The Fated: Episode 7

Nathan sat on the edge of his perfectly made bed, looking down at her. The photo was tattered by the years that had passed since they had taken it- their freshman year of high school. Almost 7 years ago.

He could remember those days when her dirty blonde- that had bits of both brown and red- moved so easily among her face. When her face was bubbly, her body thin, and her mind innocent. He could remember it all.

"Hi, I'm Devon." She said it with a smile that made her whole face shine. He took her hand and shook it.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Nathan."

"Well, looks like we're sitting next to each other Nathan. You new to this school?"

"No, I've been through the district."

"Strange, I don't remember seeing you in middle school."

"Yeah, I definitely don't remember seeing you." They laughed. It was kind of a forced laugh. Devon seemed interested from the very beginning.

A teardrop fell on the picture. Nathan thought of when they got together, the day at the amusement park. It was like something out of a movie, with the rain falling and people running. The lights going out in the park, only to have emergency lights illuminating the walkway. they sat on a bench, under a tree in the pouring rain- lightning shooting out all sorts of ways in the sky above.

"I really like you," Nathan shouted out in the pouring rain.

"What?"

"I said I really like you," he tried again.

"I can't hear you over the rain and thunder!"

"Ugh, I just want to go out with you already and this stupid rain is making it impossible after I got the balls to tell you that I liked you a lot."

"You like what a lot?"

He knew she could hear the entire time, then, and grabbed her around her waist. She struggled to get loose, but couldn't. Their hands met and clasped each others as they made it into a darkened arcade. As other park guests stood and watched the rain, they kissed gently. Their first kiss, of not just each other but of anyone. And as they finished, they looked at each other and giggled- running back into the pouring rain and through the park once more to leave.

A teardrop fell on the picture. He held back his tears as much as he could, but his memories kept coming back. He remembered their first date- dinner at the old pizza place and a movie. He remembered their first dance, a homecoming for their football team. They lost the game, and the pictures were awful.

"I look ridiculous in this picture," Nathan said when he first saw it.

"You look handsome to me." She kissed his cheek, making him blush and smile. He thought he looked handsome after that.

A teardrop fell on the picture. He couldn't believe how far they had come. How much she had changed. 7 years ago she was this girl he loved so deeply, and now he sat there on the edge of his bed only remembering the fond days of his past with tears clogging his eyes.

Her eyes were blue. He could remember as she laid there, naked on his bed, for the first time. He looked into the deep blue as they lost their virginity to each other. He could remember each facial expression she made. She was his in that moment, and he was hers.

A teardrop fell on the picture. It was covered in them now, running down her color-faded face and off the side. He still loved her as he sat there, staring at the picture.

"I guess this is goodbye for now?" She was standing behind her car, now plastered with university stickers and full of suitcases.

"I'll come visit, and meet all of the new friends you're going to make." He grabbed her waist and held her close.

"I'm going to miss you so much." She sniffled, trying not to cry- but knowing she would.

"I'm going to miss you too." He kissed her as if it was simply a normal thing now. "I love you so much."

"I love you too. I should really get going though, so you're coming next month then?"

"Yes, and I'm allowed to stay in your dorm with you?"

"Yep. Our first sleep over."

He let her go after more goodbyes. Her family stood by, hugged and waved. Her dad got into the car, her in the passenger seat. One more kiss, a long and deep one followed by one more I love you. Then she was off down the street, on her way.

A teardrop fell on the picture. Nathan let out a giant sigh. He remembered calling her, saying he couldn't come up suddenly because of work. Then one day they just stopped talking for two weeks. He got busy. Nothing else mattered but success, and they forgot each other for a brief moment.

And the next thing he knew, it was three years later and he was finally visiting her.

"O-M-G! Nathan! I haven't seen you in so long!" She hugged him, but he could barely recognize her under the fake spray-on tan and highlighted blonde hair. Her face looked pudgy from, what he assumed and later found out, drinking alcohol and getting what they called "shitfaced drunk" every weekend. And the weekends started on Thursdays or earlier.

"It's been forever."

"Come meet my sisters! They're going to love you."

She dragged him into her house, Greek letters plastered on the doorway. Inside was already littered with beer cans- some empty some not.

"Hey girls! This is my boyfriend Nate, remember I told you girls about him?"

"Oh my Gee! He is so hot!" One of them said.

"Yeah forreal, I can't believe he's dating you- you skank!" Another girl said.

"You're the skank, whore!" Devon said back to her.

"You stupid bitch, why were you hiding such a hottie so far away from us?" A third girl walked into the room, biting her nails. All the girls in the room looked like the other one, at least to Nathan. They continued their talking about how hot he was, until one of the girls realized they were supposed to get a six-pack of alcohol for a friend.

