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Night
Knight
Knight in the night
Night in the knight
Nightly knight
in the night of knights
Knighting the night away
in his knightliness
with the night in his eyes

R & J

My name is Rosemary Montague, Monty for friends, and this is my last confession. I'm not much of a story-teller, nor a writer, so I record this as I remember it. Apologies for all illogical or fragmented order of things, the fault for that is mine. My story, our story, deserves to be told and that need compels me.
My greatest, truest crime was love.

"Monty, come on! The only proper cure for heartbreak is a wild party... ...and I know where to find one."
I believed a friend.
We went to a ridiculous masquerade in a house my father always told me to stay away from.
Maybe it was to do with my dad being a thief and the owner of the house was the Captain of the police force.
Maybe they wouldn't have liked each other regardless of the circumstance. Who knows.
I dressed up as a man, with a fake moustache, a terrible wannabe musketeer hat, reminiscence of a Halloween costume from years ago, and a jacket borrowed from my cousin, Benny.
Stupid, kind Benny... Had he been a girl, I'd hated him and his restless effort to make people like him. But for some reason, we got along handsomely.
We had a friend, Mark.  Mark was open to everything. And I mean everything. There were girls and boys and everything in between in his bed. But I don't think he ever loved anyone. And they didn't love him. They had an eye for him that's for sure, though.
The three of us roamed the streets, crashed any and all party we could find and avoided, not always successfully, the police

Where was I?
Oh, right. The party.
My heart was broken. So much happened at the same time. Mum found out I liked other girls and wasn't happy about it. The prettiest girl I had met so far didn't like me back. Thinking of her now, I can't even remember her name.
But that was all forgotten soon as I saw Her.
The party had already gotten out of hand, everywhere there were drunk people dancing, kissing or shagging and yet hardly noticing each other. The music was the kind of loud it messed with your heartbeat.
In the middle of it all was her. She was spinning around to the loud beat of the music. She was wearing a really feminine dress and army boots. Her shoulder length hair was on a tight bundle like a ballet dancer would have.
Around and around again she went, like no one else was there.
I went over to her and bowed sweeping the floor with my hat. She smiled and curtseyed. And we danced.
She moved so beautifully I felt clumsy. She had the bluest eyes I'd ever seen and they glittered with excitement and a deep passion I desperately wanted to find more about.
"It's Daft Punk!" She shouted to my ear. I had no idea what that meant. "The music! I'm Jewel." She replied before I had a chance to ask.
And before the song ended we kissed.

Eventually, a neighbour called the police to break the party.
Jewel helped Benny, Mark and me out of the back door just before her father arrived. The Captain did not approve.
She was grounded and anyone who was still there was taken to custody, conscious or not.
I hid in a tree outside her window.
"If you do anything like this again, we'll send you to your aunts. Do you understand, Julie?" Her father was shouting at her. "There were criminals here!"
"Oops," I thought feeling guilty for getting her in trouble. I'd found a good hiding place in a tree outside her bedroom window. I watched her fall down after the Captain left and locked her door. She actually fell to her knees, crying.  I never realised people really did that. Fall down in despair.
I wanted to hold her. All I wanted was to hold her.
She got up and opened the french balcony doors. She leant to the parapet, gasping for air. I reached out my hand trying to touch her.
"What have I done?", she whispered into the night.
"Don't cry," I said without knowing I said it out loud.
She raised her head sharply, looked right at me and gasped: "You!"
I pressed a finger to my lips and she waved me in silently.
As soon as I was in we wrapped our arms tight around each other.
"Father will be leaving soon," she muttered in my ear.
I just smiled and held her a bit tighter.

From there, things got out of hand.
Soon there was only skin against skin and all I could feel was warm and tingly. My head was buzzing with lust and love. For it was love. I knew it, just as I knew the sky was blue and the morning dew was cold.
We made all kinds of vows that night. I can't remember anymore.

And then someone walked in. The door was unlocked and we were oblivious to the world.
That someone was Jewels Mother.
She looked at me and then her in fury and disgust.
I gathered my clothes and run out, butt naked and got dressed in the dark shadows behind the fence.
I could hear her Mother shouting horrifying things to her. "Deviant!" and "Wrong!" and "Sick!". I couldn't listen to it anymore, for those were the same words I'd heard and escaped.
How could I save her?
I ran home holding back tears
Mark tried asking what was wrong but I shut him out like the rest of the world.

Here and there I heard rumours. The Captains' daughter was to be sent away. That she had fallen ill. Even one that said she was dying. Whatever the case no one saw her outside the house.
I had to see her again.

One night I went to the house again. All the lights were out, but an instinct told me she was there.
To be honest, I'd had more than a few drinks.
Just as I entered the yard I heard a car start. It drove off fast. I ran after it.
She was driving it, I glimpsed her in the corner.
There was a loud crashing noise. Two cars had collided in way too high speed.
Benny had flown half through the windshield. He'd followed me, worried of course. Idiot. Hadn't worn his seatbelt, which made him even more of an idiot. He had died straight away. And I hated him for that. Leaving me here like that.
Jewel had hurt her head.
She was unconscious then and she still is.

I come to visit her when her parents aren't here. They aren't that much, to be honest. That's how much they wanted her to be what they wanted.
The doctors said she won't live for very long. One of them said she's dead already. That this is just a shell they keep alive.
But I can feel her. Her spirit. Her soul.
I'm going to go with her.
I stole something that had the poison mark on the label. I don't even know what it is. I don't want to know. I just hope it doesn't taste too bad.
Can you imagine? That's what I'm worried about... ...the taste.

My name is Rosemary Montague and I'm in love a jewel amongst men. ...well, women.
So.
May I propose a toast? To everlasting love.



