The Reality Is
A limp body lay drooped over the operating table. Bright white. Any sense of colour absent from the broken skin of her face.
Long, blackened hair, clumps of which had been ripped out from what was left of her scalp. Her once breathtakingly beautiful, piercing grey eyes were now decomposing and encased by darkness. Small pieces of flesh on her lifeless body had been hastily carved off, from which a worm-like creature slowly burrowed its way in and out.
A dim flickering light from a single candle just barely lit up the crimson liquid slowly filling the steel surface, overflowing, as singular drops fell to the dark stone floor with an uncomfortable dripping sound, echoing through the room.
‘You’ll see, you’ll see... Shh, shh- do not worry dear.’ A shaky voice filled the desolate and claustrophobic space.
A finger placed to her blue, cracked lips followed by quiet laughter as he pursed his lips to try and stop it escaping. Her limp arm moved abruptly hitting the edge of the table every time he moved the instrument back and forth with sharp movements.
His reflection occasionally lit up in the steel surface where the body lay. Scrawny looking man who wore dirty, scratched-up glasses that fogged up as he foamed at the mouth with excitement. He wore a long, white surgeon’s overcoat, which he believed was perfect for the work he was doing. It was covered in remnants of hair, dried and fresh blood, excessive amounts of mud.
Pausing from the jagged movements for another moment, he placed the instrument beside her and carefully whispered into her rotting ear, ‘You are so pretty did you know that? You make me so happy, we can finally be so happy together and we will be I prom-’.
His eyes met with her pained but empty gaze, and ceased whispering as if suddenly paralysed by her lifeless stare. Elvira was once a feared but respected leader. She ruled with a firm hand, and yet was adored for her charm and beauty. But for this man, adoration quickly became a harmful obsession.
Rain drops threw themselves at the stone walls outside, some managing to enter through and fall to the floor creating a puddle that was beginning to mix with the glooping liquid matter. The mist engulfed the cemetery just outside as a bitter cold encouraged a thick frost to grow upon the rotting headstones until the inscriptions were ineligible.
A trembling hand pushed open the cemetery gates which shrieked with age. One foot in front of the other, a burning sense of grief overcame him. Holding his breath he winced, but he pushed back any change of expression. Slowly trudging through the creamy mud which slathered his leather boots each time he took a step.
Denial was causing him to rot as it was her. Struggling deeply to accept yet another loss. His eyes began to become bloodshot as his lack of sleep and fatigue tore through to the surface, and the reality of the past grabbed hold of him almost making him squirm with disgust and horror.
Cold air followed from his shaky breath as he dragged himself to the grave of Elvira, in hope that he would look upon the headstone to find it had been a delusion or some sort of vivid nightmare from which he couldn’t seem to wake.
The dark shadow gently closed in on the headstone and scraped away the heavy frost to reveal her name, and it immediately ripped apart his state of mind. Elvira was dead.
He crumbled as he read the inscription, violent rain flooded away his tears of grief, his hair now drenched over his eyes. Reality burned through him. Beginning to feel nauseated by what he fought so hard not to accept.
Killed without hesitation at the hand of unknown intruders.
When not long ago he lay peacefully beside her with a soft smile tugging at the sides of his mouth. Her warm blushing face was pleasantly lit by moonlight as they wrapped around their luxurious silk sheets.
Forcing himself sleep when on constant alert brought by his past life, which had always kept him from being able to rest. Shutting his eyes tightly for but a few moments, as he tried to welcome the black abyss of sleep which caused unsettling panic, an unnerving feeling that kept pulling his eyes back open every so often.
Thoughts of the past fluttered in and out of his mind, all the people he had lost, the loneliness that consumed him for what seemed like an eternity, accompanied by rage that never seemed subside no matter what he did. Seething with fury at the world- resenting every creature and being in it. Until her.
He breathed a calmed sigh of relief as he remembered when he had first met Elvira. Soothing all the torturous feelings that started to creep in... The loss...
Introduced by a guard after his recent success, having slain countless monstrous creatures, murderous and hungry people that had nothing to lose and nothing left of their sanity after the recession crisis worldwide. He did it partly for the money, and partly because he needed vengeance. Not for any good or humble reason, which the rest of the city assumed and praised him for.
In her velvety voice she said, snapping him away from the oblivion of his thoughts, ‘So you’re the winner? I have to say, I am most impressed... I have not seen such a character as you.’
Silently, he looked up at her. Captivated by her cold yet inviting, grey eyes. She stood looking down her nose at him, patiently waiting for some sort of response.
He gave no response. He often stayed silent and distant, so used to dragging himself through life on his own, without so much as a word, so much as a single conversation. Years would pass without any interaction with anyone, all by his own by choice.
After the loneliness and the realisation of how futile and fragile people can be, he began to despise them. At least then he would never have to feel the loss again. It gave him control, protecting himself from any more pain by pushing them away. It worked for a long time.
He remembered looking over at her again, just lying there. Her head gently resting on the feathery pillow facing over towards the window peacefully breathing. He held onto her hand, fearful that Elvira may one day leave him too.
