Crimson Peak [COMPLETE]

Prologue: Alternate Ending

So for those of you that have seen Crimson Peak, you know how it ends and it's dumb. There are so many other ways it could have ended. But this is how I chose to end it so that [spoiler alert] Thomas stayed alive. Remember to vote, comment, and ENJOY!

"Do you love her?" Lucille spat, stepping closer to Thomas.

Thomas took a very careful step back and decided not to answer her but to distract her instead. "We could leave," he begged. "We could leave all of this behind." He wasn't proud of what he and his sister had been doing all these years and wished that he'd never agreed to it. But how could he refuse Lucille?

Thomas's avoidance of the subject told Lucille all she needed to know. Tears welled up in her eyes as she stepped closer to him, her body flush against his. "You promised, Thomas. You promised you wouldn't love anybody else." Lucille's world was crashing down around her. Her whole life, it had just been her and Thomas and nobody else.

Thomas knew he was trapped and couldn't avoid the topic anymore. He loved Edith despite any promises he might have made to Lucille. "But it happened," he said, his back against the wall now. He kept eye contact with Lucille, and he knew full well what he was going to have to do. As much as it pained him, he knew his sister too well. 

Her hand froze halfway to his chest and she gasped, staring up at him with shocked eyes. "Thomas..."

A new flood of tears fell down his cheeks and he took the knife from Lucille's frozen hand. He laid her on the floor and kissed her forehead once more before twisting the knife deeper in her chest.

"Goodbye, Lucille," he whispered.Her frozen eyes stared up at him as he fled from the room.

He hurried down the hall and to the stairs just in time to see Edith helping Allen out the door, one arm over her shoulders. Thomas ran down the stairs as fast as he could and lifted Allen's other arm over his shoulders to help Edith carry him out.

He wanted to say something but he saw the tears streaking down her pale cheeks and the blood staining her dress and his heart twisted in his chest. He had never loved any of the other women like this. But Edith was different; different from everybody he'd ever met. Even Lucille. She was gentle and independent and brilliant. It wasn't something he could explain, it had just happened.

They were a few yards from the gate when Thomas heard shouting and the crunching of snow as people ran up to the house. Thomas froze and ducked out from underneath Allen's arm.

"Can you hold him yourself?" He asked Edith.

Edith nodded, still not looking at him. "Please don't leave me." Her voice was barely above a whisper and at first, Thomas thought it was his imagination. But then Edith turned her face ever so slowly to look at him and she said, "Please don't go."

Thomas could feel his heart breaking and he almost didn't leave, but he was a coward. He cupped Edith's face in his hands and looked at her very solemnly. "I am so sorry--about everything. Go back to America and publish a book. Marry Allen and forget about everything." But even as he said it, he knew what he had done had ruined her. Edith would never be the same person.

Edith gripped his wrist with her free hand. "I can't do this without you."

Thomas wondered how she could still love him after learning the truth about him. He wasn't the man she thought he was. He was a killer, a liar, a thief. Thomas kissed her softly, knowing that this would be the last time he would be able to hold her, and then he pushed her away, towards the oncoming voices.

He ran behind his digging machine and listened very carefully as Edith told them that everyone inside was dead and Allen needed a doctor.She didn't say anything about Thomas or Lucille.

"Are you alright, ma'am?" They asked.

But she brushed their questions away, not answering yes or no, but turning the topic onto Allen.

"And the Sharpe's? Are they inside?"

Edith promised to tell them everything that had happened once they were back in town and Allen had a doctor.

Thomas leaned his head against the frozen metal of the machine and waited for the footsteps to fade. Finally, he allowed himself one look just in time to see Edith's hair disappear into the snowstorm.

And hiding behind his machine, just this once, he allowed himself to cry.