"TWELVE ROSES" | Chapter 12: December 23 | Brave

Daily Chapter from December 12- 25 Christmas

Chapter 12: December 23 | Brave

The day began like so many others, but something felt different. Anna couldn’t place it at first. The apartment was as quiet as always, the snow outside blanketing the world in soft stillness. Yet there was a shift, subtle but unmistakable, as if the air carried something new—something alive.

She stood at the kitchen counter, her gaze resting on the roses. Eleven now, each one bearing a truth that had quietly worn down the walls around her heart. You are not alone. You are known. You are loved. You matter. The words no longer hovered as distant questions; they lingered instead as gentle invitations, stirring a fragile sense of possibility.

When she opened the door. The twelfth rose was there, resting in the mailbox like the others, its petals seeming to vanquish the gray of the morning. She stepped out into the cold, her heart stirring with a quiet anticipation for the warmth she knew was waiting.

By now, she had come to expect the roses, but her anticipation wasn’t just about finding them—it was about being found. Each morning, as she reached for the next rose, it felt less like a ritual and more like a conversation. The roses and their words seemed to know her better than she knew herself, meeting her in places she hadn’t yet dared to acknowledge.

As she untied the note, a tranquil stillness enveloped her, the cold biting at her skin. For a moment, she paused, her breath forming soft clouds in the air, before unfolding the message.