Always - short story

Prologue

Prologue

The room was deathly silent, the only source of light coming from the broken windows that encircled the run-down room.

By the entrance stood a girl, leaning against her arm on the doorframe. Her body was stiff, as if she had seen a ghost. She stared at the floorboards with a distant look on her face, her gaze sharper than the broken shards of glass in front of her.

Although her breathing was barely audible, his was as clear as crystal. He was panting hard, as if he’d just run a marathon – except, the cause of his exhaustion was far from ordinary.

The boy’s breathing pattern was almost rhythmic. The girl would have found it comforting, but her ears were ringing. She couldn’t move, nevertheless breathe. 

“I-I’m sorry,” the boy stammered. His voice was rough and weak, the anger in his tone dissipating into the air like the smoke of a dying fire.

As he spoke, the girl’s vision had turned glassy and blurred. She swallowed as her throat tightened, refusing to let go of the tears at the rims of her eyes. Her chest felt bruised and her stomach churned. She wanted to shake her head and tell him to stop, but all she could manage was a whimper.

Suddenly the boy fell to his knees, a crunching noise confirming the broken glass that had pierced into his skin. He fell forward onto his elbows and dug his fingers into his hair. The girl’s eyes trailed from his surrendering shoulders down to the broken glass, stained red.

“I’m so, so sorry.”

The more he apologized, the more the girl had to cringe. Each word he said brought back another pang onto her chest; and then she started crying.

The memory of what just happened seemed broken and unreasonable – nothing made sense. It all didn’t come together like a simple jigsaw puzzle; but then again, she figured, this was anything but simple. 

The silence was quickly broken by the sound of sirens arriving at the distance. The sound of tires grinding against pebbles and glass crackling under his feet was all it took to get the girl out of her reverie. She kicked off the doorframe and walked slowly towards him. 

The boy’s eyes looked almost empathetic, but she couldn’t get herself to believe what they said. The girl raised her hand to his scarred, tear-stained face as if to slap him. He closed his eyes and gritted his teeth, bracing for the pain.

Instead, she simply held him. She placed her hand on his soft cheek, crying with him. She looked at him with pained eyes, her words trapped somewhere down her throat.zz 

The girl’s warmth opened his eyes and he blinked back another tear. He parted his lips to apologize again, but he was taken away far too quickly. 

Authorities had filled the room and she was being carried away from him. Someone she had grown to love, as well as someone who’d ended up being a complete stranger to her.

She watched past the crowd’s shoulders and cried silently as he was being taken away, imprisoned with handcuffs and lead out of the room.

“Are you alright? Do you need a medic?”

It took a while before the girl realized that someone was talking to her. Her vision focused back to the woman in front of her, her eyes alert but kind. She closed her eyes and let herself fall, hoping that maybe if she quit, she would be able to forget.