Love's Return

Luke comes to his senses in the putrid filth of an alley. He tries to remember how he got there, but he just can’t! Then he looks up and sees the face that haunts his every hour. An angel stands above him, dark hair falling into her eyes. Oh, how easily has he recalled those eyes day after day! They are burning with a fiery hate. Luke hasn’t forgotten how he’d betrayed her, and neither has she. She is an angel, an angel of death.

“Don’t assume that just because I loved you I won’t hurt you, after all you’ve put me through you deserve some payback.” Beryl is standing over the man she loved with a gun trained on his heart. She stares at him and wonders how she could ever shoot him, and then she knows she can’t.

“You’re lucky I’m in a good mood today, else I’d silence you here with out a second thought. Get up and quit your sniveling. I obviously can’t bring myself to shoot you tonight, or you’d be dead.” She watches him with a mixture of disgust, hate, and pity. She can’t believe she still cares about him.

“How’d you find me,” Luke asks, breaking in on her silent reverie. Beryl shakes her head.

“Did I say you could talk? You’re in no place to ask questions, now are you? Besides you’re in the phonebook, you piece of trash.” That’s it, just talk tough and he won’t know you still care about him one way or another. She smiles grimly at this thought, and then frowns.

“How stupid does a man who doesn’t care to be found have to be to put his name in the phonebook? Wait, don’t answer that, I can’t stand your voice.” Oh, how stupid he looks with his mouth hanging open like that! “Shut your mouth or I’ll close it for you.” His mouth snaps shut faster than lightning. She looks him over, close this time.

He’s really kept in shape, he seems to have aged a little, but he still has that proud air about him, even now, while I have a gun pointed at his chest. He is amazing, just amazing! She pulls herself out of that train of thought; she remembers where it led last time.

“Aren’t you even interested in how I escaped that dank, dark, hell hole that they called a cell? Why don’t you ask me about the nice people who took me to electric shock therapy, three times a day? Or how about the slime they passed off as food?

Eh? You don’t have any questions? How am I not surprised?” She takes a deep breath to steady herself. Calm down Beryl, or you’re going to give away too much.

 “Well I have a few questions for you, and a few choice words to follow. First, you, you low, backstabbing, whoremonger of a dog, how dare you leave me in that loony bin to rot? Especially when you knew full well that my mind was as true and sound as a bell? What did I do to deserve that? Besides loving a low life scumbag like you, I could find no other reason. Could you? Well? Answer me!” Beryl knows she’s worked up and she knows that she can’t calm down. She needs to get away from this foul trash pile of an alleyway.

“I...I…I” Luke tries to answer but he can’t find the words. “Please, could you put the gun away; I never meant to hurt you sweetheart.”

Beryl can’t believe her ears. “You didn’t mean to hurt me! Don’t ever lie to my face like that again! I mean, what do you think you can get out of me by lying? You’ve got a lot of mettle to try that bit again. Heck, you even threw in a sweetheart. Listen bub, you may be the same lousy son of a gun that you were, but I’m not, so save that line for someone who’ll bite. This woman’s changed, I’m not quite as sweet, I can’t love, the pain of others doesn’t concern me like it used to. My smile, that’s gone, it hasn’t been seen for months. My laugh’s been gone even longer."

"How can you sleep at night knowing that my life has been torn apart just because a guy was too selfish to admit that he was wrong?” She has to stop she’s too worked up. She just stands there and gazes at him waiting for an answer.