Juliett

Juliett. She’s the only reason I’m here. I don’t actually belong here and I don't want to be here otherwise. This music is pounding, hurting my head. These people are annoying, running around and yelling. This drink is awful, way too strong. And it took us 30 minutes just to get in. The club scene has never been for me, I prefer to be home, or working, or working at home. But when my friends say Juliett is coming out, I force myself out. It’s worth it to see her, moving like an aerialist's silk ribbon on the dance floor, elegant, graceful, beautiful. And here I am, standing in my usual spot off the main floor, with the same bad drink in hand, surrounded by the same annoying people, watching in silence. “Hey! Hey, Michael!” One of my friends, Austin, appears through the mass of people toward me, “Ya, know. We’ve been coming here, what? Every week for about two years?” “Ever since we started working together, yes.” I responded. “Right. Well my point is, at LEAST half those times, Juliett has come with us and just about everyone knows you have the hots for her and you’ve never tried to talk to her once!” “We’ve had this conversation before,” I retort, “I can’t just walk up to her, she’ll think I’m weird.” “Well I think you’re weird and you still come and walk up to me.” From behind me now, another of my friends, Dylan, enters the conversation, “Austin’s right, you wanna spend every Friday in this corner watching her?” “I already do.” “Yes, and we all know how much fun you have every time.” I assume he meant that jokingly. The last of the friends I came with tonight saw our gathering and made his way over, Morgan, “Juliett?” He looked at Dylan and Austin, they nodded. “Alright.” Morgan said and in one fell swoop, Austin took my drink, Dylan laughed and Morgan lifted me up and began carrying me onto the dance floor. Being a good foot taller than me and this not being an uncommon occurrence already, he had little trouble in the matter. “Morgan I know what you’re trying to do but I do not need nor do I what your help in this matter, I have a plan and all I-” mid sentence I’m dropped and I stumble in a bid to keep my feet under me. As I am about to walk back the way I came I hear a voice from behind me, “Wanna dance?” It comes just loud enough to hear above the bass of the music but just soft enough to know who’s lips it came from.

Juliett. Now, it’s true I’ve never spoken to her but I’ve heard her speak many times before. If the scent of lavender had a voice, it would be hers, so easy to listen to and gentle on the ears. “Michael? Wanna dance?” It came again. I turn around to meet the words, and there, in that flowy yellow satin dress she wears just about every time we come here, her lush, wavy brown hair cascading onto her shoulders, and her big brown eyes staring up at me, I forget how to speak. “Y-yes, I’m Michael.” She laughs. Not at me though, with me. I nervously smile and respond again, “I don’t know how to dance.” “That’s ok, neither do I. Just feel the music move through your body and stay close to me.” She smiles at me and I nod. For the first time I actually listened to the music around me, I felt its beats at my chest and moved my body in turn. It was like a heartbeat, the heartbeat of happy people. Sharing their bodies with those around them in this nonverbal display of letting go. It was intoxicating. Where she moved, I moved. I don’t know if I was any good, but that didn’t matter, and it didn’t seem like it mattered to her either. In those moments it was us in our most primal display of emotions. The lights danced around us like an epic opera and we were its main characters.

Juliett grabs my hand and runs off the dance floor, half dragging me along through the crowd. I heard what could only be Austin, Morgan and Dylan from somewhere off on my right, hooping and hollering like I had just scored the game winning point. Thanks guys. We make our way down the stairs that lead to the club, out the door and onto the street. I have no idea where she’s taking me but I don’t care, this night is something that has only existed in my dreams until now. Making our way down the crowded city block proves to be no easy feat and we’re forced to slow our pace. Being able to take in the moment now I catch my breath and she catches hers. “What was all that?” I ask, smiling between my panting. “Some fun.” Juliett responds, coyly. “Well ok then. Then where are we going?” Before she can speak it suddenly starts to rain. Again she runs ahead, pulling me into a side alley. We make for an awning above a fire escape for some shelter. She stops and whips around abruptly. I run her head into my chest from the momentum, which I was about to apologize for, before she reaches up and grabs the right side of my face with her soft, delicate hand. I close my eyes at the sudden feeling of safety and warmth it brings me. I open to see her deep brown eyes staring into my very soul. I can’t help but feel enraptured by the moment unfolding before my eyes. Maybe I belong here. I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. I open my mouth to speak but am met with Juliett’s interdiction in the form of a finger on my lips “No, not another word. Just, live in this moment. Right now. With me. Ok?” I slowly nod. In this moment I’ll do whatever you say. I’ll follow you to the ends of this world and the next if you ask. I am yours. We stand there in that alley, holding each other. Away from it all, the rain, the crowds, the world. What could have either been an eternity or a split second passes and Juliett inches her head closer to mine, pursing her lips and closing her eyes. This is all happening so fast, and it’s even better than anything I’ve dreamt of. A perfect night. In fact, is this a dream? It has to be right. Then, as if reading my very thoughts she goes “This isn’t a dream..” Still inching her face toward mine. She has to be here, this has to be real. This is really happening, isn’t it? I have to give in to this moment. I won’t stay on the sidelines forever. My eyes close and lips purse to meet her.

