The small newsboy sat in the suffocating, diminutive closet at the Brooklyn Lodging House with the kerosene lantern glowing dimly in the corner. A quiet boy of almost thirteen years, he squirmed in his chair nervously as beads of sweat trickled down his face and his feet tapped against the dusty floorboards anxiously. His wrists had been tied behind his back and at the back of the wooden chair that he had been forced upon, and the rope was rubbing his flesh raw and drawing blood. He had been waiting for Spot's arrival for what seemed like ages and the minutes seemed to slowly melt together. It had been another normal morning for him; he had gotten his papers and as he was going to sell them, he was kidnapped by two Brooklyn newsies and taken to their lodging house. Why they needed him he did not know; but he had a feeling that his roots in Manhattan had plenty to do with it.

Suddenly the door burst open and the morning light flooded the room. Two intimidating boys stood before him and he gulped without saying a word. His big eyes were full of fright and his heart quickened to a mile a minute.

"Spot's coming down to talk to you. You best watch your manners," he said sarcastically and nastily.

The two boys leaned against the walls on either side of the Manhattan boy. They cracked their knuckles and twisted their necks as to intimidate the poor newsie. Spot, dressed in a spiffy, black suit, stomped into the room, his face coated in his usual smirk.

"'Morning," said Spot. "Dodge, right?"

Dodge gulped again and nodded. "Yeah, that's my name."

Spot left the room and came back in an instant with another chair, facing it in front of the boy and sitting down at eye level. "You remember Caden, right?"

Dodge nodded furiously.

"And you remember my good cousin Drake, correct?"

Again he nodded.

"Then of course you remember how we decided to banish Caden to Staten Island. It was a horrible thing he did, I bet you would agree. Murder is truly heinous; I think you would agree on that too. What I need from you is very simple."

Dodge blinked a few times and fidgeted with his fingers behind is back. "W-What's that?"

Spot lowered his face and peered at Dodge with upward looking eyes, sending shivers through Dodge's body. "I need information. You're a smart little kid, I can tell. Surely your boys have gotten a hold of Caden somehow and they must have done something with him. Where are they hiding him?"

"No, sir! I swear!" protested Dodge.

Spot nodded at Jerome and Bailey. Without hesitation, Jerome grasped Dodge's perspired throat with one hand, and Bailey gripped his arms from behind the chair to ensure that he would not be going anywhere. Dodge began coughing and struggling for air while Spot placed on icy glare upon him.

"Staten Island…I-I swear he's there!" Dodge muttered through forced breaths.

"I don't believe you, Dodge. Nobody's found him yet, isn't that a little suspicious? You guys have got him." Spot rose and stood above the besieged newsboy. "Come on, Dodge, I need information! He's got to be better punished."

"I'm-not lying, Spot!"

Dodge started to kick and thrash violently in his seat as Jerome and Bailey only tightened their hold on him. Spot pursed his lips.

"Fine," he finally said and shooed Jerome and Bailey away from Dodge. Spot suddenly punched Dodge in the nose, breaking it instantly. "But if I find out that you lied to me—"

"Spot!" Lexi called at the doorway, looking distraught and hysterical.

"What?" he looked back at her.

"You have to come upstairs. Now! It's an emergency."

"Can't it wait?"

"It's Adriette." Lexi paused and sniffled.

Spot ran out of the closet and barreled up the steps. He climbed the flights of stairs and rushed into Adriette's room. A choking, sharp pain swelled up in Spot's throat. Adriette laid on her bed motionless with her face buried into her pillow and one arm hanging weakly over the edge of the mattress. He hurried over to her in disbelief and felt her delicate yet cold fingers. Her eyes shut tightly and her body lay underneath a pile of sheets and blankets. Spot fought back tears and swallowed the lump in his throat. Was this is doing?

Scarlett and Theo came into the room asking what all the commotion was. Spot said nothing as he stared at the seemingly lifeless girl and he couldn't move. Guilt wrapped itself around his throat and choked him. Scarlett gasped and threw her hand over her mouth as Lexi sobbed in the corner with tears streaming down her face. Theo's mouth was agape and eyes turned to melancholy while he stepped forward slowly.

"Conlon, is she—" Theo started.

"What does it fucking look like, Theo!" Spot shouted angrily with grief.

Theo swallowed and bit down on his quivering lip. Spot began to pace up and down the room with stomps and couldn't help but feel he was to blame, for somewhere inside him he knew this was his fault. Had he given Adriette a chance not to marry Theo, this never would have happened.

"What should we do?" Lexi inquired, trembling.

All eyes shifted to Spot for an answer.

