April, 14

23:37

Even though the drama was over, something still bothered Rose. She turned one way and nothing, turned to the other side and nothing, she flipped the pillow and neither; it looked like she had a pea under her mattress. The girl left the cabin and decided to take a walk on the outer deck. If they had already lived in this ship for half a year, what was another week, right? Their final destination, New York City.

After a few minutes of walking, she brought to consciousness the fact that they were surrounded by darkness. She couldn't even see the waves of the ocean, it seemed like they had painted the water pitch black.

As a professional overthinker, she didn't let her thoughts go their own way, on the contrary, she started to feel like someone was walking behind her. She turned around a couple of times but didn't see anyone.

Rose was about to go back inside when she saw a mop of blonde hair lying on a bench.

"I haven't seen you smoke in a long time"

Jack sat up, surprised to see his girlfriend at this very spot of the ship at this hour. He released the smoke he had been holding and walked up to her.

"I couldn't sleep" he confessed

"Me neither" Rose motioned him to share his cigarette with her. After a touch, he asked her to return the cigar. If she smoked every time she got stressed, she would get used to it.

"Jack, do you believe in reincarnation?"

"I guess I never thought about it... why?"

"Tommy told me this story the other day..."

"And you believe Tommy?" He interrupted, skeptical. As if the question wasn't odd enough.

"Wait! I'm talking, I remember you told me once, that your parents said that each star was a soul"

"Yeah, I think it's a town legend or something like that..."

"You think that's some kind of reincarnation? Being transformed into a star? We also found this thing online about a Rose Calvert..."

"Wait, you actually believe Tommy. This guy has been playing pranks on me since the day we-"

"Let me finish!" Rose protested and took out her phone to open the conversation with the Irish one as a proof "Look, here's a picture of Rose Calvert. Before she married, she was named Rose Dawson"

"That's photoshop, Rose"

"Tommy doesn't know how to photoshop and you know it! Well, she narrated this story before dying in 1997 about a J Dawson... when they were both on Titanic"

"Did he make it?"

"No"

Jack stared at the picture on the screen, it was hard to tell if it was real or not, it looked exactly like the girl standing in front of him. He went with his instinct. "Bull"

"Oh come on! If I hadn't told you Tommy did the research, would you believe me?"

"Well. Maybe..." Jack was actually thinking about it, but it was hard when he had a picture of his girlfriend that looked like it was taken a hundred years ago "Your family was on the Titanic"

"What?"

"It's not! I haven't- i wasn't stalking you; I promise! It's just... I googled the legend of the Heart of the Ocean and it led me to an article that said..." Jack paused for a laugh, even he couldn't believe what he was about to say. "...that a Hockley gave the necklace as an engagement gift to a Rose DeWitt while they were on Titanic"

Rose felt shivers "Rose DeWitt? Maybe I'm named after her and I didn't know! Did she make it?"

"She didn't..."

"Don't you think it's a little odd? There was a Rose DeWitt on board, then there was a Rose Dawson on the survivor list, and we know they met aboard because she said it in an interview"

"No offense honey, but... Rose is a very common name. Surely, they were two completely different people, remembering of course one was from first class and the other wasn't"

"Have you seen her interview where she talks about her lover? It gives me the chills every time!"

"I haven't, I didn't know of her until now"

"Do you think that maybe their love deserved a second chance?" Jack grabbed Rose's cold hands to warm her up. Even in the middle of a global warming, it was still a cold April in the middle of the North Atlantic. "Do you know anything about a J Dawson from Chippewa Falls that died on the Titanic?"

"No, not that I know of"

"That seems odd..."

"Or... Thomas made that up"

"Jack!"

"Look, all I know is that I asked the stars for a sign, and they led me to you" Jack's eyes opened like saucers when he realized where they were.

"Look! It's where we first met!" Rose exclaimed

"You know... that night, when I gave you my sweatshirt... it was only an excuse to see you again in the morning" He put his arms around her and covered in a warm hug. The girl pouted, she was too entertained playing with Jack's fingers, but he insisted on a hug... her anxiety had to translate into something else, so she started dancing side to side, taking the boy with her.

"It's raining"

"Thank you, Sherlock" Jack sassed back. Rose broke the hug and punched him playfully on his arm. The rain was thin and calm. Barely noticeable.

"Ow"

Jack erased every trace of fear from Rose, since being in the middle of the Atlantic, surrounded by clouds, fog, and probably approaching a storm, wasn't her cup of tea. But she was in Jack's arms, so nothing else mattered. As long as they were together, the world could keep spinning. Rose put her hands inside her coat before Jack could even think of going inside with the excuse of getting sick. She felt something hard and cold.

"How did this get here?"

"Exactly! Welcome to my world."

