The Survivors

Chapter Nine: Juliet and her Romeo, pt. 2

 "We stay here!" John screamed. "That is a part of being this family. We stay here! Together!"

 "Tyrant!" Anthony growled, charging at John's chest.

 "Barbarian!" John roared.

 I couldn't stand still. I launched myself into the fight, and Everett followed. He pushed his father backward, but I was no match for John.

"Andrew, help me!" I yelled, pushing my weight against John. Andrew hesitated, horror in his eyes, and he didn't move. None of the elders did. "Noah! Anyone!" No one came to my aid. "Stop this!" I screamed.

"These vile people!" John screamed, his mouth foaming. "Coming into our home and insulting our family!"

"Your home? This is a prison!" Anthony seethed. I instantly felt terrible. I had called it that myself. "You've trapped your family here for long enough. If they want to go, you should let them! You cannot protect them forever!"

"We can! We will!" John snapped back.

  Sadie, make it stop, Ginny pleaded in her mind.

  Trying, I said.

 Anthony and John continued to throw insults back and forth at each other.

 "You ridiculous child of Lucifer!" John barked.

 "Bible-beating despot!" Anthony roared.

  "Stop!" I screamed as loud as I could manage. "Stop fighting! Listen to me! I know better than anyone how hard it is to be loyal to a family like this and be part of a world like that," I said, throwing my hands in the direction of the city gates. "But we don't need to tell the Winters how to live their lives and they don't need to tell us how to live ours," I said, as forcefully as I could. "The last thing outcasts like us need is a rivalry. Surely we can find a way to understand each other."

  "Don't lie, Sadie," Patrick yelled. "You can't count yourself as one of them. You're the only one who has seen the error of their ways!" This definitely did not help my family's view of me.

  "I am a child of both worlds," I said. "We can find a way to reconcile our beliefs."

  "I'm sorry, Sadie," Anthony said. "We cannot condone what's happening here. We're leaving," he said roughly. "Now."

  "Good riddance!" John yelled to a chorus of support.

  "No!" I cried.

  "Let them go, Sadie," John spat.

  "You are welcome to come with us, Sadie. We would welcome you as a member of our family," Anthony said. These were the kindest words he had ever spoken to me.

  "If you go with them," John warned, "you will be dead in our eyes." His words were a crushing blow. I looked to Andrew, who wouldn't meet my gaze. Lizzie was crying into his shoulder. "You may have left us once and received forgiveness, but we will not extend the favor again."

  "Please don't make me choose," I said. I had left my family once, and that had been nearly impossible. The last few days of knowing they had not forgotten me meant the world to me.

 But in those same short days I had begun to feel so normal among the Winters, a real family. And Everett! Every bit of me ached at the memory of his touch, of that kiss. How could I stay?

  I was dancing on the drawn line in the sand, watching the Capulets and Montagues staring each other down.

  I looked at Everett, fearing I was about to lose him. Me, his fair Juliet. He, my Romeo.

  "Decide, Sadie," Anthony snapped.

  I hesitated.

  Anthony snarled. My hesitation was enough to alienate him.

  Everett took a step toward me, but Anthony and Patrick grabbed him, and without another word, the Winters ran away.

  I'm so sorry, I heard Ginny say. I love you, Sadie. We all love you. Find a way to come back to us.

  I watched them bound over the city walls out of my sight and into the darkness.

  

I fell to the ground and pounded my fists into the dirt. I was so close to the fire that its heat burned my skin. "No!" I screamed. "No! No! No!"

  Lizzie emerged from the crowd and came to my side. Hannah and Sarah were on her heels. "Andrew, take care of that," she said gesturing to the fire. The huge bonfire was out in an instant, and I felt the cool air take its place. I couldn't move. My knees and forehead were pressed into the dirt. I couldn't lift myself from this position.

  Lizzie tried to lift me up, but I fought her. I didn't want to look at the family of Survivors standing there in the darkness, the glowing green eyes missing from the pack. I didn't want it to be real, so I stayed down.

  "Sadie," John said. I hated him. "You made the right choice. Your place is with your family. You have been following Satan for too long. But now you are home. You have proved your loyalty to God and to this family," he cried, his voice excited and proud.

  I finally stood up, my face and hands and legs covered in dirt. "You know nothing about what I've been following. You know nothing about me!" I charged. If John were ever proud of me, I had done something truly wrong. "You think you've done right by driving them out of here? You think you have saved us? You've just alienated these youths who want to go even more now, shown them that you can't even make peace with those like us from the outside. You've shown them you are everything they were afraid you were, and so now they'll want to go. And they will leave, John, just like I left. We could have had allies out there, but now you've run them off!"

  John grabbed my shoulder. "Take that back, child! Don't you tell me that my family will fall apart!" I fought him off.

  "Your friends left us, too, Sadie. Aren't they to blame?" Catherine argued, coming to John's side.

  But a dark smile grew on John's face. "Oh, I get it now," he laughed cruelly, his tension draining. "Don't you see, Catherine? They didn't leave us," he smirked. "They left her."

  I shot my arm directly at his throat and picked him up off the ground, stronger, then, than I had ever been. "You've ruined everything," I hissed as he squirmed in my grasp. I threw him forcefully to the ground.

  I dug the Range Rover keys out of my pocket and threw them on the ground and looked at the youngest generations. "There's a car for you parked on the road. There are books in it. You want to learn about the world, that's a good place to start," I fumed. "I'm sorry, Lizzie," I managed to say.

Before I knew it, I was running.

It was too late to join the Winters. My hesitation had turned Anthony against me. But I couldn't stay here anymore.

  This morning I had two families, and now I had none.

I ran at my full speed through the trees and across the mountains, the underbrush tearing at my skin, ripping violently at my clothes. I ran until I hit the glassy, black water of Swan Lake. I left myself sink into its icy depths. I wanted so badly to be released from this body and from this life.

I might never see Everett again. The thought cut at me like razors. I had waited almost a century and a half to feel love and in less than twenty-four hours of having it, it was already lost.

I couldn't get the look on his face as Anthony and Patrick dragged him away from me out of my mind. It cut at me, too.

I felt the weight of the water pressing in on me. I breathed it in through my nose and mouth until I puked it back up in the water. And I prayed—literally prayed—to drown.

I closed my eyes and thought of Romeo and Juliet. At least they got to die at the end.