Night. All was still, that is, all except one man.
The man, wrapped in a dense woolen cloak, trudged through the silent forest. Although he still had many years before him, his face was weathered and aged by tragedy. Yet, despite his fatigue, he exuded an air of determination, each step purposeful and resolute. 
The man stopped before a massive tree that easily dwarfed its surrounding sisters. Reaching into his cloak, he drew out a long, silver sword. In one swift motion, he sliced his hand with the sword. Scarlet blood bubbled up, a stark contrast to his pale skin. The man laid his wounded hand on the tree's smooth, weatherworn bark.
For a few heartbeats, nothing happened. Then, as the bark was stained crimson by blood, the tree shuddered, and a yawning fissure materialized in the trunk. The man withdrew his hand and stepped through the crevice.
The fissure sealed behind him, shrouding him in complete darkness.
“Witch, I know you are here. Show yourself, or I will not hand over what you requested,” the man ordered, his voice firm and commanding. The last word had barely left his mouth when the interior of the tree brightened, illuminated by an eerie white radiance.
Before the man appeared a girl. Her face was cherubic, and her hair a shimmering golden waterfall. Just an ordinary girl, except for her cold, calculating eyes that belied her innocent countenance.
“You see me now. Where is it?” the girl asked impatiently. The man pulled from the confines of his cloak a small wooden box. The girl eagerly reached for the box, but the man held it out of her reach.
“I promise you that this is what you asked for, and I will give it to you. But first, you must fulfill your side of our bargain,” the man said. The girl glared at him, her eyes narrowing. Then she smiled.
“Of course,” she said. “How could I have forgotten? You shall have what you desired.” There was a sudden flash of light, and then a woman appeared.
The woman's face was sweet and pretty, but her eyes spoke of endless sadness and despair. When the man saw her, an expression of joy overcame the exhaustion on his visage. Impatiently, he dropped the box into the girl’s waiting hands and sprinted towards the woman. As he neared, the woman extended her hand, the anguish in her eyes replaced by longing. The man reached out his hand. Just as their hands should have touched, the woman vanished as suddenly as she had appeared, leaving not a single trace of her presence. The man stumbled to a halt and whirled around to face the girl, his eyes wild with desperation.
“Witch! What did you do? Where did you take her?” he demanded. The girl smiled, but the smile was cold, and her eyes remained as hard as stone.
“I merely did as you had asked. I showed you your beloved,” she replied dispassionately.
“Bring her back!” the man growled.
The girl shook her head with mock pity. “She is dead. Nothing I can do will bring her back. Death is irreversible. What you saw was just a mere illusion that I conjured from your memories.”
The man stared at her in shock. “But….you said you could revive her! You promised!”
“It is beyond my power,” the girl replied serenely. “Even if I could resurrect her, she would never be who you remembered her to be. The dead have no place in the world of the living.”
“You lied to me,” the man said, his voice swelling with anger. “You never had any intention of keeping your side of the promise.” With those words, the man brandished his sword and charged towards the girl. The girl made no move to stop him and merely watched his approach, her cold eyes fixed on his. Just as the tip of the sword should have gouged her chest, the girl stepped agilely aside. Faster than what should have been possible, she grabbed the man’s wrist.
The man screamed, his sword falling from his hands and clattering to the ground. He tried to wrench his wrist away, but the girl held on with a strength no ordinary girl possessed. Blackness spread from underneath her hand, greedily devouring the man’s arm. With a harsh cackle, the girl flung him aside. The man landed on his knees, cradling his blackened arm. He made no attempts to rise to his feet.
“Fool, do not think you can trifle with me,” the girl said venomously. “I have done you a favor. There is no way for the dead and the living to remain together without both of you being miserable. You should never have pursued this foolish desire of yours.”
The man glared up at her.  "What do you know about my misfortunes? You do not understand what it is like to have lost the only one you love, the one you would have done anything for.”
For the first time, genuine sadness tinged the girl’s eyes, but it was gone so fleetingly that the man was sure he had imagined it. “Oh, but that is where you are wrong, my friend. I know exactly how it is like.”
The man glanced at her, a spark of curiosity replacing the pain in his eyes. “What do you mean?”
