Split

1

I didn’t think she was serious when she left my house that day. To think, K’Nyla, my first love, would have been gone in a flash. She left early, I didn’t know what was worse, the fact that she left crying or the fact she left during a storm. The rain fell down, as I grabbed her hand. “Don’t go,” I started.

But she jerked her arm, pulling her hand from my grip. “She has a pretty name, and a lovely face.” She said as she turned to me. “Don’t drop her as well.”

With that, she ran down the steps and down the street. I could feel the stares from the neighbors who saw her disappear into the night. I never thought that was the last time I’d see her…

Before she died.

                Her mother called the morning after, asking me if K’Nyla was around. I honestly wanted to tell her yes. “No, I haven’t seen her since she left last night.” There was a silence on the other end, before her mother whispered “Okay.” And the call ended.

I looked at the cellphone, as if maybe her mother would call back. Informing me K’Nyla just walked through the door. But she didn’t. The phone stayed dark and silent. As the week went about, I sat in silence. By the front door, I waited. Hoping maybe, just maybe, she would come and open the door, announcing all the fun she has had all this week, as me, her mother and some others were worried sick about her. But it didn’t happen. There was no opening of the front door, there was no K’Nyla, and there was no hope. But, there was a call. A call I’d never forget. A date, and a time.

I wore the nicest black tux I could rent, and drove to the funeral. I sat, laughing inside. This had to be one of her jokes. K’Nyla was known to put on the best show, especially on Halloween. Scaring people is what she does. As I said my parts in front of her body, I looked down at her. At any moment, she would jump up, and surprise everyone. Even me. Showing everyone she was fine, and she just wanted everyone to notice her.

I sat, now with an idea of her next idea, I sat with a smile. There’s no way that K’Nyla was gone. That’s unspoken of. The girl that could never die, means she would never do such. I kept this thought in mind even as her father came to the podium. “Washed away by a storm and out of all our lives, K’Nyla, my little girl…” I’ve never seen a grown man cry before, besides myself, but that day I did. He cried, and left the room.

“She isn’t gone.” I kept thinking. “There’s no way she was gone.” Even as we went out to the graveyard to bury her I kept thinking this. But as she was lowered into her grave, my heart began to sink with her. Sinking, and being buried, I waited. “She’s gonna jump out at any time. She has to…” I mumbled. “C’mon, K’Nyla!” Her mother took my side, and pulled me into a hug.

I could feel myself crying, and couldn’t stop. I embraced her, and she cried with me. As the coffin was covered, and the whole filled. I dropped to my knees. I felt the sun go down, and the night set place. I was alone. Sitting at the grave of the only person I ever learned to love, I sat alone.

After what seemed like an eternity, I stood, and placed a single white rose on her grave. “I promise, I’ll be here this time. Every day, I’ll come.”

Before I walked away, I could feel there was someone staring at me. I looked around, and didn’t see a thing, but I heard a gasp, and shuffling in the bushes across the field. I walked over, and got a glimpse of a face peering back at me. Eyes as red as blood. Skin as pale as the moon, and hair just as white. She stared at me for a moment, before running in the opposite direction. I ran after her. I don’t know why, but I did, only to lose her at the river.