Star-Crossed
Reincarnated as Roman and Jillian , the famous star-crossed lovers meet again in the 21st century as two high school sophomores.
Her echoing sobs could be heard throughout the tomb. Tears ran steadily down her cheeks as she stared at the still form of her fallen love. He was gone. Never again would she see him smile. Never again would she feel the warmth of his embrace. He was dead. Wailing with grief, she reached out to him, and laid her head upon his chest in the very place where his heart had been beating only moments before.
The empty cup had been thrown aside the moment she realized it could not help her join her love. The warmth of his lips told her that he had left this world, just a few moments before she had come awake. She cursed fate for not rousing her from her slumber in time to save her precious husband. Now he was dead, and she was more alone than ever before.
A sudden noise pulled her from the depths of her sorrow. What was that sound? Listening harder, she recognized a voice. Someone was calling out from the entrance of the tomb. They would enter soon, and find her alive. She knew without a doubt that they would take her away from her fallen husband. They would make her leave him here alone in the tomb. No! she thought. I'll not leave him!
Looking around, her eyes fell on the dagger at her husband's side. Having already lost her mind to grief, she lifted the dagger. She stared at the weapon. It shimmered so beautifully in the light of the torches. Stealing one more glance at her fallen love, she made up her mind. Though they had been kept apart in life, she knew they could finally be together in death.
Raising the dagger high, and smiling at the thought of reuniting with her love in the afterlife, Juliet plunged the knife deep into her chest.
Jillian shot up in her bed. Quickly looking around the room, she realized that she was not in a stone cavern, but in her bedroom. Sighing with relief, Jillian closed her eyes. It had just been the nightmare again; the same one she'd been having for almost a week. She always woke just as the dagger sunk into her heart. Jillian shook her head, trying to rid herself of the horrible dream.
As she rolled out of bed and began preparing herself for the day, Jillian couldn't help but wonder if there was some significance to this nightmare. I mean, people don't just have the same dream every night, do they? she thought to herself. Stepping into the bathroom, Jillian looked at herself in the mirror. "Ugh," she muttered. It was pretty obvious that she'd had a rough night. Her face was ghostly pale, her usually bright emerald-green eyes were sunken in, and her luxurious, red curls were a huge, tangled mass on her head.
After pulling her wild hair into an untidy ponytail, Jillian undressed, and climbed into the shower. As the warm water cascaded down her body, Jillian's thoughts turned to her dream again. She couldn't shake the feeling that the nightmare held some deeper meaning. It was the same, night after night. She woke in her dream, and was inside a cave. Why? What sane person slept in a cave? And she would see the young man laying dead on the floor, and would burst into tears.
For a moment, Jillian focused on that image of the fallen form upon the floor of the tomb. She was sure that she'd never seen him before, She would remember if she had. That face wasn't one you could easily forget. He seemed hardly more than a boy; no more than 15 years old. And he looked as if he were asleep, his dark hair framing his face, his long eyelashes resting on his cheeks. He had the face of an angel.
A sharp knock on the door wrenched Jillian out of her revery.
"Jill!" called a deep voice from the other side of the door, "You've been in there for like, ever! Hurry up! You're using all the hot water!"
Jillian rolled her eyes. Tyler was such a drama queen. She knew very well that he only wanted to get into the bathroom so he could primp for the next half hour. Jillian had never met anyone as vain as her big brother. Shutting off the water, she exited the shower, and wrapped herself in a towel. Jillian opened the bathroom door to find a very grungy looking Tyler on the other side. His hair was sticking out at weird angles, eyes were bloodshot red and crusted over, and he was in desperate need of a shave.
"Woah, dude!" Jillian said in mock horror, "Get in there quick! You look like hell!"
"Watch your mouth, young lady," Tyler growled, slipping into parent mode. He'd been raising Jillian for the last 3 years since the deaths of their parents, and had gotten pretty good at stifling her colorful vocabulary. Grinning, Jillian stepped aside, and gave her brother full reign of the bathroom.
When she was dressed and ready, Jillian made her way downstairs for breakfast. In the kitchen, her brother was losing another battle with his tie. Tyler could cook, clean, budget, and run a business with ease, but ask him to tie a tie, and he'd make himself look like an incompetant fool. Just when he looked on the verge of strangling himself, Jillian stepped in, and fastened his tie with a practiced efficiency.
"You know, they have invented clip-on ties," she teased. Tyler ignored his sister's ribbing, and sat at the table. He picked up the news paper, and burried his nose in it. Jillian smiled fondly at her brother. Ever since Tyler had become her guardian, he'd adopted all these adult mannerisms. Sitting down across from her brother, Jillian began to serve herself breakfast.
