 's my look - out , not yours . Meet me tomorrow night , in front of this building , at 10 pm . " I didn 't wait to see if he agreed - he would do it because he had no choice . Looking back , it would have been a better choice to simply send her elsewhere but I honestly didn 't think of it . I expect that I didn 't trust that she would be safe unless I knew she was safe . Selfish of me , but there it is . So , camouflage . I went to a cab company and rented one of their off - duty cabs . I make that sound simple but it took a bit of persuasion and enough ' rent ' to replace the cab . For once , my looks were not really against me - I 'm sure the cabbie I talked to thought I needed it for some drug deal or other nefarious purpose , but he didn 't ask questions . Maybe I scared him . We agreed that I would leave it and the keys sitting at the train station and the cabbie could either pick it up or report it stolen - as long as he waited until after midnight to report it . Train tickets were easier - there are automatic machines for tickets to go anywhere . So I got a couple of passes that would allow for everywhere and could be used for up to a week . Not that I intended for us to use them but I wanted real ones just in case . I saw Rose and her father as I turned the corner . I 'd walked here often but I hadn 't ever driven down these streets so I was being very careful . The cab was unfamiliar , nothing was quite in the right place to me . They were standing in front of the building so I was able to pull up right in front of them . I hadn 't worn a mask but I did have on a hoodie that shadowed my face as much as possible as well as the cabbie 's borrowed hat and jacket . I didn 't want to frighten Rose out of her wits … and my face isn 't one you forget . I rolled down the window . " Cab for your daughter , sir . " He looked a bit confused . " Get in . Please . " He opened the door and Rose threw a backpack and a suitcase in and got in . Then her father started to get in . " Just the girl , please . " He closed the door and came around to my window . I looked up at him so he could see a little of my face . " Just because you didn 't call one , doesn 't mean you don 't need one . " I handed him the envelope with the ' phone I had prepared . " Don 't loose it , don 't sell it and don 't reprogram it . " I pulled the cab away back into the light traffic . Rose was sitting with her arms crossed . I had no idea what her father had said to her but she looked very angry . She was staring at the back of my head . " No , I 'm not . " I 'd better tell her a little of what we were doing to loose her pursuers - there was a car two back that was shadowing us . Not obviously but they were there . " We 're going to do a fast intricate little dance now . It 's for your safety and I 'm leading . Please follow without asking questions and I will answer them all as soon as it 's safe . " " On the seat there is a manila envelope . In it is a phone . It already has your father 's new phone programed in and is encrypted . " " Yes . I 'll explain later but for now what you need to know is that you can call your father or anyone else on that phone and your location can 't be traced . Please use it instead of any other . " That was what I had hoped . That being told she could call whoever she wanted would make her less likely to feel abducted . But , right now , safely was an illusion and the train station was getting close . We pulled into the train station . I was glad it was cold . People are much less identifiable as amorphous blobs of coats … and it gave me an excuse for the hoodie and the gloves . " Oh no . I 'm just a cabbie , helping you with your luggage . At least , that 's what I hope they 'll see . Ah , there 's a train for Baltimore in five minutes . We 'll use that one . " " Tuck your hair inside your jacket and put on your hat . " I told her shedding the cabbie 's jacket and hat . I still kept the hood up , I didn 't want to panic her now . I pulled a bright red scarf out of my own pocket and handed it to her . " Put this on . " Then I kicked the cabbie 's jacket and hat under a seat . " Okay . Through the next car . And hurry . " We navigated that car quickly and she stopped at the end . " Do it ! " I was too sharp but I didn 't want anyone to see her face . And I had become a master of techniques to hide a face in public . I could see the men who were tailing us moving through the cars we had passed through - looking for her . But the train was already pulling away and none of them were looking out the windows . The stairs came out on the other side of the station where I had my own car parked . I directed her to it and opened the back door , holding it for her . She got in and I closed the door with a metal sigh of relief . With the tint on the windows , someone would have to look very hard to see that there was someone in