Till Death When We Part

One night after telling him how much the change in him had started to bother me, he once again became the groveling pitiful mess I had come to recognize.

“Who is he? Does he make you happy? I’ll kill him.” He babbled and sobbed.

“Stephen, there is no one else. Fuck it. I can’t take this anymore.” I growled and slipped my shoes on. “I’m going to walk to the store.”

“No! Please don’t leave me here. If you leave I’ll follow right behind you, I swear!” Stephen said, raising his voice slightly.

I hadn’t left the apartment except for going to the store for cigarettes, and even then he had walked with me each time. I needed some time to myself. I sprinted out of the door despite his warning and hoped I would get lost in the busy streets with all of the drunk tourists and gothic night owls.

Weaving in and out of the crowd, I thought I had gotten my wish until I heard him.

“Anna!” He yelled at the top of his lungs as I caught a glimpse of him running wildly through the streets after me.

“Goddammit!” I growled and took my chances by darting across the street before the light could change to green. I made it safely to the corner and glanced back to see him running after me across the street.

The next thing I remember were the squealing of tires and a woman’s scream. It all seemed so surreal when I saw Stephen fly completely over the yellow cab as he was hit and an SUV that was behind it run completely over him before realizing what was happening.

I heard the crushing sound of bone and the loud thump even from where I stood.

“Oh my god!” I screamed when I finally could and I ran over to his still body. He was covered in blood and I could see bone had pierced through the skin of his right arm.

“That guy’s dead...there’s no way he’s alive.” I heard someone in the crowd that had gathered around us say inconsiderately.

“Call 911!” A multitude of other voices yelled frantically.

I sat beside him in the middle of the road and sobbed, repeating his name remorsefully. If I hadn’t been such a selfish bitch maybe this wouldn’t have happened.

I didn’t dare move him. I could hear the sirens coming towards us from a few blocks away. I finally got the courage to feel for a pulse. There was nothing there.

I buried my face into my hands and cried bitterly before there was a noise. A low groan. I looked back at Stephen thinking I had imagined what I had just heard, only to see that his eyes were open and he was looking at me.

“Anna.” He called to me in what sounded more like gurgling than anything.

Another pedestrian claiming to be a doctor rushed over with a medical bag and began trying to take Stephen’s vitals.

“It’s a miracle he’s alive, let alone trying to talk.” He took out a stethoscope and placed it on Stephen’s chest. “You just lie there still and quiet, save your energy.” The gray haired man told Stephen while moving the stethoscope around on his chest. There was a look of confusion.

“I’m not hearing anything.” He said while snatching at Stephen’s wrist to take his pulse. The doctor shook his head after a few seconds, moving his hand further up the arm to take his radial pulse in case there was something he was missing. Once again he shook his head.

Stephen surprisingly jerked his arm away from the doctor and sat up, coughing and spitting blood in the doctor’s face in the process. The doctor scrambled quickly from his side, leaving his medical bag right where it was.

“Anna!” He said again and reached for me, one arm hanging noticeably at a sickening angle. Stephen stood somehow and then began to limp towards me.

Screaming, I began to run towards the darkness of the French Quarter. I was a bit faster than he was it seemed, so I thought I had a better advantage.

Although I had lived in this city now for a while and for the most part knew my way around, you really don’t think too clearly when you’ve got a maimed, obsessed, dead guy following you around town. I came to the walls of the old cemetery and hopped right over. I ran past the tomb of Marie Laveau, the beloved voodoo queen. I figured at least the wall would keep him busy for a while.

“Anna!” I heard him scream.

I turned to see him with one leg hanging over the wall of the cemetery. There was no doubt that he saw me. I turned to flee once more, not knowing where to go or what to do but run. It was then that it occurred to me that all of this was my own fault.

“I want him to stay with me for the rest of my life.” I heard my voice echo in my thoughts.

“Oh my god, the spell...” I realized out loud. “The way I worded it...fuck! This is my fault!”

I felt hopeless and ashamed. Stephen was what he was now because of me and I came to the realization that as long as I lived, he would never find peace.

By some strange coincidence there was a strong rope sitting beside a fresh grave that I happened to notice. I picked it up and began to climb the gnarled branches of a nearby tree, knocking off handfuls of the hanging Spanish moss as I hoisted myself up.

Now, this is where I stand. In this beautiful cemetery, looking out at the lights of the city around me as I slowly fashion a noose from the rope I found and secure it to a strong limb directly above me. It’s strange the way things happen, as if we are all puppets of a predestined fate.

Stephen’s down by the base of the tree. I can see the blood glistening off his ashy white skin as he sobs and pleads with me to come down, all the while trying frantically to figure a way to maneuver his broken body up the branches of the tree.

He has seen the rope, and knows my intent. My death will be his own.

While I’m slipping the rope around my neck I can’t help but look down at him and smile. I still love him with all my heart and soul, just as much as the day I cursed him and bound him to me. What has happened now, well, that’s not his fault. I just hope that if there is an afterlife, he can forgive what I have done to him.

With one foot dangling off of the twisted branch I hear the creature that was once my Stephen screaming in rage. As the other slides quickly off and I feel the rope jerk. Something snaps loudly and my last thought is that I hope he and I do a better job in our next life, for I am sure that if fate has a cruel streak Stephen and I will meet again.