The Trip

Written for a contest, all events had to take place in a minute, so it may not be my best work.

     I smiled and turned the radio up, it was her favorite song and I figured she would begin her normal ritual of dancing wildly, long hair floating in every direction. She didn't. She only seemed to stare at me intently, eyes set on my face, as I drove around the curving side skirts of the mountain. Finally she spoke, posing the question that had clearly been the focus of her thoughts for the day, “did you cheat on me last weekend?”

      I could feel my cheeks begin to flush in preparation for the lie I would try to pass off as the truth. It only took me milliseconds to answer, though I think that may have been part of the lie's downfall, “No. Of course not.”

      She sighed, she always could tell when I was lying to her. “You're lying,” she said, now switching her viewpoint to the dashboard, with an air of disappointment.

      I debated on the prudence of lying to her, she was right after all, I had cheated on her, but only because I had it on good faith that she had done it first. “What about you and John? Did you think that I wouldn't find out? Call it a retaliation,” I retorted, a hint of scornful anger entering my voice. It had hurt so bad when I found out. Up until I thought we'd be together forever.

      She once again looked at me, though to my surprise remorse and sadness were absent from her demeanor. “I didn't sleep with John, I was asking him what he thought about our future as a couple, if we should get married or not,” she said, her calm demeanor was beginning to unnerve me, even through the shock, and as I thought, possible lie she had told me.

      “I don't believe you,” I said, gravely.

      “It's irrelevant, I found out what I wanted to, you were unfaithful,” she said, almost in a whisper. She grabbed the wheel of the car with unexpected speed and strength, jerking it to the right.

My car slammed through the guard rail on the right before I could even react to her sudden action. Horror permeated my being as we began to tilt and go over the mountain, everything moving in slow motion as we began tilting downwards and plummeting towards the trees that inhabited the mountain side.

      I looked over at her, she was smiling at me. It wasn't a fake smile, or one of hatred, she actually seemed delighted at what she had done. I looked her in the eye as our slow motion fall continued. I smiled as well. We had just enough time to lock hands, before we would begin flipping over down the mountain. Just before thee car hit the tree in a fiery explosion, I thought, Together forever.

Author's Note

As I said the story had to take place in 60 seconds so it may be a bit off kilter from my other work. Any opinions welcome.

Reviews

[tamsin]

That girl is crazy, seriously. Seriously crazy. This story is great, but it also makes me angry at the characters. Why does she want to kill them both? Why would you want to die with someone who cheated on you? And also, why was she testing him, if I was tested like this I'd go mental lol...
This is great, and please don't think, that I don't think your work is good I really do.

[NoblePariah]

I kind of wanted that effect for her, I wanted her reaction to be so extreme and insane, that the reader had to do a double take. But, hey I'll take your anger at the characters, as conveying a bit of realism as I think people act surprising and strange ways in certain situations, especially whereas love and cheating is concerned.

[tamsin]

You really pulled that off then, as a reader I really did a double take in relation to her behaviour.
My anger was a positive, because it meant I cared, and engaged with the plot, and the characters.