the car with me and would not be able to see more than that . " Are you ever going to tell me what this is all about ? " Rose startled me a little with her question . She 'd been quiet since we got in the car . As I took her suitcase and held the door for her , I dreaded her first sight of me , tamping down both my relief that my goldbergesque maneuver had worked and my elation that she was actually here . But all I said was " Home . You 're safe now . " Maggie had already helped her out of her jacket by the time I got in and shut the door . I set her suitcase down next to her discarded backpack moving a lot slower than I usually do . Rose sat down at the table and accepted a cup of chocolate gratefully - curling her hands around it to enjoy the warmth . " Ok . You said you would answer my questions when we were ' safe ' and now you 've said that we 're ' safe ' so it 's time to start answering them . " In spite of everything , Rose sounded like she still had the remnants of the anger she had obviously been feeling in the cab . I scrubbed my toe on the floor , feeling suddenly more like a school - boy than I did even at school . " An oversight on my part . I apologize . Rose , my name is Thorne . And this is Maggie , my housekeeper . " Rose rolled her eyes . " Just take off the hoodie . I promise , I 'll be able to handle what ever it is that you think I can 't . " Moment of truth - no more hiding . I don 't think I 've ever been so nervous in my whole life as I was right at that moment . I turned away , just so she would get a little warning , and pushed the hood back , then took it off and hung it on the coat tree next to the door . I turned around and I swear my heart was in my mouth . Would she run away screaming ? So I sat down . Maggie handed me a steaming cup of chocolate and when I tasted it , I almost choked . She 'd laced it with something alcoholic and sweet - maybe Irish Cream . Not enough to do more than be relaxing but it was a big surprise . A second sip told me that it was delicious . " That 's not germane to the subject . I love my father … but he lies when it suits him and it usually does . So I want you to tell me the truth . Why am I here ? " Oh this was tough . I wanted to be truthful … but I didn 't want to tell her that her father had murdered a man . " Some men that your father does business with . They threatened to kill you . " " He did something to piss them off . So they were going to get back at him through hurting you . I told him that I could protect you . " Not without some arm - twisting … but I wasn 't going to tell her that . " I think he was scared to death for you . " And scared to death of me but we won 't say that either . " I know how to hide very well . " Rose studied me for a long moment . " I guess you do , at that . So , what was all that nonsense about getting on a train and then getting off again ? " I smiled . " People see red , that 's what they remember . If you think about it , we got on the train as a cabbie and a girl with long brown hair . We got off the train as a guy in a hoodie and a girl with a red scarf and a hat . Not the same people at all . " " Cabs are everywhere and cabbies are invisible . You see the hat and jacket and that 's the end of it . It could be anyone . " I grimaced a little . " I have to confess , I stole that idea . " She snorted . " You can 't choose third season , it hasn 't even been filmed yet . " She sipped chocolate again . " About the phone . You said it was encrypted . But there 's no such thing as an unbreakable encryption . " " Maybe , maybe not . There are some codes that have never been broken . But the encryption I used is not one of them . I even made it fairly easy to break . Here 's the catch though . When they break it … and they will … the GPS for that phone is somewhere in Bogotá in a garbage dump or will be soon and the IP address will give a location in Helsinki that doesn 't actually exist . " " Whew . How did you do that ? " I started to answer but she stopped me . " Never mind . I don 't think I could understand the technical details . " " I am certain that you could … but you might have to learn more than you currently know about computer programing . I could teach you . " With some help from Will . I knew the information but I was not the teacher that he was . She laughed . " Not something I want to learn about right now , thank you . I 'll just trust you on it . " And how good that sounded - she would trust me . " About tonight ? Well , I want to know what my father did … and you may know but not want to tell me or you may not even know … I want to know how long this has to go on … I want to know why you are doing this … and I want to know what happened to your face . " She clapped her hand over her mouth . " Don 't worry about it . I know I look like the lead in a slasher film … and I expect Maggie has put something