Disclaimer: I don't own VA.

A/N: This is an AU; it can be set as if LS didn't happen, or perhaps as if even SB didn't happen. That doesn't really matter, though, and there's no real reference inside the story to say where it should be. Heck, it doesn't even name anybody but Rose and Lissa.

It was supposed to be safe.

I'm not sure who I was disgusted with more – the gunman threatening the poor girl, the security for doing such a pitiful job at bringing the gunman down and the girl to safety, or me for – for not trying harder to keep the girl safe.

Lissa's feeling threatened to overwhelm me. I had to fight to keep in my own head. No no no. You have to stay here. You have to stay out of her mind to keep her safe. As I began began to sidle towards them (security didn't notice, and nor did the gunman – pitiful humans, couldn't see a thing until it was in front of their face), hand lowering to grab the butt of the gun inconspicuously stuck just inside my jacket. It felt like cheating, yes, but that wasn't my biggest concern right now.

Getting Lissa away from the gunman, safe and sound, was.

The other guardians in the room noticed what she was doing. They stiffened considerably as the human's gun was cocked, but I could see the relief (of sorts) in their eyes as I raised mine and aimed. Lissa's eyes flashed towards me: she knew what her (was going to do, no doubt. Her eyes widened, and she opened her mouth to shout that they should get away from there. It was too late: the gunman saw. His arm abruptly jerked, now pointing more at me than Lissa. The trigger was pulled, a fraction of a second before my own was.

The bullet hurtled towards me, and I vaguely noticed that my own was streaming towards the human man. Lissa pulled herself away with in his moment of distraction, already racing towards me. The bullet hit my stomach. I glanced down; gun dropping as my hands automatically went to the wound. Red, warm stuff was leaking on to them. It was blood, I realized; it was an abstract thought, interesting to a scientist, perhaps.

There was a scream, a shout.

Then there was darkness.

How had a shopping trip been so dangerous? The shopping centre had supposed to be safe. The pain in my stomach was excruciating, and my fragile grip of life seemed to be slipping. Interrupting the darkness, pale shapes hung around. The ghosts had come. They grabbed at me, hands going through, trying to pull me towards them. Eric Dragomir was there, with Andre – I couldn't see Lissa's mother. They seemed more welcoming than the rest, perhaps because they knew me, but I tried to pull away from them as I tried to pull away from the rest. The pain in my stomach was fading fast: I wasn't sure whether it was because I was dying or because Lissa was healing me. But long before I could figure it out, the ghosts seemed to become more solid – or perhaps I became less solid – and they grabbed me. They pulled me, dragging me to the world of the dead.

Mason was there to greet me, at the entrance of all those abstract colours. I'm not sure whether I was happy or not to see him. Happy because, well, it was Mason, and unhappy because it meant I had died. That wasn't exactly at the top of my wish list.

"Come on, Rose!" he exclaimed. "I'll show you round." He offered his hand, and smiling hesitantly at him, I took it.

And in the land of the living, the piercing scream of a girl who watched her best friend die echoed in a storeroom.