Rain was pouring down as Hellebore stopped to look at her map, crouched under the feeble shelter of a tree. She squinted, and made out that she had about three miles to go. She put the map away into her bag and continued to trek through the dismal woods. It had been raining for nearly two days straight. She could feel a fever beginning to form in her bones. She knew that she had exposed herself to the cold for far too long, and she couldn't hope to stay at the prison. It was probably overrun anyways. She gritted her teeth against the headache and staggered on.

"halli!"

She looked down from the tree to see Rose standing there, looking mortified. She easily shimmered down the tree, her black dress fluttering around her as she landed easily on the ground.

"Rose, soror, whats wrong?" their uncles funeral had been today. He had been dear to them all, but they saw him rarely.

Rose looked up at her older sister with wide, tremulous eyes full of tears.

"Do you think that he just disappeared? Everything that he is…now no one will know him except those that already did. There isn't anymore…potential. The potential that comes with life. He'll just fade away. Everything that he worked to be. Is that what happens?"

Hellabore thought for a moment on this as they walked through the golden woods, lit by autumn sunlight.

"No. we still have memories. Memories that we can pass on to others. We live on. In each other's hearts."

She turned to hellebore, looking confused.

"But. I don't want that to happen to me. I don't want to just die…the end of something, the door is shut…"

Hellabore stopped in front of their mothers garden, where she had planted several deep red rose plants. They were presents. Her mother planted one for Rose, then her father planted one, and then the two of them helped tiny Hellabore to plant the third. This was how they welcomed her into the world.

Rose suddenly looked at her, her eyes alit with an idea.

"Halli? I know."

"Me too, soror, me too."

"We'll plant out flowers on each other's graves. That way…something can grow. It doesn't just have to end there."

Hellabore kissed her sister gently on the head and they held hands as they walked back to the house.

Hellebore barely noticed the gate. She practically ran into it. Her fever was blinding her, she felt too nauseous to stand. She refused to let her knees give out and vomited as a result. She clung to the fence, heard footsteps through the rain, and heard a voice crying out…

"No, don't shoot, she's not a-"

She felt a blinding pain in her left shoulder. I t relieved her of the daze her fever had brought on momentarily, if only to look down and see blood running down her arm and an arrow sticking out of her shoulder. She felt confused, and dazed and suddenly very dizzy. Blackness began to cloud around her as she clung to the fence desperately, her hands slipping. She felt someone shaking her, trying to wake her, heard voices shouting. She thought of her sisters, remembered the promise that they had made.

"hellebore," she murmered, "plant hellebore…on my grave…" She forced her eyes open. She could make out a sturdy man with a chiseled face, leaning over her. Other people were near, but their forms were too fuzzy. She gritted her teeth against the impending darkness and pain and grabbed the man's arm. He looked at her.

"You have to plant hellebore on my grave. You have to."

He looked confused tried to shake his head but she gripped his wrist tighter.

"You have to. I promised…"

She heard him say something, yelling to the others, but she didn't understand. She could feel the rain pounding down, numbing her with cold. The darkness clouded her eyes.