Chapter Text
Juliette felt like she’d been driving for hours, and yet her tears hadn’t stopped falling.
For a moment she had wished Cal had stabbed her with the silver spear. It wouldn’t have killed her of course, but the physical pain would have been a welcomed distraction from the pain raging inside her heart.
She was almost home, the rain poured on the car, drowning out the motor’s sounds, Jules raised the volume of the radio, in a desperate move to silence the voices ringing inside her ears.
It was of no use, she still heard them all, her sister telling her that she was the source of it all, how she had destroyed everything, but even the guilt brought out by the truth of her words didn’t hurt as much as Cal’s words.
A monster, that’s what she called her, even after everything they’d been through, Juliette was still a monster in Cal’s eyes.
Juliette had tried everything in her power for it to not be true, and yet, it was.
She refused to feed until blood dripped from her eyes, she had a human best friend she shared everything with, and she was compassionate and merciful, she used to believe she was more human than a monster, but after everything, there was no denying the truth.
Juliette Fairmont, vampire, monster.
How she wished it weren’t true, her first kill wasn’t even motivated by hunger but by love, by the desire to protect the one she loved.
Loved, how that word hurt her, how Cal’s and Juliette’s story could have ended so soon when everything had seemed to fall in place.
Juliette could now see the lights of her house, a place that was supposed to be a home, a safe place.
And yet all she could feel walking up the steps towards the door was anguish, fear, anger.
She had built her story here, loved her parents, her siblings, and how their family stood for each other no matter what.
She had destroyed that too, by betraying her sister, by helping her brother in their betrayal.
Juliette opened the door, not bothering to be quiet, and stepped inside.
Her steps were light on the wooden floor, she could see the lights in the kitchen and slowly approached the door, overhearing the conversation going on inside.
“Well, now that Elinor is in jail, Juliette is our only hope.” her mother’s voice rang in her ears
“Darling, Juliette has been through a lot, maybe wait a little bit before putting all of Elinor’s responsibilities on her shoulders, no?” her father’s soft voice asked
Jules didn’t need to hear more, she turned on her heels and walked as quietly as she could back to her room.
The staircase felt never-ending, arriving at the top she turned around and looked around her, the house she grew up in, a house she could never call home again, and walked into her room.
Jules didn’t take the time to take in the appearance of her room, there were too many memories here. She could still smell Cal everywhere she turned.
She grabbed a sports bag from her closet and started piling clothes in it, nothing extravagant, all comfortable clothes, after all, she was running away from everything she was and is. So wearing thousand dollars clothes wouldn’t work.
Her bag draped over her shoulder she went slowly down the staircase looking everywhere like she was taking a mental picture of every detail of her house.
But when her hand reached for the door handle a voice spoke out from behind her.
“And where do you think you’re going young lady,” her mother asked, hands on her hips, she looked like she hadn’t slept in days, and Juliette felt guilty knowing this was probably her fault.
“Out” Jules answered, not wanting to elaborate more.
“Out to see your young lady friend? Seriously, Juliette, I thought you would have understood by now” her mother doesn’t have the time to finish her sentence before she’s interrupted
“No!” Juliette shouts “I am NOT going to see Cal, there is no we anymore, although I’m sure you must be jumping from happiness I am NOT” Juliette shaking by now, her hands clutched around her bag “She and her family are right you know? We’re monsters! And I tried hard not to become one, yet I did.”
The silence between them seemed oppressing, Juliette searching in her mother’s eyes for anything, compassion, understanding, and yet all she finds is cold apathy.
“You ruined our family Juliette Fairmont, and you will fix your mistakes so help me Lilith, or I will destroy you myself.” her mother’s voice is firm and emotionless
Jules can see her father standing a few steps behind her mother, conflict clear in his eyes.
The child inside her wants to run in her mother’s arms and beg for forgiveness, but the broken teen that she is just won’t.
“I’d like to see you try mother” drawls Jules a fake smile plastered on her face “After all if the Hunters couldn’t, what makes you so sure you will?” there is no smile left on Jules’ face, her coldness seems to match her mother’s, who’s currently taken back from her daughter words.
For a beat, there is no sound nor movement in the Fairmont’s house. And so Jules turns the door handle and leaves behind everything she was, everything she hoped she would be.
She turns her back to her family and all the hope she used to have, she leaves behind the hope of a normal life, the hope of love.
The Juliette that loved Cal is no more.
The only thing left is the monster she tried to keep hidden deep inside of her.
Juliette cries on her way out, the pain flowing out like the tears on her face.
She turns around one last time, her parents are standing in the doorway, and deep inside she wishes they would stop her, but they don’t and Juliette keeps going on her way.
To the only place, she can feel at home, with her brother.