The Ghost

52. Half Birthday

*1 year later*

Ages
Rosie & friends 15
G & friends 20
Mark 28

Rosie's POV

She's been missing for over a year. This bitch decided that I wasn't worth staying for and abandoned me! Now she has the gall to send me a present for my birthday!

Apparently she left everyone letters or whatever after she left, but as far as I know no one has read theirs nor are they going to.

Personally I don't give a shit what she has to say, she deserves to rot in hell. First, she hid who she was from me until Paris finally came forward and told me that we're sisters. Second, she uses me to torture mom, then gets Mom killed by our psychopath of a father. Third she left us in that prison father kidnapped us to, for much longer than necessary. And finally she runs away abandoning me AGAIN!

Even if those 2 do manage to track her down again I refuse to acknowledge her presence. She deserves to be alone like how she left me.

I keep brooding on how alone I am for the next five minutes before Ruby walks in the door. I don't even spare her a glance and stay staring at the gift on the other end of my bed. Snapping her fingers in my face, Ruby sighs as I don't even blink. When she fails to gain any kind reaction with her other attempts, she lets herself loose and slaps my face as hard as possible.

My whole body falls to the side from the force, but I just stay like that not even adjusting to a more comfortable position. Ruby says something that I ignore and walks out of the room.

I brood for another minute or two before she's returned with a bucket in her hands. Again she says something, but I don't really care what she says so my brain doesn't process it. Shrieking in anger, Ruby dumps the bucket's contents all over my bed and me.

In return I don't move. I let the ice and water flow over me, chilling me to the bone, but still I don't react. I don't have the energy to react to anything anymore.

Ruby's POV

Now I'm scared. Even after dumping ice water on Rosie she won't even move. Something is wrong.

Running from her room, I try to find someone. When I can't find anyone in the obvious places I start yelling, "Help, someone! Help!"

It takes me running through three levels of the castle before I notice Mark jogging to me from some random room with his gun out searching for an intruder or something.

"What!?! What's wrong?" He yells when I finally stop shouting.

I start explaining it to him as I rush back to Rosie's room, "It's Rosie she isn't responding to anything. I even threw cold water on her and she didn't blink or flinch. I'm worried something is wrong!"

When we get into Rosie's room she hasn't moved an inch, but her body is involuntarily shaking. Mark immediately starts talking to her sweetly. "Rosie? Darling? Can you hear me?" Again, no response from her. He tries three more times before giving up. "Alright Rosie, I'm going to go draw you a bath and then Ruby's going to help you bathe." He gives me a pointed look before walking into the ensuite bathroom.

I immediately start taking cautious steps forward as if any sudden movement would scare her. When I finally get close enough I pick her up in my arms and sit on the bed waiting for Mark to come back. Rosie is like a ragdoll letting me do whatever I want with her. Quietly we sit there listening to the water running both of us trapped in our own thoughts.

Eventually Mark returns and helps me take her into the bathroom. As he leaves, I whisper to him, "change her sheets please." Afterwards I strip her down to her underwear. Then I carefully place her in the tub allowing her to soak for a minute, while I gather all of the supplies I need to clean her.

By the time I've finished bathing and clothing her, she still isn't responding. I'm getting fed up with her and having to take care of everything, but something had to have triggered Rosie.

When I walk back into the bedroom, Mark is just finishing up with the bed and is placing a box back on it. Looking at it questionly, I ask, "What's that?"

He looks at me curiously, "I thought you brought it to her???"

"Noooo... who does it say it's from?" I hesitantly ask.

Glancing at the sender on the shipping label his face pales, "Fuck! G sent this for her birthday!" I look at him confused, today isn't Rosie's birthday, it's six months from now. "Her legal birthday is in six months, yes, but Rosie used to declare that her half birthday should be just as important."

Now I just laugh, "she's never done that before, not even in our first year at the school did she do that."

Mark nods his head, "true, I knew where she was going so before she left I made her a promise: when I finally got to spend her half birthday with her again I would spoil her rotten with everything from presents to trips to love. I had totally forgotten about any of that, but I told G once and she remembered." A look of nostalgia crosses his face as memories of his sisters' youths reverberate through his mind.

I move to the bed as he reminisces, to place Rosie down and grab the present. Glancing at her eyes, I notice they are glued to the box, so open it.

Inside I am shocked to see an ordinary looking laptop. Pulling it out, I boot it up. Ingo through the entire contents of the laptop to find only one file saved on it called my sister my hero with a video link in it. Clicking on the link I place the laptop in front of Rosie and walk out with Mark by my side.

"Do you think that will help?" Mark worries pacing back and forth as we wait for the video to end.

I glance at him, knowing what's going through his mind, "It will help her a little, but it won't fix everything. She needs to hear what G has to say though."

"What do you mean it won't fix everything?" Mark asks, freaking out.

"This isn't the first time Rosie has become like this, but this is the worst I've seen. She has always had a fascination with G even as a first year student. G was this perfect student who had loyal friends and who could understand everything that she'd already gone through. So everytime G broke that trust or did something that stopped her from understanding something, Rosie would become like this but a slap to the face or a bucket of ice water almost always shocked her back to reality."

As the sound stops coming from the room we each peak our head in to see Rosie letting tears slip down her face. I look at Mark whispering, "Go get a lot of peanut butter ice cream and spend the day with her. As much as she considers me her sister she needs her true family today." Then I slowly creep down the hall to my room praying no one tries to make me stop. I need to find a way to send G a message that she can't ignore.