Juliet Immortal

I pull back to see Ben’s face, to wipe the damp away, and scream
.
    It’s Romeo. And his mouth is full of blood
.
    He laughs as I scramble from his embrace, more red horror dripping from his lips. He’s lapped my blood from the floor of the tomb, but the terrible secret won’t stay inside him. “Soft, what light through
yonder window breaks? Break. Break. Break!” His screeching reaches a torturous crescendo and his teeth shatter into tiny daggers. They fly into my eyes, blinding me
.
    I scream and scream and—
    “Ariel! What’s going on?”
    My eyes blink against the harsh light and my heart races even faster. Where am I? I blink again. An angry woman stands at the door, blond hair sticking up on one side, eyes swollen from sleep. Who is she? What’s happening? What—
    “Answer me, honey.” She crosses her arms and furrows her brow. “What’s wrong? I thought you were hurt. Why were you screaming like that, Ariel?”
    Ariel
. That’s right. The twenty-first century, California, the girl with the white-blond hair. Romeo in the car, and nothing in the mirror.
    Nothing. Late, late into the night, using a dozen different mirrors, and still
nothing
. Nothing and more nothing until the absence of the golden light brought tears of frustration and fear, until I curled into bed in my bloody clothes, too tired to bother with the shower down the hall.
    I pull the sheets to my chin, not wanting Melanie to see me in the clothes I wore last night. “I was just … I was having a bad dream.”
    She lets out a long, tired breath. “God. Some dream. I thought—”
    The honk of a horn makes her turn to look over her shoulder, then back at me with a puzzled expression. “Is that Gemma already? What time is it? Why aren’t you ready for school?”
    Oh no. I forgot to set an alarm! I allowed my focus to beeaten alive by worry, and now I’m going to be late for my first day of school. Unless …
    “I’ll be ready in five minutes. Will you tell her that I’ll be right out?”
    “I’m supposed to be sleeping,” Melanie says. “I have to work until two a.m. tonight, Ariel.”
    “I know. I’m sorry. But please, Mom? Will you—”
    “Fine.” She sighs again and recrosses her arms, huddling against the morning. “But then I’m going back to bed and you need to get your act together. Senior year isn’t over yet.”
    As soon as she turns to leave I leap from the bed, pulling off clothes and hurling them into the air, stumbling over my feet as I grab clean underwear and a pair of jeans from the drawers. Socks of two different colors come next, and then a white camisole. I spin, scramble over the bed, grab the first sweater my hands brush against from the closet and pull it over my head. It’s pink, with brown yarn knots on the front. I grab brown shoes to match the knots, making some effort to look as if I’m not falling apart. Romeo could be at school today.
    I swallow, my throat tight, the memory of my dream making me shiver. I can’t let him know I’m afraid, can’t let him see that I’m lost, abandoned. I hurry to the vanity, pull my brush through hair that still smells of baby wipes. Ben was right; they really do clean up everything.
    Ben
. My cheeks burn. I dreamt about him, too, about the way it would feel to … love him. I’ve never loved anyone but Romeo; I know I will never love anyone again, but still the dream felt so real.
    “Ariel!” Melanie’s shout startles me from my thoughts. “Move it! Gemma’s waiting.”
    I throw the brush back onto the vanity, grateful that Ariel’s hair is stick straight. It doesn’t look as if I bled on it, wiped it clean with baby wipes, then slept on it while it was damp. I look pretty, considering I’ve dressed in less time than it takes most people to roll out of bed. I know Melanie won’t be pleased to see me leaving the house without makeup, but what she doesn’t know …
    I wait until I hear her bedroom door slam before slipping out of my room and hurrying down the hall to the bathroom. I brush my teeth and smear on sunscreen, remembering that Ariel has to be careful to protect her skin, and am running through the kitchen less than five minutes from when I woke.
    I grab my backpack and Melanie’s cell and consider trying to find something to eat, but then remember the way the hunk of cheese rolled in my belly and dash out the door. There’s a bakery not far from school. Maybe Gemma will want to stop there. We’ll have time; I haven’t