This isn't happening... .

The first hysterical scream rent the quiet. People fled the scene, shoving and tangling all around them. She heard the guards finally yelling and fighting past the crowd.

And Néomi lived still. She was dogged, a survivor—she would not die in her dream home on her dream night. Fight—

Louis fisted the hilt once again, jarring the knife inside her. Agony... too much... can't bear this...  But she had no breath to scream, no strength to raise her limp arms to defend herself.

With a choking bellow he twisted the blade in the pocket of her wound. "Feel it for me, Néomi," he gasped at her ear. Pain exploded, radiating out from her heart to every inch of her body. "Feel what I have suffered!"

Too much! The temptation to close her eyes nearly overwhelmed her. Yet she kept them open, kept living.

"See how much I love you? We'll be together now." The knife made a sucking sound when he yanked it from her. Just before he was finally tackled to the ground, he sliced his own throat ear to ear.

Her blood had begun to cool by the time a doctor crouched to grasp her wrist. "There's no pulse," he said to someone unseen, his voice raised over the commotion. "She's gone."

But she wasn't! Not yet!

Néomi was young, and there were so many things she had left to experience. She deserved to live. I'm not dying. Her hands somehow clenched. I refuse to!

Yet as the breeze picked up once more, Néomi's vision guttered out like a candle. No, no... still living... can't see, can't see... so scared.

Rose petals caught on the wind and tumbled over her face. She could feel each cool kiss of them.

Then... nothingness.

1

Outside Orleans Parish

Present day