“Juliett..I..” I manage to breath out from my lips before I hear a sudden and harsh intake of breath coming from her. Did I step on her foot? Did she open her eyes and finally realize what she was doing? I feel her feet shuffle slightly and she becomes heavy to hold. I tighten my grip around her body. Maybe she's going for an embrace instead? Wait, what’s that liquid on her back? Did she lay in something when I didn’t see? Maybe someone spilled their drink on her at the club. But it’s warm. Really warm. I can feel it oozing around my hand now. I can’t take it, I open my eyes again to see her, my sweet Juliett’s face draining of its vibrant color, her honey pot hazel eyes no longer looking longingly at me, but blankly up at the sky. Her body sags, as I realize I am now the sole force keeping it up. I bring my hand up to see that it’s covered in blood. Her blood. I panic, I drop her.

Not Juliett. Everything she is and everything she was crumples to the hard concrete alley like a discarded trash pile. I can’t breathe, I can’t move. I hear something above the rain, laughing? A deep and foreboding kind of laughter. In my horror I hadn’t noticed the man standing just behind Juliett’s body. With bloodied blade in hand hanging at his side the figure stands tall and gaunt but shrouded in shadow despite being under a streetlight. It’s as if he is a manifestation of the dark itself. He looms above her, cackling an almost disembodied laugh, staring down at his work. Frozen, I’m frozen. He looks up at me and seems to burst even louder. He steps toward me. Where did Juliett go? Her body was right in front of him. Another step. The man now holds two bloodied daggers at his sides. Another step. We’re in an alley, but not the one we were just in. At least I don’t think it is. It’s not raining anymore. He’s farther from me but I still can’t move. Another step. I can just make out a face in the swirling darkness. It’s Austin. No wait, it’s Dylan. Now it’s Morgan. Laughing simultaneously in their voices, I can’t look away. Another step.”You killed her, you know.” It speaks in a horrid amalgamation of 20 voices speaking at once. No, please. This is no dream of mine, it’s a nightmare. Another step. The vortex of black clouds swirl to reveal another face. It’s..me. Staring into my own crazed wild eyes I see something I was always afraid to. Myself. “This is what you are.” It speaks without moving its lips, like a voice speaking from inside my own skull. Another step. All lights suddenly shut off, it’s pitch black. Nothing but his laugh fills my head. My laugh. I scream.

In an exceedingly grey and desolately drab stone room sits two men at a set of work stations featuring many screens and switches on each, the words ‘Purgatory: Inmate Control’ emblazoned on the wall behind them. They sit almost lazily scanning the various monitors at their disposal until one is shot out of his trance by an alarm. He leans forward in his chair toward one of the screens. “Hey, check it out, he’s screaming again.” He says, looking toward the other man. “It’s just another session. Mute it will ya, it’s hurting my ears.” The second man states without meeting his gaze. The first man, with one more look, flips a switch under his rested hand. The monitor in front of him shows a man, naked and emaciated, stretched across a plain metal table. The surrounding room is strewn with various wires coming from him, hooking up to the many machines placed around the space. The only thing of color to be seen, a fiery red heart shaped locket, dangling off a hook at the head of the table inscribed with the letter ‘J’. There it watches over Michael, screaming in silence.