There was a fight
It was bad
Juliet
Oh my god, are you okay?
I’m okay
But my friend is hurt
And a Capulet
I’m scared
Where are you?
A few blocks away
I can’t go home
My uncle says to go to the police
But what if they arrest me
Then you’d get sent to Paris
And we’d never see each other again
My studio!
My dance studio. You’re not far.
I have a key. I’m there so often, they gave me one.
I have to go home and get the signature first.
But I’ll meet you there.
You’ll be safe there.
How long?
An hour.
It feels like twenty years
Be careful!
11:58 PM
Mom
Have you seen your cousin?
Ros
About 5’3”, big eyes, wearing a tutu
Yeah
I’ve seen her
Don’t be a smartass. My sister just texted.
They’re worried. She’s not home.
She said she had a ride!
Where did you last see her?
I don’t know, at the school
She was with a boy
There was a fight
Police and stuff
Maybe she got stuck there
There were police? You got your 14
year old cousin arrested??
God mom you’re the one who insisted I take her!
She told me she had a ride!
I couldn’t exactly drag her out!
She’s very small. You could have.
Her father just called. How my sister lives with that man.
But Juliet is a child! You should have kept track of her!
I don’t
Know where
She is
And I’m pissed that you’re making this my fault
Call her.
Rosaline?
Fine yeah whatever
I’m calling
She’s not picking up
12:03 AM
Mother
Where are you
You bitch
You selfish little bitch
Juliet
I’m sorry, Mommy.
I love you.
I’ll be home soon.
12:10 AM
Romeo
I love you
I’m sorry tonight got so out of control
You’re the most important thing in the world
And I swear I’m going to protect you
Hurry back to me
1:35 AM
Uncle Laurence
Oh my god.
What are these photos?
Who is that?
Romeo
Juliet
So will you help us or not
Her father did that?
Yes
Because she got home late
That’s why her mother signed the permission
Go to the police! And the hospital!
She’s a minor
The hospital would call her parents
And if he finds her again tonight after she left
He knows the police too
He owns half the town
She’ll never be safe here
Please
Uncle Laurence
This is life and death
Are you somewhere safe now?
Yes
Okay. This is insane. That poor child.
Do you have the signature from her mother?
Yes
How did you get mixed up in this?
I love her
That’s the only thing that matters
When you get older, you’ll see it differently.
But I’ll do what I can to help.
1:43 AM
Juliet
I need to borrow your car.
Cousin Rosaline
Oh so now you’re answering
Also last time I checked you’re 14
I tried calling you so many times
I’m in trouble because of you
I’m with someone who can drive.
We need a car.
Who are you with?
It doesn’t matter.
Omg
You’re with him aren’t you
Romeo
Juliet he’s a psycho
Where are you I’m coming to get you
Juliet?
Listen I know your parents have issues
but you have paris to look forward to
Far away from all this
Alone.
Yeah exactly alone
No parents to worry about!
Thanks for taking me to the party, Rosaline.
I appreciated you reaching out.
Bye.
1:45 AM
Montague Mavericks group chat
Romeo
I need your car
Ben
Where tf r y
U
Where tf r u
The police r looking for you
I’m at the hospital
Tio’s awake but
It’s bad
It’s really bad
Romeo
I know
I’m sorry
But I need your car
Or Tio’s
Tio
Fuck you
And fuck capulet
Fuck everyone
Ben
we never should have been there
we should have been there for u
Romeo
I came back!
I fought for him
Ben
I love u but u scare me
u made everything fucking worse, man
Romeo
I didn’t make any of this happen
Blame the costumes
Blame the stars
Ben
Why did u even have a knife
Tio
A knife?
Where is ty
Is ty okay
Guys answer me
1:46 AM
Tio
Ty?
Ty?
Ty?
Im sorry
1:47 AM
Romeo
Look I really need a car
It’s life and death
Ben
…
…
…
They had to sedate Tio
I cant make tonight about u
1:55 AM
CAPULET’S GET IT ON group chat
Ava B
Ty’s going to survive
Chris
Thank god
Jaden
Oh thank god
Ava C
I can’t stop crying
Ava B
But they think he was dating that other guy
The one you beat up
Why wouldn’t he tell us?
Jaden
No way
No fucking way
We talk all the time
Chris
Yeah we text like a hundred times a day
We would know
Jaden
We know him
We talk
Ava C
You text you mean
Ros
Have the police found Romeo
Ava B
Not that I know of
Ros
Shit
2:05 AM
Ros
Mom I think Juliet’s in trouble
I think she’s with this creepy guy
He stabbed someone tonight
Mom
What?????
