Til Death (standard:other, 2705 words)
Author: the guitarist	Added: Feb 27 2007	Views/Reads: 3068/2112	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
"Til Death is a short story about two lovers who promise to love each other until death. Well, the rest you'll have to read for yourself, because it's quite tragic.

Click here to read the first 75 lines of the story

to him in a cheerful voice.  So the weeks went by and their love for 
each other grew and grew.  A year had passed since they first met, and 
she came by his apartment to see him everyday.  She usually spent the 
night on the weekends, and she loved being there.  She got to know his 
apartment well, from the collage of pictures of his friends back in 
Georgia that covered an entire wall, to the band posters and women in 
bikinis that covered the other ones.  He had an electric guitar in his 
apartment, and could play it very well.  At one time he had his own 
band going when he was still in Georgia.  He had become sadly 
disheartened though, and gave up on his dreams of being a musician 
before moving to Colorado.  He would tell her of his past life in 
Georgia, and all the fun times he had there.  She was always curious of 
why he was so shy when she first met him, so one day she asked him 
about it.  " There's certain parts of my past that I would like to 
forget, but since I have gotten to know you and care about you, I will 
tell you about it."  She listened anxiously for him to begin, and he 
began to speak.  "I've had many problems with my past relationships, 
and I was scared to go out and look for someone else.  It all started 
with the first girl I had a crush on, Melinda.  I was in the 6th grade, 
and I put a box of chocolates on her desk.  She gave me back the box, 
empty of course, and wrote on it "Not Interested".  Jennifer laughed 
and so did Jonathan a little bit when he mentioned that detail.  "And 
then," he continued, " there was the first girl I ever did go out with, 
Layla.  She was my first love, and when she broke up with me, it 
devistated me.  "Then," he said, "there was Sarah, and we only lasted 
for 3 weeks, and she broke up with me because I wouldn't stop talking 
about Layla."  Jonathan began to cry, because talking about it brought 
back terrible memories. "And finally", he said, " There was Jessica, 
and we lasted for about two months, and I messed that one up because I 
couldn't trust her, so she said she was through with me."  " That's 
terrible." Jennifer replied, " I can understand why you were scared to 
talk to me at first."  After he finished his story, he went over to his 
stereo system, popped in a Blue Oyster Cult CD, and pressed the play 
button.  Jonathan loved Blue Oyster Cult, and he had everything they 
had ever recorded, including all their live recordings and concert 
footage.  "Don't Fear The Reaper" began to play over his stereo, and 
they held each other close.  Jonathan pulled out his pocketknife, and 
they proceeded to carve each other's names in their arms.  As the 
guitar solo played loudly over the speakers,  Jonathan looked Jennifer 
straight in the eyes and said "How long will you love me?" , as he cut 
his finger, and it started to bleed.  Jennifer looked back at him as 
she cut her finger, and said "Til Death."  In unison they looked at 
each other and said "Til death".  They put their cut fingers together, 
and at that moment their blood was one.  As more time passed on, He 
decided he was ready to propose to her, so one night he took her out to 
dinner, and he gave her an engagement ring.  She accepted his proposal, 
and they were to be married in 6 months.  Two days after he proposed to 
her, he got word that his father died and that he needed to come back 
to Georgia for the funeral.  He hated the fact that he had to come back 
to Georgia, even though it was only for two weeks, it was two weeks 
without Jennifer.  When he got back to Georgia, he ran into some of his 
old buddies, some of them were burnouts while some of them actually 
made something of themselves.  But then when he least expected it he 
ran into Layla.  "It's been awhile" said Layla with her normally evil 
smile.  Jonathan really didn't want to have to see her, but he couldn't 
be mean to her.  She invited him to come to a party with her, and since 
he had nothing better to do while he was there, he went.  He started 
drinking and before he knew it him and Layla were in the same bed 
together.  The next morning he woke up, and she was still there.  
"Look, I made a mistake sleeping with you last night." he said in a 
somewhat angry voice.  Layla looked at him smiling and said, "Like 
always I fuck you up with everything, like when you and Sarah were 
