Yellow Roses // Thomas Shelby

Epilogue

December 1940

Berlin, Germany

I was doing it all over again. I was making the speech of the century.

The cigarette burned my throat as I wrote the word 'silence' on a sheet of cardstock. Calongero and Thomas watched the cloud of smoke leave my mouth. Our 16 year old daughter Carmen watched too.

I walked out onto the stage, seeing Nazi's around the perimeter, smoking cigars as they saw me.

I wasn't German by any stretch of the matter. But the amount of people dying by the Germans made me wish they never existed. I had lost five people I cared about because of the bastards.

The crowd quieted down after a few minutes of me walking back and forth. The Nazi's eyed me carefully. I was supposed to make a speech about Hitler and what he's doing is right. Like hell I will. I don't give a shit how much money I got because of it.

"Look around you," I told everybody. I saw Jews, Blacks, middle eastern, every person Hitler hated in the room look around. Hell, I even saw the man himself.

"Look around you and see all the faces. Look at the faces that were created by the same god. The same person created Nazi's and Jews." I yelled, making them all go quiet.

"Fuck Hitler." I yelled, making the crowd gasp. "You're going to let a fucking ugly, short man control how you all think?" I looked around, the Nazi's obviously suprised by my words. "You're going to let him control how your children think?"

"This isn't what we agreed on." A Nazi came up to me, looking up at me. I ignored his words, stepping back up into the stage.

"You all are silent, wanting hope to come from America, from Russia, from fucking britian, but you're not doing shit!" I yelled. "There's what? Twenty Nazi's here, probably radioing their leader to say I've went against their wishes?"

A cloud of smoke release from my mouth as the crowd went crazy, the people were retaliating against the Nazi's pushing them down and beating the shit out of them.

"I will not be silent for the innocent lives that are lost in each of the gas camps. I have heard the cries of your hungry children who were taken away from their families, and I will not be silent for it." My voice was booming over the room, cheers instantly coming my way.

"You bitch!" A Nazi screamed at me, jumping on the stage and holding a gun pointed at me. I smiled, holding my own revolver to him. He didn't have the nerve to shoot. I did.

"Do it." I told him, cocking my gun with my thumb. His face dropped, lowering his weapon.

"Mrs. Shelby," he said, walking towards me slowly. "You're going to get youself killed."

"If they're going to kill me, let them do it." I told him as he walked backstage. I saw him rip off the Nazi armband and through it in the trash along with his uniform.

The crowd was more focused on fighting the uniformed men than me, so that was my cue to walk back to the stage to Thomas who nodded in approval. He offered me a cigarette to calm my nerves a bit.

Thomas smiled at me as I exhaled the smoke, then took a deep breath in.

"What happens now?" Carmen asked, looking at the two of us. Thomas pulled his gun out, checking to see if it was loaded.

The piercing sound of a gunshot filled all of our ears, then a stinging sensation in my back.

It was slow motion. Seeing my kids face fall as my knees gave out, then seeing Thomas shoot whoever it was behind me. His face said it all, the tears already starting to pour out of his eyes.

"Mom?!" Calongero screamed, bending down to come face to face with me. Carmen did the same, tears already pouring out of her eyes like her fathers.

Carmen was the exact replica of her father. She had dark curly hair with bright blue eyes and hollow cheekbones. She was about the same height as her father, even is she was only 16 years old.

I coughed, blood coming out of my mouth. Thomas's face fell even more, wiping my mouth with a handkerchief.

"Calongero, get the fucking medic." He shooed his son away, then went back to me, the life starting to get away from me.

"Thomas," I choked out, grabbing his hand. My lower back was spazzing, every muscle being unaware of what was happening. I felt myself starting to lose my sight, seeing only a blur of my family.

"Natalia, don't you fucking dare close your eyes." Thomas placed me on his lap, holding the bullet wound with one of his hands. I gasped at it, his skin touching mine.

"Kiss me and I'll die a happy woman," I smiled at him, feeling my heartbeat die down a bit. His tears dropped onto my shirt, crying as he pressed his lips to mine.

My heart finally came to a stop, the last sight being of my family hovering over me. Calongero was holding back tears, Thomas was balling his eyes out and Carmen didn't know what was happening. They all looked at me in shock when I didn't reply to their words anymore.

The pressure on my back went away a minute later, my body feeling like it was coming back from the dead. Oxygen filled my lungs as I heard more gunshots go off.

"Dad!"