in the chocolate that 's not exactly kosher . " I looked around . While Rose and I had been talking , Maggie had done her ' slow fade ' trick and we were alone . " The only one of those questions I can answer is ' why I 'm doing this ' and it 's because I care what happens to you . Although I do want to tell you , the face was not my idea . " " It 's ok , it 's late and it 's been a stressful day for you . Why don 't I show you to your room so you can get some rest ? " I would have liked to keep talking … although maybe with a little less of the quiz session … but she did look tired . My elation was short lived . The next day , Rose refused to come out of her room . I tried to coax her out but she just told me to " Go away . " So I started leaving her meals on a tray in front of her door . I could have made a couple of suggestions … but I didn 't . " It 's not fair - she 's blaming me . " I grumbled . " First , give her some time . You took your own time getting over your sulks . Second , I know you see who she is . Think . Think about her . " So I did . What did I know ? Well , right now , she wanted to be left alone . So the first thing is to stop pestering her to come out . What else ? Well , she loved books … and roses … and her father . She was kind and social … being cooped up here couldn 't be easy and I didn 't think she had brought much to read . So maybe books first ? We had put her in the green bedroom at the top of the house but there was another room on that floor - a very large room . I hadn 't done much with it while I was working on the house - just a hardwood floor and paint - could I make it into a library ? There was already a fireplace - ideal for grouping chairs before . So I added a desk with pens and paper and shelves and a couple of good reading chairs with a table between them … and a good large rug to muffle footsteps . Then I was faced with the problem of almost completely empty shelves . But what did Rose like to read ? I 'd seen her read mysteries , adventure , science fiction , best sellers and classics so her past reading habits were less help than they could have been . I tried finding her wishlist on Amazon but either she had it hidden … or she didn 't have one . So I guessed - mostly . I did find a place on line that made recommendations based on books chosen … but that was only a little help . I did pick up all the Sherlock books - I knew she liked Sherlock - as well as some of the pastiches written by other people . Once I had books in the library , I added a book to her tray at lunch . That it was not on the tray when she put it back out was hopeful . Knowing how fast she read , I planned to put a new book on the tray every day . Ok - I couldn 't do much about her father … but roses ? I had an empty greenhouse ( except for a few cooking herbs ) just begging to be filled with all manner of roses . The only problem was that I knew less than nothing about growing roses . So I learned . Partly from books and partly by experimentation . All things considered , I killed remarkably few rose bushes . Unlike the library , I had to keep fiddling with the roses - they 're labor intensive . And mostly I enjoyed doing it - once I discovered that the reason humans have eyebrows is to keep sweat from dripping into your eyes . Since I no longer had any eyebrows , I substituted a bandana tied around my head at eyebrow level . The first time I forgot and walked into breakfast like that , Maggie looked up and deadpanned : I gestured at my face . " Halloween is every day . " It got a laugh from her so I considered it a success . Will 's sense of humor was rubbing off on me , it seemed . Most mornings , I worked in the greenhouse after breakfast . Since the skylight into Rose 's room was actually in the greenhouse , I tried not to make too much noise - or spy on her too much . I did see her walking sometimes and occasionally reading but most of the room was not visible from the sky light . At first , I only caught infrequent glimpses of her … but they became more frequent and a couple of times , I looked down and she was watching me . That made me turn away in a hurry . She 'd seen my face but it was likely still a disturbing sight and I was still embarrassed to be seen . I felt like I was still operating in a vacuum , I didn 't know which books she had liked , I didn 't know which roses pleased her the most . So in spite of her wish to be left alone , I tucked a note inside one of the books asking who her favorite author was . It took a day for her to leave her response on her tray , but she did . I expected Austin or something but she told me someone I never expected . The next afternoon , I left a book on her tray that had been reviewed as being very similar to her favorite . Okay , this was better . I was not operating entirely in a vacuum any more and she didn 't seem to resent the occasional