𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝓚𝓲𝓷𝓰'𝓼 𝓡𝓸𝓼𝓮

Chapter Thirty-Seven: Who Lives, Who Dies

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"A-Alice... Alice!" I fell to my knees beside the girl, who was coughing up an alarming amount of blood.

"My girl! My baby! You're alive!" Jerome wept, "And I've killed you! Is this God's cruel way of punishing me for my sins? Oh no, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry!"

"D-Dad..." Alice coughed up blood, "I forgive y-you."

Jerome choked on his own tears, picking the gun back up, "But how can I forgive myself? God... Have mercy..." he cried as he held the gun to his head.

Before anyone could move, he pulled the trigger, splattering even more blood on the balcony. I gagged as his lifeless body fell to the floor. George sank down beside me, wrapping an arm around my shoulders as I grasped Alice's hand.

"He was-was b-broken." Alice said weakly, as a tear fell down her cheek, "Has been f-for as long as I-I can remember."

"He told us his daughter died..." I sobbed.

"I took her in. That's what I was trying to tell him. I'd never kill a child, let alone for something so petty as tax evasion." George spat angrily.

So that was it. Alice had been left to take the heat for her father's mistakes, and George allowed her to live at the castle. It had all been a misunderstanding. So much bad had come from a misunderstanding. Suddenly, the balcony door creaked open, to reveal some weary and worried guests, among them, Trinity, Anthony, and Samuel.

"We heard gunshots, is everything-" Anthony stopped short upon seeing the scene layed out before him.

Jerome laying motionless on the ground in a pool of blood, a gun in his lifeless hand. And Alice, coughing up blood and laying on her deathbed. Trinity gasped when she saw her, and immediately fell to her knees at Alice's side, tears welling in her eyes. Hadn't we seen our share of death already? God couldn't take Alice too. No, he wouldn't, we'd help her, she'd live.

"Get a doctor! Somebody get a doctor!" I called to the crowd, and a few of them disappeared in search of help.

"Oh, Alice!" Trinity wept.

"Shh-" Alice spluttered, "It's okay, I'm okay..."

"You're not!" she cried, "What the hell happened?!"

"Alice saved our lives." I whispered through tears.

"Seemed like th-the honourable thing to do..." Alice chuckled, clenching her side where the gunshot was.

She closed her eyes, and her breathing grew sparse, and for a brief moment, I'd thought we lost her.

"No, don't leave us, no!" Trinity begged.

We all released a collective breath of relief when she opened her eyes again, her face growing weaker and weaker by the second.

"Trinity, please... Don't be sad." she coughed, "I'm going to be okay, no matter what happens."

None of us realized it then, but Alice was counting on dying, of being with Anne and Darwin, her mother and father, in heaven.

"You've come so far, you're so different from your mother, and if she could see you know, she'd know what a mistake she made in leaving you, Trinity." Alice took in a shaky breath, before turning her head to face me, "And Rose. You are such a brave and strong woman, I know you'll be the greatest Queen-" she coughed again, "The greatest Queen Britain has ever seen... You're so strong..." finally, she turned to George, "Thank you, for what you did all those years ago. You saved me, and I'll never be able to repay you for that."