My Last Valentine

Walking into the restaurant, seeing Adam was the only thing on my mind. Today was our three year anniversary, which coincidentally was on Valentine’s Day. We had been together since freshman year and our relationship was close to perfect. There would be the occasional small fight, but nothing that would take over a day to fix. I sat at the bar tapping my fingernails in anticipation for him to arrive, letting my thoughts wander.

“Excuse me, is this seat taken?” I was snapped out of my daze at the beautiful sound of the strangers voice. When my eyes reached his face it was as if I were in a trance. He had hair that was as black as night and eyes that were a calming sea of blue. He was by far the most gorgeous man I had ever laid eyes on.

“Wha-what?” I stuttered, unable to grasp a coherent thought.

“This seat,” he repeated. “Is it taken?” He ended his question with a radiant smile.

“No, no. Nobody’s sitting here,” I replied, a little shaken by this attractive stranger’s piercing gaze.

“Well, that’s good news. By the way, my name’s Damien,” he told me, holding his hand out for me to shake.

“I’m Violet.” Shaking his hand, I found it to be surprisingly warm, almost as if he had a fever.

“Fitting name. You have the most interesting eyes that I’ve ever seen.” He cocked his head to the side and stared into my oddly colored eyes.

“Thank you,” I said as a blush spread across my face.

We chatted about random things for what seemed like a long time, all thoughts of Adam cast from my mind.

“Would you like to come for a ride with me?” He asked expectantly with a bright smile on his face.

Something was nagging at the back of my mind, but I couldn’t seem to remember it no matter how hard I tried. “I….”

“Come on, it’ll be fun” There was a threatening tone in his voice that I didn’t notice at the time.

“Okay,” I finally agreed, although something still didn’t seem right.

We walked out onto the street and he ushered me into his expensive looking black sports car. I couldn’t figure out what brand it was. The only thing I caught a glimpse of was a small red symbol on the back. We drove and drove while time escaped me. The only thing kept constant was a small thump every now and then, although I didn’t know where it was coming from. Finally, the car came to a screeching halt. Damien hopped out of the car and I sat there, not sure of what to do.

“Come with me,” Damien said as he opened my door and grabbed my arm, pulling me out with him.

“Where are we going?” I asked, bewildered. It felt as if I were waking up from a dream.

“Just shut up and do what I say,” he spat. Shock crossed my face at his words. I finally registered my surroundings. It looked as if we were in a deserted alleyway and at the end was a giant intricate metal gate.

Everything came back to me in a rush; the restaurant, Adam, our anniversary, Valentine’s Day. I had no idea what I was thinking, going off with this stranger to god knows where. Without knowing what I was doing, I took off running to the mouth of the alley. The only thought in my mind was to get away. Damien suddenly appeared before me, causing me to crash into him. He roughly pushed me down to the ground and kicked me. As tears leaked out of my eyes I looked up and saw that his eyes were now glowing red.

I watched as he walked over to the car and opened the trunk. He picked something up and threw it like it was weightless. A gasp escaped my lips and my heart constricted when I realized it was a tied up and beaten Adam who landed next to me. Damien closed the trunk and I realized that the symbol on the back was a pentagram.

“Why are you doing this?” I sobbed out.

“My babies are hungry,” he stated simply. As he said this he raised his hand and pointed it at the giant gate. It opened and behind it there were great fiery planes. What looked like a giant beast was coming towards us.

Damien roughly grabbed Adam and held him in the air. Our eyes met one last time in a silent goodbye before Damien ripped his heart out. He tossed it to the beast who I realized was a giant dog with three heads. One of the heads swallowed the heart whole and gave a growl of satisfaction. The giant dog came forward and each head ripped off a different part of Adam’s body. I turned my head away in disgust as I cried.

My lungs constricted painfully as I was picked up by my throat. I stared into the menacing and grotesque face that I once thought was gorgeous. How wrong I had been. I should have known that looks could be deceiving and not everything that was beautiful was good. I faintly heard Damien calling the dog, Cerberus, over to us, but I was almost unconscious at that point.

Damien smiled a disgusting smile at me and said, “Happy Valentine’s Day,” just as he snapped my neck.