Heartbroken

Heartbroken: A short story

   Yesterday, my fiancé died. He has had cancer for a couple months now and yesterday his suffering ended. I believe we were truly in love, he proposed to me a little less than a year ago and wanted to get married in the spring in his hometown, it sounded like the perfect plan, but that winter he found out he had cancer. It's summer now and we never got a chance to get married.

I couldn't sleep last night, too much crying. I woke up expecting to see Zack, my fiancé, nudging me to go help him to the bathroom, but to my disappointment, he wasn't there. I got up and got dressed, taking my time and trying not to cry. I have to go set up a date for his funeral today and I'm dreading every second of it, but Zack wanted one and I'll respect his wishes.

I walk into the building and see a check in desk and a long hallway with doors. I walk up to the desk.

"Hello ma'am. Do you have an appointment?" The receptionist asks.

"Yes, Olivia Rylee at 11:30." I respond.

"Ok, Mrs. Collins will meet you in office A3. It's the second door to your left."

"Thank you."

I walk down the hall and walk into office A3. Mrs. Collins is already sitting at her desk.

"Good morning, Ms. Rylee. I'm so sorry for your loss. Now I understand your late fiancé had specific plans he wanted in his funeral?"

"Yes, I guess you could call it his will. He never officially wrote one, but on a little slip of paper he wrote some important things down."

"Ok, let's get started." She says.

So the meeting went by, very slowly. I hated every second of it. We went through everything he wanted and the people he wanted for sure to be invited. Once we went through everything, Mrs. Collins said I could go and she would call me if something was forgotten. The funeral is a week from today and I'm gonna send out the invites tomorrow.

Today was the last time I ever saw Zack. Today was his funeral. Zack doesn't have much family, his parents died in a plane crash when he in college, the only family he has is his sister, Melanie and me. Melanie stood by my side the entire time. When the casket holding Zack's body was put into the ground, it felt like my heart was ripped out of my chest. I'll never see him again, I thought. Once the casket was fully buried, everyone began to leave and I ran to my car. I got in and sobbed harder than I ever have before.

I heard a knock at the window and looked up. It was Melanie, her face was red and covered in tears. I rolled down the window.

"Can I spend the night at your place?" She asks.

"Why?" I ask.

"Because I look like a mess and I don't want my husband to see me like this."

"Ok, get in."

"Thanks." She smiles and gets in.

We begin our drive back to my house and Melanie just stares at the sun set and doesn't say anything. We reach a stop light and as I wait for it to turn green I see a figure staring at me in the distance. I lean forward a bit and the figure looks a lot like Zack before the chemo. I must have been staring for a long time because quite a couple cars honk behind us. I go forward and the figure disappears.

"Mel, did you see that?" I finally say.

"You mean what you got distracted by so you didn't move when the light turned green? I didn't see anything like that, no."

"I think I saw Zack." I say as I continue to stare at the road.

"That's not possible. His body got buried and he's gone." She responds.