Reasons to Live - a collection of flash fiction stories

Juliet

 Through the veil of trees I watched her pace in her family's garden. Marigolds bowed at her feet. "I feel...so unloved."   

I thought my heart would break as I stayed out of sight. "Positively foolish," I murmured. The gentle breeze of spring stole my words away and they never reached her. 

*

"Kiss me again." She leaned in and touched her lips to mine. Our bodies fell onto the grass, behind the rose bushes that shielded us from her father's watchful eyes.

The manor stood menacing behind her, as menacing as her father who found it right that his daughter have nothing to do with the likes of me.

"You will never see that boy again." His voice boomed through the mansion. "He is trash, Juliet."

"Father, we-" but her words were shattered as her father slammed his fist down on his writing desk.

"You will leave for Vienna in two days. You will attend the boarding school there."

"Father, please."

The maids looked down on the floor, perfect servants easily made themselves part of the background and never questioned their master's ways. His eyes darkened, anger had sprouted inside him long ago and flourished into a thistle, hurting us all. "You will leave the States. I want you as far away from that bastard as possible. That is final, Juliet."

*

The Beretta rested in the waistband of my jeans. The night sky was dark and still. "Twenty dollars." I slipped the small baggie into the young man's pale hand.

"Mostly buds?" A void looked at me with red-veined eyes. He was a ghost of a person. Bones within skin, trying to protect a broken soul and an even more busted-up heart. People looked like him, everyone but Juliet. Juliet was a rose, a blooming beauty with enough love to keep me sane.

"Don't worry. I know what you like." I pocketed the cash and pulled the hood over my hair. It had been months since I had a hit. I had promised Juliet I'd stop. I was terrified if she knew about the dealing she'd follow her father's request happily, and I'd never see her again.

His fist split my lip open. Over and over slammed down upon my face. In the corner, Juliet cried. Her eyes were puffy, the bruise across her cheek would turn a deep purple before it faded away.

"You can't take her away from me!" I screamed as her father's fists found me and everything went black.

*

"I'm not sure about the moonshine. Father says if you drink it you'll go blind."

We sat on the roof of her guest house which overlooked the pool. The lights danced on the water making it surreal. We'd been drinking since her parents had left for the gala at nine PM, now it was nearly midnight. I liked these nights where we were alone. Just me, Juliet and a lot of moonshine.

"There's nothing worth seeing anyway." I embraced her. I always loved the way she rested her head on my shoulder. I buried my nose into her hair. She smelt like lilies, like the way my parent's own garden had before shit hit the fan and my dad pulled the trigger.

"Will you love me when I'm old and gray?"

I reached to the waistband of my jeans and touched the cold metal of the gun. "I'll love you till the day I am six feet under, worms eating my eyes and I'm nothing but a soul on its way to hell."

Blue eyes caught my stare. "That's stupid talk. You're not going to hell."

I sighed and held her even tighter. I wish I could take her with me. But she was an angel, I was the bastard. The child of a murder. I was a dealer. A user. I had been sticking myself with needles and snorting Peruvian powder since I was twelve. Hell was the only place I was going, but I was taking her father with me.

*

Stars aligned in the sky. I ran till I thought my lungs would burst. My hands were covered in blood, my face was splattered in red. I tasted it every time I swallowed.

The shadows welcomed me, their long lost bastard child. Their branches reached to me. Breathless I ran into their arms. I closed my eyes. I could have sworn I heard the Beretta speak, telling me I did this for her.

*

The rain created a staccato beat. I closed my eyes and drank it in.

"Such a love is impossible." Her voice haunted me. Lilies filled the air.

"Impossible loves, I fear they can become an addiction." The scent of rain and lilies faded away, the sterile stench of the asylum replaced it. "Hearts were made to be broken."

I opened my eyes and reached out to touch a drop of rain but felt nothing in my palm. The nurse on duty shook her head slowly and took me by the hand. "Come on, son. Dr. Feldman's waiting."

"Juliet..." I began to hum, a soft tune that wanted to burst into the rain and find solace among the Marigolds, on the rooftop, next to her.

"Let her go, son." She led me through the hall. White walls welcomed me. The screaming and babbling of the other patients was a rhythm to my song. A song of death, of me and my Juliet.