Fateful Night

         “Good morning beautiful,” he said sleepily with a smile. He rolled over and gave the woman next to him a squeeze. She smiled in her sleep and rolled over on to her stomach. He paused for a second to admire her, before finally mustering up the strength to get out of his warm bed and in to the shower before heading off to work.

         The drive to work was a long one, yet not so bad. He could sit there peacefully and rock out to whatever he pleased, Aerosmith, Manfred Mann, whatever came on the radio or his mp3 player. Before he knew it he was there and the fun was over for the next few hours. He did enjoy the tedious life of a system admin. Servers actually made sense to him, unlike people. People were irrational and just plain crazy, whereas servers were logical and did everything you told it to, exactly how you said it. Granted, you did have to watch how you told it to do things, but it was still a lot more certain than talking to people.

         It wasn't long before he decided to take a short break from the crazy that had infested itself in his ticket queue. He mulled over the last issue he was working on as he sat outside and smoked a cigarette, the small cylindrical object sitting almost peacefully in-between his fingers, smoke gently drifting upwards just as his thoughts began to shift to the lovely woman he left alone in his bed.

         They'd been dating nearly a year at this point and he could honestly say it was the best time of his life so far. She seemed to be the complete opposite of what he'd always thought he'd end up with, yet, she was just so perfect. His face lit up as his phone vibrated softly in his pocket. It was her! Wishing him well and letting him know she was headed out with some friends, signing it with a sweet 'I love you'. He couldn't help but smile as he took a last drag off his cigarette and flicked it off in to the slowly descending sun.

         He worked begrudgingly on the slowly ascending number of people requesting help for the rest of the day. Once it was time to leave, he got out of there as quickly as he could, stopping along the way to talk to some friends about some of the craziness of the day. Hopping in his car, he dashed off back towards his home and the woman waiting for him there.

         He made it home in less than an hour, a normally peaceful drive, made even more so at night. He stepped in to his apartment, only to find all the lights off. At first he didn't think anything of it, as she was asleep at times when he got home. However this time was different, she wasn't asleep on the couch with the TV sitting there, looping over a DVD's menu constantly.  In fact, she was no where to be found. She has said she was going out earlier, but it was unusual for her to be out this late. He figured she had probably just gotten distracted talking to her sister and flopped down on the couch to watch a movie or two until she arrived home.

         He startled awake by his phone ringing. “Hello?” he answered, still in a slight daze and stifled by a yawn. “Babe?” It was her, but something was off, “Where are you?” She sounded panicked and a bit shaky, like she was about to cry. “I'm right here love,” he replied, trying to remain as calm as he could, “Where are you?”

         “I...I don't know,” she started to cry as she told him what happened. She had awoken in a dark room, with only half of the clothes she started the night with. He miraculously stayed calm enough to get her to find out where she was and she started to cry more and more, breaking his heart with each sob she let out. He told her to stay there and he'd be there shortly. After a quick call to the police to have them out there by the time he got there, he ran outside, grabbing his jacket as he rushed out the door, barely closing it behind him.

         The rain was cold on his face as he ran out to his car. She was at the same place they first met, an apartment complex hidden behind a strip mall, only this time wasn't quite as pleasant as the last. He pulled out of the apartment complex, his tires screeching as he did. He rushed down the highway, wishing, pleading with his car to just go a little faster, to just get him there with her a little sooner.  He rounded an overpass, he could see the complex now, just a half mile away, as he sped up, one hand gripping the steering wheel, the other gripping his cell phone.




[Optional ending follows, enjoy]

         The police found him later that night, glass splattered everywhere, glistening like little diamonds lost after a heist gone wrong. Bits of the car were still steaming from the rain that had fallen. They found him in a pool of his own blood and bits of glass, his phone still firmly clutched in his hand, with the last message he was typing. It was to her. One last message lit up his screen, “I love y” as the screen started to fade slowly into a black emptyness.