A Rose as Black as your Heart

(50) Happy Ending?

(A/N: Just to clarify... this is the FINAL CHAPTER :O I felt like you needed a warning :) Hope you enjoy!! A/N)

Chapter 50

I did it. I actually did it.

I stabbed my boyfriend in the heart.

Daniel’s chest rose sharply. Immediately, glossy red blood bubbled up over his shirt, glimmering on the knife and oozing over my hands. In the flicker of the fire, ghostly images seemed to dance in the dark liquid.

Daniel’s eyes flew open, wide and surprised, and I caught a glimpse of bright blue, just for a second.

“Alexis-” he choked – and then he was limp.

I sat there, shivering violently as I fought to breathe. My hands were still locked around the knife, but I didn’t need to hold it in. Daniel wasn’t fighting for his life anymore.

“Holy shit,” Travis gasped.

“Get Matt,” I said, my voice far too calm. “And Rose. She needs to heal him.”

Travis obligingly staggered to his feet, and his feet crackled over the pebbles as he dashed towards the others. I could still hear them fiercely battling against Theresa, Rose shrieking angrily while Zoe sobbed in terror, but it all seemed muffled, detached from me.

Slowly, I pulled the knife out of Daniel’s heart. It stuck at first, and I found myself wincing as I dragged it raggedly out. As if I could hurt him anymore. Once the knife was free, blood spilled over freely, and I attempted to staunch the flow with my hands.

“It’ll be okay,” I said to Daniel, like he could hear me. “You’ll be okay. You’ll come back to me.”

Just then, hurried footsteps crunched across the stones, drawing up short behind me. I heard gasps, stifled sobs, and then Rose’s tender, tearful voice as she pulled Harrison upright. “It’s okay, H. It’s over.”

Harrison groaned groggily, but I could tell the exact moment he saw Daniel, lying still and pale and overflowing with blood. “Christ.”

Rose let out a sob, and then I heard a familiar heavy sigh.

“Ah. It is done.”

Old Maria. I wondered when she’d got here, and how she’d appeared so quickly, but I was too numb to really care.

I turned round to look at all of them, studying the varying degrees of sadness on the faces surrounding me with a dull detachment, but I felt a sudden flash of déjà vu as I took in Zoe’s sobbing, Rose’s tear-stained cheeks, Travis’ white face...

It was the image I’d seen in the crystal ball. So many faces of the people I loved, crowded round the face of the person I loved most of all, lying dead and still.

“Rose,” I said numbly, “you need to heal him. Or he’ll bleed to death and he won’t wake up.”

Rose looked at me, such a deep sadness etched on her face that it hurt to look at. “Lex... honey...”

“Don’t look at me like that,” I snapped at all of them. “He’ll be okay. I know it.” I looked away, down at Daniel’s beautiful face, and for the first time, felt a sharp, piercing shard of sadness bury itself in my heart. “He’ll wake up, and he’ll be Unchanged, and it’ll be fine...”

I was rambling, but it didn't matter because no one was listening anyway. Rose had obligingly dropped to her knees, pressing her hands against Daniel’s chest and closing her eyes. Soft blue light spilled out of them, and she frowned ever so slightly in concentration, even as tears slipped out her shut eyes.