Twisted Roads – Twisted Horror Stories by Matthew Tonks

Today’s story is brought to life by the following prompt…

This is my submission for Kevin’s No Theme Thursday.

A Nice Place

Dale takes a drag on the cigarette and closes his eyes tightly. The exiting breath flutters out in a sea of smoke, almost an afterthought of something else that has yet to take place.

“It’s not the end,” she says softly.

A wiry, awkward smile swims across his lips. “Yes, it is.”

“I know,” she replies as she drops herself to the ground in an effortless heap, arching herself back as she crosses her legs like a schoolgirl who’s been told to sit on the mat.

He takes another deep drag on his cigarette and allows a stuttered laugh to escape his lips. “Then why say it’s not?”

“B-Because I don’t want you to be sad.”

His eyes spring open, and he looks over at her, a fresh tear cascading down his cheek. “It’s a little late for that, don’t you think?”

Her chin trembles as she tightly grips herself. “I-I-,” she stammers as she looks away, “I’m sorry.”

He takes another long drag on the cigarette before thrusting forward and flicking the still-lit butt into the darkness of the night that surrounds them. “FOR GOD’S SAKE! STOP SAYING YOU’RE SORRY!” he spits as he turns on the spot and stands over her menacingly.

“T-Then, what do you want me to say?” she asks softly.

“I-I-I, I want to know why?”

“W-Why?” she asks in an almost rhetorical way, furrowing her brow.

“Yeah, why!” he repeats as he casts a sideways glance toward her. “Why now? Why here? Why me?”

Her smile snakes across her face, and her eyes open wide with wonder and excitement. “Because it was time, this was the place, and you were the one waiting for me.”

“You know none of that makes any sense, right?”

“You didn’t ask for it to make sense, you asked why, and that’s what I’ve told you.”

“So, there’s nothing important about me? I’m just a guy who was in the wrong place at the wrong time?”

“No, silly,” she says with a giggle. “You were in the right place, at the right time, and in my book, that makes you the most important man in the entire existence of all mankind.”

He blushes and shuffles his boot around in the dirt beneath him. “Y-Y-You don’t need to lie to me. I know I’m slow, but I’m not stupid.”

Her giggle explodes into a full-blown laugh. “I’m not lying, I swear! You’re neither slow nor a fool. Don’t you see, fate brought you here, as it did me. Destiny, yours and mine, has been intertwined; we just never knew it until there were no moments left to know. Now, as the very sun swallows itself, we are given our moment. Dare we not take it?”

“I-I-I,” He turns away, letting an exhausted sigh free from his chest as he casts a distant glance across the shimmering red waters before him and toward the decaying sun, as it continues to swallow itself. “When I was a kid, I used to think that when I got old, I’d have a chance to enjoy the silence.”