note in her book . When I had worked my way through the list , I left my favorite book for her with a note indicating that and a request for her to let me know what she thought of it . What I got back wasn 't a note , it was a letter . Several pages long and detailing what she liked about it and why and the few things she didn 't like . I could hardly give a one or two sentence response to such a detailed critique so I sent back a letter with my thoughts on it … and asked about her favorite which I had read by that time . " I … agree . Perhaps I should give you my telephone number and you can call me . " I was only partly joking - I didn 't want to frighten her back into her room for another month or six . But she laughed . " Oh , really ? I don 't think that it would . " It wouldn 't at all be easier for me . I hated being looked at now . She came in and sat down in one of the chairs next to the fireplace . " It really would . I like to see who I 'm talking to . " I half turned to look at her . The hood would still hide most of my face . " Ok , but my face hasn 't improved at all . What would you like to talk about ? " She didn 't reply . Instead , she got up and came over , pulled the hood off and looked me eye to eye … at about six inches . " That is rude of me but I 'm not going to say ' I 'm sorry ' about it . Now come sit down with me and let 's talk . " I didn 't have much choice - I went and sat in the other chair and we continued the discussion we 'd been having via letters in books . Rose was an animated and sometimes opinionated talker but she was willing to listen to opinions other than her own . I was actually glad to have the discussion face to face because I expect I would have had writer 's cramp if we 'd written all of it out . Not to mention that I forgot what I looked like now and enjoyed watching her expressions which were as changeable as water in the sun . I grinned . " They are … and the turning away is intentional . I don 't like people to see me . " Mostly , I didn 't like for her to see me and , becoming aware of it again I put my hand up to cover my face . She reached over and pulled it down again . " Maybe … but more likely , I just have the time to work with them . Roses are time intensive and , unlike most people , I have plenty of spare time to spend . " I considered for a second . " If you 'd like to see it , you 're welcome to come up anytime . The skylight opens up right into the greenhouse . " " If you like . But I can build you stairs so you could go up there any time . " Ok , I didn 't know how to build stairs yet … but a year ago , I had no idea how to paint or lay floor or build a greenhouse or grow roses . I could learn . " Will is my tutor and he 's blind . So I got all the books I 'm reading for him in Braille so we can talk about them . Plus others that he 's teaching me out of - those are mostly classics . He 's tutoring me in literature . " " Ah , not exactly . I 'm a bit old for school . But my previous degree is not something I can use anymore so it looks like I 'm changing careers . " " Well , I was good at it . But I 'm finding that I like literature more . " Which was true … although what I would do with a literature degree , I had no idea . Teach ? I suppose I would at least have advantage of riveting students ' attention . " I can 't tell you right now . One day , I will and I 'll go into every detail you want but right now , I can 't . " Stupid gag order . I wanted to tell her … but the result would be not ever being able to break the spell . I didn 't know how to respond to that so I was silent . In a way , the gypsy did it to me … but in a way , I did it to myself . Either way , if I said anything , even gave her a hint , it could be breaking the rules and I didn 't want to risk that . So I changed the subject . " I would like that , I think . I 've always wanted to study literature . " I had a sudden premonition that my ' class ' was about to get a lot harder . I was glad Rose and Will hit it off so well even if it did make me work harder in ' class ' . They would go off on tangents that I wasn 't even sure what they were talking about . I didn 't much care - I got to spend time with Rose . With time , my days fell into something like a routine . I 'd work out before breakfast - before anyone else was awake . After breakfast , Will would hold ' class ' which could be anywhere although as the weather grew warmer , we 'd often go up to the greenhouse . After lunch , Rose would read or study , usually in her room . She preferred to be left alone so I would study as well - trying to keep up with her agile mind was a full time occupation . Evenings were more fluid - we 'd watch TV or play chess or something . Will played chess and he taught everyone else . I wasn 't bad but Maggie was his favorite partner - mostly because she gave him the best game and beat him as often