And as Rosemary lifted the vial to her lips and drank the poisonous liquid Juliet's spirit left her body.
Together they rose up, up on to the spirit world, to meet others like them. Others who'd lived and loved before them, some who were yet to be born and a few who'll never see the light of day. 
And there they loved each other. For eternity. 

The Castle ghost

This part is true:
There is a Medieval castle in my hometown, St. Olaf's castle and like every castle, it has a ghost or few.
It is said that during a siege, a maiden from the castle fell in love with the opposing sides officer. They agreed to meet, but he betrayed her and his men stormed the gates.
The castle held, though, and later an investigation found the maiden guilty of treason. As a punishment, she was buried alive in the wall. From her rowan berry-necklace sprouted a tree that had pure white blossoms and blood red berries, declaring her innocence and placing blame on her prosecutors. 
No proof of her existence nor punishment has been found. Though there was indeed a rowan tree growing from the wall, but one stormy night it fell.
Strange lights have been sighted from the hall where the lovers were supposed to meet...

B



Hundreds of years, the same loop. Meet the lady, storm the gates.
Get killed.
Get her killed.

You could hear her scream for hours.
Hours alone in the wall, screaming for her Lord Father to save her, screaming for her lover to return. One could do nothing, one was dead.

Storm the gates.
Storm
Storm
Don't storm!
Don't!
Change it.

Cut the tree
Set her free

Thunderstorm.
Storm
Cut the tree
Help me

He picked up his ghastly sword, hacked at the old rowan that bound them to their doom.
The wind tore at him and the tree alike.
A lightning split the sky open and a mighty rumble shook the grounds.

And the tree broke. It fell to the old courtyard and smashed to pieces.

From its core, she rose.
And finally, he could hold her.
Say her name out loud:
Pihla

Sympathy for the Devil

You see what you want to see.
A look to the left: A tall, dark man in a smart suit appears.
A look to the right: A full-figured black woman with a mighty afro takes his place.
But there's more to it than mere preferences or fetishes.
And that man over there, all he wants is to be a father. His wife keeps having miscarriages, though, and his heart is breaking. Give up his dream or risk the love of his life?
That girl outside, the only thing she desires is a home. A proper home, with a proper family, where she doesn't have to run away from.

All that business with the Christ... ...wanting things became outlawed. So they banished me. Gave me a bad name, called me evil.
I'm not evil. Not any more than you are.
I don't want to cause chaos or pain. I just want to grant a wish, if you will.

Do you know what you want most of all?
Because I do.

Chosen

I always had nightmares. Vivid, horrifying dreams about monsters.About things that couldn't possibly be.  And a voice whispering about the One in every generation. They made me afraid of the dark and of sleeping and even people. Like I never knew what kind of a beast was hiding behind the faces of angels.
I never learned to fight. Even less to fight back.

He was hitting me again. It was my fault, I burned the dinner. Can't cook, can't keep a house. I deserved every punch, for being such a nuisance. Useless,  that's what I am.
He was just trying to make me better. More useful, I'm sure he didn't mean to hurt me, just to teach me a lesson.
I'm weak, nothing really.

And then.

And then. Something. This force flushed over me like a tidal wave. A woman's voice called me in a strange language.
And I saw him for what he really was. A bully and a coward who only feels like a man when someone else is crying, hurting.
And I stood up. He had no power over me anymore.
I walked out the door and never went back. I didn't even take my keys. Just wallet and phone. For the first time in a long... ...ever I held my head high, and really looked at the world. And it was beautiful.
I had to find this woman.

Two part 3: Lessons

"So, darling, you know how this goes?"

"Yes, Daddy.
There's to be no feud between our cities than that of brotherly rivalry.."

"That is true. But what do you think it means?"

"We shouldn't argue?"

"You can argue," warm, fatherly laughter echoed in the classroom. "Everyone argues sometimes. It means don't let it take over your friendship.

You see, a long, long time ago, there was a big and horrifying war between Day and Night..."

"How long?"

"At least a thousand years. The cities weren't much more than villages and unlikely yet called Night and Day.
But focus now, dear. I know this isn't fun, but you need to know these things.
There was a war and the whole land was suffering. The high king, a wise man that he was, sent two of his sons to negotiate peace. And they did.
The two brothers were different in many ways, and I'm sure they argued a lot sometimes, but they kept the peace. They figured out ways to trade, so life got easier. They made companions of very different folks.
They became the first Lords of Day and Night, remained close and together wrote a law to keep the peace. So that their descendants wouldn't start another war, they should meet as children, grow up keeping as much contact as they could and, if possible, think of each other as brothers."

"Or sisters!"

"Yes, indeed."

The same lessons in history and life were given to both Sunny and Ray, by their fathers. They wrote long letters to each other, trying to figure out themselves, the others and growing up in general.

"Dad?" Sunny asked shyly one day. She was fourteen years old now and had noticed an ever growing gap between her and her girlfriends. "What if I don't want to marry?"
Her father was perfecting a stone, fitting it into a bracelet. He stopped to think.
"I don't know dear," he answered.

In Day the Lord and his son were planting apricots.
"Dad, why do you read so much?"
"I want to have answers for your questions. Yours, and your sisters."
Ray nodded, padded the dirt softly over the fragile roots of the tiny tree and wished it luck.

Meow

Lost, little kitty
Hiding from the rain.
Under a chair
Under a tree

"Go away!" Mommy said
"Go find your place."
"Go away!" Brothers said
"We don't want you here"

Under a chair
Alone and soaked
Alone and miserable
Alone.

Human passed
Human with a dog
Human with a child
Even a human with a tiny pig

"Be my friend"
She called
Only a quiet meow
Came out.

"Be my friend"
She tried again
No one turned
No one heard

"Be my friend
And I'll be yours"
Lonely, lost kitty
Cold and drenched and sad