going out, except that time I didn't have to do anything."  Jonathan 
knew she had something up her sleeve all along.  "Look, I can't have my 
fiancee find out about this, because I really love her, and she doesn't 
need to know how bad I messed up."  Layla laughed and said "Well, in 
your state of drunkenness last night you gave me her phone number, and 
I think I might call her tonight."  He wanted to strangle her, but he 
couldn't do it.  She walked off with the evil smile she always had.  On 
his return to Colorado, he knew that Layla had probably already talked 
to Jennifer about what had happened.  The first place he went was to 
Jennifer's apartment to explain himself.  When he entered her apartment 
he saw a different side to Jennifer that he had never seen before.  His 
fears were confirmed, Layla had told her everything.    She looked at 
him and pulled off the engagement ring and said " You see this fucking 
ring.  You can have it back you cheating son of a bitch."  He kept 
trying to tell her it was a mistake, but she wouldn't hear it.  She 
threw a wine glass at him and yelled, "Get the fuck out of my life you 
fucking pig."  A good relationship ended like that, and all because of 
his stupidity.  Jonathan slipped into a deep depression, and quit going 
to school and work altogether.  He became a prisoner of is own 
apartment, staring at the walls and ceiling for hours upon end.  He 
would try to call Jennifer, and see if she would forgive him, but she 
would never answer his calls.  He went by her apartment several times 
but she was never there.  Because he hadn't been going to work, he lost 
his job, and soon his landlord kicked him out of his apartment.  He 
began to drink heavily and wandered the streets of Grand Junction for 
days at a time.  He finally decided to write Jennifer a letter, and 
leave it at her doorstep.  As he went to drop the letter in front of 
the door, he looked in the window, and saw not one but two shadows on 
the wall.  Through the shadows he saw her embraced with another man.  
Disappointed, he grabbed up the letter and put it back in his pocket.  
The next day he hitched a ride to to Silverton, and walked the streets 
for two days.  He went into a bar, and with what little money he had 
left and got drunk.  He walked out of the bar and started walking up 
the mounainside.  As the moutainside got steeper he started to slip.  
He didn't realize how high up he was and fell off the mountainside onto 
the ground below.   There was blood everywhere, and with what energy he 
had left he crawled into a mine shaft.  He looked up at the rafters and 
planks that held up the mine shaft, and he said in a gurgled voice, " 
Please God, Just let it end."  he repeated this three times before God 
finally answered his prayer for death as suddenly the planks and 
rafters broke apart, and a whole bunch of rats came tumbling down on 
his dying body.  The rat's finished him off, and he was found dead two 
days later.  In his pocket still lay the note that he wrote to 
Jennifer.  Jonathan's funeral was held in Grand Junction, and even 
though Jennifer was still mad about what he did to her, she swallowed 
her pride and attended his funeral.  At his funeral, Jonathan's mother 
came up to Jennifer, and handed her the note that he originally 
intended to give her that night outside her doorstep.  "I think he 
wanted you to have this", his mother said with tears in her eyes.  As 
she opened the letter it read: 

Dear Jennifer, 

I know you're mad at me right now, and I can understand why.  I know
what I did was wrong and I will do anything if you can forgive me.  I 
am still in love with you, but I know damn well I fucked it up.  I had 
the world on my shoulders, I had a good job, went to school, had a nice 
apartment,  but I lost it all because I lost the one thing that was 
most dear to me, and I couldn't get over it.  I know you hate my guts 
right now, but please, please forgive me for what I did.  Like I said,  
I will love you til death.  Please do the same for me. 

-Jonathan. 

As she read the letter, she began to cry and realized that he did truly
love her.  She wished that she could have stopped him from dying.  But 
she realized it was too late, so she looked up to the sky and said  "I 
know you're in heaven now, but I made a promise to you that I would 
love you til death, and I am going to keep that promise no matter what 
it takes."  Everyday at six in the morning she gets up, gets dressed, 
and goes to the floral shop.  Everyday she buy a new rose to place upon 
his grave.  Every time she places the rose upon the grave she looks up 
at the sky and whispers, "Til Death".


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