A Tobusucs Next Door

Romeo and Juliet

After a few more days of lounging and reading and trying to stay alive, I was finally allowed to go home. Once I got inside, I slung my suitcase inside and literally dropped to the floor. I was in love with my house, and even the regretful torture I witnessed here last did not stain my heart which rested here. I opened the huge cardboard box I left in the doorway and brought out all of the cards and flowers that survived. Once again I cast a careful gaze over them before I pushed the box into the corner of the room. I stood up and looked around. It was just as I left it, but cleaner. Snowball trotted past my feet and curled up into her bed. I had picked her up on the way home because Toby left details at which dog minder she was at. I was about to walk past the dining table beside the back door but I froze. A flashback entered my mind:

I screeched and wriggled but Austin had me tied tight. As soon as I had woken up I had started screaming and crying because I found him carving angrily into my left forearm. I remembered gurgling on my own blood and the absolute blistering fury on Austin's face while I shook with pain. The blood had run onto the carpet and the room smelled thickly of it. Once he left I began to remember a knocking at the back door but that's it. Then everything went blank. Toby doesn't even know that I love him back. Did he even save me? I can't remember! I rubbed at my eyes sadly before trailing into the kitchen, trying to make something distract me. I opened up the cupboards to make some coffee then I froze. All the plates and glasses that had been smashed were replaced. Someone bought me more. Without knowing where the sudden anger came from it rocketed angrily into my brain and I couldn't resist seizing a bowl and hurling it across the room. Once it smashed even more flashbacks entered my mind. It's like I could hear screaming coming from inside the walls and the smell of fresh blood was everywhere. I ended up in tears and I ran upstairs quickly and into my bedroom. I slammed the door shut like something was chasing me and the noises stopped. The deafening silence was killing me and I slowly dropped to my knees, next to the wall where I can usually hear Toby. I rested my head against the cold wall and bit back tears. I couldn't kid myself. He wasn't there. I curled into a ball and started humming to myself. Like I was mental. Maybe I was? My eyelids drooped and I fell asleep, which was something I was almost afraid to do. In case something was waiting for me. On the other side...

LATER

My screams echoed around the house as I woke up in a cold sweat. The darkened room scared me even more as I seemed to see shapes dart around. As my eyes adjusted, I calmed down. I was still curled up on the floor in my bedroom, so my limbs were stiff. My dream. It showed me exactly what happened that night. I suddenly remembered Toby's revelation, and that in my last breath I said I loved him too. Tears were down my face by now, realizing he did know I loved him, but he still left me to be with Olga. He did say he liked her right? So it's time to move on. I got up and smoothed down my clothes before checking the time. It was nine already. I didn't feel like sleeping again so instead I lazily dragged a blanket off my bed and trailed it downstairs. I fell onto the sofa and curled up, wrapping the creamy cover all over me. I snuggled up and switched on the TV. Wanting to watch a sad romantic movie, I flicked on Romeo and Juliet. Even after the prologue of the movie I was bawling my head off. Star crossed lovers. That's what me and Toby are. Lovers whose doom is written in stars, and cannot be changed. We were doomed to be apart forever. I buried my face in the blanket and wept gently, sniffing and wiping away the thick tears. I watched the movie the whole way through, and then came the saddest scene of all. Juliet isn't really dead, merely asleep. Romeo kills himself just as she wakes up, then she kills herself after. The most tragic love story of our time. I was in a coma, not really dead. Toby leaves, and when I wake up, he's gone. Then I kill myself with my own sorrow. Or I kill myself properly. I looked over at the knife on the table I had just used to eat my dinner. I managed to push those thoughts away as the movie ended.

"For never was a story of more woe,

Than this of Juliet and her Romeo." It finished quietly and the silent credits came on, just as a bright light shined through the front window like headlights...