Roza!

Roza?

Roza...

Something in my mind knows... its telling me what I dont want to believe...

I can feel my heart beating, painfully. Everythings dark, my eyes are heavy. Every breathe hurts, like someones taken shards of glass and forced me to swallow them.
I can hear crying, the haze of my mind is clearing slowly and I can make out more than one voice.

Finally I force my eyes open, letting them adjust slowly to the too bright light of the room... sunlight?... thats not right, moroi dont like sunlight... My eyes flicker warily around the room.
Glass is scattered around me, the tables and chairs are splintered and laying sprawled around the floor.

Thats when I register that people are crying out.. some in pain, some in fear.
I slowly raise myself up, wincing when I put weight on my left arm, which I realise Im barely able to move anyway...

What happened?

I force myself to think as I fully take in the scene of devastation around me.

It looks like a tornado or a bomb hit this place... or an army... an army of strigoi...

Oh god! I remember...

I remember being attacked, the panic and the fear. The rush of cold immortal bodies, blood thirsty red eyes and feral snarls...

and Roza... what happened to Roza?!

Somehow I launch myself to my feet, ignoring the pain shooting through my body as I frantically search the room with my eyes. Searching for any sign of her.
I instantly spot Eddie helping up a teary eyed, bruised faced Mia. Then theres Guardian Johnston helping usher a couple of other Moroi from the room... Theres no sign of her though...

"Dimitri!"

My heart skips a beat at the voice and I spin around to meet an anxious looking Lissa.

"Wheres Rose?" We both ask at the exact same time. I can see the hope in Lissas eyes instantly die when she realises Im not with her... I can only imagine that my face looks the same way.

"Dont panic Liss... shes probably... helping someone..." Christian tries to reasurre a now sobbing Lissa, His blue eyes are pained as he looks at me probably hoping for some sort of reassurance, but I cant give it. I dont know where she is, I dont even know what happened after I was grabbed...

"No!" We all raise our head sharply at the voice shouting from outside the building. I move faster than the others, instinct pushing me to hurry. Theres a horrible feeling deep in my stomach, Id never heard him shout like that... he sounded like he was being tortured.

"Öh God, No...no. no. no...no..." His voice was a hysterical sob now, I could hear every pain filled word before I even stepped foot outside the door.

What I saw infront of me will be etched in my mind untill the day I die. It was my worst nightmare come to life...

Adrian Knelt on the wet grass only metres from the entrance to the building, his light blue shirt was torn and stained red with blood... whether it was his or not I wasnt sure. His back was to me but I could see his shoulders moving with each sob and he was shaking his head side to side as though he were arguing with himself.

I moved slowly toward him untill I was standing mere steps away.

My eyes widened as they fell upon the reason for his obvious pain and distress...

Roza.

My Roza, my beautiful, caring, amazing Roza...

Broken.

Her head lay in Adrians lap, his fingers ran along her pale forhead, wiping away dirt and blood.
Her thick dark hair was splayed and knotted around her, blood stained just about every inch of her clothes.
I searched her face for signs of life.

There was nothing..

She was pale, almost as pale as a moroi. I could see from where I stood that she wasnt breathing, her lips were turning a sickly shade of blue.

For some reason I couldnt force myself to move, I was frozen to the spot as I stared at her. My brain was stumbling over itself, refusing to believe what my eyes were seeing.

"Rose! Oh God No! Please no!" Lissa bowled past me and practically landed on Rose, her trembling arms were wrapped around Roses neck and she was crying hysterically into her lifeless form. "Rose no! You cant leave me, you cant. You promised." she kept repeating over and over as Adrian, Christian and I stood there.

Finally, as though all the adrenalin had seeped from my body, I felt my legs give way and dropped to my knees.

A single tear slipped from my eye as I stared at the dead body of the one person I loved more than anything.

"Roza..." I whispered.