Jeff's arm was still throbbing hours later and the beads of sweat dripping down his face stung the cut above his left eye with each salty drop. Skyler was in much better shape with only a few scratches on his arms and neck from their morning adventure. Jeff and Skyler rarely talked because the highway was extremely dangerous. They encountered the occasional rogue death creature and needed to keep focused. They agreed it was better to be silent and watchful on this portion of their trek.
Normally Jeff used these long periods of quiet to think about how much ammo they had left, how much longer before they would reach Austin and compare different routes to the army post and potential dangers they would meet. But today he could think of nothing but Elise and the touch of her slender fingers twisting through his coarse black hair. How he longed to return to simpler times and their weekly meetings at Mrs. Millie's book store.
That store was where they had met and where he had fallen in love with Elise and her lighthearted personality. Their relationship progressed as all relationships do with ups and downs and transitioned from dating to living together over the course of two years. Jeff had planned a special trip to Florida for their anniversary because living in South Dakota one dreams of two things: an escape to any place warm and moving anywhere else.
Florida was sunny and splendid. It was exactly how Jeff had dreamed and it had reached the night that would change his life forever. He was going to ask Elise to marry him at sunset. He had prepared to read several lines from Elise's favorite book Pride and Prejudice and had been fiddling with the ring in his pocket all afternoon. He would start by quoting, "I cannot fix on the hour, or the look, or the words, which laid the foundation. It is too long ago. I was in the middle before I knew that I had begun," that Mr. Darcy uses to describe his feelings toward Elizabeth. He would then follow by telling Elise of how she transfixed him from the moment he first laid eyes on her crouched in the floor of Mrs. Millie's. He would give her a copy of Pride and Prejudice as their anniversary gift. Inscribed on the front flap would be the words, Elise will you marry me?
Sunset was approaching as Elise and Jeff strolled down the shoreline. In one hand they held their shoes in the other hand the held each other. As the waves lapped over their toes and the sun sank below the distant horizon Jeff dropped to one knee. Elise was never more beautiful than in that moment. As he glanced down to his pocket to pull the ring he heard Elise moan, "Nooo," instead of the desired yes he longed for. Despair clutched his heart as he slowly raised his face toward hers. But she was no longer before him. Elise was instead fleeing down the beach.
Jeff collapsed into the sand and clung to the sandals Elise had carelessly dropped in her haste to escape. Heartbroken and soaked from the waves he made his way back to their hotel to find their room empty and not a trace she had been there with him for three days prior. A note scribbled onto a torn sheet of paper was left on the dresser. A scrap piece of paper and 2 worn sandals were all that remained of his love.
The paper had lost its crisp feeling and there were many layers of crinkles from being stuffed in various places. But the words would be engraved in Jeff's being until he took his last breath. He reached into his zippered front pocket just to feel something amid the numbness that was his life after she left him. Two years had passed since that day and now the world was as dark as his heart and filled with death creatures. After giving Elise his heart and soul, body and mind all she had left him with was eleven measly words: "Think only of the past as its remembrance gives you pleasure." What the hell was he supposed to take from that. Elizabeth, Mr. Darcy and the whole lot could die with his hopes, Jeff thought.
Angrily he crumpled the note once more and shoved it deep into his backpack. He forced his thoughts back to Skyler and their trip. Thinking of Elise was useless and so he thought instead of strategy and where he and Skyler would spend the night. There was still part of him with a will to live and so for that tiny portion he pressed forward. Toward Austin. Toward safety. Toward a new future. Toward hope.
(to be continued...)
Links to Part 1 and Part 2
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