The Cult of Romeo

IV. The Three Sisters of Fate

Act 1, Scene 4

Jackie Keller died in hospital earlier this evening. With her parents halfway across the world and betrayal in her memories, she passed from blood loss, completing the star-crossed lovers' fate.

Now, even as I cowered within the comfort of my dorm room, I couldn't pluck the picture of her out of my mind. It was etched permanently in the forefront along with the sound of Elijah's retching. Flushed cheeks and piercing blue eyes that were already slipping away by the time we'd found her. Beautiful Jackie Keller.

Beautiful and dead, Jackie Keller.

With only the faint yellow light of her bedside lamp, my best friend, Beatrix Fitzgerald, read the school newspaper's article about the murders to me aloud. Her voice carried in a faint whisper and I only barely heard her above the sounds of wildlife outside.

She had already pulled her bonnet over her braids and was tucked neatly into bed with her back against the headboard. I wished it were that easy for me to find sleep. Instead, I stared up at the ceiling as I traced patterns in the paint with my eyes.

"This is awful," Beatrix told me. "Nora Takahashi - that girl is cruel. This whole article is just monopolizing people's fears. Describing dead bodies and whatnot."

She paused a moment, her breathing deep enough to make me think she might've fallen asleep.

"I can still hear him." Beatrix finally said. "When I try to sleep, I can hear Elijah dying. It was- It was just so loud, you know? I thought he was acting...I should have..." She trailed off gently.

I turned on my side to face her. She was barely visible through the darkness.

"You couldn't have done anything, Beatrix. It was already too late by the time everyone even realised he was having a reaction."

"I tell myself that but it doesn't get any easier."

I let her words marinate in the air. I loved how open Beatrix was, nothing was a mystery when I was with her. When everything else in my life was beyond my reach, my best friend wasn't.

Before I could've replied, Beatrix beat me to it. "Will you tell me a story, Charlie."

I rubbed my eyes and thought for a second. Sometimes in the night like this, when Beatrix and I just whispered back and forth with little thought, our room felt bigger. That darkness that festered in the deepest corners of the bedroom felt even gloomier now and the silence that more devouring.

"Okay, I have one. It's called The Three Sisters of Fate," I answered.

Carefully, I pulled myself up into a sitting position and pushed my hair behind my shoulders. I caught a glimpse of my Fleetwood Mac poster and breathed out shakily.

"In Greek mythology, there are three sisters, Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos. It is said that together, they are stronger than even the King of the Gods, Zeus. They have very important jobs that don't very much concern the Gods at all, it concerns us. See, they're weavers of fate - a human's fate. With a simple thread, they see to it all." I paused for a moment and checked to see if Beatrix was still awake. She was, so I continued.

"Clotho is the youngest. She twists and spins the threads of life from the very moment a child is born. Then, whilst spinning, her older sister Lachesis shapes and defines the life. She is the middle sister and is responsible for deciding the fate of this person. She is careful and precise while deciding the quality and length of a human life. She decides at what age to end the life but not how.

"Then, the oldest sister, Atropos, has the gloomiest task of all. She decides how to conclude that life and makes the final cut of the string before moving onto the next. She decides how a person will die, why then and not later and so on. Everything that happens to us has already been planned out in a world far away from our own by sisters who see it all but understand nothing."