Suzie & Thedric

This is another snippet I wrote after I began toying with the idea of writing romantic scenes of various types instead of placing them in different, independent stories.

Thedric walked into the fun park where Suzie worked.  They had been hanging out as friends for several months now.  When Suzie was snowed in just after Christmas, it had been Thedric who came to her rescue; all Suzie's other friends having left town for the holidays.  Since then Suzie had been contemplating the merits of being with him.  He was older then she by several years and was very much a mystery to her, being a man of some words, but many privacies.  She knew only that he had somehow understood the pain she suffered. 

              

               Had it really already been a year?  Had so much time already passed since a stranger took her car at gun point?  How many nights had passed where she would wake in a terrified, cold sweat?  Suzie lied to everyone.  She gave everyone peace by claiming great strength.  In the end, the nightmares came nearly every night.  No one else knew; only Thedric.  Not that she outright told him, but somehow he had known.  Somehow, when he looked into her eyes, all the calm expressions and flirtatious glances fell silent.  He saw right into her terror and exposed it like a warrior calling out the dragon.  She remembered crying as she told him the truth.  Laying her head upon his shoulder, she remembered feeling his hand clasp her head, the other going to her exposed shoulder.  He squeezed her into his body, immediately warming her, making her feel safe.  The tears began to subside and she motioned to face him.  She would have kissed him then and there had she not seen his tears, feeling her pain as if he had summoned some ancient power to take the fear of others into himself.

 

               Suzie hadn't yet seen him enter, though she felt a change in the environment.  The children suddenly seemed more hushed as if being witnessed by some respected parent.  Some ran so close to him that he could easily brush his hand over their heads; they would laugh while seeming unaware of his physical presence.  Thedric locked his gaze on Suzie's face as her eyes finally moved to meet his.  She smiled and gave a curt but flirty wave.  He smiled at her, nodded slightly to indicate his acceptance of her attention.  As always, he was early.  This was the third day he had come into the park; the third day he was picking her up from work.  Her replacement car wasn't much on reliability and was again stuffed inside a mechanic's garage, waiting on old parts.

 

               Suzie turned to request an early exit from her manager.  Receiving permission, Suzie went into the back, clocked out and grabbed her back pack from the employee lounge.  Thedric waited for her in the main lobby as she left the confines of the employee only area.  After a brief duel of small talk, the two left the fun park and entered Thedric' truck.  Suzie commented -again- on how warm his truck was.  Thedric smiled at this and asked her if she needed to go home or somewhere else.  Suzie normally responded with a confirmation to go home, but today she had other plans.  "I don't really have anything I need to get done today.  Would it be okay if we just drove somewhere, maybe hang out a little?"

 

               Agreeing to Suzie's request, Thedric had steered his truck north east on Hwy 20 towards Reno.  Not that he intended to go all the way, but two people could easily have a nice conversation on the loop up towards I-80 and back into town through hwy 174; conversation being Suzie's apparent desire. 

"You sure seem to have a way with kids." Suzie stated.

"Oh? I suppose so.  I hadn't really noticed before in all honesty."

"Well, maybe that's the reason you don't have any kids of your own yet.  You haven't noticed enough around you."

Thedric laughed lightly, "That is a possibility."

"Hmph, why do you do that?"

"Do what?" Thedric asked looking quizzically at her.

"You close up.  I notice things like that you know!  You close up whenever the subject heads towards something sensitive. "

"Do I?  I hadn't noticed.  I guess I just don't know what kind of response you’re looking for."

"Well, you could try opening up some.  I mean, do you not think about having kids; a family of your own?"

"I try not to think about it.  I have none of those things and very little prospect for attaining them."

"What?  So wait a second... You honestly think you can't have a family of your own?"

"Suzie, I don't really know why you sound so agitated and I am sorry if I offended you somehow.  Just know that I have good reason for my feelings on the matter.  It's not like this is something you have to be concerned with, you can have anyone."

 

               Suzie sat back in astonishment, almost totally unable to think of how to respond.  Not only was he utterly blind to her growing affection for him, but it appeared he was blinded by something outside of himself.  He was, after-all, capable of feeling the pain of others.  There was no reason to believe he couldn't also feel love from others.  It took several minutes for her to resolve herself to understand his words.  "Thedric, I don't even know how to respond to something so ridiculous.  You are not usually so ridiculous, so I think it's about time you clarified some things.  With all that I have shared of me with you, I think I am owed at least something of equal levity."

