Aftermath

Chapter one:

Rose's POV

I sat on the floor in the corner of my dorm room with the curtains drawn tightly shut and all the lights turned off. The darkness helped but not enough. I could still make out the objects in the room – my bed, my closet, and the bedside table – not that any of that mattered. But when I saw these objects memories flashed in front of my vision. Memories I didn't want to see ever again because they were of the man I loved and I had killed him.

Everything had a new meaning in my dark, cold room. The bed wasn't a place to sleep and rest, it was the same as the bed Dimitri and I had been affected by the lust charm on. The closet wasn't a place for storing clothes; it was a place to inflict torture, each item of clothing a memory of its own. The sweater I wore the night I first met Dimitri; the t-shirt I had on when we first kissed; the shirt I wore to court with him and Lissa. Nothing would ever be the same.

Adrian had carried me in here and then just left me, why? Did he want me to suffer alone? Did he not care at all? Had the guardians made him bring me here and now he was obligation free? But then again, who cares about Rose Hathaway? Certainly not her mother, oh and let's not forget her non-existent father! Maybe I could go talk to my best guardian in training friend Mason. But wait, you got him killed too!

With blinding rage I got up and tore the curtains open, slamming the glass of the window across and allowing the frigid air to blow in. Only two figures were still outside, most people had gone to bed. I leaned out to see that one was a moroi girl with long, golden hair. She glanced up at my window and I recognised Lissa, my best friend. When she saw me she looked back at the person she was talking to and spoke quickly but I couldn't make out their muffled voices in the wind. A third figure started towards them from the other side of the building and I instinctively knew it was Christian. When I looked back to the first pair, both of their eyes were staring up at me, Lissa and Adrian.

I was so angry at everything – Adrian for just leaving me, Lissa for being the reason I killed Dimitri and Dimitri for being turned into a Strigoi – that I couldn't help but lash out at them, standing down their watching my window and whispering. So I leaned out even more and stared down at the three of them with hatred.

"Shouldn't you have waited for lover boy before starting the 'lets-spy-on-Rose' meeting? Jeez Lissa, Already over him? Well don't worry Christian, at least she's not Adrian! He really treats people badly, especially the ones he says he cares about! Oh and Lissa? I've made all the sacrifices I can to protect you, so please don't expect me to risk my life being a guardian! I hereby end this meeting of spying on Rose!" With that I slammed my window closed and pulled the curtain back across. My throat was sore from screaming into the cold night air at them and from crying and shouting this afternoon after- No, I had to forget what had happened.

I walked slowly and carefully into the bathroom and closed the door, locking it and sinking onto the cold tiles against it. I couldn't cry now, I was too enraged. Quietly I listened as my phone rang and went to voice mail then it repeated again, my ringtone echoing through the empty room. I heard footsteps pounding on the stairs, the door to the dhampir girl's dorm corridor slamming shut and more running towards my room. Loud banging on my door, but it seemed distant shut behind the bathroom door. Somehow I was safe. Anxious yelling from the hallway reached me but it seemed to be somewhere else. It was Lissa's voice, asking me to open the door, asking me what was wrong, begging me to let her in. It seemed like I was drifting away from the commotion and then there was a black fog descending on me and I became unconscious.

A/N: The next chapter will be mostly the same events from a different POV but after that I'm not repeating events unless one is Rose's diary form. Some of this will be in third person so if it doesn't have a "POV" at the top of the chapter, its third person. Well I hope you love it enough to review.

Xx Girl on sunshine xX