The Beginning is the End is the Beginning

Sidonie Osborne
Ms. Souza
English I, Period 1
October 18, 2010


“Shh,” I shushed Lucius, “You have to be quiet or I swear, I swear I’ll leave you here alone.”
“I’m sorry, my love,” he said in a whisper. Lucius looked around and shrugged, “So… have you told your family?”
“No, I cannot. My sister… she would rat us out. She has always been jealous of me. I can’t put you in that kind of danger.”
“You should tell them, Bella, it’s the right thing to do. If I die, as long as it is with you, it will not be in vain.”
Lucius was my best friend, and an all around good man. He made a wonderful husband—even though he wasn’t supposed to be. If someone found out about our marriage, there would be consequences; consequences as serious as death.
It was hot, too hot for my taste, and too late as well. Lucius and I had snuck out to a small marsh near my home for the third night in a row and the late nights had finally started to catch up on me. I struggled to stay awake.
“I’m struggling to stay awake,” I heard myself say, and suddenly my feet were off the ground.
“I’ll carry you home,” Lucius whispered into my ear. He held me with ease, and walked with such a familiar rhythm that I soon found myself waking up to the sound of birds chirping in my room. Once again, this boy had amazed me with his ways.
“Good morning, Bella, how did you sleep?” said my mother as she set out berries to eat. I grunted and my sisters laughed. They were always laughing at me. I was exactly the middle child out of 7 girls, and nothing about being in the middle was good. Either I was too old, or too young. It was always, “no, Bella, you can’t go with your sisters. Wait a few years,” or, “Bella, you’re too old for such childish behavior. You must set an example for the younger ones.”
I was nearly 16, and couldn’t even fathom what things would be like if I was not the one who was blamed for everything in my family. My parents expected a lot of me, which was why I had to hide so much from them.
As much as I loved Lucius, the one thing that bothered me about him was that he had a great home life, which meant that he could never understand what I went through every day. His parents trusted him, and gave him lots of freedom. This could have been because he was a male, but even so, he didn’t understand.
I ate my berries in silence while my mother tried to make conversation with me and my sisters. When I was finished, I went out to meet Lucius. I walked to the Fontana di Trevi next to the piazza dei Crociferi—our usual meeting spot—and threw a coin into the fountain. It was said that if you threw a coin into the fountain you would get a wish, but each time I did it, my wish never came true. Why do I even bother? I wondered to myself. I wish nobody ever finds out about Lucius and my marriage.
I waited on a step in front of the fountain for Lucius. When I saw him approach, I stood and hugged him. He kissed my hand and I smiled. Suddenly I felt a chill, and turned around. There were several people in the plaza, but none I recognized. Nobody’s eyes met mine, so I turned back to Lucius.
“Is something wrong?” he asked with genuine concern.
“No, I just got cold,” I replied, a not genuine answer. Lucius offered his cloak to me, but I declined it. I just wanted to leave the plaza.
We walked around the square for a bit and talked about our marriage and future. We couldn’t be together, it wasn’t allowed, and my dear Lucius was supposed to go off to war soon. The government was knowingly ruining my plans. Not only my plans, but all girls’ plans. By outlawing marriage and sending all men who were able to war, Emperor Claudius II was a terrible tyrant in the eyes of many young girls such as me. Thank the Lord, however, that people such as San Valentino believed in love still.
I felt that chill again and turned around quickly, just in time to catch a stream of long, dark red hair swoosh behind a nearby pillar. I knew instantly who it was.
“We need to go. Now,” I said to Lucius and grabbed his hand, running through the plaza towards his home. I turned back as we were running and saw my sister Aella running in the other direction. I cursed under my breath and tears sprang into my eyes.
When we got to Lucius’ house, his parents were home as well as all of his siblings. They noticed right away that I was upset.
“Isabella, what are you crying about, love?” Lucius’ mother asked me.
“I…” I couldn’t get the words out. “Goodbye,” was all I managed to say, and then I bawled into my hands. I felt as if my tears would never end. It was as if the Fontana di Trevi was coming out of my eyes. When I finally calmed down enough to speak, Lucius’ family was looking at me, waiting for an explanation. I wiped my wet hands on my hand-me-down tunic and told them about how my sister had been following us on our walk. I told them about how it was likely that she had heard us talking about our secret marriage, and that it was even more likely that she was alerting someone of a higher power than us.
No one spoke. We all knew what was coming.
“I need to go home,” I said quietly. Lucius and his family all walked me to my too small house and stood outside while I went inside to see my family one last time.
“Why are your eyes red and puffy?” my favorite sister, Sabia, asked. She was the only one of my sisters who did not hurt me. I hugged her and right on cue, as if in a story, I heard yelling outside, then a group of large strangers barged into our usually safe home. The next thing I felt was unfamiliar hands wrapped around each of my arms, dragging me away from my family. My mother screamed, and my sisters scattered around the house. My father tried to grab me back, but the men holding me were too strong. They were without a doubt soldiers. I felt tears streaming down my cheeks, but I didn’t struggle. Outside, Lucius’ family was all crying and being told to step away, while Lucius was being dragged away just like me. I saw Aella walk into the house and smirk. I couldn’t make out what my family was saying inside.
“You did this?!” my mother screeched loudly enough for it to be heard across the plaza.
“I wanted her horse,” Aella said nonchalantly.
Well you got your wish, hag, I thought and cursed her. I looked at Lucius, our eyes met; his filling with tears much like mine had a short time ago. We were dragged by the heavy soldiers to a dingy building that had only a high beam across the ceiling with ropes hanging down from it and a platform from which we would meet our brutal death. The soldiers bound Lucius and my hands together with rope, as well as our ankles. We were told to stand on the platform. We looked at each other and kissed once as dark bags were placed over each of our heads. Then I felt heavy ropes around my neck.
“I love you,” said Lucius.
“And I love you,” I replied with tears in my eyes.
“Remember when I said that if I died, it would not be in vain as long as it was with you? I still mean that. I am proud of this death, because it is in the name of love.”
I couldn’t breathe, my head was spinning, and my face was soaked with snot and tears. The room was cold, and as far as I could tell, it was dark. It reeked of death and despair. It was as if I could hear the souls of the executed screeching at me, their voices shrill and pained. I sucked in a breath and braced myself. The last thing I heard was the sound of ropes tightening.
I saw my body dangling limply from the beam next to Lucius’s, my shoulder-length, braided, auburn hair poked out from underneath the bag over my head. I suddenly felt something cold next to me. I looked and saw that it was a much more pale and sickly-looking version of Lucius. His brown eyes looked deeply into mine.
“We’re free,” the apparition said. “Free at last.”
I reached for his hand, wondering if I would still be able to feel him in my new form. Everything seemed to glow, and while I knew that this was the end of my human life, it was also the beginning of what I had wanted all along, to spend eternity with my husband whom I died for.