Chapter 42. Giving Into The Darkness
"Look at you," Edmund snarled at Isabel as he approached her. "You stand on this stage, ruining my family in front of an audience, and for what? A man that can only offer you a penury existence within France? It is an outrage… an insult!"
"Edmund," Gregory stepped forward, blocking Isabel from his cousin. "Leave her be. She has done nothing wrong but love a man."
"Who wasn't you! Can you imagine people taking us seriously now, when you could not even get some tramp to marry you!"
Striking his cousin across the face, Gregory fell back, tripping over the edge of the stage and falling upon his back on the floor of the theatre. Gasping, Isabel looked at him with anger in her eyes as she stepped forward. Just as Edmund grasped Isabel's arms, digging his fingers into her arms, Christian pushed Edmund to the floor, punching him in the stomach with all his might.
Looking to his side, Edmund had never been happier in his life. The gun Giselle had carelessly dropped on the stage glimmered at his side and when he grabbed the gun and pointed it at Christian, he grinned in satisfaction as Christian stood up, pulling Isabel behind him as they stepped back from Edmund.
"Now you will listen to me," Edmund laughed. "Never in my life have I been listened to. It was always someone else I had to follow. First my uncle. Now my cousin. For once, I hold the power."
"You call that power," Isabel snarled at him. "That's cowardice."
"I would tell your whore to keep her mouth shut," Edmund advised Christian. "Otherwise she will find herself easily quieted up with the sound of this gun."
The audience, sensing the danger, got up and retreated to the back of the theatre, some running away shrieking to call for help. As Christian and Isabel stood helpless to Edmund as the young duke lay unconscious on the theatre floor, Toulouse had began to sneak upon Edmund. With his back turned, ordering the scared lovers who stared at him like two deer that had been intruded upon, Edmund did not notice Toulouse until he had used all his strength to leap at his legs and knock Edmund flat on his stomach. The gun flew across the floor a few feet out of his grasp and Christian, too lost in dragging Isabel off of the stage, did not notice the gun that they could have easily picked up.
"Run!" Toulouse shouted. "Go, Christian! Let no harm come!"
"Get off of me!"
Though strong-willed, Toulouse was easily overpowered by Edmund, who tossed him back and reached for the gun once more. Pointing the gun at Toulouse, he ordered him to walk off stage, which he slowly followed. When Toulouse was situated standing in theaisle of the middle of the first floor, Edmund turned his head to look at Christian and Isabel, who continued to hurry to the back of the theatre.
"I advise you to come back!" Edmund hollered. "Otherwise your friend here will die before you all tonight."
Stopping, Isabel turned and saw Toulouse standing before the stage, Edmund above him as he pointed the gun down at him. Gasping, she pulled Christian to turn around, who shouted for his friend and hurried to the front of the stage in desperation, completely thoughtless as to everything but helping the man who would so easily sacrifice his life for the love that he believed Christian deserved.
"Let him go!" Isabel demanded as forcefully as she could. "What reason do you have to hurt Toulouse?"
"Get up here," Edmund said. "I believe it is a fair trade."
"You lie," Isabel growled with pure hatred.
"You are probably right," Edmund grinned. "The trade of a man who has done nothing wrong for a whore who deserves to not be alive to begin with. I believe I am getting the unfair side of the deal, but I shall find satisfaction in it."
"No!" Christian grabbed Isabel's wrist when she began to walk towards the stairs of the stage. "Isabel… I can't have you do this. I…"
"I must do it for…"
"What choice does either one of you have?" Edmund laughed. "If you don't let your tramp onstage, I'll just simply shoot her right here. If any of you disobey my orders, you will die before this audience. Cowards. All of them. Blame my cousin on the floor there for allowing his people to become like that. The people who are deemed closest to him will not even try to help him at his hour of need. Nor any of you. You might as well die because you are all alone in this. Trash." when no one moved, Edmund moved the gun off of Toulouse and pointed it at Isabel. "Now… move along. I am not a patient person anymore."
