I thought I could never, ever feel as desperate or alone as I did at the stern of the ship that first night, ready to jump and end it all.

But now I understand both aching desperation and true love lost. With Jack's stiff hands frozen to mine, his long eyelashes dusted with frost, I sob silently. I gasp for air, and every breath is like a knife.

I have to face it. There are no more tears left to cry tonight, no more battles to be fought or wars to be won.

I ventured into a flooding corridor.

I swung the axe and broke the chain on the cuffs.

Cal wouldn't hold up his end of the bargain to get Jack a boat.

I succeeded in leaping back into the Titanic.

He shot at us and missed.

The ship sank despite being called unsinkable.

We didn't drown; we weren't crushed; we didn't lose our grip and plummet into the sea.

No.

It wasn't until after we had escaped the vortex of the ship plunging downwards and found each other safe, without injury.

I thought the boats would come sooner.

If anything, I didn't think death by frost could happen so quickly, like the sharpness of a fearful breath or a soul being snatched away in the night.

A dagger made of ice and he didn't stand a chance. His blood turned cold. Colder, still.

The cold is what killed him. Insidious and fast-working, the chill dug itself deep in his bones and froze around his heart like a clenched fist until it stopped beating entirely.

Guns. We escaped guns and - and collapsing debris. There were people falling out of the sky and breaking their backs on machinery for Christ's sake, being obliterated by propellers... yet the thing that killed him was simply... the cold.

I should've known, but I was too naive to see why he made me promise.

In the end, we still lost. Jack is dead and I can't do a goddamn thing about it but croak, "Come back."

I'm not pleading with the lifeboat that is turning its back on me. I'm pleading with him to come back to me.

"Come back. Come back!"

Take a breath, wake up like Snow White. Love's first kiss. You are my first and only love. I love you, Jack, so please... come back to me, I plead internally.

Shivering and shaking, I clumsily roll into the water.

"You jump, I jump, remember?"

I remember, Jack.

And I'd rather share five days with him than face all the ages of this world alone.

I embrace him. Whisper in his ear though I know he can't hear me.

"Why?" My voice trembles. "Why did you leave me?"

I kiss the top of his head, painfully aware of the tendrils that are connected by ice.

Then I look to the sky for an answer because I am all out of faith. Not a drop of vitality left in me. It's like Jack's death was a vacuum that emptied me of everything but a hollow rib cage.

A shooting star passes overhead like a cruel, cosmic joke. But then I think... maybe it's not intended to be cruel. Maybe this isn't irony at all.

It's fate.

"Look! A shooting star."

"You know, my Pops used to tell me that whenever you saw one of those stars, it was a soul goin' to Heaven."

A smile graced my half-drunk, half-in-love face.

"Should we wish on it?" I asked without thinking.

Birthday candles, dandelion fluff, eyelashes, and stars.

"Why?" Jack looked right into my eyes, so intensely blue I felt my bloomers might burst. "What would you wish for?"

I began to say, "You", but was stopped by the sight of the First-Class doorway.

I stared longingly at Jack's lips and wished to feel them pressed against mine in a way that never struck me as pleasant when Cal was nearby.

"Something I can't have. Goodnight, Jack."

I handed him the coat he'd borrowed and let my hand fall in his shoulder. Solid. Warm. I'd give anything to go back in time and stay with him. Just a little longer. Told him I loved him sooner.

"Dear Mr. Star," I address the sparkling arc politely. Tears run down my cheeks but freeze midway past my face. "Mr. Star, I don't know whose soul you might be or if you can grant wishes, but I'm begging you - kissing-your-feet, on-my-knees-if-I-could type of begging you for a second chance. That's all I want. Please, just don't leave me alone without Jack. I love him. He deserves to live and I love him."

I break out in gut-wrenching sobs, resting my forehead against Jack's.

It's futile. I know it is.

"Bring him back to me," I whisper. "Please. He's all I have, the only person I know I love beyond a single doubt or reason. I love him more than my freedom. I'll be chained in Death if you take me and let him live. I don't care how it happens or what price I will pay for this but... please, bring him back as he was. Give us another go 'round. Drawing, dancing at parties, friends... f-friends... You wrote our fate and now I'm asking you to rewrite it. Re-rewrite the stars. Give us our chance at happiness."

Briiiiinggg! An awful noise comes over some kind of speaker system. A draft comes from behind an odd looking trash bin and lifts my skirt - what? My skirt doesn't cover my ankles?

And what's this shirt that has a neon yellow square with eyes and a pink star who also has eyes?

"Question." Oh my god. "Why do I have to be Squidward?" I recognize that voice. "Last I checked, you were all gloomy over your parents' dinner with Senator Hockley and his son." It's him.

Last I checked, you were dead in an ocean littered with corpses in the wake of a shipwreck.

"Come on, Rosie! It's time for geometry." Jack takes my arm and drags me down halls with fake tile floors and strange, metal fountains that produce water for any mouth to slurp out of. Disgusting!

Everyone is carrying books and these unfamiliar packs I've never seen. Girls are wearing pants. Boys have eye makeup on. There are no corsets, only rooms labeled with a combination of letters and numbers that mean "sit down and shut up so I can start teaching".

Only I recognize the teacher. Quite well, as a matter of fact.

Jack gives me a look from his desk - if that's what you can call a desk.

"I'm your teacher," she says. "Hopefully your favorite teacher because I'm much cooler than the rest of the staff. I have a candy jar on my desk, so help yourselves because it'll always be restocked.

"Anyway, enough with the dilly dallying. My name is Margaret, but my friends call me Molly."

She winks at me. "But to you kids, that's Mrs. Brown. Welcome to modern day high school. May the good lord bless your souls."

She tosses a chocolate coin my way and it lands right in the middle of my desk. Jack is tossed another chocolate coin wrapped in gold-painted aluminum paper.

"Jacky D, Rosie B, can I see y'all after class for a special surprise?"

The rest of the class all turn to look at us.

"Yes," Jack and I say simultaneously.

Now to figure out what the hell geometry is...