They soon were at a party, Nathan not sure what had lead him to it.

"Hey baby, you want a drink?" He looked at the alcohol in the cup that Devon was trying to pass to him. He hated the taste. He hated the feeling he got from a buzz. "What's wrong, baby?" She kissed him for the first time since he had arrived. Her lips left a taste of alcohol and flavored lip-gloss.

"I don't drink, Devon. I think we need to leave this party."

"But it's just getting started, and we're gonna have so much fun later back at my place. My sisters want you to fuck them."

"What? What do you mean?"

"It's just sex, don't worry."

"Just sex? It's not just sex, it means something- c'mon we need to talk and not here." He grabbed her arm and started dragging out of the party- a plastic red cup still in her hand. As they came outside, he looked at her and realized she was drinking from the cup.

"What the hell, Devon?"

"What?"

"What happened to the sweet little girl that left for college. You're drinking alcohol outside, you're a part of this horrible sorority that's full of all these girls that look alike. And what did you do with your hair?"

"My sister dyed it."

"Your sister? Your twelve year old sister at home that you've barely seen the last three years, because you're too busy on campus to even come home during the holidays or summer? I haven't seen you since the day you left for this place."

"What are you trying to say?"

"I want to know what happened to my girlfriend. Do you go to these parties and get drunk and sleep with guys?"

"No! I'd never cheat on you." She was crying, tears running down her fake tan.

"Then what is with this? You'd never do something like this to just belong. This isn't you."

"It wasn't. I'm still the me under all of this, and I hate alcohol too. It sucks. The hangovers are horrible, and they just keep passing you drinks hoping you'll pass out and they can rape you."

"Did somebody rape you?"

"No, I don't pass out. I have control over my shit when I drink, and my sisters are always with me."

"God, Devon. I don't even know what to say to you."

"I love you."

"I love you too, but this is ridiculous." They kissed again, and he could still taste the alcohol she had drank.

"I wanna go back to my place and do something we haven't done in three years." She bit her lip. He could only nod his head.

As they began to make love, he looked into her eyes again. They were blue. But he couldn't see the girl he loved, like he did when they lost their virginity. He saw someone else. It was as if her soul had grown old and tired with the drinking and spray-on tans over the years. With the slight weight gain, that sometimes only a trained eye could see. He wasn't hers, and she certainly wasn't his.

He fell asleep in her bed, awaking to find her gone again. He checked his phone to find a text saying she had gone back to the party. It was sent at 3 AM, and was almost 6.

He sat up and rubbed his eyes, looking around the room. He didn't recognize any of her belongings. Nothing was familiar to him. Then he noticed on the dresser sat old pictures of her and her family, and one of him. He walked over to one and picked it up. It was an old picture of her from senior year.

He sat on her bed with it. She didn't look like that anymore. She didn't look like anything he knew anymore.

"She's dead." He said to himself in the dark room.

He got up and got dressed, grabbed his car keys and walked out the front door. He sent her a text saying he was leaving. If she wanted anything she could come find him at home, but he wasn't going to sit around while she partied.

He drove back without another reply. He tried not to care, but felt hurt as he walked into his house checking his phone- hoping it would ring.

No one was awake in his house as he walked into his bedroom, just as he had left it. Just as it was almost 7 years ago- as very little had changed in his room.

He sat down. He had hoped she was going to text back, saying for him not to leave. Telling him she was still the same girl underneath all of the spray-on tans and hair dye. That she'd turn back into the girl who didn't act as if sex was meaningless, and that alcohol was just water that made you feel good.

But there was no text, no voicemail, no calls, no email. There was nothing.

A teardrop fell on the picture. It had been three days since he visited her. Neither of them had said anything. He happened to find the picture as he was looking through his sock drawer, and it all hit him at once. All his emotions. All his guilt, shame, hatred. All his pain, agony, love.

He realized then that she really was dead. The old her was gone, and now it was not the same. He had to let go. He had to say goodbye to her, because they weren't going to work out their differences. The girl in the picture he once loved was now a girl he couldn't stand.

"I have to let her go," he said out loud to himself while holding back tears. "She's dead."

He felt as though he had really lost her, but there was no funeral. There was no goodbyes for anyone else, just him. Only he could see her dead.

He stared at the picture, holding back the tears. He grabbed his phone, and called her.

"Nathan, where did you go?"

"Home. I texted you."

"I didn't get it, I guess."

"It's been three days, you didn't call me or anything."

"I got so busy. You didn't call me either."

"I got busy too."

"Listen, I really want this to work out but I don't know if-" she stopped and yelled at someone in the background.

