Miss Shot

    Johnson was sat on a park bench, tears silently running down his face, as he watched a woman walk away from him. After four months of happiness, it was over. He felt ill inside. His heart ached with every beat. It felt swollen. He could even feel it against his chest. It felt heavy and made of stone rather then flesh. He almost wished it would stop.

    “May I sit here?” he looked up to see a man standing there, any other time he would be disgusted at the sight of him, but with his heart still feeling broken…no, perhaps damaged, would be a better word, he barely took it in.

    The man was naked, save for an over sized nappy round his waist. He looked very young, and handsome, but his face looked as sorrowful as the man he was addressing. He was also armed with a bow and arrow, each arrow rather then have a point of metal was a substance he had never seen, red and shaped like a love-heart. The man also had a pair of wings, great wings like that of an angel. Through his misery, he decided that what he was seeing must be a hallucination, he didn’t care what had caused it, it might have been heart-break, he certainly felt bad enough.

    Strange as it seemed, he felt, in his turmoil, oddly at peace. He felt like he was laying in s**t, but s**t that was comfortable, and quiet. Here on this bench, he felt comfortable, he felt that he would fall into madness if he stood and left this bench. But then seeing as he was currently looking at a young, handsome man, with a bow and arrow and a pair of wings, he reasoned he must already be going insane.

    “I owe you an apology,” said the strange man, in the nappy, “when I shot my arrow, I had no idea the pain it would cause you.”

    “You are…?” said Johnson, barely aware of his presence. The man nodded.

    “Cupid, yes I am,” said Cupid.

    “It is your fault,” said Johnson, turning on Cupid. Cupid nodded.

    “I am sorry, I missed my target, for the first time since I came into being, I shot the wrong person,” said Cupid. Johnson nodded, the words meant nothing to him.

    “Was I meant to love?” he asked, Cupid shrugged.

    “That is up to you,” Cupid replied, “it always has been.”

    “I have…had…problems,” said Johnson looking down at his clasped hands.

    “Everyone does,” said Cupid

    “I can’t trust people, they always let me down.” Cupid was silent.

    “Trust is important,” agreed Cupid, “But what is the point of protecting your feelings, if you aren’t going to use them? Things might work better next time.”

    “Will there be a next time?”

    “That is up to you,” repeated Cupid.

    “How do you mean, “That is up to me”? Isn’t it up to you whether people find happiness in love?” demanded Johnson.

    “I choose who falls in love, as much as Death chooses who next falls under his scythe,” said Cupid, simply. “We merely do our duty,”

    “I don’t know if I’m ready for your service,” said Johnson.

    “You will be one day, I have no doubt,” said Cupid with confidence, “it may take you a while, but I promise you will be ready one day. You were ready, she wasn’t.”

    Johnson was confused, “if that is true, why are you saying that you shot me by accident?”

    Cupid smiled and stood up, he started to fade, and his last words to Johnson before he disappeared completely were “all I said was that I shot the wrong person. What makes you think that you were the person I wrongly shot?”

Reviews

[Cara D.]

Amazing. You took a nice outlook on a common issue (heart break) and made it something that catches the eye. Great job.

[~e~]

This is great.
Very easy to read and it made me smile.
I didn't see it going this way, with cupid and all, but it's really brilliant!
I enjoyed it very much!

[Syd]

this is a very interesting story. i didnt get the man in the nappy at first....ha, but you made it make sense.