"So, anything interesting going on in the world?" she asked.
"Hmmm," Tyler replied, much to his sister's irritation. He always did that when he thought she was too young to understand something.
" Seriously," Jillian pushed, " what's in the paper?"
Smiling slightly, Tyler answered, " Just boring stuff. Politics, the stock market , some crime here and there. Nothing you'd be interested in." Jillian scowled at him, causing him to laugh.
"So, what's up with you?" Tyler asked, taking a sip of coffee.
"Oh, nothing much," Jillian answered, " Peer pressure, menstration, an little lust here and there. Nothing you'd be interested in." Smirking, she took a sip of her orange juice. Tyler scowled at her, and she began to laugh.
"Not funny," Tyler growled, slightly annoyed with his baby sister's teasing.
Changing the subject, Tyler said, "Hey, what was up with all that tossing and turning last night? Bad dream?"
Jillian shivered a little at the thought of her frightening nightmare." Yeah," she answered. She then became very interested in her breakfast, and began eating as though this were her first meal in days. Tyler gave his sister a confused look.
"Wanna talk about it?" he asked.
"Nope," Jillian replied simply.
For a few moments, the two ate in silence. Only the clinking of fork against plate could be heard. After almost a minute, Tyler broke the silence."Was it about Mom and Dad?" he asked.
Jillian paused, her fork halfway to her mouth. She looked up to meet her brother's concerned gaze. "No," she answered, going back to her breakfast.
"Jill, it's okay if you're still upset," Tyler continued.
"Tyler, it wasn't about Mom, and Dad," Jillian snapped. She hated when her brother was like this; always trying to analyze how she was feeling. She'd had a hard enough time when her parents died. She didn't need Tyler to bring it up all the time.
Polishing off her breakfast, Jillian stood up and slung her book bag over her shoulder. She walked around the table and kissed her brother on the cheek.
"See ya later," she said, and headed for the door.
"Wait a minute," Tyler said, rising from his seat and putting on his suit jacket, "I'll drive you."
"No thanks," Jillian said as she rushed outside. A few steps behind her, Tyler stepped onto the porch and watched his sister grab her bike.
"Seriously, Jill, it's no trouble," he said.
Jillian suddenly felt bad. She knew her brother worried about her, but she really wanted to be alone with her thoughts for a on a fake smile, Jillian said, "I know, Ty. I just need the exercise."
"Okay, " Tyler said. As he watched his sister pedal down the street, Tyler called out, "Have a good day!"
"You too!" Jillian called to him, without even looking back. She didn't want to see the worried, concerned look she knew would be in his eyes.
As she rode to school, Jillin's mind began to wander. She always went into a serene state of mind when she rode her bike. She closed her eyes, and let go of all negative thoughts. Her brother's constant worrying, her pain over the loss of her parents, the uneasy feelings she'd been having about her nightmare. All of it flowed out of her mind as the wind blew around her face. She felt free and weightless.
BAM! Jillian was jolted out of her serenity as the front wheel of her bike made contact with a stationary object. Her eyes shot wide open, and for a split second, she realized that she hadn't run into something, but someone .That someone, was a young boy, who was also on his bike. As they collided, Jillian was flung off of her bike, and smacked into the boys chest. They both fell to the ground, Jillian landing right on top of the boy.
For a few seconds, they just lay there, a tangled mass of limbs, both groaning in pain. When Jillian found the strength to move, she rolled off of the boy's chest, and came to a stop about a foot away from him.
"Sorry," Jillian said, wincing at the pain as she struggled to sit upright. "Totally my fault. Pretty stupid of me to ride a bike with my eyes closed, huh?"
There was no answer. Jillian expected her victim to yell and curse at her for being so dumb, but he was silent. She glanced down at the boy. He was just lying there with his eyes closed. Not moving. Not talking.
"Hey," Jillian said. " Hey, dude?" Still nothing.
Good Lord, I've killed him, she thought, starting to panic. Just then, the boy let out a deep sigh. Oh. Guess not. Jillian thought. She got to her feet and wobbled a little. Steadying herself, Jillian stumbled over to her victim. She looked down at the boy, and she froze on the spot.
She stared at him, completely shocked. As the boy lay there with his eyes closed, absolutely still, Jillian began to shiver.
"Oh...my...God!" she whispered. She didn't know this boy, but she remembered his face very, very vividly. She'd only seen it every night for the past week. This boy had the exact same face as the boy in Jillian's dream. The dark hair, the long lashes; it was all there.
The face of an angel.
Author's Note: What will happen when the angel opens his eyes? Please review! Thanks for reading!
Riley