AN: Hi Guys! It's been so long since I ended my previous FanFic and this had been sitting around for quite some time, so I thought might as well post this up and check out the response before I decided to bring this new Story Further. I've been having a lot of thoughts about what title I should give to this story and came out with "If you are the One" tentatively. Please read and leave your suggestion for the Title of this new story in the Reviews. 10 reviews and I will be continuing this story. As of now, it's just a One-Off. Please tell me if you like it!
This is my 2nd VA FanFic, please support!
Rei
Chapter One: Rose Runaway
"… go around the back and we'll take them down from the front"
"You've got it" I replied through the mouth piece and signaled to my team to go ahead while I covered the back. My team spread around the back, securing every possible exit. Soon after, we heard the sound of the front door being broken down and fights broke out around the house. Some of them tried to escape through the back but my team took them down the second they stepped out without much resistance. Within 30 minutes, we wrapped up the entire operation and prepared to return to base.
I was in my car and starting up the engine when the operation leader, Keith knocked on my window. He's really well built at 6"7 and really muscular and tanned with strong features. I wound down the window and took off my shades.
"Great work managing the team Evans. I really hope we can work together again soon." He said and extended a hand through the window. I took it and flashed him my man-eating smile.
"It's my pleasure too" I said and wound up the window, not letting him advance any closer. I drove out of the driveway, back to my apartment in downtown LA.
I unlocked the door to my apartment and went straight to my bedroom. I took out both my desert eagle and placed them on my bedside table. You'll never know who or what might attack you while you're asleep. I stripped off all my clothes and walked into my bathroom to wash the day's action away. I flipped on my stereo in the bathroom counter and started the water. I walked to the mirror and looked at the person mimicking my action.
She undid her hair-tie allowing her deep brown tresses to fall messily over her shoulders, covering her breasts. Her skin glowed with a hint of redness from the recent tanning due to her job. Her eyes, was a deep brown, reflecting minimal emotions; as if threatening to swallow everyone who comes too close like a black hole.
I saw a ghost of Rose Hathaway in her but it wasn't her too. I turned off the running water and tested the temperature with my feet before submerging my body into the warmth of the welcoming bath. I leaned my head on headrest on the side of the bathtub, relaxing the tense-up muscles. I inhaled a deep breath of warm humid air, emptying my mind.
I was running. Running for my dear life. The pursuer was hot on my heels. I reached a fence. It was a dead end. I could try to jump into the river but the gushing water and jagged rocks on the riverbed told me that I would not have survived either. I spun around, trying to assess my surroundings in the pitch darkness. But all I saw was a pair of gleaming red eyes. In a split second, the pair of red eyes was just inches away from mine, its bearer holding my neck in his grasp.
"Why did you run Roza?"
I choked. The grip on my neck was choking precious air out of my lungs. I could feel my strength draining out of me as my exhaustion took over. I coughed again; a feeble attempt to take in some air.
"Why did you run away from me!" he roared again. "Don't you love me anymore? We could be together forever! Isn't that you want?" Why Roza! Why!" his voice rang throughout the woods, sending the trees trembling, breaking the silence of the peaceful night.
"I…" I tried to say something but his grip was prohibiting any speech. I tried to feel around my back to grab the stake but he noticed it and with a swift movement of his free hand, knocked it a couple feet away. Following the stake, he threw me against a tree like a ragdoll. My back slammed against the solid tree trunk. It hurts like hell but I was glad to be freed from his grasp.
I tried to get myself up and I felt a cool metal under my hands. It was the stake. I gripped it tightly and raised it up just in time to plunge it into his chest. He roared out in pain and with a swift movement of his arm, I was swept 10 feet away from him. When I regained my bearings, I saw him advancing towards me in a more menacing manner than before. I missed his heart and now a super pissed off Strigoi stood before me. I felt fear trembling within me, threatening to burst out of my body. I tightened my grip around the stake and positioned myself against the tree to steady myself. I have no extra strength to strategize nor to run. All I can do is try to do as much damage as possible with the silver stake.
