I open my eyes and she’s there, staring at me with those beautiful blue eyes in that bloodied face. “Rose…you…you’re all right.”
She stares at me, and I can’t read the expression. There’s so much pain and anger and all these other things, and she keeps wavering. She has my gun. Her hands are on me, coming away with blood.
“I…I…never…not Steph…” I try and raise my hand to her face, but she shifts back, rightly so.
The world goes black.
It’s there again, and Rose is whispering something, face close to mine. I can’t make it out. There’s a roar in my head, like blood, like my heartbeat, like my reckoning has come.
Rose. She’s here. Alive.
“Your beautiful…face… He… Worse…worse than it is… I… lo-”
The blackness takes me again.
I come out of it again and it’s darker, grayer, blurred, all I can see is Rose. I hurt her to save her. I destroyed a part of her to save her, but she’s alive.
My hand comes up and this time, it slides on her face. Oh, that connection. She’s so soft, warm. I want her to be mine, just mine. Beautiful Rose.
“Stay… Stay with me…until the end… Please…”
I don’t deserve it, just like I didn’t deserve her. I know that. I’m a selfish, fucking coward… To the end…
Before I can say anything or ask her again, the world ends.