The Silver Rose

Prologue

 

The night grew cold while he grew faint. There he was, bleeding out onto the pavement while Avery stood there like a deer in headlights. She had no clue what to do, how to save him. And so she watched as he took his final struggling breaths.

                It wasn’t supposed to end like this.

                They were supposed to grow old together. Nothing in the world mattered to them except for spending time with each other, and now here they stood, running out of time. There was nothing she could do to stop it. She wanted so badly to reverse the clock and turn back time just so she could spend another day with him.

                Avery collapsed next to him, too shocked for tears to form in her eyes. She wrapped her arms around his broad chest, shaking him gently as her throat closed up.

                “Brett, no... No, no, no...” she whispered so quietly that she could hardly hear herself. Time was running out too fast and she didn’t want him to leave, so she just held him. Savored the last few seconds she had with him before all life was drained out of him.

                “Y-y-you know that I l-love you, r-right?” Brett stumbled over his words. Avery couldn’t say anything; she felt like her chest was collapsing. She nodded, shivering as the cold wind blew her hair out of her face.

                “Y-you are my life. You a-are everything to me. Y-you are as p-precious and beautiful as... a rose.”

                 Her lips began to quiver at his words. She leaned forward, pressing her cold lips against his bloody ones so that he wouldn’t speak. She didn’t want him to spend the last few seconds of his life in pain.

                Avery felt him leave her just as their kiss ended. She felt the life drain out of him; the light leave his eyes. His face grew a shade paler. She felt like her heart literally shattered into a million pieces as she realized that he was gone. Forever. She frantically shook my head.

                “Brett! NO! COME BACK! DON’T LEAVE ME!” she screamed, finally finding her voice. The realization that he was gone hit her like a wave, making her drown. Tears began streaming down her face and she buried her face into his cold, dead chest. Soundless sobs escaped her lips and tremors ran through her as she clung on to his dead body.

                They finally arrived, just too late. Avery saw the red and blue lights flashing against the night sky but she refused to move. She continued to clutch him tightly as the paramedics reached them. She ignored their desperate pleas for her to get up, that she was badly hurt. She felt no physical pain. The only pain she felt was inside of her.

                She pressed her head against his chest, hoping to feel a faint heartbeat, but there was none. He was empty, gone... and she didn’t want to live without him.

                She took the gun that lay next to Brett’s dead body and jammed it against her temple. She heard the police officers and paramedics shouting but she ignored them. They didn’t reach Avery in time. She pulled the trigger without a second thought. The silver rose was plucked and another pair of lovers left the world.

 

                When the silver rose falls, so do they.