Page 198 of Dark Romeo

They tried to drag me back away from the balcony, away from the edge, away from Julianna.

“Please,” I begged. “Please, just one more minute.”

By the grace of God, they loosened their grip. My heart squeezed tighter and tighter as I watched Julianna walk down the length of the cathedral, her steps hesitant, until she passed into the section in the back where my locked coffin, weighed down with sandbags, sat waiting for my funeral.

You will learn to forget me, I told her silently. But every day of my life I will think of you.

I would die a thousand times if it meant your life was saved.

Goodbye, my precious Jules.

Be brave.

Be…happy.

JULIANNA

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I sat in the one of the pews and stared up at the man on the cross. He died for me. Just like Roman had died to save me. The ultimate act of love.

Inside me was just…nothing. Empty space between the nothing.

I closed my eyes and pressed my fingers into my face. This is where I stayed. Long after Roman’s funeral ended. Long after everyone had left and the church had grown silent again.

I didn’t move even as I heard the patter of soft footsteps coming up the aisle. He or she stopped beside me.

“Miss?”

A boy. Young. I didn’t lift my head.

“This is for you, miss.”

I said nothing. I didn’t care enough to open my eyes.

“I’ll just leave it here.”

There was a rustle as something was placed beside me. The soft patter of his shoes, slower now, as he left.

I rubbed my eyes, blinking into the dim church. The sun had long since gone down. The candles had dwindled to their last inch. I should…go home.

What is home without Roman?

I glanced down. Beside me was a single red rose.

I started, spun around. But the boy who left this for me was long gone.

A single red rose.

Was this someone’s idea of a sick joke?

Roman was dead.

Anger swelled up, burning away the numbness that had wrapped around me until now. I grabbed the rose by the stem in my fist, ignoring the thorns that cut me open. “Fuck you!” I screamed and flung it. It smacked against the altar, petals flying off in a shower of red.

I was a cliff whose roots had been ripped away. It would not hold. I would not hold.

The earth opened up under my feet and I fell into the abyss, a bottomless pit I could not escape from.

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