There was something strange about attending your own funeral. The she was, on the furthest possible pew, inside a old, moldy church crying not for her, but for the people who came to pay their respects. They weren't much but the pain, visible on their faces, made it all a whole lot worse. She had to do it. And she needed to make it credible.

They had found her, the men who killed her family, the ones she kept running from. They had found her and she knew she was going to die - but as one to never settle, she decided she would die by her own terms. The girl knew, the moment she entered the ring to fight Jeb that it was going to be her last day on Earth. She didn't made a fuss about it. She thought dying was a lonely business and, only now, she realized it wasn't. If regret could kill she would be twice dead.

What made her heart clench was Tops. It was going to be the last time she saw his handsome face. That she heard him talk French to her in the mornings before she was fully awake. That he made fun of her height and asked her for books to read he would take at least a year to finish. Theirs was a love story to the ages, so raw, real and beautiful they knew people would feel their sadness when they heard Lo died. Romeo and Juliet faded in comparison to Lo and Tops. 

As her face was smashed by Jeb she didn't even flinch, as it would make it easier. She took pounding after pounding until her face was a bloodied tomato but, at the end, when Tops looked at her with so much love she faltered and thought about dying. So she told him: about the men, about her plans, about her life. And he agreed. So she grabbed into his hand so strongly to make sure he felt the love. She really hoped he did. Lo remembered the time he first kissed her. It was at the bookstore, while she was explaining how Jane Austen was the best writer to ever live and as she also rambled about Mr Darcy being the perfect gentleman. He had grabbed her small face into his hands, looked straight in the eyes and kissed her - in the middle of great love stories and novels Tops made her feel like she was living one. She never told anyone this as she wanted to keep some memories to herself, but as she looked into his face she felt so much love her heart could burst.

And then he fought. And Coltrane lost. And she knew it was time. She nursed him back to consciousness, kissed his forehead and got up, making her way to the streets. Tops closely followed. So, like Juliet, she drank a sleeping potion and made the wheels turn. 

The tricky part was to forge a body that looked like her, so that's where the fight came in handy, her face was so beaten up, she could get away with it. As news broke that Lo died, she dyed her hair brown - since her red locks would be far recognizable -, got all her money from the bank, set up a runaway car and waited for Tops at the place it all started. But Tops never made it and he died because of the same people who killed her family. Again they removed the ground from her, again she felt empty, again she felt lost. The girl swore this had to be a joke, that it couldn't be real, that one couldn't lose so much in so little time. They didn't even got the chance of getting married, of having way too many babies and living happily ever after for the 40 to 60 good years they still had. Poetic, fucking poetic. She hated Shakespeare with a strength now - such tragedy, such pain.

Lo cried for days until she heard about her own funeral and Tops'. So she attended hers, no one saw her when her heart broke as Adonis gave her back the book of hers he had been hoarding. When Coltrane asked her to come back and fell to his knees crying. As Leo called her Lo-ve, like he always did. How Luna, her sweet Luna, tried not to cry as she said goodbye. The body they picked was doing the job perfectly and that made her a bit sad. Slowly Lo made her way to Tops' funeral and there, there she cried. She emptied her heart and left her soul inside his casket. She had a note written for him, a little love note, one last one.

Ever thine, ever mine, ever ours. Always and forever, Lo.

And then she saw a note with her name on it. She opened it and her heart grew inside her chest again. It was a riddle, but one they knew quite well: "meet me on where it once was". And she did. There, near Pride and Prejudice, looking rather different was her Tops. With a new name, a new scar on his face but still her Tops. His smile was the same, his voice was the same. It was all so stupid, everything they had to do to prove their love for each other so, it seemed fitting that, even in death they ended up together. Even if death was very much alive - only with different names. 

And this is the last chapter of Lo.

And the last chapter of Tops.

But the first chapter of Florence and her darling love.