A Perfect Night

This night is nothing short of perfect. My eyes glide across the sky as I stare at all the beautiful stars. Each one might look similar but in fact they are each unique and individual. The sky is a perfect dark blue to light blue ombré with gorgeous white stars shining within them blending the colors beautifully. Soon my eyes fall to the ground and a smile spreads across my face. The air holds a weird odor but I ignore it because this night is simply too perfect. I laugh as I look over at him. He shifts his gaze from the sky to me and gives me a wide grin saying, “What are you laughing for?”

My giggles fade and I sigh, “I’m just happy, that’s all.” I scoot closer and take his hand in mine as I lay my head on his shoulder. His skin felt warm and I felt safe. But something was off. The odor became more prevalent. “Damn, did you shower today?” I joke. He doesn’t respond at first. Then he chuckles a bit.

“Yeah I did actually.“ I smile and reply,

”I’m only teasing.” Then we both fall silent. I examine my surroundings. We are in our backyard, contained by the walls of the white picket fence. We lay up against the fence with my head on his shoulder. The grass so green and healthy seemed to glow under the light of the stars. I turn to him once more and say “We are going to be together forever.” as I kiss him passionately. He doesn‘t kiss back. Then, for the third time, the odor comes back. This time, it was so very strong it stung my nostrils. I covered my nose and my eyes begin to water. The smell was putrid. Maybe there was a dead animal nearby? I wasn’t quite sure, but the smell was getting to be too overwhelming. I back away a little bit and he looks at me stunned.

“What is it? Don’t you love me?” He questions. His eyes are full of sadness.

“Of course I do, it’s just..” He cuts me off.

“No you don’t. You did this to me. You did this to me.” He repeats this several times with anger and sadness in his eyes. I cover my ears with my hands.

“Stop it! What are you talking about? All I ever did was love you!” I cried out in pain. I didn’t understand. My mind felt crowded and overwhelmed and I was hurt by the words he was saying. Suddenly, there was a bright light shining in my eyes. I squeeze my eyes shut and put my arms up as a shield. The light fades away and I let my arms rest at my sides. My eyes meet with the eyes of a police officer. His flashlight now points at the ground; a gun in the other hand. I notice the red and blue lights of the police car illuminating the night from the front of our house in the distance.

“Don’t move! Hands up right now!” I begin to tremble as I put my hands in the air.

“Wha-what’s happening? Jason I’m scared..” I turn to my husband looking for comfort in his deep blue eyes and kind smile, only to be greeted with that of a rotting corpse. The odor hit me in the face once more. It was him, but his eyes were void of color and his face was sunken so badly he looked like a big blob of brusied skin. Half of his head was smashed in and his jaw hung open; it was broken. I screamed at the awful sight of him. My mind becomes foggy as memories come back to me.

”Honey I’m sorry, I made a mistake. Please forgive me, you know I love you.” His cold hands try to slide around my waist but I push him off of me and open the door to the garage. I grab his favorite baseball bat and hid it behind my back as I made my way up to him.

“I love you too, of course I’ll forgive you.” He cries tears of joy as he walks to me for a hug. But before we can embrace I swing the bat. With a thud he falls to the ground. Barely conscious he manages to open the back sliding glass door and crawl halfway outside. Without thinking I stand over him and swing the bat as hard as I can down on him over and over again. Next thing I remember I’m dragging him to the backyard and laying him against the fence. My mind brings me back to the present. My eyes are frantically looking from my husbands body to the police officer. Thats when I notice the blood trail starting from the sliding glass door all the way to the start of the grass. The part of the fence he’s leaning against is bloody. I look down and my hands are full of dry blood. The police officer speaks into his radio and calls for backup. He gets me up off the ground and handcuffs me and leads me to the front of the house. More police arrive alongside an ambulance. They escort the body out in a body bag. I hear the whispers of the police as I pass by.

”Looks like she’s been with the body for about 2 weeks. She seemed to be in a deep comatose state as she wasn't responding for a prolonged time. The victim is a caucasian male in his early 30’s, poor guys brains were smashed in...” The conversation faded in the distance as I got farther away. I look up at the sky one more time to see the stars hadn’t changed. One moment I saw him there alive and what I thought this night was, never actually happened.

“At least you are real.” I whisper to the sky as the officer shoves me into the back of a police car.