as not . After everyone else retired , I would go out for a walk . Sometimes I would see the gypsy 's shop - sometimes I wouldn 't . It didn 't seem to always be there and it wasn 't always in the same place . One night , instead of ' Come Back Tomorrow ' the sign on the door said ' Come In ' . " This is the first time I 've seen the shop open ! If you wanted to see me , you could have left it open so I could come in . " I remembered night after night with the stupid ' Come Back Tomorrow ' sign . " Why call me here and then not be here ? " A little help … more riddles . But if she was willing to help me then , maybe she would now . " Ok , thank you , I guess . Would you be willing to help again ? " Did she really think that was the only thing I could possibly want ? " No , not for me . For Will and Maggie . They deserve something for being trapped with me all this time . " " Give Will his sight back and convince Maggie 's family to come here . " Impossible things - but then again , what she had done to me was beyond impossible . Maybe she could do this . Ugh . " Hadn 't thought of that . But it changes nothing . So , please … if you can . And Rose - I know she wants her life back . " " That 's for you to do . I 'll tell you what , if you break the spell , I 'll help Will and Maggie . That 's the best I can do . " Then she whispered " Six more months for someone to day ' I love you ' . " A flash of green eyes … and I was outside on the sidewalk . The shop was no where to be seen . Man , she had a good bouncer service ! I pulled up my hood and walked home in a brown study . Now it wasn 't just my appearance on the line … the stakes were a lot higher . And what had she meant when she said that it was up to me to give Rose her life back ? " Christmas . " We 'd skipped Christmas last year - no one had even brought it up . This year , I wanted to do something . Maybe not something large , but something . " Rose . I want to get her something but I don 't know what she would like . " I already knew what I wanted to do for Maggie . A gift to put under the tree was just a something - my real gift to her was to write her family and tell them how much she missed them . It might not convince them to come to her … or even to respond … so I didn 't mention it . So I thought about it . Money was not an object but I knew Rose by now and she wasn 't the type to be bought . Expensive perfume was out , she preferred roses and I 'd been giving her roses daily for over a year . Books were almost as frequent … but what about a special book ? I researched her favorite author and discovered that , early in his career , he 'd had a small book published before he became well known . It hadn 't sold well and had never been reprinted . If Rose know about it , she had never mentioned it . Finding a copy was hard , the book was old and obscure . Finding one in good shape was harder … but I managed at last . I couldn 't wait to see her face when she unwrapped it . I didn 't want to write in it so I put a note in - ' To Rose , Merry Christmas with love , your Thorne . ' " Oh Thorne ! I heard of this book … but I never thought I 'd have a chance to see it ! What did you do , rob a library ? " After breakfast , Rose excused herself - I thought to go read her book . Since Will was head and shoulders deep in the wonders of the internet he 'd never been able to use before , I played a game of chess with Maggie . She trounced me , of course , but I didn 't make it too easy for her . I was getting a little better . I grinned . " Let 's go downstairs . You know that room I work out in ? " I didn 't know if she 'd ever even been in there . " It 's supposed to be a ball room . Let 's go down and dance . " I bowed . " If I may have this dance , milady ? " " It 's okay , I do . " I 'd been taking lessons so I could surprise Laurel with a real dance at our wedding . I wasn 't a master but I 'd learned a couple of simple ballroom dances and simple was the way to go here . " Put your hand on my shoulder , here … now take my hand , like this . " I repositioned her hand in mine . " Now I put my hand on your back here . I went and put on a CD . " Okay , remember , just follow my lead … and have fun . " I waited until she felt like she was ready and started a waltz . The great thing about waltzing is it 's the simplest dance in the world but when you think about ballroom dancing and spinning around the room , it 's always the waltz you 're picturing . We stopped when Rose ran out of breath . " Oh that was so much fun ! It feels almost like flying ! " She was laughing and hadn 't let go of me . " Can we do it again ? " Oh , here , let me think . Holding on to a beautiful girl that I thought I was falling in love with and spinning around an empty room like a madman with a grin on my face that I couldn 't help … " Sure . As soon as you like . " " Hello ? " she answered