Chapter 1. Rebirth and Wedding ceremony
AT ONE LATE EVENING
ROSALIE’S POINT OF VIEW:
I think I am dying. The harsh hospital lights above me buzz like a swarm of angry insects. I want to close my eyes, but they stay open, staring at the cracked ceiling tile. The air tastes cold and sterile. The oxygen mask over my mouth feels suffocating, like a cage. My fingers twitch, but they don’t move. My legs feel numb, like they belong to someone else. I try to remember how I got here, but it’s all a blur, the ambulance ride, the panic, the sirens... I remember none of it.
No one is here with me. No loved ones holding my hand. No whispered prayers. Just this white room. Is this really how it ends? Quiet. Alone. Forgotten. I have never mattered much in life. No one cared about me beyond small talk and polite smiles. No one waited for me to come home. No one missed me. I once read a book, ’How to Hide the Emperor’s Child in the Apocalypse’. A tragic tale of a mother who raised a secret heir to a dying empire, fighting to protect her child from the tyrant’s wrath.
I always wished I could be like her. Strong. Brave. Important. But I’m not. I’m Rosalie. I try to swallow, but my throat is raw and dry.
"If... if anyone is out there... God, fate, whatever you are..." I whispered, voice cracking like old paper. "Please... just one more chance. Let me live again. Anywhere. Anywhere but here. Let me matter. Just once."
Tears burn my cheeks, but I can’t wipe them away. Darkness presses against my eyelids. And then, just before everything slips away, a voice. Soft, cold, unrecognizable.
"Very well. I found my new toy."
White light surrounded me, soft and endless. I felt weightless, like I was floating somewhere between life and death. A calm voice broke the silence.
"Rosalie, I am giving you a second chance."A voice said.
I blinked, confused and afraid.
"Who... who are you? Where am I? Is it heaven?"