"Devon, this isn't going to work out."

"Wait, what?"

He stared at her old picture, and remembered her saying hi to him. "I love you, Devon. But I don't love what you are. I love what you were. I love the old you."

"Nathan, wait. Please. Don't say what I think you're going to say. I want to work this out. I love you too, and I want to work this out so much."

"You're not the girl I fell in love with, Devon. You're just not."

"Nathan, please." She was crying. He heard someone ask a question in the background. "I don't fuckin' know, I'm on the phone asshole!" She yelled back at them, through her tears.

"Devon, I love you so much. I wish I could just turn back what I saw but I can't. You aren't you anymore. And because of that, I don't love you. I love something that doesn't exist anymore."

"I know, I know- I fucked up, OK? But I can change. We can make this work."

"How? I'm not going to be there, Devon. You're not going to just stop going to parties and gettin' fake tans all of a sudden. Especially if I'm not there."

"Then why can't you be? Why couldn't you have come up here? We could've been married and happy right now. But you had to just go to the other school and stay home."

"Yeah, I did. We both fucked up, OK? But I didn't change like you did."

"You can't tell me this is it. You can't tell me that after all these years, this is goodbye."

"I think it is."

They were both silent.

"I love you." She said.

He swallowed hard, wanting to say it back. "Goodbye, Devon."

He hung up the phone and let the tears fall down his face. It was over. She was gone. He put his hands over his eyes, trying to stop from crying- but it was no use. He put his phone down on the table, knocking her picture to the floor under him as he continued to cry out his misery.

A teardrop fell on the color-faded picture of a dead girl.

Official Design Cover

Hello mates, the official design has been chosen and it's the Snowy Forest. Thanks to everyone who voted, and look forward to more information on the book when it becomes available. Below is what the temporary design of the cover looks like (it will be very close to this, but may have a blurb on the back of the book.)

Vote for the Cover of Death in Disguise

Hello readers. Sadly this won't be a story today, but another update that you will effect. Vote for your favorite cover! Vote ends Aug. 20th at midnight (last votes going in on Aug. 19th at 11:59 then). Vote is below.

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End of Summer Announcement

I want to thank all my readers- whomever you may be- for reading along with my summer installments. It has been a fun trial and error for me to be able to sit and write stories- even though I used death in a lot of them.

I am sad to announce, that has ended. Death in Disguise was the last story for this summer, as I once again will start classes in a couple weeks and I will not have time to work on new stories.

However, I have a few announcements.

I am currently going through my back-log of stories that I've written over the years. As you saw with the story Tight Ropes, I've written handfuls of stories that have never been shown publicly. I'm planning to put those on this blog to keep the updates flowing.

And second, if you have not followed me before- I do have a self-published book of previous works. You can purchase it on the right hand side of this site. But going along with that, I will also be going through my stories on here that I've written over the summer and I'm happy to announce a second self-published book titled Death in Disguise.

I hope you've enjoyed the summer long writing venture here on A Simple Letter. I will try to announce more when I'm able to. Thank you all for reading, and have a great end to your summer.

Death in Disguise

"Hey Tommy! Tommy! I'm open!" Jason ran the field, the football thrown just out of reach. He fell to the ground, the ball bouncing off into the woods, Craig falling on top of him. "Damn it Tommy, we almost had a fourth down touchdown there."

"Yeah, well game is over anyways- the ball went off into the woods."

"It's just the woods, are you afraid of the leaves and worms?"

"More like, how the hell are we going to find it?"

"C'mon you fags, let's go find the damn thing." Craig was already walking towards the trees.

The two followed into the woods, the trees above with their fall colored leaves not yet bare- still securing the ground from the sunlight. They walked along, crunching the yellow, red, and orange leaves underneath them- some still wet from the rain.

"Hey dumbasses, the ball is right here," Craig said picking up the ball to reveal a hand lying in a pile of leaves. "What the-?"

"What is that?" Jason had come up close to look, but was afraid to get much closer.

"It's a hand, dumbass."

"Shut up Craig. You don't know what it is." Tommy stood back farther than the other boys.

"Then what it is? Huh? Scared as shit back there. You don't know what it is either."

"I know I'm not getting any closer to it. I need to get home anyways." Tommy ran off, leaving Jason and Craig standing there.

"Yeah, Tommy is right- I should go too." Jason began walking backwards a bit.

"And you're just going to leave me here with this thing? We have to see what it is. This could be someone's dead body. What if we found a murderer's victim?"

"Yeah, and what if that murderer is going to kill us right now? It's a hand sticking out of a pile of leaves." Craig picked a stick up, and began poking the hand. "Oh dude, c'mon. This isn't funny."