"Everyone downstairs," he ordered in a low voice. "Call for a meeting."

Desolately, everybody exited the mournful room and made their way to the first floor living room. As they did so they answered to those who had asked, that Adriette was, in fact, dead. The house began to quickly fill with gloominess and distress. Spot's only female cousin, the one who always wore a smile and cleaned up after them, was no longer alive. The news came to Jerome and Bailey, who were instantly shocked, and left the closet, leaving Dodge in there by himself.

The name of the unfortunately deceased girl rang in Dodge's mind. Why did it sound so familiar? And then it hit him like a ton of bricks: Adriette was Caden's fiancé that was kept secretive and quiet. But he had heard him talking with Skittery about it when he had returned. Dodge needed to get out of this closet, one reason being to escape Brooklyn, and another being to inform Caden of the news. He remembered hearing a rumor flying around that Caden was still in Brooklyn somewhere and was seen with Racetrack by the docks.

More than ever he writhed about in his chair to break free from the ropes. He pulled and twisted and heaved his wrists apart with all of his strength, soon causing pains to jolt up his arms. Finally, after almost five minutes, he was able to yank apart the ropes and he was free, rings of rope still tied individually to his wrists.

Carefully and quietly he crept out of the closet and snuck out through the back of the house. Determined to get to Racetrack to see if he know of Caden's whereabouts, he pushed his legs hard to the ground with every stride of his speedy step. The docks were not very far from the Lodging House, thankfully, and he searched around for Racetrack.

"Race!" he called out, moving things around to find him.

"Over here," replied Racetrack from behind a stack of crates.

"Thank god! Where's Caden?"

"Whoa, kid, what's going on? Who are you?" Racetrack asked suspiciously, afraid of Dodge being hired by Spot to track down Caden.

Dodge wiped away blood from his nose with his shirt sleeve and looked at him. "It's me, Dodge. Don't you remember me from Manhattan?"

Racetrack squinted at him.

"You left when I was younger but I know we've met before…"

"Ohhh," Racetrack said as if everything was coming back to him now. "Yeah, yeah, Dodge, I remember. Why do you need Caden?"

A movement spurred about behind the docks. Dodge looked down.

"Adriette's dead."

"What?" a voice asked in disbelief from behind them. Caden appeared with his chest moving up and down heavily.

"No!" Racetrack shouted, lunging to get a hold of Caden, who had began to bolt down the street toward the lodging house. "Wait! She's not really dead!" He chased after him and tried to keep up with his speed. But unfortunately his years of smoking and drugs caught up with him and he stopped, wheezing and coughing wildly. Dodge raced up to his side.

"What do you mean?" Dodge asked, puzzled.

"That's…just a drug I gave her…" Racetrack breathed. "Go get him, Dodge, make sure he knows…she's still alive."

Dodge took off down the streets and sped after Caden. The crowd of people interrupted his vision patterns and daunted his ability to follow after him. At a few buildings away from the lodging house he at last caught up with him. Dodge ran in front of him and pushed him to the side of a building.

"It's not what you think, Caden!" Dodge told him.

"Let me go, Dodge."

"Don't do anything stupid," he warned.

"I know what I'm doing!"

"No, Adriette isn't—"

Caden pulled a pistol from his pants and held it to Dodge's temple. A few gasps from innocent bystanders reverberated through the street and some ran in the other direction. Dodge froze completely and stopped talking. "Don't make me do this, Dodge. I know what I'm doing!" He took one final look at Dodge and ran to the lodging house again, but spotted a medicine shop and instead ran towards that.

With an outstretched arm he entered the shop and marched toward the counter. A very much terrified doctor crouched slightly and held his arms in front of his face, quaking and panting.

"I need your worst drug," Caden ordered.

"W-What?" the balding man asked.

"You heard me!" he choked. "I know you have some deadly shit in here, am I right?"

"Perhaps, lad…but to give it to you would be completely illegal!"

Caden moved forward and pointed the gun directly between his teary frightened eyes. "Is it still illegal with a fucking bullet in your head?"

Without taking his eyes away from Caden, the old man grabbed a bottle of a mysterious liquid from underneath the counter and handed it to him.

"Take this. Guaranteed to knock someone out completely," he quivered.

"You mean it'll kill the person who takes it?"

"Yes. Instantly."

Caden took his gun away from the doctor's head and bolted out the door with the medicine gripped tightly in his hands. As he made his way to the fire escape just under Adriette's window, he placed the poison in his pocket and let the gun fall from his hands onto the ground with a loud click.

