If Juliet Woke Up to Romeo’s Kiss…

Romeo after killing Paris… Act Five Scene Three

Romeo And, lips, O, you The doors of breath, seal with a righteous kiss A dateless bargain to engrossing death

He kisses Juliet…

Juliet’s eyes flutter open, the color within her face returning to its flushed, youthful hue. She is disoriented and barely awake. Her eyes take a few moments to focus in on the man in front of her, but when they do her heart skips a beat when she realizes that it is Romeo himself here to retrieve her, although she questions internally why he looks so upset and why he is here alone. Did something go wrong? Did something happen to the Friar? Romeo, so wrapped up in his own grief and suicidal ideation, is oblivious to Juliet’s now conscious state. He continues on with his hopeless speech.

“Come, bitter conduct, come,

unsavory guide,

Thou desperate pilot, now at

once run on

The dashing rocks thy sea-sick weary bark!

Here’s to my love!” He lifts something to drink its contents. Something that looks disturbingly similar to the cup that Juliet drank last night.

This was not a part of the plan, Juliet thinks to herself. His morose thoughts cannot be the end of our future. I must stop him. She lifts her foot and weakly kicks at Romeo’s arm.

“What are you doing?!” She tries to shout, but it comes out as more of a ragged whisper

The cup slips from Romeo’s grip and tumbles to the floor. The dark, viscous liquid pours onto the ground, causing the stone to sizzle as it makes contact. Romeo falls onto his ass, eyes wide at he stares at the now living Juliet.

“Wha- you- you!” Unlike Romeo’s usual prolificacy for words, he now finds himself dumbstruck by the woman before him.

“I- what?” Juliet rubs her face, her confusion only adding to her disorientation.

“You are alive!”

Juliet gives Romeo a dubious look. “Yes. Of course I am, but where is the Friar? And what were you just about to do?”

“You were just dead,” Romeo reiterates. “I thought…” His hands are shaking, his mind racing as he tries to grapple not only the reality that he had almost died, but also that he just murdered yet another noble, and— his attention falters, he glances at the poison now coating the ground of the tomb— he will not be getting any of the money for that potion back. “Fuck, that was expensive,” he mutters.

Juliet sits up. As she does, her hand encounters a warm, sticky moisture on the stone to her left. She lifts her hand and looks at it. In the low light she can barely make out that her hand is now flaked in red.

“Romeo?” Her voice is shaky.

Romeo’s eyes shift away from the spilled poison and zero in on Juliet’s blood stained hand. Panic surges in him as he realizes she has yet to notice Paris’ dead and mangled body lying only a mere few feet from her form. He surges to his feet and pulls Juliet up with him.

“Don’t worry about that, we need to go, now!” Romeo urges, pulling her from her casket. Juliet stumbles after him on unsteady legs, but footsteps at the entrance of the tomb has Romeo pulling them both up short. “Fuck.” Romeo pulls Juliet behind the casket she was laying on.

“Alack, alack, what blood is this,

which stains

The stony entrance of this sepulchre?…” A familiar voice echoes through the tomb. The footsteps stop suddenly.

“Paris… steeped in blood? But where is the lady?”

Both Romeo and Juliet recognize the Friar’s voice at once. “Paris?” Juliet mumbles.

Juliet pulls from Romeo’s arms and runs over to the Friar. Romeo follows swiftly behind her.

“Romeo,” the Friar swallows roughly as his torch illuminates Romeo’s blood streaked form. “What have you done?”

“What are you talking about?” Juliet asks, turning to Romeo. Her heart stops as the Friar’s torch illuminates the carnage she was unknowingly surrounded by. Every inch of the space is soaked in red and in a pool at its center lies Paris. She covers her mouth in shock, her panicked gaze reaching Romeo’s. “You… you murdered him?” she asks him.

“He was after my own life. I came to see you. I thought you were dead,” Romeo defends.

“Thought I was…” Juliet’s accusatory gaze lands back on the Friar. “Did he not receive my message?”

“Message, what message?” Romeo answers instead.

“The one I sent with Friar John,” Friar Lawrence responds. Romeo shakes his head. “I received no message.”

More commotion can be heard nearing the tomb. The Friar bows his head. “This will need to be sorted once you both are in Mantua. The king already wants Romeo’s head. This,” he gestures around tomb, “news,” he decides, “will only spur him to demand it. The watch is coming. Come, we must away.”

The men start to hurry towards the door, but Juliet hesitates. “Juliet. Come. We can no longer stay.”

Her eyes are fixed on Paris’ body. On the way his hand lingers on at the base of her casket. On the flower petals still strewn around him. At the poison bubbling just out of his reach. Romeo grabs Juliet’s shoulders. “Juliet.”

She looks at him, the spell of the moment broken. She takes a deep breath and nods. Romeo grabs her hand and the trio disappears into the darkness.