The Adventures Of John B : The Sacred Stone

Chapter 43 - Fountain Of Forbidden Dreams..

EDDIE :

Never shall I forget the bright eyes, the frivolous words, the vivid movements.

Never shall I forget the dark skies, the gloomy ambience, the end of my world as I knew it.

Never shall I forget the warmth of your hugs that day and every day before it.

Never shall I forget your touch- the traces that they left behind, lingering in every part of me. 

Never shall I forget the last time I saw you.

Never shall I forget the next day when you were gone, when I knew deep inside that a door had been closed that will never open again.

Never shall I forget the next morning when I fell to my knees, my heart set aflame, my eyes dead- crushed down, my stomach giving out.

Never shall I forget the numbness that I felt, the feeling of feeling nothing- of dull tears falling unwelcomed.

Never shall I forget the magic I had once seen in the world, that had ignited a fire of passion in me, dwindling until there was nothing left at all.

Never shall I forget the sting of long lasting regret from trivial arguments, empty words spoken- things that could have easily been solved by restraining the human ego. Things forgotten in time but remembered by me, and only me because in my world, they were things of severity that left a stain, cast a dark shadow on our history.  

Never shall I forget the vaping hole that loss left in me, the merciless grief that eats away at my hope. An unfeeling glutton, it decimates my innermost thoughts, tarnishing them with guilt and blame.

Never shall I forget you.

Never.

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The gun fires.

Something  spirals through the air, somehow so languid and restrained- as if the amount of tension in the atmosphere is enough to slow it down.

Who shot?

Where are they?

Where are we?

We duck on command as an even slower mind struggles to process sprightly questions, cutting in and out at the speed of a single bullet.

All in a second, it seems that everything is doomed to ruin.

And I am doomed to sit here and watch, utterly helpless to this sadness befalling upon us all. 

Cheering and screaming mobs from both sides confront each other- knowingly approaching a tragic fate.

I hear more gunshots, a multitude of them- but my brain is still only focused on the first.  That single pop rings in my ears, it still rings there to this day.  In the haunting hours of the night, in the entrance to a new day.

Always.

Vivian, Tommie, and I sat hunched and shaking on the floor as stampeding feet danced around us, kicked us, unknowingly beat us down.

We didn't move, despite the terror of realizing that Jolene and John were no where to be found in a swarming crowd of fallen and reckless bodies.

One by one, the 'soldier's' collapsed.  Dropping to the floor as fast as the bullets that killed them.