The girl knelt beside him and laid her hand on his face. He flinched, expecting to feel pain, but there was no pain- only the girl's lifeless eyes staring back at him.
“Let me tell you a story,” the girl breathed. “My story.”
“I was not always like this. Oh, years ago, I was just like any other girl. I was happy, but I was also naïve. Back then, I still believed that true love was real. I thought that someday, I would meet someone who I would fall in love with, and we would live happily ever after.
I did meet someone, and I truly believed that he was the one. Even now, I still remember the first time I saw him. He was passing through my village with his father, a traveling merchant.
I will never forget the first time we spoke. I remember thinking that he was very handsome, with dark hair as black as coal. What I found hard to believe was he thought that I was beautiful.
After that first time, we met as frequently as we could. All of our meetings were in secret, for I knew that my father would not have approved of my marrying the son of a lowly merchant.
On the day that he was to leave my village, my love told me that he loved me.  I begged him to stay with me, but he refused. He wanted to explore the world and travel to far off places. He despised the monotonous village life. He asked me to come with him, but I could not leave my home. Before he left, he gave me a single red rose. He vowed that he would return before the last petal fell.
His words gave me hope, and that hope was what helped me endure the next few years. My father found a suitable husband for me, of course without asking for my opinion. We married, and I soon found out that marriage was not at all what I had hoped for.
Our marriage was loveless. Despite everything I sacrificed for my husband, he came to despise me. He accused me of being faithless, of being a witch, and the entire village believed him. I was shunned by the rest of the village when I had done nothing to deserve such treatment.
Although it was miserable with my husband, I soon realized that life would become unbearable without him. After my husband died from a wolf attack, the villagers blamed me for his death. It must be witchcraft, they said. None of them would ever speak to me again.
But what actually proved to be the end for me was the day I saw my true love again. He was with a woman, and they were obviously deep in love. You cannot imagine the agony I felt at seeing my beloved with another woman. He had professed to me that I was his one and only love. After all those years of waiting, I found him in the arms of someone else! And when I confronted him, he did not recognize me at all.”
The girl paused, her voice breaking. For the first time, the man noticed that tears glistened on the girl’s cheeks, sparkling like shards of ice. He felt a peculiar sensation stirring from deep within his heart. Could it be pity?
“I could bear the pain no more,” the girl continued, ignoring the tears that trickled down her cheeks.  “I ran from the village, and never once did I look back. There was nothing left for me there. Of course, nobody came to look for me after I left. I am sure they all thought I died, and in a sense, they were right. I am no longer the girl I once was. That pitiful, spineless creature died that day so long ago.”
The girl turned her icy gaze on the man. “I have gotten many visitors over the years, all seeking my help. Some were even from my former village, and not one of them recognized me. Like you, many wanted what they most desired but which they could never have. Like you, they were, shall we say, disappointed that I could not grant their wishes. However, unlike you, they were free to leave with their souls. You will not be so lucky.”
The man gave a start and instinctively reached for his sword, only to find that it was not by his side. He glanced up at the girl in alarm.
The girl smiled sweetly. “My love, it seems we have been destined to meet again. I have missed you. Do you remember me now?”
The man’s eyes widened with recognition, then horror. “I am so sorry, my dearest. I-I never meant for this to happen. Forgive me.”
The girl’s smile grew, but now, it was a snarl, not a smile. The grimace twisted her delicate face into something horrible and unearthly. “Too late. You missed your chance.”
The girl produced the wooden box the man had given her and withdrew a vibrant, blood-red rose. “This rose that I had you fetch is not just any rose. It is the one you gave me all those years ago. It was meant to open your eyes, to let you see that all was not lost for you. But you let your grief blind you. You failed to see that I, your true love, was here, that your love was not lost after all. Like all foolish humans, you chose to go after something unattainable.”
The man began crawling away. “I-I am sorry. Please let me go. I-"
The girl chanted a series of words, and the man found himself rendered motionless.
“Do not worry,” the girl said, her voice deceptively gentle. “You kept your promise. As you can see, the last petal on the rose has not yet fallen. I kept it safe for you all these years. I knew in the end, you would return to me. Now, I shall keep my promise. You will be with your true love once more.”
The man tried to cry out, to protest, but his body failed him. He could only watch helplessly as his fate closed in on him.