Lost

A story I dug up from years and years ago

A man walks down a narrow strip of road on a particularly chilly fall evening. As the daylight dims and the street lights flash to life he can’t help but curiously spectate on his fellow city folk. This is not a particularly happy man as he does not feel as though he belongs in this world. Time and time again he has been willing to trust and every single time he has been let down. While he cynically observes his surroundings he spots a young couple enthralled in the furrows of love. He sees their happiness, sees their lost expressions and their quaint anxiety as they sheepishly look upon each other. He almost can’t help the urge to tear them apart. To rip them from each other and tell them it won’t work out. Spare them the time, the wasted time he had experienced what seemed like yesterday before. He continues on his way down the narrow strip of road, walking towards the impending shroud of nightfall. Cabs fly by carrying passengers going back and forth throughout the city carrying out their daily business. The man remembers a time when he cared. A time of rush where every second mattered for the monotonous and overworked life he lived. Now it seems the seconds blur together to minutes to hours until suddenly the throbbing motion of the city becomes a sea of singularity. Nothing and everything happening all at once. His head begins to spin and the surge of questions, regrets, memories, and desires come to mind once more. These same thoughts had carried him through many restless nights in the weeks before and he could bear them no longer. He climbs the stairs of an apartment building spiraling all the way to the top. Twenty stories up he teeters on the edge, the strife too great for him to handle. Too late to question, too late to start over. Just. Too. Late.  The decision is made. He jumps. In that moment the seemingly endless motion of the city stops. And from such a high place he sees the young couple once more. An unexplainable thing happens then. All his thoughts before about their misunderstood bond wiped away. The memories of his own love surface. And all he thinks of now is how worth it the pain was. All the problems he faced, the troubles he made for himself when there were none to be found, all worth it. Worth the agony. Just to see her face. To enjoy once more her luscious beauty, the elegance he loved most dear, the laugh that tore him apart. But now it was too late. As the concrete looms closer and closer an image of her floods his consciousness. She looks heartbroken, her hazel eyes blazing with liquid longing, torn at the seams by his decision; she whispers a barely audible plea “why?” And the final thought that goes through his mind, the very last breath of life to escape his lips, “I’m sor-…

Reviews

[Stan Lee]

Ouch, that's a terribly not-happy story. Well written though, you held my attention all the way to the end with the descriptions and characters thoughts. If you'll excuse the suggestion, I think it would be easier to read if you broke it up into paragraphs. but that's just me, feel free to ignore. Thanks for sharing your writing. :)

[Corey O'Brien]

Any and all suggestions welcome. Thanks for the review!