They’re asking for a car
She wanted mine
They won’t be at his house or hers
The police are looking f
or him
Oh my god. That poor girl.
Where would they be?
Omg
She has a key to the ballet studio
She said she was locking it up
I bet that’s it
I’m calling the police right now.
You’re a good cousin, sweetheart.
She’s lucky you’re looking out for her.
We’ll get her home so she can go to Paris.
We won’t let this criminal ruin her life.
2:16 AM
Ty
I’m sorry
I’m so sorry
I’m so sorry
I was so scared
I’m sorry
2:37 AM
Juliet
Oh no.
There are so many cops outside.
You were right.
They haven’t seen me.
And they don’t have a key.
But we don’t have a car.
We can’t get away.
Romeo
Come back
But what are we going to do?
I can’t go home.
I can’t.
I know
I won’t let that happen
Come back to the dressing room
We’ll be together
No matter what
You’re so beautiful, Juliet
I love you so much
Nothing is going to separate us
3:14 AM
Mom
They found Juliet.
Ros
Oh good
I warned her!!
Did they arrest Romeo
…
…
…
DREAMING OF THE DARK
Inspired by Julius Caesar
Lindsay Smith
O mighty Caesar! Dost thou lie so low?
Are all thy conquests, glories, triumphs, spoils,
Shrunk to this little measure? Fare thee well.
—I know not, gentlemen, what you intend,
Who else must be let blood, who else is rank.
If I myself, there is no hour so fit
As Caesar’s death’s hour, nor no instrument
Of half that worth as those your swords, made rich
With the most noble blood of all this world.
I do beseech ye, if you bear me hard,
Now, whilst your purpled hands do reek and smoke,
Fulfill your pleasure. Live a thousand years,
I shall not find myself so apt to die.
No place will please me so, no mean of death,
As here by Caesar, and by you cut off,
The choice and master spirits of this age.
—ANTONY, ACT 3, SCENE 1
Briony and Cassie are too busy making eyes at the boys’ lacrosse team to pay attention to the memorial assembly for our dead best friend. But no one will look at us too closely—they see the skin we wear. Their whispers drift around us, their fear crackles like dead leaves. When Julia was here, she was the lightning rod for their fear. But now, I fear so much more.
“Westbrook Romans,” Principal Carthage intones, because a memorial assembly is clearly the time to remind us of our sports mascot. We’re crammed into the drafty field house that usually hosts pep rallies, basketball games, and homecoming dances—I’m half expecting the marching band to storm in. “We are gathered here today to say farewell to one of our own.”
As if there’s much of Julia left to say farewell to. I still see it when I close my eyes. I’ve got the strongest stomach of any of us—I had to, to hold my own with her—but the smell of burning rubber and the sight of intestines draped over a steering column proved hard to scrub away.
But now—right now—I don’t want to scrub it away. I need that power. I need that hate. And Julia—god, if there’s one thing she knew how to do, it was provoke. Briony and Cassie rub their thumbs over rough crystals, readying for tonight, dreaming of the Dark. Gathering their strength. But watching them gives me the strength I’ll need to see this through.
The initial slap of Julia’s death has stopped stinging, and what’s left behind is different for us all. For Briony and Cassie, it’s the void now at the dark heart of our summoning circle and the question of who will fill it. For me, it’s the weight of everything Julia left undone.
“Julia Simmons was a bright girl,” the principal continues. “A pillar of our student body.”
Bitch, most would say. Tyrant. They wouldn’t be wrong. It was never about who Julia was, though. It was what she made out of the rest of us.
“Her kindness and generosity should be an inspiration to us all.”
Julia had claimed Westbrook’s greatest treasure for herself, and it got her killed. There was nothing generous in it. Nothing kind about her leaving me behind.
But the worst part is that Cassie thinks Julia’s place is something that she’s earned.
“The Shade won’t regret this,” she mutters to Briony. “We can actually use her gifts for good.”
Briony’s eyes catch on mine as she leans forward to answer; she quickly looks away. “I guess we’ll find out tonight what the Shade thinks.”
* * *
The lost cemetery outside Westbrook Township at night is a study in negatives: the vast star-strewn sky blotted out by the looming blackness of uneven mausoleums and worn-down statues and dark veins of bare tree branches. But it’s sacred and silent, save the sounds of seven pairs of boots stomping through dead leaves. Like we all sense, somehow, how soon everything is about to change. Over my shoulder, Cassie bitches about stubbing her toe on a headstone because she can’t see, but Julia hushes her.
“No lights until we’re there,” Julia says.