Without a word said, Isabel gave Christian one last look before turning to go upstage. When she was standing before him, Edmund pulled her against him and pressed the gun against the side of her head. Closing her eyes, Isabel could only pray that Christian would be able to survive the night and find contentment in his life, even if she were to die before the day is through. Turning her around, Edmund looked her up and down before kissing her.
Tears streamed past Isabel's closed eyes when she could taste the putrid hatred on Edmund's lips now upon her own.
"Whore," Edmund whispered, using his hand to trail up and down her body. "You did not deserve my cousin, and yet you care for him. You show him compassion, and what do I get?"
Isabel bit her lip as Edmund kissed her. Although she tasted blood, anything seemed better than the taste of Edmund.
"Look at me!" Edmund yelled, now shaking her. "Whore, open your eyes to face me!"
When she opened her eyes, Isabel saw that tears were falling down Edmund's face as well. Although the hatred for her was still present, in his eyes she saw the same hurt and sadness that she had seen in Gregory's when he had saw her and Christian together, but to a degree that seemed far worse. Pity almost became a dominant emotion until Edmund touched her face and the repulsion came back again.
"I got to watch the woman I love fall for my cousin," Edmund glared down at Gregory in jealousy. "I got to watch her do everything she could to find a way into his heart. I got to fail time and time again when I tried to let her know that I cared. That I wanted her in my life. My cousin has taken everything from me. But you…" Edmund looked Isabel up and down and held her chin up to stare into her eyes. "…you became the woman that would do the exact same thing to my own cousin as my love did to me. Trash. That is all you are. And yet my cousin loved you as if you were worth all of Paris. And you had the chance. The opportunity to comply and do everything. For why should you not love such a wonderful duke as this? He is the man that can offer you the world. He is the man who every woman in Paris falls in love with, and yet he chooses the one woman who falls for another man. You whore… how dare you do this to my cousin!" he slapped Isabel across the face. "I will do to you what Gregory would never do. I will do what will show you your place in the world. You are not free to do something so foolish as to meddle and hurt our bloodline. I will show you. And I will find great pleasure in doing so."
Entering the stage in the corner, I could hear Edmund telling her his story. Trying to explain his actions. Justify them. Make her realize just how horrible she truly was. So many nights I had spent with him doing the same thing to me before beating me, knocking me senseless... before taking me whatever way he pleased.
The gun against Isabel's head scared me. The last thing I wanted was to watch the one part of my life I truly can fix and save die before my eyes. My greatest failure performed in front of an audience of the largest political position and opulence.
"Any last words?" Edmund suggested, holding Isabel's head in place as she tried to turn her head.
"Yes," I watched as Isabel's eyes closed briefly to utter the words of a promise. "Never knew I could feel like this."
"Is that all?" Edmund laughed, completely lost in his scheme to see how close I truly was.
"Come what may."
Isabel sang softly before I leaped forward, pushing her out of the way before kicking Edmund in the one place that I could cause him similar pain to what he had introduced me to numerous times. Kneeling over in pain, I pulled the necklace off and held the large, pointed gem, cast in metal shaped like a sun with its bright flames, up high. Raising it skyward, I brought it down with the force of all the feelings from memories upon memories of Edmund's deeds. The pain he had brought to me. To those that I knew. To people that could not help falling in love.
All I could hear was the impact of the stone on Edmund's skull. Feel the pointed edge of a flame enter inside his flesh. See the small bit of blood that showed beneath the gash as the gem that had set me free from my internal pain was a quarter of the way smashed into the right side of Edmund's skull, freeing me from the core of all of my external pain.
What I had missed was the sound of Edmund shuffling when he saw what was to come. When he had grasped the gun firmly in his hands and pulled the trigger. The pain that would hit my stomach moments later after I had realized the extent of the act I had just performed in front of an audience.
Whether it was from the bleeding that was taking over or the shock that came from all that had happened in these last few minutes, I gave into the darkness for one last time in my life.