Tell Me Lies

You can run, but you can't hide.

Aiden

That sinking feeling when your world comes crashing down. Nothing makes sense. You feel a numbness you can't quite fathom. You're supposed to feel something. Why then didnt he feel anything? To him, time seemed to have stopped. It was just him and Alexandra, sharing their vows, professing forever to each other.

Then why was he here? His mind shrieked. Why was he sitting in a chair so hard his butt hurt, when he was supposed to be under linen sheets with his wife? Why could he smell the nauseating scent of medicine and disinfectant when  the only thing he should be smelling was his wife's fragrance? And why wasn't his wife with him, instead of fighting for her life on a surgical table?

"Aiden?"
He heard his name, felt a tap on his shoulder, but he refused to look up.

He couldn't bear to look up. His head buried in his palm, he shut out the world around him. He wasn't quite ready yet to face reality. He simply wasn't.

"Aiden, the police want to you to answer a few questions"  the voice, soft and sympathetic belonged to his mother, he could tell from the way she gripped his shoulders, urging him to look up.

He didn't want to answer any questions. He didn't know who could do this, who would be so cold and heartless as to shoot a pregnant woman on her wedding day.

He didn't know.

All he knew was that it should have been him on that table fighting for his life.

Not her.

She didn't deserve to be there.

So he still refused to look up, still refused to acknowledge the world around him.

It was only when he heard another voice, strong and firm, mention his name did he look up. Did he fully take in his surroundings, did he see Lisa's ashen face, Lucy's bloodshot eyes and his mothers broken appearance.

As if controlled by some unknown force, they all stood up.

"Your baby survived Mr Davidson, but unfortunately.."

He didn't hear the rest, he just saw the doctor's lips moving but he didn't hear the rest.

He didn't want to hear it.

If he didn't hear it, it couldn't be true.

It couldn't.

Could it?

If it couldn't be true, why then did he feel like someone was ripping his heart apart? Why did his knees buckle, giving his body way to the cold ground beneath? Why could he hear a gut-wrenching wail?

For a moment he wondered who it was but the ache in his throat and the throb in his head, made him realize it was his.

********************************************

He struggled to hold back his grief, as tears flowed steadily down his unmoving face. Walking behind the mahogany coffin, what he felt was pure torture, he had to use every ounce of strength left him in him,to stop himself from yelling for them to stop.

To open the coffin so she could escape, they needed her. How she possibly feed her baby buried 6 feet underground? How could he hear her laughter from 6 feet underground? How could he squeeze her hand from 6 feet under? How?

He didn't yell, yelling wouldn't bring her back. Rather he said goodbye, even though she was already gone, his soul unwillingly to accept the finality of death. Never to see the warmth in her eyes, never to be surrounded by her love. Never to feel like he was the luckiest man alive whenever he held her in his arms.

Words from the minister, speeches from loved ones, bring a fresh onslaught of tears.

Watching the coffin lowered into the grave through tear-stained eyes, bruised, empty and numb inside. He said goodbye to his greatest love.

Epilogue

The note had  simple lines. Lines he read over and over again, realization slowly dawning on him. He nervously scanned the crowd of mourners and well-wishers but couldn't find the man, who had shoved the note in his hand, under the pretense of giving his condolence.

He read it again, heart caught in his throat. The words transporting him to all those years ago, in the cells. The sinking feeling of knowing his life was over.

'You can run, but you can never hide forever. Killing your wife was just the appetizer, the real fun is now about to begin. Where I take your daughter, and make you watch as I strangle her to death, then make your lunatic mother wail in pain as I kill her son in front of her. The thrill I'll feel as I destroy your life will be like nothing I've ever felt before. May be next time, you'll think twice before you snitch. Let the games begin'. It was simply signed A

He searched the crowd again. Frantically hoping to find the man who gave him the horrid note. A note that made his insides curl tightly in knots.

That's when he caught her eye. She gave him a smile but it was a smile that didn't reach her eyes.

They were dead eyes, eyes that sent a chill up his spine and made his heart stop for the briefest second.

He had just met evil.