Cassie flicks her phone screen on with a sneer but kills it just as fast and shoves it away.
“Okay. Here.”
Julia stops, and I nearly crash into her—steady myself on my arm. Risk a nervous squeeze. I can’t see her face, but I feel her smile in the flex of muscle and shift of her shoulders, and that small allowance is enough to fuel me for tonight.
The hurricane lantern sputters to life with an oily stink. Julia kicks at the leaves, unearthing a square, stone platform sunk deep into the ground. “Gross, what is it?” Eun-Min asks. “Like, some sacrificial altar?”
Cassie snorts. “Well, now it is.”
“That isn’t funny,” Briony says.
“Shut up. All of you.” Julia’s glare is whetted by the harsh light and shadow as she turns to look at me. “Anamaria?”
I shrug the duffel off my shoulder with a clank of thick glass.
The thing about the gift is, it doesn’t matter how you call on it, not really. What matters is believing. What matters is knowing yourself and what you have to bargain with. And Julia—there is nothing she wouldn’t give.
“They call you the Westbrook Shade,” Julia intones, once we’ve gone through the intricacies of lighting the candles and incense and flecking the stone with our blood. “We know, though, that you are much older than Westbrook itself.”
The tar that binds the stones. The darkness that swallows the light. If the words are in our hearts, our ears, or our heads—we have no choice but to let them in.
The seven of us have forged an uneasy bond of shared hunger: hunger for the power of the Dark that lives beneath the town. Hunger to make use of this shiver in our blood and whisper in our hearts, convinced we’re all capable of more than what the town of Westbrook wants from us. But seven people wanting the same thing—how could we expect it to end any other way?
“You were here before Westbrook, and you will be here long after this town devours itself with hate,” Julia says. “We come to you with ourselves as offering. We will be the vessels for your will.”
They say the Westbrook Shade was once named Philippa; that she was just a girl like us. What she bargained with and why is lost to time, but her anger echoes throughout the town. No one speaks her name if they can help it. No one questions the
fortune she’s brought. Westbrook is hers to toy with as she pleases, and whoever gains her favor gains Westbrook.
And if her words and her shadow follow you through a bitter Westbrook night—the worst thing you can do is run.
The candles gutter like a chord playing out. “Oh, hell, no,” Shemella mutters to my left as the flames shift.
“Westbrook Shade?” Julia says, and I like to think I’m the only one who hears the uncertainty beneath her tone. “I am here to bargain. Grant us all your power, and I will bring you what you ask.”
A dark laugh rings like a stone thrown in a pond. Such a lovely, pampered life you lead … Is Westbrook not already yours?
My throat clenches. Julia’s parents own half of Westbrook, it’s true. All Julia would need to do is nudge things with one manicured nail to get whatever she wants.
But the seven of us are here for a different kind of power. The kind even money can’t command. It isn’t enough to make this town our own. We want the same thing the Shade sought—an eternity to savor and forge.
I want to taste surrender, the Shade purrs. Give up all your comforts. Show me that you would sacrifice everything for each other, and then we can converge.
Someone chokes back a sob at the other end of the circle—Eun-Min, maybe—but no one else moves or speaks. I suck in a deep breath, realizing I could barely breathe before; it’s like a heavy blanket has been ripped off us.
“She’s gone,” Cassie says, as if it’s not obvious.
“Sacrifice,” Briony sputters. “She wants a sacrifice.”
“It’s the same as any of the bargains we make to use the darkness.” Julia stands, and I can just hear her eyes rolling. My hand is cold and clammy where she’s dropped it. “Don’t be so dramatic.”
“It didn’t sound like that’s what she meant. It sounded like she wanted a life.”
I don’t like the way Cassie turns to Julia just then, sleek, pale-blond hair glowing in the candlelight. “I guess we just have to decide if we want this power enough, then.”
“Of course we want it enough.” Julia nods to herself. “I’d think you of all of us would, Briony.”
My stomach tightens like a fist. It’s the first time Julia’s ever really acknowledged how she wants to use the Shade. We all have our tiny vengeances to enact—but Briony’s is at the top of all our lists.
Briony’s shoulders fall, and she gives Julia a solid nod. “Okay,” Briony says, and the tension breaks.
Because we are stronger as a circle. No matter how we struggle and chafe against that yoke—we are stronger together.
But the Shade’s whispered promises are stronger still.
* * *
“This is such bullshit,” Briony mutters now, as the principal keeps droning on about all these half-glimpsed ideas of Julia that are terribly, painfully wrong. “She deserves better than this.”
“Did she?” Cassie asks. “Seems to me like we trusted her more than she deserved.”