Annie watched on from afar as her true love fell to the beauty of Juliet, a Capulet, one who ought, in all sense, be his sworn enemy. Dark stains seeped into her darker gown, tears falling fast from her glistening face. Why must this witch, this siren, steal from her the only reason she had to live? All else was meaningless to her without her sweet Romeo. The pale light of the sun held no warmth any longer. Her flowers, wilted and dying of neglect could comfort her not.
She had forever been his. Though he had professed his love to Rosaline, bribed into rejection, he had always been true to her. He spoke to her words of honey, marveling over her raven hair and pale skin, loving to hold her slender frame in his arms. Yet now he crooned over some mindless hussy, and Juliet, able to satisfy only his eyes, swooned over him, as infatuated as once Annie herself was.
Yet now, by some gift of the stars, she had time to plot, to plan their torturous demise. Romeo had been banished, and even as she watched the lovers say their sickly sweet goodbyes, she reveled in the anguish his banishment would cause Romeo. The months of dreaming only of his newfound beauty, as she dreamed only of the horror that awaited this unfaithful, ungrateful maggot she had once called her love.
As he stole away into the night, she too drifted away into the dark, satisfied that her shattered heart would be appeased.
Annie paused outside Friar Laurence's cell, better to savor the chaos unfolding from within.
"-with this knife I'll help it presently. God join'd my heart and Romeo's, thou our hands; And ere this hand, by thee to Romeo seal'd, Shall be the label to another deed, Or my true heart with treacherous revolt Turn to another, this shall slay them both…" Juliet Shrieked and wailed in despair. A smile played on Annie's lips. After a hushed mumble of Friar Laurence's, Juliet's laments began again, "O, bid me leap, rather than marry Paris, From off the battlements of yonder tower; Or walk in thievish ways; or bid me lurk Where serpents are; chain me with roaring bears" Annie's smile widened to a grin, the horrid girl was being forced into a second marriage.
The
Friars hushed voice had returned, and Annie leaned foreword, eager to
hear more, "-all the kindred of the Capulets lie. In the mean time,
against thou shalt awake, Shall Romeo by my letters know our drift,
And hither shall he come: and he and I
Will…"
Annie leapt back from the door as if burned. Romeo, returning? This was not god, she had even less time to plan than she had expected.
She had overheard plenty enough to know their plan, just enough in fact to form a plan of her own around.