Like a tiger, he pounced onto me. Holding the stake with both hands, I raised it above my head. I felt the weight of his body when he touches the stake. I daren't look. I kept my eyes tightly shut, anticipating his next move.
There wasn't any besides the growing weight on my already tired body. His arms slumped due to the lack of strength and dropped to my sides before his entire body came crashing onto mine.
I did it. I staked him. I've staked Dimitri. I've freed him. I kept my promise to him. I should be happy. I freed the man I loved of his sufferings and I should be celebrating for the fact that I was still alive. But I couldn't. Because he isn't. His body was as limp as wet noodle. I pushed his body away and laid him properly on the ground. Then I heard something that made me happy for a brief moment. He was still breathing. Barely. It was really shallow and rapid. His eyes were slightly opened but I was afraid to look. Afraid to see what I feared.
"Roza..." I heard him call my name in between his breath. My love for him gave in as I leaned in next to his face. I saw the warm brown I once knew and loved in those tiny slits. The warm brown that always tells me that I can do it and everything will be just fine.
But it isn't fine. "it isn't fine Dimitri. Nothing is fine without you here" I sobbed into his chest, my final words to him, on his slowly dying body. However, what makes me cries even harder wasn't his impending death but his final words to me.
"Th...an...k... Yo...u..."
"I love you Dimitri..." I sobbed into his dead body long after he breathed his last.
Daylight was slowly breaking in the distant horizon, signifying the start of a brand new day but to me, time came to a halt the very moment he died. Daybreak actually seemed cruel. It's negating the fact that time will not stand still just because a wonderful man just died. Time will continue to move forward and Life still goes on. I buried his body at the very spot and at the same time, I buried Rose Hathaway along with him.
5 years had passed since then. I left the academy – in fact the day I left to hunt for Dimitri, I left my old life there. I left Lissa and Adrian, and everyone I hold dear to, even Christian. With no qualification, I joined the FBI with my skills and led a life away from the vampires. A life that wouldn't remind me of how Dimitri died. If people who knew me had asked why I chose not to go back to the academy, back with Lissa and the gang, the answer was even more shattering.
Lissa...
I had wanted to return to the academy because I felt bad for leaving her while I went on the hunt, but what I saw made me decide otherwise.
After I had buried Dimitri, I got sucked into Lissa's head as like the many times I've got pulled in whenever she felt strong emotions
I'm angry. I'm angry for Rose to leave me just like that. She didn't even say good bye and I had to know it from Adrian that she had took off. My phone was blaring like crazy on the bed. I took it and smashed it against the wall, relieving it of its misery. I started throwing things in the room around, smashing everything I could lay my hands on into bits. I saw Christian, Adrian and Avery come in but I hadn't cared. I just wanted to destroy.
At that moment, I had wanted so much to fly back to Lissa and take her darkness away from her but I can't. I know I couldn't help much by staying in her head but I thought that at least I could be there for her spiritually.
Christian and Adrian just stood by the doorway looking helpless. I could see the pain in Christian's eyes. How he wanted to help but there seems to be nothing he could do. I know that exact feeling. I've been through it and I don't want to experience it again.
The girl, Avery, (I knew it from Lissa's thought) however, came forward and took Lissa by her shoulders and gave her a slap on the face. Damn! it was hard. Even though I wasn't the one being slapped, I could almost feel the heat of it. The slap also pushed me out of Lissa's mind and I couldn't get in no matter how hard I tried after that. I brushed it off due to fatigue.
What I saw a couple days later, it was the real deal clincher. I got into Lissa's head again. She was at the cafeteria with Christian, Adrian and Avery. Avery was at my usual spot - sandwiched between Lissa and Adrian. I felt a tinge of jealousy. She was laughing happily with her and Lissa wasn't feeling anything about my absence, nothing a single thought about me. She'd let go.
So that was it. Rose Hathaway is gone. She'd become Rose-Runaway.
I am Ashley Evans.
