It was cold in her living quarters but Evie Frye hadn't noticed. She simply didn't care. She was emotionally numb. The young assassin had been like this for days.
She hadn't been able to sleep, having simply passed out from sheer exhaustion. It was in those first moments as she opened her eyes that the illusion of normality would linger in Evie's mind, it was only as the haze of sleep lifted that the young brunette would remember the cold, unforgiving truth.
Lucy Thorne was dead.
Evie could hear her heartbeat pounding in her ears as the realisation hit her once more.
There was suddenly a knock on the door.
"Evie, can I come in? Please open the door. I- I'm worried about you!" shouted Jacob.
He was met with nothing but silence.
"I'm going to break down the door if you don't open it right this instant!" he exclaimed, hoping that it would provoke a reaction.
Still silence.
The male Frye twin was really worried now. Squaring his cap on his head, Jacob rammed the door with his right shoulder, causing the offending object to crash to the floor.
Jacob stepped over the splintered door and into Evie's sleeping quarters.
Evie hadn't moved a muscle. Her eyes were fixed, staring off into the distance. Her complexion was a steely grey colour. The tearstains under her eyes all too evident.
"Evie?" said Jacob with concern, as he sat down on the bed next to his sister.
Evie remained unresponsive as Jacob reached out to stroke his sister's hair.
"Talk to me, please." pleaded Jacob.
It was only when Evie felt the touch of her brother's hand against her skin that the Frye girl snapped.
"Get away from me!" screamed Evie.
Jacob jumped back in shock at his sister's sudden outburst.
"Evie, I-" began Jacob.
"You're not her!" screamed Evie, throwing herself back onto the mattress and hiding her face in her pillow. "You're- not- her." she sobbed, her words muffled. "Oh, Lucy!"
Jacob was suddenly wide eyed as he sat motionless on the edge of the bed.
He grabbed at Evie and pulled her up to face him.
"What did you just say?" asked Jacob, stunned.
Evie didn't reply, it was as if she were in some kind of catatonic state. Her heart was broken and her mind was close to receiving the same fate.
"Evie- please, tell me!" pleaded Jacob, looking directly into Evie's blank eyes, the life appeared to have been lost from them. The brightness had seemingly left her eyes the moment that the light dimmed from Lucy Thorne's.
"I loved her- so much!" cried Evie, as she finally crumpled against Jacob, letting a torrent of tears free.
Jacob didn't know how to reply. Evie was confessing to being in love with a Templar, but she was his sister and he could see that she was in unbearable pain.
As Jacob silently held her, Evie closed her eyes and thought back to that moment in the vault when Lucy had held her in her arms and kissed her. Her body ached so much as she recalled the touch of Thorne's lips on hers.
Evie began to choke on her tears.
"Evie, it's alright. I'm here." said Jacob calmly, as he rocked his sister gently in his embrace.
"I want her back!" wailed Evie, into her brother's left shoulder. "I want her in my arms!"
The dreadful moment began to replay itself in the young woman's mind.
She had been running on pure adrenaline when she took Lucy Thorne's life. "Never allow personal feelings to compromise the mission."
Evie had caught sight of the Templar's eyes for one last time before she had rammed the dagger into the redhead's back. The young brunette stumbled backwards, away from her stricken enemy, the tears already welling in her eyes.
"I love you!" screamed Evie, as Lucy Thorne fell to the floor.
"I couldn't leave her like that." said Evie, aloud.
Jacob tightened his arms as his sister shuddered in his embrace.
"I cradled her in my arms as she slowly slipped away." she said, numbly.
Evie closed her eyes and was instantly back in that moment. As Lucy lay dying, she gazed into Evie's eyes and with her last breath uttered the words, "I love you too."
Jacob continued to try and comfort his sister as she clung to him with tears stinging in her eyes.
As the young brunette looked up, she could see through to the next carriage and the picture of Lucy Thorne, her face unceremoniously crossed out with an angry red mark.
She wished that she could erase that cross and erase her actions along with it.
"I'm so sorry, Lucy." Evie whispered.
A week or so later, Evie was strolling through the grounds of a grand mansion. Her hands were shaking as she approached the small family plot beside the main house.
The final resting place of the Thorne family.
The female assassin knelt down in front of the new grave and slowly ran her fingers through the recently dug soil,
"I'm here, Lucy." said Evie, quietly.
Her hands were shaking as she pulled a flower from her belt. Evie lay the red tulip down on the soft earth and softly stroked at the delicate petals. "I brought this for you," she said.
Then the Frye girl removed her leather coat and lay it down beside Thorne's grave.
"I won't leave you, Lucy." said Evie, before lying down at Lucy's grave side.
The young brunette reached out with her left hand, her fingertips caressing the tulip as the palm of her hand rested against the cold earth. She closed her eyes, listening to the silence and slowly drifted into unconsciousness.
It was early the next morning that Jacob discovered Evie's hastily scribbled note that she had pinned to the noticeboard.
"Gone to visit Lucy."
Jacob screwed up the note and popped his head into Evie's carriage but there was no sign of her. The male assassin could feel his stomach begin to twist with unease.
Grabbing his coat, Jacob went out in search of his sister.
"You haven't seen my sister this morning by any chance?" asked Jacob, as he happened upon a couple of the Rooks.
"I'm afraid not, sir." replied the one man, tipping his cap.
Jacob could feel himself becoming more agitated. He set out for the only place that he could think to look, the Thorne mansion. He could only hope that all was well when he arrived there.
There was a beautifully tranquil silence when Jacob arrived at the imposing residence of the Thorne family. As he slowly walked up the pathway into the grounds, Jacob felt a strangely eerie sensation wash over him and as he looked further ahead of him, he felt his heart stop.
"EVIE!" he screamed into the silence.
Jacob dashed to his sister's side, dropping to the moist ground in a state of panic. As soon as he clunched at Evie's free hand, he knew that he was too late.
"Oh my beautiful sister!" Jacob sobbed, as he collapsed onto Evie's lifeless form.
Evie had lain there all night. When she lay down at Lucy's grave side that previous afternoon, she knew that she had no intention of ever leaving the Templar again. The young assassin had simply drifted off to sleep and died from the cold. Just as she had planned to.
Jacob looked back up and noticed that Evie was holding a red tulip tightly in her other hand, her right arm lying against the soft earth of Thorne's grave.
"She really did love her." Jacob whispered, his eyes now red-rimmed and teary.
It was all like some terrible nightmare to the younger Frye twin. He had always looked up to his sister, although he never actually told her as much. Now he would have to go on without her.
With his ears ringing with shock, Jacob took his sister's body up in his arms, letting her head rest against his chest as he slowly and carefully carried her out of the mansion grounds, leaving the red tulip resting against the soil.
Jacob took it upon himself to make all of the necessary arrangements.
He knew that there was only one place that his sister would have wanted to be laid to rest, beside the woman she loved. That was how it was to be. The male assassin even dipped into what meagre savings he had to pay for a headstone and today was the day that he would see the memorial finally in place.
As he walked up the narrow pathway, he could see that the stone had been installed. Jacob felt himself finding it difficult to breathe, seeing the stone there made everything seem so final.
As he gazed at the inscription that had been painstakingly craved into the stone, Jacob looked pensive. "They would have wanted it that way." he said aloud.
'In memory of Lucy Thorne and also of her beloved Evie. Together for eternity.'