"It looks so real. It has to be someone's body. I'm gonna move some of the leaves."

"This isn't cool, dude. Let's just call the cops or something."

Craig didn't listen, as he used the stick to move some of the leaves in the pile. As he did, the hand fell to the ground. Maggots began to crawl out of it.

"Oh God," Jason was about to be sick.

"Shit. Let's get the fuck out of here!"

The two ran off, Craig throwing his stick on the ground. They ran out of the woods to the park, out of the park to the street, and down the street to Jason's house. Barging in the front door, all you could hear was their frantic cries for help.

"Mom! Mom! Mom!" Jason yelled as he walked in, hoping to find solitude. But no one was home. He grabbed the phone and quickly hit 9-1-1.

"9-1-1, what's your emergency?"

"There's a dead body in the woods and we found it and the hand fell off and there was bugs and please come quick there's a dead body..."

The police arrived soon after, and the two boys lead them to the same point they were before.

"It's right over there officer. You can see the flies buzzing around it." Jason was scared to get closer.

"Did anyone else see this?" the officer asked.

"Our friend Tommy did. But he was scared so he ran off. We thought there might be a murderer or something."

The officer walked off, leaving Jason and Craig standing there alone- both still shivering and breathing heavy.

"You think he's going to do something about it?"

"I don't know, Craig. He's looking at it now."

The sun had gone down now, and only left bits of light scattered here and there. The officer was looking at the leaves with a flashlight- but the boys couldn't see anything besides the flashing light moving around.

The officer came back, and lead the boys out of the woods.

"You boys did a good thing, tonight. It was someone's body, and I'm sure they'll be happy they were found. Let's get you boys home, though- I need to call for backup first and once they come in we'll make sure to get contact with your parents."

The boys sat on a park bench, not saying anything. When their parents showed up, the police spoke with them first. The boys were tired. They were scared. When a news van pulled up, they were even more scared.

"Would you boys like to talk to the news?" an officer asked them.

"No. We want to go home now." Jason muttered.

"In just a bit, let me see if they can't get you down to the station."

"The police station? But we didn't do anything wrong!"

"Can you just give me the boys' names? How old are the boys?" They could hear one of the journalist trying to get answers as the police worked.

"We've yet to talk to them. There has only been a body found, that is all we have to say at this point. There doesn't seem to have been any signs of trouble."

"Was anything found near the scene?"

"No, the body was under a pile of leaves. Nearby was the boys' football. We have investigators at work, and will update you when we have a chance."

The boys were put into a cop car eventually. Their parents were briefed, and met them at the station. Tommy was there too. No one said anything.

As they were walked in, they saw people sitting around in handcuffs. They began to approach a guy who was talking to everyone who walked by.

"Hey kid, kid- listen, you don't understand. That's a kill room! They're going to kill you in there! Gas you like the chambers of World War Two!"

They were all put into rooms. Small. Their parents by their sides. They told what happened. An officer wrote it down. They were set free.

"Hey man, you gotta listen to me! You got out of there but you gotta get me out! They're going to murder me! It's like that body they laid out in the woods! It's all a police cover up! They'll come back and gas you later!"

Jason didn't like what the strange man had said. How had he known about the body?

"You don't think that weird guy was right, do you guys?" Jason said to the other two as they walked down the street the next day.

"What weird guy?" Tommy said.

"That one guy that was yelling at us. He said the police were covering up killing that person."

"Don't be a dumbass, dumbass." Craig kicked a small rock along the sidewalk in front of them.

"He said something about the cops and covering it all up. I'm freaking out about this, guys. What if he was right?"

"What if he was? We don't know shit. You guys were the ones who found the dead body, anyways."

"Yeah, because you ran away like the shithead you are." Craig kicked another rock down the sidewalk.

No one said anything, as they approached the park. A police car sat parked there, crime scene tape around the area still up.

"Hey you kids- are you the ones that saw the body yesterday?" An officer yelled to them as they approached.

"Um, yeah." Craig yelled to them, nervous.

"Why don't you kids come here a minute? I want to talk to you about something."

They reluctantly approached the officer, who stood at the foot of the woods.

"I need to give you kids something."

"Please officer, don't kill us. We didn't do anything. We just found the body, we don't know if you put it there or not. Just don't kill us, please." Tommy broke down in tears.

"Kill you? Kid, I'm not gonna kill you. I was wondering if this was your football. We found it in the woods. Captain said we don't need it as evidence or anything, so you can have it back if you want it."

They all looked at each other, remembering the ball on top of the hand.

"No thanks, officer. You can have it." Jason said.