Romeo and Juliet: A Vampire and Werewolf Love Story (20 page)

So
,
I d
id something that I didn’t want
to do
, but knew I had to do
. I turned into a werewolf
and tackled Mercutio’s large white werewolf body. Werewolf on werewolf, we
rolled around until we both turned back into our human forms
, scuffling on the ground in our good clothes
.

“What are you doing?” Mercutio yelled at me.

“Drop the rapier!
”
I yelled.

“Are you serious?” Mercutio yelled
in my face
.

“Yes, hand me the blade, Mercutio. Do it now!
”
I looked over at Tybalt and he
looked on
, concerned
. He wasn
’
t sure what to do.

I nodded my head at Mercutio
,
asking
him
for the silver stake
, holding out my hand
. I could see Tybalt getting closer as if he was helping
to
get rid of Mercutio
’
s stake in a
show of solidarity. I was
impressed, but then again
,
I knew
Tybalt didn
’
t want to die.

Mercutio eventually gave in. He slowly stepped forward and handed me the rapier.
I sighed as he handed me the silver stake. I turned
to look at Tybalt to say something sant>
supportive
, but before I could even tu
rn my head to look at him, Tybalt
had grabbed the silver stake out of my hand and leaped on top of Mercutio
’s
body,
stabbing him directly in the heart.

I couldn
’
t believe my eyes
!
Wh
at the hell just happened?
Oh my God! Mercutio had been stabbed. The silver stake got him in the chest. I wasn’t sure if it hit his heart, but it didn’t look good for Mercutio. He was spitting up blood and coughing for his life.

I turned my head and stared down Tybalt, right in his beady little eyes. His white hair glowed in the dark. I looked at this man, this man
I gave every chance
to. I even put my own life on the line for him
so that my best friend wouldn’t kill him
.
How did he repay me?
He
attempted to
kill my best friend after he g
a
ve
up his weapon in an obvious action to a truce. I was horrified, shocked. The rage inside was boiling over. I had never felt so angry and hurt in my life. The pain and anger was unbearable.

This is not how this is going to go down. O
h,
hell no!

I completely snapped. I grabbed the silver stake that was still lodged into Mercutio
’
s heart. He was trying to hold on
, his
breathing
labored
. Right now, I only had one thing on my
mind.
Revenge.
This filthy Capulet
killed
my best friend, the very second that he was
vulnerable.
And I was the reason why he was vulnerable. In trying to stop the fight by disarming Mercutio, I had erred in trusting Tybalt, that he would also back down from the fight. Now Mercutio’s death would be on my hands. I could hear the coughing progress to a death rattle as Mercutio paled before my eyes.

I looked at Tybalt
, and
with the silver blade in my hand.
I made my way toward him.

Tybalt said, “Go ahead. Try to kill me. I
’
m glad your friend is
about to die
.”

ontle.That did it. I turned into my werewolf form and with the blade in my claw
s, I jumped on top of Tybalt. We rolled a tad and then
I pinned Tybalt to the earth
. I had overpowered him and now he was going to pay. I struck the rapier forward
and sliced his neck all the way through
.
The silver quickly came out of the other side. I
n an instant
,
he vanished.

I had killed him instantly. Unlike Mercutio, who was still holding on
,
gasping for air.
I fell at Mercutio
’s
knees and with his last breath, Mercutio
gasped
to me, “This
…
wasn
’
t
…
worth
…
it.”

Then Mercutio vanished and I was the one person left alive
…
and the only murder
er left. I looked at Juliet
,
horrified.
Her look said it all. I had really blown it. Everything was ruined.
Everything.

“I am so sorry!”
I yelled to Juliet.
Then I turned
into the werewolf
and took off
running,
deep into Central Park.

Chapter Sixteen

Oh my God! How did I allow this to happen? What did I do? How could I have done such an act? He killed my best friend
,
that
’
s why!

All I wanted was to come together and
share our love. I s
cr
ewed
up
everything. How could I
kill him? In front of everyone? I had ruin
ed everything. I ha
d
lost everything. Juliet w
ould
never forgive me for killing her cousin. She
had
watched me do it
,
for goodness
’
sa
ke.

I ran and I ran
.
I got as far away from Verona as I could without
being
recogniz
ed
.
I made my way to the subway. I hopped on the 4 train and took it to the Bronx. The Bronx was a neutral zone.

Now, there was only one person I could trust and that was Friar Laurence. I called him and had him meet me at the subway station by the 167
^th
Street Station. There was a little pizza joint right below the stairs when you first came out. The place had a lot of warlocks, but my attitude was,
I
’
ll leave you alone if you leave me alone
and that seemed to work out whenever I was down here. Now, I needed to be incognito more than ever.

Friar Laurence came into the pizza shop. It was a long, skinny shop and I was sitting at a table in the very back, drinking a soda. I was too sick to eat.

The Friar came over and sat at my table. “How are you doing, son?”

“I’ve been better.” I looked at the Friar and I wanted to cry but that wouldn’t do any good. I blew it in gigantic way and how no idea how to proceed. No one kne
w I was her
e,
except for
Friar Laurence
. Not even my family.

“You did a bad thing, Romeo,” Friar said.

“I know. I need to go somewhere for a few days and hide out.” I looked at Friar Laurence and maybe a part of him thought he was going to come down here and get me to turn myself in. But Friar Laurence knew my heart. He knew I wasn’t a killer.

“I have a close friend. He lives down the way over on Sedgwick. He’ll put you up. His name is Friar John and he and I go way back.”

“Another Friar?”

“You know better than to ask.” Friar Laurence looked at me and handed me a sheet of paper. “Take this paper and find this address. He will be expecting you.”

“He’ll be expecting me?” I asked, surprised. I thought we had just come up with this idea but apparently, Friar Laurence had already made plans. He was a good man.

I took the paper from my friend and he stood up and gave me a hug. “Remember, Romeo, true love is worth fighting for. So, fight on.”

Friar Laurence and I said our goodbyes and then I headed to the address. It wasn’t too far away and when I got there, Friar John was expecting me. He was a short gray-haired man who was 100 percent human and het htify">

I eventually settled in and tried to piece together the next phase of my life and what it all meant.

One day became two days and two days stretched into a week. Then one week into two.
It has been pretty hard the last couple of weeks without Juliet. I
still
couldn
’
t believe what I had done. It was breaking my heart
every day
, but I was going to have to come to terms that I blew it.
I blew it, and there was no coming back from it.
The worst part was,
there
was
a good chance that I
had
probably lost Juliet forever.

It was a little past two in the morning,
and I was
getting ready to turn off the TV o
ff and get so
me sleep. Since I’d been here at Friar John’s, I had been sleeping for thirteen hours a
day
. I tried to sleep away the pain
.
There isn
’
t much else you can do when you
’
r
e
hiding out in a
guy’s
apartment that you don
’
t
even
know.

There was a knock at the door and I froze. I slowly went to the back of the apartment and waited. There
hadn’t
been to
o
many knocks at the door these p
a
st couple of weeks, yet
now there was
one at 2:00
in the morning.