A/N: Okay, so before I go into anything, this is an alternate ending I wrote to the play Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. It was extra credit work for my English 9 class (that I had to do or else I would fail) and I decided I would share it with all of you!
So... enjoy, I guess! ^^
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Act 5 Scene 3
Sacrifice and an Ended Feud
Romeo, the vile of quick-death poison in his hand, took off the cork and touched the vile to his lips, whispering a single prayer.
“Let this vile be my final wish of death, so that I may be with my Juliet.” Romeo said.
Romeo downed the poison within seconds. It was thick going down and caused him to choke as he coughed, falling to the ground dead. Moments of silence hovered in the Capulet tomb, the only noise being the sound of people approaching from the outside. The vile Romeo had had cracked and shattered on the ground, not a single bit of poison left.
Suddenly, Juliet’s eyes fluttered open as she snapped into reality, waking up from her 48 hour slumber. She sat up, breathing steadily as she looked around. Had Romeo come for her yet, or...
Juliet’s eyes wandered to the cracked vile on the ground as she got up from the bed, picking up one of the shards. She wondered what it was and why it was cracked by her grave. Her eyes turned to Romeo’s dead body and it took her a few seconds before she recognized him. She gasped, stumbling backwards when she saw he was dead. Tears filled in her eyes as she knelt by Romeo’s side, turning him onto his back.
“Romeo, I beg of thee, do not be dead!” Juliet pleaded, shaking his lifeless body. Tears streamed down her rosy cheeks. “Thy shall not die on me! Romeo!”
Juliet stopped and came to the conclusion that Romeo was really dead. She looked over at the shard that was still in her hand, seeing a single drop of yellow liquid as it slid off and landed on the cold cobblestone floor. Poison. The thought raged through her head. Romeo had poisoned himself, but for what? Juliet looked at him, leaned forward as her lips touched his. She kissed his dead-lips, hoping there was still a bit of poison left. When there was nothing, she bursts into sobs.
Juliet cried. What had made Romeo kill himself? Why would he do it? Did the letter not reach him? Questions danced in her head as her eyes wandered to the dagger strapped around Romeo’s belt. She took it out of it’s hook carefully, examining the sharp and slick blade. She ran her finger along the blade, accidentally cutting herself in the process. The watched the blood leek down her finger tip as a thought hit her.
If Romeo was dead, couldn’t she just join him in death?
She hesitated when the thought of suicide came to her. Would killing herself really be worth it? She remembered the plan Friar Lawrence had told her. The plan was that she would fall into a slumber for 48 hours and awake to Romeo at her side and run away to Mantua so she wouldn’t have to marry Paris. How was that to work if her husband was dead? She thought of her family. When they found her alive, the wedding between her and Paris would still happen. Could she risk marrying a man she doesn’t love?
Simple answer: no.
“Oh happy dagger, give me the death wish in which I plead,” Juliet said to herself, raising the knife above herself. “Let me die next to my Romeo and join him in death.”
Juliet went to dig the dagger into her chest, but was interrupted when she heard the door to the tomb open. She whipped to the door when Friar Lawrence came stumbled in, quickly shutting the door behind him and knocks echoed the empty tomb. He spotted Juliet, happy she was well. When he saw the dagger in her hands and Romeo dead, the Friar had his suspicions but didn’t hesitate when he ran towards Juliet.
