Chapter 3
I had spent a few hours sleeping, and a few more trying to sort myself out.
I wasn't sure whether I was going to another 'trial' or if this was my execution, but I was leaning more towards the latter because the guardians looked slightly less…stoic than normal. Or maybe that was just my imagination procrastinating too much.
I shook away my inner musings, and looked into the mirror. The girl that stared back at me wasn't Rose Hathaway; it was more like a pale imitation. A ghost. A shade. I had slapped on concealer and foundation but they didn't cover the dark hollows under my eyes, or the sad, broken look in them. It was pretty obvious that I wasn't the strong, Strigoi killer that I used to be. I felt sobs rack my thin body as I cried my eyes out. At what I had become, and at what I had lost. I had lost my freedom, my love, my friends, my family and soon, my life. It wasn't exactly inspiring. But then again, I always knew that this job wasn't exactly easy. It was something that all dhamphirs, or nearly all, had to do. This was our 'contribution to the world.' I was starting to question that though. What made us less important than the Moroi? We were still people, with lives, feelings and families. Why should we die for a race that was getting killed off quicker than we were anyway?
None of this made any sense anymore.
10 minutes later, I was reapplying my makeup and brushing my long, dark hair. I wasn't sure why they wanted to pretty me up, but I was thinking that it could be because they didn't want people to think that I had been being treated badly. I had to stifle a laugh at that, Moroi politics had always confused and amused me at the same time. Of course, it made me want to scream sometimes, like at the fucked up law that prevented Lissa from having her rightful place on the council. But hey, that was the Moroi for you. Talk first, act later. Sometimes that worked, but 9 times out of 10, it just lead to a great and severe loss of lives, both Moroi and dhamphir alike.
Why was I thinking about this? Whatever I thought about Moroi law didn't matter; I was just one unruly dhamphir. Not only that, but I was pretty sure I was about to be executed, and my final moments were really not going how I thought they should have. But then again, maybe this is my punishment from God or something. Doomed to think about 'issues' for all of eternity. Oh yay.
"Rose? Are you ready yet? We have to leave in 5 minitues." Tamara was calling to me from outside my cell, surrounded by my very formal looking guardians. Oh shit. I hadn't thought I was going to be taken out that quickly. I had hoped to have some
time to say goodbye to Lissa…Lissa! Oh no. Lissa would be there, I just knew it.
In Moroi law, all executions HAD to be public. It was just another one of there weird laws. But this meant that Lissa would be there, and that was more than I could stand.
I couldn't let her watch me be executed, it wasn't fair. I had spent my whole life trying to protect her, and this was not protection.
But what could I do about it?
Nothing.
"Rose?"
I looked up in surprise, the voice was a lot closer to me than I had expected. Tamara was standing in front of me with a conflicted look on her face. I didn't really have the energy to work out what she was conflicted about. My death? I wasn't sure.
"Look, I'm not really meant to do this but….here." She thrust a piece of paper at me and a pen. I took it, but didn't understand what she was doing.
"Its for you to write a note to Lissa. A….goodbye." Oh. Well that explained it.
I suddenly realised that maybe this note could help me….