it . All the colour and happiness washed out of her face as she listened . " Where ? … Okay , I 'll be there as soon as I can . " She hung up and looked up at me . I drove her to the hospital where her father was but they wouldn 't let me stay with her . Family only , they said . Since there were police guarding him , I thought she would be safe enough and went home . In spite of Maggie and Will , the house was huge and echoingly empty without Rose . I thought I 'd been lonely before … I hadn 't known what lonely even was compared to the way I felt when she was gone . And every room in the house had a memory of her - the books in the library , the roses in the greenhouse , an empty place at the table . At one point , I wandered into her room . She hadn 't packed everything - just a few clothes and , I did notice , her Christmas book - the dress she had worn dancing with me was discarded on the bed , thrown carelessly in her haste to get to her father . I picked it up , intending to hang it up and then couldn 't let it go . Maggie found me at dinner time , sitting on the window seat and still holding it . " Hi Thorne ! Dad 's doing better . He ODed but he didn 't do it - he says he 's been clean for months now … which I might not believe if the doctor didn 't confirm it . He didn 't take it himself and thinks that that gang might have put it into something just to get him back on it . I 'd be a lot more upset about it but he 's decided to testify against them so he 's going to go into the witness protection program - a whole new life ! So very excited about that . I can 't come back right now . I do want to say my goodbyes properly . Anyway , call me … and thank you for being such a good friend . " I had been going to call her as soon as I listened to her message … but after that , I just couldn 't . I didn 't want to tell her goodbye over the phone … I didn 't want to tell her goodbye at all . It occurred to me that this is what the gypsy had meant by I was the one who could give Rose her life back . All I had to do was stay out of it . What I hadn 't counted on was Rose being the persistent person she was . She called at least once a day and usually left a message that was a variation on " Call me , damn it ! " I didn 't ever pick up . If I talked to her , she would say ' goodbye ' and I couldn 't listen to that without breaking down . As it was , I was not too much better than breaking down anyway . I would say I moped or sulked but both of those words imply that I actually did something and nothing could be further from the truth . I did nothing and I avoided Will and Maggie so that I wouldn 't have to talk , even a little . I even stopped getting dressed in the morning . I would drag on a pair of jeans in case I happened to cross paths with Maggie but I didn 't bother with anything else . " Whew ! You do have a case on her , don 't you ? If you really love her , then man up and call her and let her say goodbye . Letting this go unresolved isn 't helping anything - you 're being a dick and hurting her . " And with that , he stumped out . I still didn 't call . Will was right but I couldn 't whip up the energy to finish punching her number . I managed the first six digits a dozen times but I just couldn 't dial that last digit . Rose called me again and I didn 't pick up . " Oh damn it , what now ? " I went to look anyway . I didn 't hurry in . I was expecting it to be the gypsy - possibly gloating that my time was almost up . The scene shifted to the outside of the warehouse - with number and then to a corner . A corner I knew and not far from here . I grabbed a jacket , putting it on as I ran . I leaped down the stairs and shouted to Maggie When I got to the warehouse , two men were coming out . I scuffled with them briefly . One of them grabbed the back of my jacket and I slithered out of it and knocked their heads together . I ran on , not even waiting to see if I had knocked them out or not . " Up … " she shouted back and was cut off . Never mind , I could tell she was on the second floor . There was one door closed when I got up there - I kicked it open not even checking to see if it was locked or not . Rose was standing there and some idiot was pointing a gun at her . Then he was pointing it at me , which was infinitely preferable . " Every rose has thorns , I 'm hers . " How cheesy was that ? If I 'd put it in a paper , Will would have dismembered me . I rushed the idiot and smacked his gun away . He let go of Rose … and I threw him out the window . Rose stared at me , a bit in shock , I think and then shook herself . " I 'm okay . Oh Thorne , you came ! But how ? " She hugged me tight . I never wanted to let her go but we were anything but safe . " I 'll tell you later . For now , we should leave . More men will be here soon . " We ran down the wood steps I had come up , past the two I had taken out . I hadn 