Time passed quickly. It had already been two years since she entered the Eldritch Academy of Magic, and there were only three years left to go. And things were progressing a little too smoothly.
Cleo walked through the academy gardens. She usually went for a walk here whenever she was feeling unsure about what she was supposed to do. This feeling was beginning to appear more and more often. Suddenly, she stopped.
"The flowers are so pretty here," Rosa said, leaning her head of Cecil's shoulder. "How did you find this place?"
"I just happened to be walking in the garden, when I found this area."
Rosa laughed. "The flowers are pretty here, but you're so much prettier."
Cleo bit her lip. She watched as Cecil and Rosa, the main characters of the original novel, made flower wreaths for each other. She watched as they laughed and smiled as if everything was fine, and everything was fine. For them, at least. Cleo was not bothered. No, why should she be? They were the main characters, of course they would be together. But something inside of her felt...strange.
"Spying now, are we?"
Cleo jumped. She spun around and slapped her attacker across the face.
"Theo?"
"Ow," he said, caressing the side of his face. "That hurt. Couldn't you have given me a warning?"
"You snuck up on me!"
"And you slapped me for that?"
Cleo sighed. "What are you doing here?"
"Same thing you are. Watching the two lovebirds engage in romantic activities."
"I'm leaving," Cleo said, stomping away.
"Are you sure? Today's a special day. Something big is going to happen. Are you not going to try and stop it?"
"You-" Cleo stared at him. "You know. You know this isn't real. You know what's going to happen. You know-"
"-that this is a book."
"And today is-"
"-when Rosa dies. Yes."
"We have to do something to stop it, or else-"
"There's no way. I've tried everything. We can't do anything if we don't know exactly how it happened. I'm here because I remember that it happened in the garden on this day, but I don't remember the details."
"But I do," Cleo whispered to herself. "I remember the details. I remember the whole book."
"It's not like anyone would memorize the entire book-"
Theo blinked.
"I memorized-"
"-the whole book?!"
Cleo nodded. "Rosa dies because she pricks her finger on a flower in the garden, and then she jumps off of the tallest tower in the academy, and kills herself."
"You're kidding, right? She died because of a flower?"
"Not just any flower. A midnight rose."
Theo's face went white.
A midnight rose was a beautiful, yet deadly variety of the rose, capable of causing the person who touched it to kill themselves. After touching the flower, the person experiences extremely realistic hallucinations that convince them to bring themselves to death. In the book, Rosa accidentally pricks her finger on a midnight rose that was secretly placed in the garden by another student.
"So we should go stop them now. The sun's about to set, and the whole thing happens when-"
Before Cleo was done speaking, Theo had already rushed out of their hiding place, and was trying to drag Cecil and Rosa away from the garden.
"Come on! Let's go inside now!" Theo said, pushing the two, especially Rosa, away from the rose bush. "It's almost dark, and we should really be going."
"But I want to watch the sunset," Rosa objected, reaching out a hand towards the rose bush.
Theo slapped her hand away. "No, no. We have to go inside. Now."
Eventually, after much whining and dragging, Theo managed to get Cecil and Rosa back to their rooms and away from the dangerous rose bush. Now, Cleo and Theo were sitting in the lobby of the dorm building, discussing their next move.
"You said that a student put the midnight rose there. Who is it?"
"That variety of rose only grows in one place in the entire book. And it's not in the empire."
"It grows in Reinland, a neighboring kingdom. How does that have to do with the person who planted the flower?"
"What is the name of the third princess?"
"Madeleine Drasilda, why?"
Cleo sighed. Trying to have Theo figure the whole problem out himself was proving harder than she had expected. "What is her main objective as a princess of a neighboring kingdom that is here in the empire?"
"Well I'd assume that she would want some marriage-engagement type stuff. Wait, you don't mean..."
Cleo nodded. "Yeah. She wants Cecil for herself, since she decided that the other princes are ugly or disgusting or probably both. And she thinks that Cecil, since he is a prince, must have someone of equal caliber and rank beside him. So she has inevitably come to the conclusion that she must marry Cecil, or else he is a wonderful specimen of man gone to waste."
Theo gagged. "And I though Chelsea Reina was a good writer."
"Mock the characters, not the book."
