The Heart of Bella

Furious flames of a vigorous fire rose in crackling eagerness as David threw the remnants of his love into their hungry mouths. Even as Isabelle's love letters crumbled into ashes, her words and her face remained seared into his heart and mind, refusing to wear off. "Bella!" The name felt like a thorn in his spine and a rose in his palm, comforting and painful all at once. Desperate and hopeless, he paced, trying to forget the twin emeralds that had once looked at him with a passion that had eluded him for most of his life. And now I have lost them forever, he thought miserably. While he remained thus engulfed in a cloud of depression, the doorbell jingled.

Adam's bespectacled figure greeted David's sombre countenance. "Why what is the matter, David? Has somebody died?" David sighed, bowing his head in defeat and walked away silently, leaving Adam at the door unattended to. Perplexed, Adam followed him into the room. The strong smell of liquor and his friend's troubled silence brought home the gravity of the situation. "Please tell me what troubles you so, my dear friend. And I shall try, with all my might, to help you." "It's too late, Adam. Bella is to be married soon. She left me because she wants a life better than the one I could provide her. And to think I believed her heart was mine forever!"

Whilst listening to the woes of his dear friend, Adam collected the remainder of the love letters that lay strewn across the floor. His eyes found something that made him stop. As he read the words intently, his lips pulled back in a grim smile. Slipping the letter into his pocket, he walked to where David now lay fast asleep, anxiety and drunkenness having defeated the pain of lost love for the time being. "I promise you shall have her heart, David. I promise." Saying thus, Adam left the house.

David's head was thudding when he finally woke up. His heart ached as much as it had 20 hours back, when he had fallen asleep, ranting in frustration while Adam quietly listened. He sat upright, trying hard not to fall back to sleep. It wasn't long before his weary eyes fell on an ornamental box lying on the table close to the hearth. Stumbling across the floor, he saw a piece of paper under the blue box. It was one of Bella's love letters. She was fond of poetry and usually filled her letters with lines from her favourite poems. This one had been penned by Thomas Moore;

Here, take my heart--'twill be safe in thy keeping,

While I go wandering o'er land and o'er sea;

Smiling or sorrowing, waking or sleeping,

What need I care, so my heart is with thee?

David smiled, despite himself. Thinking of Bella, he casually opened the blue box. With a shriek, he dropped it, and fainted. The object in the box now lay on the floor. Something slippery, with traces of crimson. A heart.