The escape shook violently as Caden bounded up the rickety structure. He peered through Adriette's window and his heart dropped; it was true. What Dodge had told him was true. His love, his fiancé, lay upon the bed. He clutched his heart and began to weep, almost afraid to accept it. But he had to complete his actions. And so he opened up the window and crawled in slowly without tearing his gaze off Adriette.

Caden knelt beside her bed and laid his head against the sheets with drowned eyes and a sniffling nose. He rubbed Adriette's arm and traveled toward her hand to intertwine his fingers with hers, though they did not have much feeling. He brought his head back up and turned her face toward his.

"Oh god, my love here lies with death. Adriette, my fiancé. How could you possibly be dead? No, I won't believe it. Your lips still red and your cheeks still pink. And unlike the dead your touch isn't cold and complete. But I can tell there is no more life in your eyes and there is no verve left in your laugh despite your state.

"Adriette, I love you. Oh I've been in love with since the moment I laid eyes upon you and from the moment we first spoke. That was Spot's party, if you don't recall. Orlando and Chase didn't want me to go, but there was this feeling I had, this intuitive feeling that I just could not shake. I knew something about that night would change me, and it was you. You were wearing red because I remember how your hair fell against it and lit up your cheeks and eyes. I remember every second of that night. The delicate touch of your hand as I laid mine upon it, the soothing sound of your voice, and the affection of your kisses. Remember those? I do and I'll never forget them. I won't forget even when I'm dead.

"And do you also remember how we decided to live in this bed for the rest of our lives? We would get married here and raise our kids here. I vowed never to leave your side.

"And I know you can't hear me or talk to me, but I want you to know I can't live this life on my own and I won't. You and I were supposed to be together until the day we die. I only just began to live until you walked into my life, and, well, you must start what you finish…"

Caden took his hand away and sat on the bed beside her. He brushed his hand against her forehead and swept the hair away from her face. A sob escaped from his mouth and he wiped off his cheeks.

"Eyes, look your last. Arms, take your last embrace. And lips, your last righteous kiss." He moved toward Adriette and kissed her lips sweetly. Holding up the bottled poison he popped its cap off and held it in front of his face. "Here's to my love."

Caden threw his head back and guzzled down the strong, burning liquid as it poured all the way down his throat to the deepest pits of his stomach. He lowered his head and rubbed his eyes closed, leaving the poison to do him in. He again laced his trembling fingers with hers. Caden started to cough in the other direction and seized his chest and throat. He moved over to the other side of Adriette and placed his head against the pillow as his heart rate quickened and he started to breathe heavily with much difficulty. His eyelids shut and prepared for the worst, still coughing and struggling for air.

Adriette suddenly opened her eyes and looked to the side of her. "Caden?" she asked weakly in a desperately vexed voice.

Caden opened his mouth to say something but nothing came out. His eyes enlarged as he looked at her with open lips. His breathing started to grow short and forced.

Adriette turned to face him and hold him closer to her, noticing the bottle in his hands. "What is this? Caden, please don't leave me! Oh god, no, Caden…" She embraced him tightly and wept greatly. Once she realized that his movements had stopped, she froze and drew back. Her hand clasped his firmly as she turned to dig around for the dagger on her nightstand.

Still sobbing and with tear-stained cheeks, she held the pointed end in the direction of her stomach. O happy dagger! This is thy sheath. And Adriette thrust the knife into her. There rust, and let me die.

The following morning was nothing but a downpour of rain and the temperature had dropped unusually low for July in New York City. A large amount of newsboys had gathered at the Brooklyn lodging house and practically no words were uttered. The two territories' leaders met at the steps of the porch, each too ashamed and in shock of what had happened the previous night. All eyes placed themselves to the two young men and air could have dropped. And for the first time in years, they shook hands.

A glooming peace this morning with it brings;
The sun, for sorrow, will not show his head
Go hence, to have more talk of these sad things;
Some shall be pardon'd, and some punished:
For never was a story of more woe
Than this of Juliet and her Romeo.

A/N: Woo! That was fun, let's do another! lol. And so ends my Shakespeare epic. I hope you all enjoyed it since, I must say, I'm rather proud of it. Thanks to ALL of my loyal reviewers: Twilight-Maiden, Brunette, Read-all-about-itgoil, and Autumn-Park. You guys are awesome! But I really am considering doing another Shakespeare: Julius Caesar. Right now it's all in my head and I have work out the kinks and such. But I'm working on an original story for (entitled The Beautiful Life), so Caesar may just have to wait! My account on fictionpress is still love97 if you ever want to stop there and read it. It won't be posted for a little bit, though. I'm talking too much. I hope you liked the story, thanks for reading! Bye!

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