THE LETTER LEFT UNFINISHED
298 Words
Juliet woke in darkness. Her head throbbed, wrists bound.
The air smelled of dust and salt.
Somewhere, waves crashed against a dock, maybe.
Her phone was gone. Her coat is gone.
Only the faint hum of a generator filled the silence.
Then she heard it. A voice she would know anywhere.
“Juliet?”
“MilYes!”
He appeared from the shadows, bruised, wrists bleeding from the same rope. “She took us both,” he said bitterly.
Juliet’s chest tightened. “Your mother?”
He nodded. “She’s been running the money since before my father’s arrest. She’s cleaning the evidence we included.”
Juliet felt tears burn her eyes. “We can’t die like this, Miles.”
He smiled faintly. “We won’t.”
He leaned forward, close enough that his breath warmed her skin. “Do you trust me?”
She nodded. “Always.”
He grinned, even bleeding. “Then when I say ‘now,’ duck.”
He twisted his wrists hard something sharp glinted between his fingers. A piece of broken glass he’d hidden in his sleeve.
“Now!”
He slashed the rope, grabbed her hand, and they ran.
Gunfire split the night. They burst through a side door onto the dock, rain pouring down in sheets.
Vivienne stood at the end, her face lit by lightning.
“You can’t run from your name, Miles!” she screamed.
He held Juliet close, voice trembling. “Watch me.”
He pulled her into the water just as bullets cracked the air.
They sank into the cold river, hands locked together as Paris roared above them.
Midnight Letter #57 Michael,
You were right. The truth has a mother’s face and a gun’s echo. But love, love is what drags us to the surface again.
- Writer
