Rhyme and Reason

The rhyme and reason of things is all for the best.

I stood at his door step. Before I could merely knock it opened. He looked at me with an expression made of contempt, doubt, guilt, and shame. "I know. It's okay." Those four words made my heart sink. But I couldn't go like this. There had to be a happy-medium. So I kissed him. Our last kiss, it was glorious. Filled with emotion, passion. I didn't want it to stop. But I knew it had to. I pulled away.

"I love you Nigel, but I can't do this anymore." The words crawled out of my mouth like a prisoner, crawling on the floor, begging for death. They were feeble. Pathetic. Heart-wrentching. 

"I know," he muttered, staring at the floor. "Goodbye, Audrey. You have changed my life. I just hope that I altered yours as well." The tension in the air seemed to clutch onto me, suffocating me. I wanted to just throw my arms around him and hold him 'til the world ended, but I knew I couldn't, I shouldn't, and I wouldn't. One last peck on his cheek was all I allowed of myself. His deep gray eyes fixated on my light blue ones. He shoved a small piece of paper into my hands and slammed the door. Slowly I walked away. Did not read the note. When I arrived to my small, cramped room, I locked the door and unclenched the fist that was holding the note. 

Audrey

The rhyme and reason of things is not to be changed. Just let be what is meant to be. I promise you the results will be phenomenal.

Love,

Nigel

I let the tears that were forming in my eyes slide down my cheeks. I had messed with it. Did not let it be. The rhyme and reason was changed. I was ruined. I was a ruiner. I ruined him. Us. I sat down on my bed and put the note in my drawer. All of my gifts from Nigel lay there. A pack of gum, a necklace, a bracelet, a scrap-book. Small things that at the time meant nothing. Now they meant everything. I picked up the scrap book, and in the back, where there were no pictures, and slid the note in the laminated cover. To forever be remembered. I heard the front door open and close again, I heard the cabinet being opened, and the clinking of bottles. Mother was home. I heard her drunken sobs, her drunken laughs. She was watching the tapes again. Of when Father was alive. Their wedding. Their honeymoon. My birth. My birthday parties. Then his funeral. Would this be me? I glanced at my phone, which had lit up. Read the new message.

Audrey, I hope you read my note. If you did, then I love you, but it is too late for us. We cannot change the unchangeable. But if you didn't, then shame on you. Goodbye, once more. I will miss you. Come to the bridge. You know the one. At 12 A.M. If you are not there I will proceed without you, but I would like to see you there. I have a final note for you. Nigel.

I checked out the time. 10:58. It took about half an hour to get to the bridge. 20 minutes with no traffic. Slowly the minutes ticked by, second by second. With each passing click of the clock it seemed a little piece of my heart was slowly being torn away. The time finally came.

The drive was murderous. I saw the full moon above me, and was basked in it's light. I arrived at the bridge a minute early. Nigel was already there. He was sitting nimbly on the edge of the bridge. The roaring waters below crashed around the rocks, as always. Nigel saw me. He dug into his pocket and dropped the note onto the bridge. Then I watched in horror as he stood up onto the railing of the bridge. I hurried out of the car and opened my mouth to shout out to him, but I was silent. As he fell down to the sharp rocks, I once more tried to scream his name. This time it was aloud, but he did not respond. All I heard was his final moan of pain as I saw his severed body floating down the river. I looked at the note, now being blown away by the wind. I reached out to grab it, but the breeze took it away. Away down to the river. I watched it follow him. I would never know what his last words to me were. I couldn't live like that.

I tried to follow him. But I only hit my head lightly. As I lost consciousness, I felt no pain. Only humiliation.

A Week Later

I was paralyzed from the neck down, and I couldn't talk. I guess you could say I was 'mentally crippled'. Only hear and see. Hear Nigel's moans, the moans that would follow me forever. And see myself, the shameful body that killed. I am a vegetable, to forever lie in this bed. To forever feel my ashamed conscious. I would rather be dead, but I cannot tell them this. I suppose I deserve this, but the rhyme and reason would not be said to me. I can only guess the rhyme and reason of everything. And it is not a happy guess.

Author's Note

Just be a kind person and you'll find the rhyme and reason to everything.

Reviews

[NightShade]

Numerous expletives are rushing from my mouth as i type this! Since most folks won't appreciate my colourful use of gritty terminology, I will just say that this is overwhelmingly intense. Your prose is compelling and I felt each moment through the protagonist. Nigel was amazingly wise.

I find this little tale to be more real than most, simply because of it's unknowns. You set up the reader like so many pins and then bowled a perfect strike! That we'll never know what the note said, is maddening in just the right way. It raises the ire of the reader and the frustration of it all is like getting a solid kick in the teeth!

It's been a while since I've been this devastated by a short story. It's perfectly imperfect and traumatic in all the right ways. You've seriously made my day a hell of a lot more interesting! Thanks!

[Gleek4ever21]

WOW! That was amazing! such a great story line, and the way you described everything really made it come to life! So sad, but so truthful. Keep up the AMAZING work!

[Tasha]

This was amazing, guessing never gives closer. I loved this, all I can say is well done.
♥ Ta'Shandra

[J.Truth]

Great write, I was confused but that didn't stop me from reading the lot. Loved how it had a depressing tone to it. Well sorry, correction, not depressing but a stronger feel to it than that. What I can say for is that-

Wow. That was Amazing

:) well done

-Truth

[nicolo]

Guessing won't give closure.

[Dewella~Vintella]

This was amazing, at first, I was confused. I thought I had come into the middle of a story and I did not know the plot. I couldn't stop myself from reading though. The setting, the description you used, the flow of emotions as they stabbed here and there.

Is it bad to say that I was more effected that we still don't know what was said in the letter more than the outcome of her actions? If so, I am sorry. You are an amazing writer, for such a short piece so hold so much emotion, meaning, and profound plot.

I enjoyed reading this, thanks for sharing.

Dewella~

[Ripple of Aqua]

Very traumatic and sad. That must've been so horrid for Audry to live with. But it had a great underlining message. Well done.

[Broken Hearted Faux]

Sad day >_< made me wanna cry. She loved him so much, and the other way around from him too. Love makes you do stupid stuff, and both were very much so in love if this was the outcome. And I do wonder as well what the letter said, as well as to why she couldn't speak.

[Marie Harrison]

Stunning story. If only we knew what the last note said. Tragic ending, but I loved the story. Very moving.