"Suzie, what exactly is it you want from me?"  Thedric responded, getting agitated.

"I wanna know why!  Why do you understand how I feel about what happened to me last year?  Why do you think you can't have a family?  Why all these things when you are so obviously a good guy with honest intentions?"

"Suzie, I am not so good a man as you believe." Thedric responded, shaking his head.

"Why?  What have you done that is so bad?"  Suzie finally said, visibly upset.

"Suzie, you are asking too much of me right now. "

"Fine, turn around, take me home!"

"What?  Are you serious?"

"Yeah, basically."

"Wow, so because I don't expose my every sin to you, we can't hang out?"

"No Thedric, we can't be friends.  I'm not interested in having all the darkness in me exposed to someone who is to afraid to have faith in me."

 

               Thedric didn't speak after that.  He simply drove until he found a safe place to turn around.  They were nearly to the junction to I-80, but that didn't matter.  Suzie just looked ahead, putting all her strength into pushing back her tears.  Several miles went by without a word spoken.  Coming around an uphill turn, Thedric saw an upcoming scenic view rest stop.  It was small, with a grey stone wall blocking viewers from a deep cliff ravine that fell deep into the wide valley of Emigrant gap.  Thedric pulled his truck over and parked.  Suzie looked over at him, the anger plain as day upon her face.  "What are we doing?"

"Well, since you have decided our friendship is over, I no longer have any reason to be concerned about you ending things.  So I will let you go home with what you feel I owe you."

"This isn't..."

"No Suzie, you wanted this truth from me, so I will give it.  Take it as you wish.  You certainly can't do anything more to hurt me today."

Suzie sat back, feeling the sting of his words.  After a few moments of listening, Suzie began to feel the weight of Thedric' life.  His words were both fire and ice, pain of a sort she couldn't possibly hope to comprehend.

 

               "The year was 1995.  I was far more spiritual then I am today as I had joined the ranks of a cultist society after my father passed away.  By this time, I was already nearly two years in…”

 After a few moments of explaining in third person, Thedric began to go to the event in his mind as if it was happening in real time “…He pushed her to the ground and tried to pull her pants off.  Melissa is fighting him with everything she has in her.  I feel my right arm loosen from the grip of the brown haired attacker I would learn was named David.  David was getting excited over the event unfolding and lost some of his concentration.  I feel myself getting angry, so horribly angry.  I pull my arm out from his grip completely and smash a blow into the face of the man holding my left arm.  He lets go and falls to the ground briefly.  David comes at me, angry that I would disrupt his show.  He punches me in the gut, but I can't feel anything.  I grab him by the shoulder and bash my head into his.  I feel his body slacken as he is dazed, but he is also in the way, so I toss him as hard as I can away from me.  He hits a brick building wall that is slightly hidden from sight by the shadow of the opposing building.  The man I first punched is back on his feet and looking at David.  I will learn that this man's name is Bradly.  He runs and I give chase briefly.  Suddenly I come too and realize I am running away from Melissa.  Turning around, I see as Ray, the would be rapist, is now landing bloody, viscous blows into Melissa."

               "I come up behind him, he is so angry with her for fighting him.  He is unaware of my presence and all I can think to do is to get him off of her.  I grab his head and pull him away.  He falls next to me on the ground, I think he is unconscious.  Melissa's face is almost unrecognizable under the blood and torn flesh.  I pull her into my lap, brushing my hands through her hair.  All I can think to do is scream.  Within moments the police show up.  Some anonymous person called them.  Paramedics pull Melissa from my lap and I am gently escorted to towards a police car.  I sit half standing on the trunk of the car of the lead officer who is asking me questions about what happened.  He has already sent another unit to capture Bradly.  The lead paramedic signals the officer interviewing me.  I am unable to recognize any real passage of time.  He had been gone for several minutes, but I felt nothing of his absence."

 

               "Thedric, who trained you?"  The officer asked.

