Jess

“It’s been but a day since we last spoke.” A man’s voice, full of pain could be heard in a cold room. “But a day since I felt the warmth of your touch.” A flickering candle was the only thing providing light upon a nearby table. “But I feel as if a lifetime has passed.”

The man sat down by the flickering light. “While yesterday seems already years away, the past we’ve had, and life we lived, shines and loops within my memory as if it’s still happening.” A pencil, scraping away at a paper, could be heard in the dark. “But do not fear my sweet Jess, for soon we’ll be together, my dear Jess and her Jack.” Jack stood up from the writing table and sat down a table covered in darkness in the middle of the room.

“Do you remember how we used to play in your mothers garden?” He’d slip into his memories. “We would run around for hours, till your mother called you in.” A sigh could be heard. “And even after that, you’d spend time with me till your mother would turn red in anger, trying to get you in.” Jack laughed. “I miss those days. We were just kids then, but I already knew I would be yours forever.” He closed his eyes and smiled.

“But, fate would seem to wish it not.” Jack quickly rose to his feet. “Even though we made a promise to get married, we never got around to it.” Jack sat back at the table. “It was either my work or your studies that kept us apart. Always something to get in our way.” The scribbling resumed. “But no more, today we shall be together, forever.” The scribbling stopped after few more minutes.

Jack rose from his seat and returned to the table. He lit the lamp above the table, to reveal a body of a woman. He clasped her cheek. “So cold you feel now, my dear. So empty yet still you are the only thing that completes me.” Jack fell to his knees. “If for just one more day I could see you. If just for one more day I could hold you tight and call you mine.” He opened a cupboard filled with vials of liquids.

“Just one more day where I could take you to dinner like we used to do.” Jack laid all the vials on the table in front of the cupboard. “To hear you laugh as I say my jokes while we dine.” He slowly opened them all, one by one. “Oh, what wonderful sounds your laughs had made. If only it could’ve lasted for an eternity.” Jack started to mix up multiple of the vials.

“Do you still remember the day I first asked you to a date?” He smiled a wide smile. “I was so nervous. My friends said I shook like an autumn leaf, rustling away as the wind blew for every direction.” He chuckled to himself. “They had laughed at me, quietly and out of sight, but I could hear them, yet you stood still, watching and waiting. It was as if you knew.” Tears filled his eyes. “You always knew me better than I knew myself.”

“You even helped me when I was petrified to ask.” Jack mixed the vials one after another. Each time adding a new one, to see it’s colour change. “You knew I’d ask for your hand. You knew when and where I’d do it and prepared yourself for it.” Each vial he mixed; he checks upon it in the candlelight. “If it had been any, but you, I do not believe in my ability to ask the questions I had needed to ask.” He poured the last of the vials in. “You were my life, my light and my guide. You were my best friend and only one who knew me better than me.”

Jack returned to the table, holding two vials in his hand. “You always knew how to handle me. You knew what made me tick, what made me tock.” He poured the two liquids in the lying girl’s mouth. “It seems only fitting, for you to be the one to stop my clock.”

Jack laid down next to the girl. He looked her in the eyes and ran his hand through her hair. “I watched you fade from me as you bled in my arms.” He took hold of Jess’s hand. “He took you from me, but I will come to you my sweetest Jess. I’ll come to you. Hold my hand and pull me closer to yourself so I do not lose my way.” Jack squeezed her hand tighter.

Jack bent over to kiss his dream. The liquid from Jes’s mouth into Jacks. “Now we are one, now we are whole.” He slept on his side, watching into Jess’s face. “It is but moments till I follow you my dear.” Jack kissed her hand. “Landlord will find us in the morning to come. He will see what true companionship is all about.”

Jack rolled on his back. “May I go to heaven, or may I get dragged to hell.” He closed his eyes. “As long as I may be with you, no suffering could bring me down.” Jack felt his strength leaving his body. “The eternity is where I’ll rest. Eternity is where I’ll find my joy with you.” His heartbeat slowed down as each second past by.  “In afterlife is the last time I’ll be able to say, ‘I l…’” and with his last sounds, Jack passed away. Leaving only two bodies and a note as his last goodbye.

As the light rose and shone upon the dead lover’s face, a wandering beam of light reached over to view the message that’s been written. ‘Forgive me mother, forgive me father. I never intended to end it like this, but the fates had a different plan. I take these drinks of my own free will. But do not sorrow for my loss my dearest, for I’ll be watching over you all and waiting for you all with Jess as my eternal partner.’