"Anyways, I'll deal with the whole Reinland business tomorrow." Theo yawned. "I'm going to bed."
Then he walked off. Now if was just Cleo. She knew that something had to have changed because they had prevented Rosa's poisoning, so that would mean that she wouldn't have to die, right? But something felt wrong. Very wrong.
Cleo decided to go for a walk outside to clear her mind.
***
Rosa stood on top of the tallest tower in the academy. She was in her night gown, a loose, white dress made of silk. Her smooth blond hair fluttered in the wind. She glanced down at the ground, and only then did her sapphire blue eyes really see how far she had to fall.
"What are you doing?" someone called up to her.
Rosa looked down. It was Cleo. The character who was not supposed to exist. But it was strange how the more Rosa looked at her, the more it seemed that Cleo belonged to the book more than she did.
"You don't have to do this, Rosa!" Cleo called.
"You don't understand, Cleo. The message. The one that Mirabelle sent two years ago. I know what it means."
Cleo blinked at her.
"We can only escape this place if we die, because we do not belong to this world. Once we die, we will return to the real world."
"How do you know this?"
"Mirabelle, or rather Mira, was one of my best friends back on earth. We've been communicating for a while now. She suspects that there are nineteen people left inside the novel, and she was supposed to be the twentieth. Do you understand, Cleo? This is our way home."
Cleo shook her head. "Y-you can't die! Then what about Cecil? He'll be heartbroken without you."
Rosa smiled. "I'm sure there's somebody else who holds a higher place in his heart than me. You see, there is a difference between dying and setting oneself free."
And she jumped.
Cleo scrambled to slow Rosa's fall with magic, but she was falling too fast. By the time Cleo caught her, she had already hit the ground. Rosa was gone.
A moment later, the situation finally registered inside Cleo's head. She blinked. Rosa was dead. But she could not be, right? She was main character. There was no way she could die. But there she was, lying on the ground, blood pooling out from under her. Cleo felt like a failure.
This was all her fault. If only she had been faster. Then...
"Rosa!" a familiar voice cut through the darkness.
...would not have died.
Cleo looked up. It was Cecil, and he was running over. He scooped up Rosa's limp body into his arms, tears flowing like rivers down his face. Cleo knew what it was like to lose someone. She knew that she was supposed to cry now, or do whatever it was that would make her feel better. But she couldn't. She couldn't because she knew that this was what Rosa wanted. This was her own choice. But still...
"Cleo!"
Cecil's voice rang in her ears.
"Couldn't you have done something? Anything?"
He was right. She could have. She could have slowed Rosa's fall. She could have caught her. She could have prevented everything. And yet...
She didn't.
"This is all your fault. You could have done something! Why didn't you?"
He was right. This was all Cleo's fault. If only she had been faster, better, more powerful.
"Come on, man. That's enough."
Theo put a hand on Cecil's shoulder. "She just watched someone die. Give her a break."
Cecil was screaming at Cleo now. "And she just watched! She could have done something! Anything! She could have helped! She could have stopped Rosa from jumping! Why didn't she?"
Cleo stared at the floor. She was useless, a failure. Just like all the bullies at school said. And now Cecil was suffering because of her.
"Cecil..." Theo glared at his friend. "She didn't know."
"What do you mean she didn't know? She could've at least tried!"
"And how do you know she didn't?" Theo yelled, shutting Cecil up. "Give her a break, man. She's just a kid."
She's just a kid. That's what everyone said. A child who never grew up. A child who could not forget the past. A child who could never move on.
"What do you mean, she's just a kid? She's as old as any one of us!"
Would someone else have been able to save Rosa? Anyone but her? Cecil could have done it. And probably Theo too. Even Ari would have tried to stop her. Ari...Cleo missed her so much. Maybe she should jump off of a tower too.
"What happened?" a new voice. "Is everyone alright?"
"Oh, no. What happened?"
"Oh how terrible," Madeleine said, stepping through the crowd. "I wonder what happened."
"Come on," it was the first voice. "Let's get you back to your room, Cleo."
Yes, that was a good idea. She would like that. All Cleo wanted was to get away from the eyes of everyone, their gazes piercing into her. She wanted to get away from Rosa, and most of all, she wanted to get away from Cecil. Far, far away.
He reminded her too much of Nathan.