               "I can't tell him.  Exposing my mentor is against Society code.  I lie to him and tell him I just exercise a lot.  I doubt he believes me, but that doesn't really matter to him.  He tells me I might have to go to court, that two men are dead and that my beloved will be going to the ER.  I begin to shake uncontrollably.  The officer decides to help me out, he writes down that the event was the result of gang rivalry, that Melissa and I are just victims of the event.  I write a witness report while he drives me to the hospital.  I sit in the ER waiting room for about eight hours.  I can't get a hold of Melissa's family as they are gone to a society event consistent with their ranks.  They won't be back for a day.  The surgeon comes out to talk to me and asks me if I was with Melissa.  I say yes, not understanding the reason he was using that kind of diction.  He explains that she fought all she could, but she didn't have any more strength to continue on.  She died under the knife only 15 minutes prior, cold and alone on the operating table.  The doctor takes me back to see her.  I can't stop the tears.  Her beautiful face is so mangled, even with the blood cleaned away.  They have most of her body covered, concealing the marks of the beating and the surgeons blade.  He explains that she was three months pregnant, that there was nothing they could do to save the child.  I am asked to confirm that we were intimate so that the record could reflect a father for the dead child.  The world goes blank and I am all at once back home, two years prior, listening as my mother tells me that my father is dead.  They will never return home and I will be  alone."

 

               "So, Suzie, now you know.  I am dead inside.  I have taken life, I have failed to defend those I loved.  I have lost my only child, a boy that I never had a chance to know.  And all of this being done under the guise of a masquerade that insured that no one in my current life would ever know of this torment in me.  This is why I am not worthy to have children.  This is why I can empathize with you.  I know what it is to have something beloved taken from you at the tip of a weapon."

 

               Suzie sits there next to him, unable to move or speak for several moment.  She doesn't even realize that she has been crying.  Nothing could have prepared her for something so awful.  Thedric breaks the silence, telling her that she needs to say nothing about it to anyone.  He promises to take her home with his word that he won't attempt to contact her.  "Thedric.  How have you done this for so long?  I mean, how have you endured for 16 years with this?  By yourself; all this time."

"I just have.  At first it was about waiting.  Bradly was captured and given 12 years for his part.  He served most of that time before being released 5 years ago.  But he died after a few months on parole.  So since then, I have just existed."

"Died?  By your hand I assume?"

Thedric says nothing to this, only nodding an affirmation.

"How"

"I did it like a coward.  He drank coffee every morning and was known to have a drug addiction previously to prison.  I left mushrooms in his apartment and squeezed some particularly poisonous ones into his coffee.  He never even knew I was there.  The cops know it was me, but they have no evidence that directly points to me.  Plus, I doubt they really care much that he is gone."

'Do you think about her, still?"

"Every moment.  Every day.  Sometimes I am consumed by it.  Other times I can maintain."

 

               Suzie wipes the tears from her face and asks to go home.  Thedric responds without issue, taking her home without another word spoken.  He will never see her again, of that he is sure.

 

               Stopping the truck in Suzie's driveway, Thedric sits and waits for her to exit.  Breaking the silence, Suzie asks if he could get the door.  He see's she is very shaken and probably unable to open the door on her own.  He gets out, walks around the truck and opens her door.  She slowly moves out of the seat and begins to cry aloud.  She is shaking visibly as she wraps her arms around Thedric' shoulders.

"I am so sorry for making you tell me about her.  I don't even know how to make that up to you!"

"You just wanted to understand me.  I don't blame you for that.  I want desperately to know everything about you.  I just didn't want you to be afraid of me."  Thedric says with a mournful tone.

Suzie pulls back for only a moment, looking into his eyes, pitiful as they are that one moment.  She pulls him into her and kisses his lips.  He gives in, wrapping his arms around her torso.  Returning the kiss, he holds her close into him.  The moment passes and Suzie withdraws enough to see his face again.  "Thedric, please don't let me go.  I need you."

Author's Note

Sorry about there not being an image to go with this story as there was with the first I uploaded. The pictures I had of Suzie never got copied over when my old hard drive crapped out. Suzie and I were never intimate beyond friendship, however, she is a very attractive and intriguing young woman who is well worth being the inspiration for a romantic scene, even if it is a darker romantic scene. I may well use her character in the future if the audience is favorable to her.