Facing the Consequences

By the churches bells

After hours and hours of conversation and remembering, Tony and I fell asleep on the stone floor of our dirty room.

Suddenly, we were both engulfed in light. "You two, get up." A deep, throaty voice commanded. It was those same two escorts from before. We scrambled up and stood side by side.

"You," The man on the left points at me. "Come with me. The dude can go with you, Jamie." This supposed Jamie fellow nods. We both step out, with Tony going to the left, and me going to the right. My escort nudges me forward down the hall. I glance back at Tony and Jamie, who were going the opposite way.

"Take care of yourself, Tony! And don't get near my paintings with anything green, okay? It'll wash out the hue!" I call back cheerfully, trying desperately to brighten the mood. He briefly turns back towards me, then, ever so slightly, smiles. "You idiot," he said. "You know that will be the first thing I'll do."

And those were our last regards to each other.

The guard led me through twists and turns of hallways, down stairs and through rooms. Until we finally found ourselves in the courthouse jail room. The escort shoved me into one of the cages and locked me up inside, not bothering to untie my wrists this time. It was dirty, like before, and there was tally marks all over the walls someone scratched on. On the my left, someone etched "Please remember me." I wonder who put that there...? We both stood in silence, with each of us on different sides of the bars. The man seemed jittery, like he wanted to leave.

A while later, a another man, this one blonde, came from down the stairs and shouted to the guard. "Hey! Kris! Dude, do me a favor and cover my shift, okay? I gotta do somethin' real quick!" Before my escort could respond, the blonde already vanished. My escort sighed, grumbling under his breath. Some friend this guy has, huh?

_______--***--_______

We waited hours upon hours, awaiting my sentence. I glance at the guard again. Well, when your bored... "Kris, was it?" I began, leaning against the bars that kept us apart. Kris scoffed at me, before turning to face the door again. "I don't have any time to talk to already dead souls, little girl." He said. I huffed stubbornly, something I tended to do, and tried again.

"Waiting for death can get boring, if you ask me." I said smoothly, trying to reel him into a conversation. "So, today is your lucky day, mortal! Ask me away, half dead immortal souls tend to know a lot..."

He glances over at me, interested. Yes!

"Well..." He trailed off. "I do have one question."

"And what would that may be?"

He looks down. Man, this dude is so cutely awkward. It's strange to know that he can 'kill' me in eight different ways right now. "Was it worth it?" He whispers.

"What?" I look at him, confused.

"Was it worth having to die for something as stupid as love?" He said this a little louder.

I pause before answering. Was it worth it? Tony will most likely live on after this... I'm the only one dying here. It's just love. Just an emotion, something you feel. With that in mind, I smile and say "Yes."

"But how? You're not gaining anything from it. How will you know he won't run off with some other girl, forget about you, and your sacrifice be forgotten?" He asked. "Honestly," I breathe. " I don't know for sure. But I do know this; Tony loved me. That's what matters. He'll do anything for me now, there seems to be no more time for worrying about the future now."

"But was it really worth dying for?"

"Of course it was," I lean against the bars. " When you come to be my age, with my kind of job, you somehow trick yourself into thinking there's nothing left in this world to live for. You've seen every skyscraper, painted every valley, eaten every kind of super weird Asian food those people could come up with, and met every person you could stand. It just seems... kind of bland after awhile. But, when you meet someone who bustles up that bland pattern, you don't want it to stop. It makes things fun. That's what I didn't want to give up. I'd rather die than go back to that pattern, knowing that he's still out there, walking, breathing, living, without me to screw around with his order. I want to make him mad, and happy, all at the same time. And, I don't know, I just wanted to stop lying about it. For the longest time, we had to. "

Kris stared at me, wide eyed. "Wow," he rasped. "I... didn't know you felt that way. I just thought it was for money or power or something." I laugh. "No... I don't think so."

Suddenly, bells chimed throughout the courthouse, with the noise echoing on the stone walls. One, twice, three times. It's three o'clock.

It's time.

"I'm afraid," I said to Kris as he and I stood up." That's all the time we have for today, folks. Maybe next week!" He looked at me strangely, before asking, "How can you possibly still be cheery, even though you know what's about to happen?"

I grin as I step through the now open door of my cage. "Because," I said. "Now I know I don't have to lie about anything anymore." Side by side, we walked out of that murky jail room, knowing my fate ahead. Maybe not as guard and prisoner like before, but more like sympathetic companions.