Rose had forgot to put the diamond back on the case, she didn't even want it anymore, it only caused them trouble. Jack in his curiosity, touched Rose's hand and held the necklace at the same time as her. Exactly at his touch something around them had changed, the fog was getting too close to their liking and their hearts suddenly beat faster, none of them dared to look around to see what was happening.

Rose felt like she was going to be attacked by a ghost pirate ship at any moment... but it was so much different. The girl lifted her gaze and saw chandeliers from afar, a quartet playing what seemed to be Orpheus in the Underworld. Jack remembered the song from a club in Paris, a line of ten ladies dancing and kicking to the rhythm of the Can Can... how did he know that? He had never seen that picture before...

Rose caught the smell of the perfume of every lady in the room, a bit too sweet for her liking. She recalled her suite, the clean smell of the sheets which had never been used... the sweet smile of Trudy waking her up to get her dressed into a corset... the freshness of cotton, nothing compared to the fabrics nowadays.

She realized that night wasn't the first time she had seen Jack, their souls already knew each other. A long time ago, she had met a boy with greasy hair, dressed in rags that stank of cigarettes. The boy could swear he had lived to win those ship tickets in a poker game, yes, it was a pub he frequently attended in Southampton near the pier. It wasn't the first time he had met Fabrizio either, he had met a look-a-like who had slept with him under a bridge various times through Europe.

That windy night. The attempt. The morning after. The dinner. The argument at the gym after church. The iceberg. They remembered everything. It was like a dream, a lucid dream they shared at that very moment.

Jack felt a coldness like a thousand knives, he had given up, accepted his fate... he knew at his twenty years of age his life was ending, it had been a good one. He did what he loved most and had saved a girl, she had to continue what he couldn't do, he must die so she could live. Jack remembered he was scared, he didn't know if there was a heaven or if he could get in, he didn't wanna go, no, not yet... not yet... it was his last thought before he fell asleep. Death had called his name and took him softly by the hand.

Not yet.

Upon that thought he withdrew his hand from the necklace and took a step back; the fog began to dissipate. He had forgot it was raining. It hadn't been more than two seconds really, but they saw their whole past lives in front of their eyes.

"Jack" Rose whispered; the boy realized she had seen the images too. His Rose was calling him, the one who jumped off a lifeboat and back to a sinking ship just to be with him. Before she could speak, he pulled her into a hug and kissed her timelessly. The girl was warm, she was running a temperature.

"You did it. You survived"

"I couldn't made it if it wasn't for you. I did everything Jack, I did everything for you"

"It was horrible... may they all Rest in Peace and may God gave them and their families strength and peace"

"Maybe we all got a second chance..." Jack said, recalling meeting Cora aboard the Titanic II at the cafe "We did it Rose, we got a second chance. All of us"

"I'm still trembling... Jack I swear this is the same sky from that night, I memorized it, I kept the memory with me all the time"

"It's the fourteenth..." he whispered

When the stars align.

"Jack I'm so sorry..." The regression had been too traumatic for Rose, it was her past life that she was trying to forget. One can't simply erase something like that from the mind, people she knew, people whom she had talked in the morning, normal people that had a normal life... one second and they were all gone. Her world and everything she knew, was gone.

Rose couldn't bear to hold that necklace another minute, she rushed to the end of the railing with Jack following and calling for her to not do anything stupid; and with all her strength, she threw the Heart back to the ocean.

And just as the memories came, slowly and then all at once, they were gone. Finally, Jack caught up with her, glad she hadn't tripped or anything. The water falling from the sky freed them from any trauma from their past life, it had given them a second chance. Jack reached up to Rose and kissed her, caressing her face and her already blue lips.

"Hey you. It's raining and you're gonna get sick. We must go back inside"

"Why is it just me? You will get sick too"

"I never get sick, I never got sick"

"Oh really?"

"In any of my past lives have I gotten sick"

"We'll see about that, Dawson"

She took my last name.

"A race to the bionic bar!" The redhead exclaimed, full of life once more. She gave thanks for her sneakers; how different it would have been that night if she had had a couple.

Modulating his speed to let her win, the boy ran after her. The Titanic remained as several random spots on their consciousness, but their bodies had memory.
It recognized the dopamine from when they ran around the ship, when they raced in the elevators, when they ran through the boiler room and hid in the smoke.

If you peek through the main dome of the Titanic II, you will see two star crossed lovers who did not let death keep them apart. You will see them bathed in neon-colored lights screaming and laughing, catching some glances from other guests maybe, and running floor by floor on a central eye staircase avoiding bumping into any crew members. Their bodies may be around their twenties, but their souls were older, they had traveled far across the distance and time to rewrite their destiny, they had waited until the stars aligned again... and now they were here, in the same place but with a different ending. To prove that the heart does go on.