"What's the deal with Rebeca?" Katherine asks, seeming nothing but bothered to need to find her.
"She may be dead right now." Dominic answers passing by her in a rush.
"She what?" Katherine yells.
I pass towards her too not wanting to explain her what's happening but Dominic already disappeared. Katherine grabs my forearm and makes me look at her worried expression. She's worried with Rebecca?
"Dominic went to the wrong place. He'll not find her in my room. Come." She says and picks me up without more words. I let out a little scream of surprise when she does it but her only reaction is start running. She doesn't even give me time time to close my eyes, so now I'm seeing everything around us in a blur not even knowing where I am going.
When she finally stops, dropping me on the floor which makes me hiss when I hit it, both in pain and annoyance - couldn't she just put me on the floor? -, we are in front of a wooden door. Behind me a spiral staircase is the only way to go down and the only little window - that's more a hole in the black stone wall than a real window - lets me see the forest that surrounds the castle in miniature. We're in the tower Dominic told me he would show me one day.
Katherine looks around for a moment, probably trying to find the key. When she doesn't find it, she takes two or three steps back and throws herself against the door making it shatter in thousands of wood shavings that fly in all directions. I scream, protecting my face from the shavings with my arms, but, luckily, they don't hit me.
And then I listen to Katherine roaring in fury. I enter, passing the destroyed door, to find Rebecca in the middle of the dark room, suspended from the ceiling by a rope around her neck that makes her body swirling slowly, her feet swinging without touching the ground. Her glassy green eyes wide open, tears still in her now pale cheeks, her mouth opened in a silent scream. Katherine is in her knees, the roar replaced by a painful scream of sadness, red tears falling from her eyes.
I feel my own eyes watering. Rebecca! It was too late to save her. Danton killed her. I feel someone's arms around me, trying to comfort me and instinctively I know they're Dominic's arms who appeared without any sound. I shake my head, tears falling down, and points to Katherine who is now crawled into a ball in the floor, sobbing, the wooden floor stained with her red blood tears.
"Katherine," Dominic whispers, pain in his voice. He comes closer to her, holding her body that now seems so fragile against his.
Katherine liked Rebecca, I understand, the surprise replacing for some seconds the pain I am feeling. She liked her enough to her death makes Katherine loose her mask of indifference.
Dominic is telling Katherine something that I can't listen. I come closer to Rebecca. There's no blood, no signals of violence. It's what many would call a clean death.
"I'm sorry," I say, my voice breaking. "I'm so sorry I couldn't make it in time." I don't know why she helped Danton. But I know she deserved a better life, a better end. She wanted to see the world and now she'll never can. She is dead. She is dead.
I hug her lifeless body, or try at least; her body too high to let me hug her properly. I grab the dagger in my boot but a hand grabs my wrist. I look up to see Katherine, her eyes deeply red, a tear-stained face.
"Let me do it," she asks, her voice also broken. I drop the dagger without words.
In a fluid movement, she throws the dagger that cuts the rope and sticks with a tutting noise on the wall. Rebecca's body falls like a rag doll, in Katherine's outstretched arms who holds her, tears of blood streaming down her face. And now it's her turn to apologize, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry for everything." She keeps singing the words, faster and faster until they don't make sense anymore.
Dominic is near me again, tears in his eyes too. He pulls me against his chest and this time I do not refuse him, letting my tears flow freely, my sobs muffled by Dominic's torso. A little part of me notices he doesn't have a shirt on yet. The rest of me doesn't care.
And for some time, mine and Katherine's sobs are the only sounds inside this room. And then, slowly my tears die and Dominic puts some space between us. He gives me a white envelop saying, his voice low and consumed by the sadness, "I found it in Katherine's room. It's Rebecca's letter. She wanted you to read it."
I grab the envelop, my fingers running through her words. To Kiara. Inside are her last words. The last things she wanted to tell me.
"Kat?" Dominic softly calls. She looks up, clearly consumed by the pain of her loss, still holding Rebecca against her chest. "She left you a letter too."
Katherine says no words, her attention again in Rebecca's lifeless body. Dominic places the envelop near them. Slowly as if she was afraid of grab it, Katherine's pale fingers grab the envelop. She stares at it as if she'd never seen one before, tears still in her eyes. And then she rips the envelop, freeing the letter. The paper rustles when she unfolds it. Her eyes are the only thing moving in her face while she read the letter, silent blood tears starting to fall again from her eyes.
"I am so sorry." Katherine whispers again, holding Rebecca tightly when she finishes the letter, "So sorry."
I stare at my own envelop, at the delicate calligraphy written in black ink contrasting with the whiteness of the envelop. I don't want to read it now with Dominic and Katherine near me, with her body so close, her death irrefutable now.
Dominic grabs Rebecca's body while Katherine tries, unsuccessful, get her back. "We need to go, Kat." He says, pain and sorrow in his voice while he says it. "I can't do it alone. I need your help."
She looks at him, seeming lost in her pain. Her arms wrap around her own body now that she has not Rebecca anymore. "I don't want to go. I want her back." She mumbles, closing her eyes; her face showing all the pain she's feeling.
"Kat, open your eyes." Dominic asks but she refuses. "Open them or I'll make you." His voice is still gentle but it's clear that Katherine has no choice.
She opens her eyes to meet Beckie's lifeless body again. "They did it, Kat. They took Rebecca away from you." Dominic slowly says. "I need your help now. And I swear I'll help you making them pay for what they did after that. I swear."
A emotion I can't identify appears in her face for less than a second before it be replaced by the sadness again. "The guilty will pay." Katherine whispers, seeming to be thinking about the words. And then her eyes shine with the old determination they'd, the power they always held. "The guilty will pay." She repeats, her voice stronger. A promise.