't killed them , they were both moving . As we ran down the street , I felt something smack me in the back and heard a shot but we kept going . In an alley to our left , I saw a green flash . " Thank you ! " I said and took a deep breath , which hurt , and coughed … which hurt more . " We 're safe here , I told Rose . She looked at me , concerned . I was shirtless and barefoot , I 'd lost the jacket in the scuffle at the door and I was breathing hard . " You 're hurt , " she said . I tried to shrug it off . " Not so much - one more scar … " I trailed off . Instead of catching my breath it was getting harder to breathe and where I 'd been smacked in the back with something was hurting more instead of less . " That won 't be necessary . I will take care of it . " She opened a cupboard and handed Rose a square of white cloth and a roll of tape . " If you would , put that on his back , please . " She vanished through a beaded curtain , beads clacking and dancing behind her . Now we were alone for a minute , I half turned to talk to Rose over my shoulder , " What were you doing at the warehouse ? " I asked . " I thought you were safe - in witness protection , in point of fact . " " Hold still . My dad 's in witness protection . I was coming to see you since you won 't pick up your damned phone … and the gang grabbed me . " She finished bandaging my back , not that it felt any better , and sat down next to me . I tasted it , made a face and almost spat it out . It was horribly bitter . " I 'm sorry , Madame … " I realized I didn 't even know her name . So I did , in big gulps to keep from tasting it as much as possible . Madame Verdi - I was glad to finally know her name - took that cup and handed me another . I looked at it dubiously . She looked at me with a funny expression . " That 's because you 're being stupid . " She sounded far away - the medicine must be working . I felt prickly all over but I didn 't want to derail the conversation by saying so . " How could I go into witness protection with him ? I would never see you again . " Magic words … quite literally , for me . But hadn 't my time already run out ? It didn 't matter - in spite of the itching and the dull pain in my back and the fog in my head , I 've never been happier than I was right at that moment . Madame Verdi held up her hand over me . " Okay - I have paused it . But why , Rose ? Aren 't you happy to have broken the spell that was on him ? He 's really very handsome . " " I don 't need to help Maggie - you already did everything that was needed in her case . Now , please decide . It 's hard to hold something static like this . " I looked at Rose . She was biting her lip . " I 'll stay the same , then . What I look like to the rest of the world doesn 't matter . " Madame took her hand down and I could feel things shift and solidify . The fog was gone . " You don 't look entirely the same now . I stopped the change but I couldn 't reverse it . " I looked at my hands . All the scarring on the back and wrapping around my arms was gone but the tattoos seemed intact . The rose tree was blooming - full of white roses . Suddenly , I didn 't care . " I love you . " " Madame , I … Thank you . Thank you for everything . " It seemed inadequate but I didn 't know how to say anything more or even what I should say . Regardless , she seemed to understand . " You 'll see me again . You both will . " She smiled and let us out the door , for once . There was no green flash but as soon as we were on the sidewalk , there was no shop . Rose made me turn around and pealed off the bandage she had put on my back - there was nothing but smooth skin now . She stroked her hand across the spot . " I 'd give anything to know what was in that medicine . You were shot and now there 's no sign of it at all . " " Shot ? It hurt - but I didn 't think it was so bad . " It hadn 't hurt on my back as much as it had hurt to breathe . I turned us away from the raid . " I think we should go home now . " For one thing , I wanted to find out if Will had gotten his sight back . Besides , I was barefoot and shirtless and while I didn 't really care who saw me or what they thought , it wasn 't late enough in the spring to be completely comfortable yet . We walked home quietly , just being together . Later , I would be quizzed about everything , I knew . Since I didn 't have to keep secrets anymore , I didn 't mind that but , for now , just being together was enough . " Unless it 's going to drive you crazy not knowing , probably not . " I told her . I started up the stairs to put on a shirt and some shoes but she stopped me . It was Maggie 's turn to laugh . " Of course I knew about the spell . You go to bed one night looking like a collar - ad man and you wake up the next morning all scarred up with tattoos ? What else could it be ? But you haven 't changed back - you 've changed but not