Short Stories

John and Charlotte

Charlotte ate green peppers all day long. She was trying some new recipes that all involved Green peppers, and they all turned out terribly. She swears that if she sees another green pepper she will most likely puke. She was currently ordering a pizza because all of her recipes had turned out so bad. 

John, an architect from Minnesota, had been watching Charlotte all day. They see each other everyday, but Charlotte was not aware that John was watching her, and had been for months now. Charlotte is one of John's students at the art school. She is hoping to be an architect one day. John had a fascination with Charlotte that he couldn't explain.  Maybe it was the way her short, blonde hair barely touched her shoulders. Maybe it was the way her crystal blue eyes shined during all of his classes. Or maybe it was the way that she reminded him of his mother. he couldn't quite put his finger on it, but either way he never wanted to leave her side. 

She was exquisite in the way she did normal things. Just the way she walked around her house made him feel strange. He watched her everyday. He sat outside her backyard window and watched her from the early hours of the morning to the late hours of night. The way she talked, and walked, and how she looked after she got out of the shower. The thoughts he had about her were just unfathomable to him, but he knew she was his soul mate, and she would soon be his. 

Charlotte's pizza came and she sat alone on her couch while watching a movie he did not know the name of. He watched as she ate bite after bite of the pizza and decided to finally take his chance. 

John looked at the window in front of him that Charlotte never latched. He slowly opened it, and climbed inside. He tiptoed up the stairs to where he knew her bedroom was, and stepped through the door. The room was just as he imagined it. It was all her. It was her clothes. Her shoes. Her socks with the holes in them. Her bags. Her books. Everything. All hers. He sat on the bed, and breathed in her scent. His mother told him it was rude to break into people's houses. It was rude to go in without them knowing. Mother wasn't there though. Where is mother? Mother? Mother? Mother??? 

'Stop' he told himself. 'This isn't how you want her to meet the real you is it?' 

He pulled himself together. He tiptoed back down the stairs and found Charlotte still sitting in front of the TV eating pizza. He stepped behind her, and watched for a bit before he made his move. He quickly walked up behind her and put a hand around her mouth and another around her waist pulling her backwards. She screamed into his hand.

"Shh," he said, "I'm not going to hurt you. We're soul mates remember? You can't hurt a soulmate unless you hurt yourself too." 

She was crying. Why was she crying? Mother didn't cry. Why is she crying? Why is she crying? Why is she crying?

He yanked her to his car. She was screaming again. He duct taped her mouth, and tied her hands and feet together. She struggled to break free. Why was she struggling? Mother never struggled. 

"On Tuesday you asked me the most peculiar question," John said, "Do you remember what you asked me." 

She was crying and trying to break free. Maybe she didn't remember. 

"You asked me if I would help you figure out how to make love out of stone. I'm going to show you." 

He drove until they got to the construction site in town. They were making a new school. How fitting. They would be together forever in a place where they met; a school. She yanked her out of the car, and towards the cement mixer. 

"Mother told me I was crazy. I'm not crazy. I wasn't crazy when I accidentally stabbed her to death. I promise I wasn't." John said. He threw Charlotte into the cement mixer. And soon after he jumped in. 

The next morning all that was left was a hardened block of cement that they were incased in. John titled it "The Forbidden Lovers." When the police found his idea in his house a few weeks later.