She gets up and closer to Dominic. Using her hand she closes Rebecca's eyes which were still open, seeing nothing, her face showing love and sadness while she observes her face. She kisses Rebecca's forehead, whispering something against her skin. And then she looks at me, at my wide eyes and open mouth, proofs of my shock, provoked by her actions; at my teary eyes, proof of my pain because of Rebecca's death. And her face is emotionless again, her eyes of these icy blue that shows no emotion, just indifference.
"You need to put yourself in something better. Something that fits someone with your position, Your Majesty." Katherine commands. "Leave Rebecca in my room, wear something better and hurry. They're waiting you. I'll put Kiara in her room and go to the Throne Room too."
Dominic nods and gets out, Rebecca's lifeless body in his arms. I expect to see them returning, Rebecca walking and Dominic laughing while Katherine tells me it was just a sick joke. But it'll not happens. It does happen. It is not a sick joke. It is a sick realty. Rebecca is dead. Gone forever. Killed.
"Come." Katherine orders, all the emotions gone, replaced by her mask of indifference.
I walk towards her, slowly. Still in shock because of everything. The truth Dominic told me, Rebecca's death, Katherine's behavior. She hisses, annoyed because I'm taking too long and rushes in my direction, grabbing me by my waist without stop and getting out, running in her vampiric velocity.
She places me in the white marble floor of my room and starts getting out without words, planning to leave me here, in the middle of an empty room without an explanation.
"Katherine?" I call, my voice broken and hoarse because of the tears.
She looks back at me, at my probably heartbroken expression. And lets me glimpse the anger, pain and sadness she's feeling before she hides it again behind her mask of indifference. "They'll pay, Kiara. I promise." And she gets out.
I look at the letter in my hand. I'm alone now. Not sure how, I make my way towards the desk and sit down in the chair. I open the envelop and unfold the letter.
I wanted to make it better than it is. To write a letter in a correct way, with beautiful words and tears staining the paper. I can't, Kiara, and I am sorry. I have no more tears inside me nor time to write beautiful words. Danton will be here soon to kill me and he can't find the letters. I am sorry.
What I told you about Dominic and Danton? About their past? It's the opposite as you already should know. I am sorry I lied. I'd no choice. Danton controlled my mind, making me do it. And now he freed me, making sure I suffer this last moments, knowing there's nothing I can do. He showed you a false stone but now I've the real one with me so he doesn't know about the letter.
I could have used this last moments to try to find Katherine and save myself. I know you're thinking about it. But she's fighting and can't protect me now. And she'll not be able to protect me forever. Danton would reach me one day and I'd end dead anyways after make Katherine suffer. But I know you still think I should have tried. I am sorry I didn't.
The relationship between me and Katherine is not what it seems, Kiara, and please forgive her for all the mean words she said to me. We agreed a long time ago that we would pretend I was nothing more than a slave in front of everyone in order to protect me. It's a long story, too long to put in this letter. Ask her to explain it to you one day. The point is, I love her. I love Katherine with all my soul and she loves me (even if I don't know what I did to deserve so much love). And she'll suffer with my death. I saw how you helped Dominic and I'm begging you: help her. I am sorry for asking you that.
Even if I wasn't I when we were together, I know I would love to be your friend and I feel sad I couldn't. I am sorry because you are feeling the lost of a person you'd never met. Truly sorry.
I am sorry for every single lie that escaped my lips even if I didn't want to say them. I am sorry I asked you to help Katherine knowing how much you hate her. I am sorry you lost someone else dear to you. But you're a strong girl, stronger than I could even dreamt to be. I hope you can forgive me. And I want to ask you one last thing. You can ignore the one about Katherine if you want (even if I beg you to do not) but you can't ignore this one. Think about this one as my last wish, please. Don't let your past determine who you're, let your present change who you want to be and let your heart choose your future. Because your past can't be your life again, your present deserves an opportunity and your heart knows better than your head what you want.
I couldn't write a better letter and I do not have more time so this one will need to be enough. Or I hope so. I am sorry I can't write those beautiful letters everyone sees in the films. I need to go now. And I want to make them my last words: I am sorry.
The letter has no signature. She made them literally her last words. Or at least, the last ones I'll know about. I feel the tears fall, making some words impossible to read, staining the white paper with tears Rebecca said she hadn't inside her anymore. She could have tried to survive, search Katherine or run away. Instead she chose to write this letter, to prevent any pain she could have make us feel, knowing that sooner or later Danton would find her. She chose to die. The girl who told me she was afraid of death, the girl who I never knew because of Danton, the girl who thought it was her fault.
"I am sorry too, Rebecca." I whisper. Sorry because she's dead and it's my fault. Danton used her to convince me, to make me believe his words.
I look at the photos of my family that are on the table. They're also dead. As Rebecca. Everyone I loved, everyone I liked is dying or too far. That's unfair, terribly unfair that I need to loose everyone I love. That because of me more people loose those who love. I really loved her were Dominic's words about his mother. A mother he lost because of me; a death that cost him not just this woman but also his brother. I love Katherine with all my soul and she loves me. They loved each other for what she wrote, for what I saw, and now she's dead because of me, Katherine lost one of the few people she seems to love.
I get up, bringing the letter with me and walk to the bed, everything a blur because of the tears that keep falling. I lie down, holding the letter against my chest. "I am sorry." So terrible sorry and shattered. I'd never the opportunity to know the real Rebecca. That's the worst. I'm shattered and crying because of a shadow of a person, a person created by Danton. Katherine lost the person she loved during fifty years. I lost nothing because I'd never known her but it still hurts, I'm still shattered, lying down in a bed, tears falling from my eyes.
"I am sorry." I repeat, my eyes closed, the tears falling. "I am sorry."