back to the way you looked before . " " Look , let me finish getting dressed and I 'll explain it all . To everybody , now that I can . Where 's Will , by the way ? " I asked casually enough but I was eager to see if his sight had been restored yet . " Funny . " He opened his eyes anyway . Later , he described it as wiping away layers of Vaseline from his eyes . First he could see light , then blurry shapes and then he could see me , right in front of him . " Oh SHIT ! Thorne ? " I went back to my room and got a shirt , then a thought struck me . I went to the mirror and , though I didn 't see anything but my own reflection , I said " Thank you , Madame Verdi . " into it . There was a slight green flicker , like a curtsy , to let me know my thanks had reached the one they were intended for . Will 's recovery was the most exciting thing that day but not the only one . I 'd just about finished my story - very detailed with lots of interruptions - when there was a knock on the front door . Maggie was making more coffee - we 'd finished the first pot - so I got up and told her , " Yes , yes , I did ! Please come in , I 'm delighted that you 're here . " I ushered them in and called " Maggie ? Maggie - it 's for you . " She came out of the kitchen wiping her hands on her apron . " Who is it , Thorne ? " Then she saw her family and stopped in her tracks . " Liam ? Am I dreaming ? " " No , Maggie - girl , you 're wide awake as always . " Liam said . " I 've come to tell you I was wrong and ask you to have me back . I 've changed my ways and there 'll be no more fightin ' . " Will , once he got used to judging distance with his eyes again , took a teaching position at a near - by college . He was going to find a place of his own but I asked him to stay with us - at least for awhile . The brownstone is huge and rent is horrible in the city . I expect that he 'll be looking for a home of his own fairly soon , though . He 's met a wonderful girl , a fellow teacher , and they 've been seeing each other long enough for me to think that they 're serious . Maggie 's family is staying with us as well . I couldn 't do without Maggie . Her sons , George and Devin , are both in training . George is going to be a policeman and Devin is training for the fire department . As he points out , it will be more fun putting them out than lighting them . Both of them still have a lot of fighting instinct in them so it 's good that they 're pointing it in the right direction now . Liam , on the other hand , has turned his back on violence … that being the only way to make peace with his wife … and has taken over managing the greenhouse for me . In his spare time , he 's a handy - man for hire . I think he and Maggie will be taking a second honeymoon soon . Rose 's father did not have to stay in witness protection for very long . The raid on the warehouse broke up the Dead Rabbits gang and between his testimony and hers , they 're going to be in prison for a very long time . I testified as well but I think it was just corroboration , they could have cinched it without me . It 's a good thing Liam has taken over the greenhouse for me , too . Rose had an idea for after we finish our degrees , provided I can pass Will 's class . She wants to open a bookshop with coffee , tea and soup for all her homeless friends . I 'm thinking that the empty warehouse would be a good place . It 's not too far from home and with all that space , maybe we can have a dormitory in the back for people to sleep when it 's really cold outside . We 're still in the planning stages on that and we won 't be able to get it off the ground until after college . And hopefully after the wedding - Rose has agreed to marry me but not until we 've graduated and then she just wants something nice and small and quiet . I 'm trying to point out to her that once we get the shop open , we won 't have time for even that - I hope she 's listening . I don 't see anything of my father . He was furious when I enrolled at the university and actually called me to order me to withdraw . I refused and pointed out to him that there are a lot of Mallorys and as long as he did not tell anyone that we were related , no one would guess . We do see Madame Verdi very occasionally . She has dropped by for tea a couple of times and she and Maggie get on so well that I accused them of being sisters . This was met by two identical stares and silence . You know what ? If they are sisters , I don 't want to know . As for me , the scars vanished but the thorn tattoo remains … and I never did get my hair back . Not even my eyebrows … although the lack of eyebrows is a small inconvenience considering that I don 't have to shave either . I don 't hide and , while I do get stares from people who don 't know me , it doesn 't bother me . I 'm comfortable in my skin now and as long as it suits Rose , I 'm well pleased .