Short stories from my creative writing class

#015 - Character journal

Prompt : Showing sadness without words

How do you deal with loss?

The question made tears sting in his eyes, gut-wrenching guilt swallows him whole through the blood on his hands.

You don't

The reply sent her mind into a frenzy, wallowing tears ebbed through her entire being like metal slamming against the wall in a glass castle.

In front of them were thousands of unmarked graves, some with weapons laid across them, others with forget-me-nots.
Blood soaked the grass and swirling regret forms the blue tinted fog laying heavily atop the ground.
The girls orange scarf flickers in the wind along with the scent of rain dotting the copper scent of blood.

Flames are lit in the distance, overlooking the massacre grounds.

Ravens duck down from the sky, trying to scavenge anything from the battlegrounds as the man looked wistfully down at his blood drenched armor with his longsword stuck firmly into the soft dirt beside him.
Swaying from side to side, his blood mixes with that of who he slaughtered and the freezing rain pelts down and slowly cleanses him.

Sorrow is etched upon his features and he stumbles his way over to his horse with a cart attached to the backside.
Three bodies lay inside with a singular yellow scarf tainted with the harrowing sight of blood that should not have been shed.

Dropping to the ground he lets tears flush out of his eyes and from the shadows a shape slips into form.
With yellow embers and black dripping skin the hound looks upon the regretful man with pity.

Looking up at the cart once more the hallucination of his lover places a hand on his shoulder.

It's not your fault

Her words mean to be reassuring but they came out hoarse as the dawnlight drew closer, blood was shown dripping through her middle and out of her mouth, pain etched across her every feature but in her eyes she held no regret.

The hound howls twice and her disappearing words were laced with sorrow, yet hope for a new future that is ingrained with booze and joy awaiting her sorrowful lover.

She fades away, as dust in the wind and with softness mirroring that of a doe the hound sauntered over to the man.

Equill

Her name slips off of his tongue like water slipping out of a fountain and with a final tear he climbs onto the horse and sets on his way to the kingdom with weighty news and a guiltful heart.

Millenia later with eyes of gold and a sweater of orange she appears to him again. No matter how much the man wished she would not remember.
But it was enough.
She was there.
She was living.
She was safe.
And that alone was enough to let his ever-beating guiltful heart come to a rest even if for only a moment.
Soft piano flares through the room and the soft melancholy tone sends his loning ever deeper into his soul for that which he cannot have.
Violin joins the harmony with a tale of distant skies that were once here and of peace that never truly stayed till the end.

Green trees dotting the landscape, reflecting the sun in the autumn, bare in the winter, and the promise of new life through the spring and lasting through the summer.
The downward greyscale or the agency sends waves of sadness that makes him stumble over his words and her calculating golden eyes scan his face, she pushes forward as tears prick his eyes.

Harrowing realization dawns on him as he realizes that he will be left alone again through the ages, with him being the only one to remember the times they spent together side-by-side. He will forever have to hold his peace, with the pining for the girl, and for his grudge against the world.
A bitter smile, not unlike the apples that fall from the tree to far from the time of the changing colors of the leaves, graces his lips.

Musings and whispers of finality constantly leave his lips, his head shaking each time he says the words of mock reassurance.
However his words merely fool himself into security.

Rapid tones of electricity rip through his body as the bullet hits its mark within his arm.

Fire rips through his body in a dripping blue and lashes out against the harsh tides of fate, trying to save not only the girl but himself as well from the world-shattering lonesomeness that would constantly loom over his head like the bloody-ebony string of fate that winds its way between his feet but never binds him to mortality.
Like a sinker in dark water he loses himself to the winds of emotions and casts caution to the wind for the wayward sons of humanity to follow and carve into the stone slate of history.

Hollow eyes stare at him from the barrel of the gun.

Will this be the end?
Will this be what finally ties him to the inevitable end?

Regret pools in his heart and shining peace waves in the distance.

Sharp twinges of regret stab his body.

What crossed his mind fuels him with the motivation to live he had since lost from that fateful day of the massacre leaving him at the center of the bloody river with the last man slipping off of his sword and into the world beyond.

Tears of silver leave her eyes as she remembers what she had locked away in herself, the feeling of the blade wedged into her stomach, the warm blood oozing from the gash and from her mouth.
The feeling of white starch on the back of her throat as she tried to breathe.
Her last conversation with the one she held so dearly to her heart, the sorrow on his face once she faded away.

Her golden eyes swirl with violet before a wave of wind throws the gun to the cracked asphalt below.
Her flesh renewed with vigor and heart filled with righteous rage she lunges forward, knife in hand, like all those years ago when they found for their kingdom side-by-side and willing to lose their grip on the world to stain it for all eternity.

The world has long since changed and when she plunges the knife into the abdomen of the one trying so hard to rip her beloved from her shallow eyes grip her to the spot, and the darkness takes the attacker into the river with broken dreams and forgotten hearts.

The light of dusk sets upon the horizon and the bloodied ebony string is cleaned with the purity of life once more.

The hound watches from a distance, and slowly like the embers of a dying fire, the water washes away the inky black dog staring at the ones who were lost in the grips of time. Barking the hound barks goodbye, but like the hope for a new future the embers that have been burning in the hunter is reignited and held alive by the one whom it cares for so dearly.

And as the night came, the rain stopped its torrent, and soft sorrow washes away like fleeting happiness in the wind.

Violet meets gold and they walk along with their trusted hope for the beloved night and the warm ember-filled dog beside them.

Silver rings on their fingers, a vow never to be broken, and a life forever together. A life they never got to have in their day.

This time tears of joy flow down their faces.

Scars litter their bodies, ones they wish that they didn't have. But when the string of fate snaps for the final time screaming cries are heard and not long after the snap of a gunshot sounds as he tries to joins his lover.

Was this punishment?

The thought crosses his mind as he looks at the blood on the floor and feels the hole in the side of his head.
Blood cakes his hair and tears stain his face.

Is this the way he must suffer?

Bloody battlefields cross his mind, the dying cries of children echoes in his ears and the plead for life from fleeing soldiers scream through his consciousness.

Piano dulls his senses, and his limbs shake as he sobs at the loss of his beloved's death.

The hound drops beside him, and with the flames of war, so fades the will of a broken man.