"It was the ship of dreams to everyone else. To me, it was a slave ship, taking me back to America in chains. Outwardly, I was everything a well brought up girl should be. Inside, I was screaming…"

"Rose! Come on. It's this way!" Caledon Hockley, my 'belovèd' fiancé, took my gloved hand and walked calmly up the walkway to the ship. Everyone around us was running, playing, laughing, and I longed to join some of the children in their fun and games. But I had to go. I had to leave. I needed to get on that boat and marry Cal when we got to the other side. I needed to, but I certainly didn't want to…

My mother behind me, we joined the others in first-class. All the women were wearing expensive dresses and even more expensive jewels. The men were smart, with hair perfectly in place, each one looking as marvellously dressed as the last. My Cal stood apart from the rest, his chest puffed out as if to say "look at me! I am better than the rest of them. Look at me". He had a glint in his eye as he approached a young steward and slipped him some notes, before turning back to me, announcing that our room was ready. We sneaked past my mother and found the room. The door made a 'click' as it opened, and Cal pushed it shut behind us.

The room was littered with beautiful flowers, and my paintings were all sitting around the room, ready to be put on the walls. A chaise longue sat, perfectly, in the middle of one of the rooms, but Cal took the greatest pleasure in showing me the master bedroom, with its own bathroom and several other doors off it, presumably to storage or wardrobes. He slipped the glove off one of my hands, kissing my bare skin gently, passionately. I tried to look back into his eyes with some form of love, but was unable to. Instead, my gaze was as stony as my unmelted heart. He felt the coldness, but was not put off. Instead, he reached his arms behind my head and carefully unbuttoned the top of my dress with such ease it was as if he'd done it a thousand times before.

He was half-way down my back when I was saved by a nosy maid who had come in to check the room was ready. Seeing my only opportunity, I slid out of the room whilst she was still apologising for interrupting. On my way down the corridor I stepped out of the way to let two men pass who were carrying a portrait. As I got closer, I saw that it was of me - it was one of the ones that Cal had commissioned to make me look beautiful but delicate, like a porcelain doll that wasn't to be moved. As soon as we were married, and I had Cal's money at my disposal, I planned to have my picture painted properly, with all the flaws that I knew I had. The real Miss DeWitt Bukater did not look like a porcelain doll, nor did she like being treated like one.

I reached the end of the corridor, suddenly unsure of which way to turn. I turned and saw two children chasing each other down the next corridor. Smiling, I followed them, jogging slightly to catch up whenever they went out of sight. Quickly, they reached the sun deck and I was unable to continue following them for fear of being spotted and looked down on. I spied my mother, and decided to go the other way. I found a railing and leant on it, staring out to the wide expanse of endless sea.

Beneath me, the lower-classes were playing and sitting and smoking. There were many more of them, but a lot less space. As I was watching them, a young girl caught my eye. She was sitting with a man, presumably her father, and a boy who must have been a few years younger, apparently her brother. She was just standing there, clutching on to her father's leg and staring at the water with such malevolence it seemed that it should turned to flames, and I infact had to check that that was indeed not the case, and that we were still cutting through the salty sea. I continued watching as I saw the man unceremoniously wipe a tear from his eye, take a locket from his pocket, and toss it into the wind so that it fell into the waves below. The whole act seemed sad and mournful, and soon the trio turned around again and walked slowly to a nearby bench as if the emotion of the action had taken all of the energy out of them.

Upon hearing Cal's rushed footsteps, I turned away from the scene and into the eyes of a thoroughly annoyed man who then led me back across the deck, pausing every so often to converse with wealthy mine-owners and their wives, every time the same questions asked, the same ones answered, and I found myself again watching the little girl and her family, and longing, not for the first time, that I'd been born into a different family. Into a different world.

"I saw my whole life as if I'd already lived it. An endless parade of parties and cotillions, yachts and polo matches. Always the same narrow people, the same mindless chatter. I felt like I was standing at a great precipice, with no one to pull me back, no one who cared... or even noticed."

I would love to see your comments on my first attempt at a fanfiction piece. The more constructive your comments, the better - I understand that no work is perfect and that there are always improvements to be made. Please, I'd prefer a flame to a "oh wow, perfect, you could not have done any better"...

RainySunnyEnding