Junkyard

1/6/2021

Here's how a tragic love story typically unfolds:

Girl meets boy.

Girl falls in love with boy.

Boy rejects girl and leaves.

Girl longs for boy and waits.

Boy returns an accomplished man.

Man falls in love with woman.

However, man is too late. Woman has been murdered, married another or died of lovesickness.

Man falls into depression and a bottomless pit of regret.

My tragic love story was the complete opposite, but you could say it was just an unexpected story. It was a story that was never supposed to happen until it was interfered with intentionally. Like a cart with a faulty wheel travelling well on its journey when suddenly a person intentionally prods its fault to make the cart crash.

My story went like this:

Boy meets girl.

Boy falls in love girl.

Girl suddenly vanishes.

Boy goes on a journey to find girl.

Girl returns and boy falls deeper in love.

Girl bids farewell to boy.

Boy desperately follows girl.

Boy finds out girl has lied about everything.

Not only is girl a liar, girl is also a serial killer, a tormentor, an evil taint.

Boy falls into depression and recovers as a man with a sole mission.

Man – and if you still haven't realised, this man is certainly me – swears, absolutely from the bottomless pit of his rage, to vanquish girl from the face of this realm.

~

The horse grounded to a stop. "Good morning."

"Hey!" She said cheerily.

"Where' you off to?"

"Oh nowhere. I'm just travelling for a bit."

"Me too. Want a ride?" There were three bony but well-fed horses behind. All strays left behind by their owners.

She strode forward and picked a black mare. "Eh, sure. Thanks!" With an air of breezy confidence, she climbed on.

"I'm Saiph, from North Lewiss. Welcome."

A beat later, she answered. "Belle...from Ruban."

"Belle? Nice name, but doesn't suit you."

She laughed. The horses started moving. "That's true. I gave that name to myself, in the hopes that one day I can live up to that name."

"You have big dreams." Pause. "Say, Ruban? Never been there. Is it on the other side of the world? I hope I can visit sometime." Grinned.

Her voice seems impossibly soft as she answered. "If you're lucky."

"I've got no particular destination in mind, so the horses are just following this road."

"Sure. I'm happy with that." The horses came to a steady trot.

~

That was our first meeting.

She was a witty one, with all the charming features. Had the clearest eyes and lips that easily curved into warm smiles. Always, her dark hair was worn in twin ponytails and a pink scarf hung around her slim throat, no matter weather or season. We became fast friends that fateful day. She was so easy to talk to and got along very well with every townsfolk we passed in our travels.

I never felt anything amiss all that time we were together. We had a lot of fun in those early days, jumping into every festival, dancing our hearts out, performing with the caravanspeople, searching for exotic creatures, participating in mock battles with cocky knights, laughing our asses off and taking off back into the wild. Perhaps, that was the problem. She was too perfect.

In the beginning, there were occasions when she would set off by herself for brief periods. Two days, three days. I never asked where she went, afterall we were merely travellers in part. She had told me not to wait and I would continue on. It was only once she was gone for a moon's time, and that was the last time she set off by herself.

At that time, I was deep in the middle of a foreign forest when I happened upon her. She was again horseless and not particularly tired or covered in filth.

She appeared at ease, smiling as she waved me over.

"Hey! This way!"

Coincidentally, I had two horses and that was when we began to travel together in earnest.

I can't blame that nineteen summers me for slowly, over the two years we spent hip to hip, falling deeper in love for this being.

But then, I can't also blame an evil, immortal entity for not loving this boy back, for taking advantage of his greening years, for not understanding a thing that we went through together.

Because the girl I love turned out to be that entity. The dangerous tales we heard around campfires about dark creatures that steal away family members to the underworld. These creatures we were warned to stay away from at all costs. They are real and we have seen them at times during our travels, far faraway, though their gazes burned.

And now, at thirty summers I understood it all – why.

The girl is their overseer.

I am prepared to end our story, precisely my story. Nothing else matters except bringing an end to the person who intentionally crashed the cart. A heartbroken human man can never be perfectly restored as a broken cart could be anyway.