Hope is a Four Letter Word - Complete

Chapter Twelve

"What do you think it's like? On the other side?" Rose asked Mason. He seemed to be able to 'feel' their destination more than she could.

"Peaceful," he said immediately. "Nothing to stress or worry about."

He looked at her shrewdly where she sat, absently playing with the laces on her shoes. Rose was wondering whether peaceful would be the same as boring but didn't want to say it to Mason. Looking around, she looked for something else to discuss.

"Hey! This isn't what I died in, this time. Have I been wearing this the whole time?" Rose suddenly asked, looking down at the clothes she was wearing. Blue jeans, a black button-up long sleeved top, and converse. Mason wasn't to know it, but it was what she'd been wearing the night she was in the Dragomir crash.

"Yeah. Do they mean something to you?"

"Maybe. They're the clothes I was wearing when I died with the Dragomirs," Rose explained. Now she thought about it; Mase was wearing what he'd died in.

"Maybe it's a sign? You died once but were brought back. Maybe this is death's way of telling you you've been living on borrowed time?" Mason suggested.

"Borrowed time," Rose mused. It had kind of felt like that. Everything since the crash had happened so fast; it almost felt like she was trying to cram a lifetime into a few short years. But did she have to? Borrowed time suggested every moment was precious. To be treasured. If what Adrian and Dimitri had talked about were true, she had a choice whether or not to go onwards. An opportunity to continue these precious moments with the people she loved.

"Are you thinking of going back?" Mason asked.

"What makes you sure I can?" Rose deflected.

"Your body is still alive – you have something to go back to," he said pensively.

He was right. She did have something to go back to. People to go back to, too.

"Do you have regrets?" she asked Mason. "Things you would have liked to do before you died?" She was thinking about her own list.

"Well, I'd rather have not died a virgin," Mason laughed. "But other than that I'm cool."

Rose chuckled. Even in the afterlife, at least she'd have that over him!

"You?"

"I wish I'd met my father. Mom said he was planning to get in touch when I was eighteen."

"What do you think he'd be like?" Mason pondered.

"I don't know. Mom said he was a powerful man, so I guess he must be pretty strong willed?"

"Do you think they still love each other?"

"I don't know," Rose replied sadly to herself. "I guess I never will."

They were silent together for a while. Mason opened his mouth, and Rose knew he was about to suggest it was time to move on, so she quickly interjected, "They're all there at my bedside, now. I think they're gathering to say goodbye."

They were all there; Janine, Alberta, Lissa, Christian, Adrian, and Eddie were talking when Dimitri walked in, seating himself on the bed beside her.

"She's going to delete the video and release me from my allocation," he said to the group. "It's breakfast time, and I know most of you haven't eaten. I was wondering if I could have some time alone with Rose? There are things I'd like to tell her."

Janine nodded, standing up. "Let's give them their privacy," she said, coming over to kiss Rose's forehead. "Don't fuck this up," Janine growled at Dimitri, and Rose had to laugh at the shocked look on her Russian God's face. Her mother was right; everyone had said their piece bar Dimitri, and if anyone was likely to convince her to come back, it was him.