A/N: Well, here it is, everybody... the final part. Part ten. The end.
I'd like to thank everybody that's read this and reviewed for reading it and reviewing, especially The Offbeat Alchemist and Scissorman... I love you guys. ^^ *hugs everybody who's read this*
Coming up next... a oneshot featuring RalphxAlyssa. I'd really appreciate it if you all read it once I get it put up! ^_^
Now, without further ado... part ten: the conclusion.
~~~~~~Part Ten~~~~~~
About an hour later, the twins were thrown onto the ground. Someone cut the ropes binding Jemima, and she quickly jumped to her feet.
They were in the middle of the town square, and they were surrounded by a massive crowd of people. They all were screaming and yelling, and the girl felt trapped. Her instinct was to get rid of her obstacles, and thus she started wildly swinging her blades at the crowd, trying to hit them. She quickly looked to see Ralph was doing the same thing, and she managed to gouge a woman through the stomach.
This sent the crowd into even more of an uproar, and suddenly Jemima reeled as she was struck in the head with something. She looked down to see that a stone had been thrown at her, and pain burst through her again as she was pelted in the arm by another one.
Fear flooded her as the crowd began to yell, "Kill the Scissortwins! Kill the Scissortwins!" She stepped back and cried out in pain as a stone hit her in the stomach.
"Jemima!" Ralph cried as two more stones hit her, causing her to fall. He rushed over to her and shielded her with his own body, wrapping his arms around her and clutching her to him.
"Don't worry," he murmured in her ear. "I'll protect you."
For how long? Jemima wanted to scream as she lay in her brother's arms. She wanted to cry. They'd killed Burroughs, and all it'd gotten them was a ticket here, being stoned to death. They were being stoned to death and they couldn't do anything about it!
"Kill the Scissorman! Kill the Scissorman! Kill the Scissorman!"
The crowd's yells and Ralph's gasping in pain every time a stone hit him reverberated in Jemima's mind. She wanted to get up, to protect her twin for once... but he had such a tight hold on her that she couldn't move. She wasn't getting hit anymore, but that served little comfort as Ralph was getting hurt instead.
She couldn't see what was happening, but she flinched every time Ralph was struck... she could feel him being hurt. She felt tears begin to silently slide down her face as the stones continued to fly.
Please... somebody! she begged mentally. Make them stop! They're hurting my brother! They're killing my brother!
A rather large stone suddenly fell on his head, and a horrible cracking sounded. Blood suddenly streamed down from Ralph's scalp, nose, and mouth onto Jemima, and she looked up to only see the whites of his eyes. Horror filled her as she realized his grip on her was loosening, and he was sliding slowly off her. She quickly grabbed his arm and felt his neck... his skin was ice cold.
The crowd yelled in victory as Jemima's eyes widened. The horror was replaced by dread, which was then replaced by sorrow. No... Ralph... no... no...
"No!" Jemima screamed. "No! You killed him! You killed my brother!"
She pushed Ralph's body off her, stood up, and attempted to attack the crowd with her blades. Tears poured down her face as the crowd started yelling, "Kill the Scissorwoman! Kill the Scissorwoman!" and pelted her with stones. Jemima wept as she swung her blades at the crowd, determined to hurt them. They killed her brother! Her only companion! They all deserved to die!
She felt hollow inside as a stone struck her shoulder and she fell to her knees. She sat there sobbing, miserable about Ralph's death. Something was missing from her heart; whatever was holding it together was gone now. Her heart was broken, and she couldn't repair it. Ralph was gone... there was no reason to live anymore. She wanted to die. She was miserable enough to wish for her own death, and she didn't even try fighting against the crowd anymore.
Please... just kill me... she thought as she sat, letting herself be pelted by the flying stones. Just let me be with Ralph again...
"Kill the Scissorwoman! Kill the Scissorwoman! Kill the Scissorwoman! Kill the Scissorwoman!"
Jemima finally staggered to her feet, her body aching from all the blows from the stones. She stumbled over to Ralph's body, then slumped down next to it. As she continued to be pelted by stones, she dragged her lifeless brother so his head lay on her lap. She then hunched over it, protecting it. Even in death she'd protect him, making up for all the times he'd protected her in life.
Minutes passed that felt like eternity, and tears poured from her eyes as she was continuously hit. For a moment, she thought this torture would never end, but after a particularly hard and painful blow, she knew it finally was the end.
Her vision swam around her; blood poured from her mouth onto her brother's dead body. The roars and yells of the crowd were growing duller and duller as she slumped forward, and pain rippled through her repeatedly each time she was hit.
Her face made contact with Ralph's hair, and she suddenly couldn't breathe. She felt her body seize up, and her sight flickered into black.
Jemima was dead. She'd freed herself from Lord Burroughs's abusive tyranny after so long... but it had been too late. Now she'd been killed, her fate echoing her brother's. Her last thought, her last emotion had been relief, and happiness that not even death could separate her and her twin.
Jemima and Ralph, Lord Burroughs's infamous Scissortwins, were no more: they were dead in each other's arms.