Little White Lies

:warning: TRIGGER WARNING! :warning: Death, loss, betrayal, depression and grief themes.  #WTW

⊱ :rose: ⟿ First Rough Draft ⟿ :rose: ⊰

✿❯────「✿」────❮✿

Erek looked to the enger’s seat as he tried desperately to breathe easier.  She wasn’t moving.  Her head was still facing him, but her eyes were blank.  She had been looking at him lovingly as they discussed the changes needed to their spare bedroom.

Tears filled his eyes.  The emotions made it harder for him to breath.  It was then he heard the voices outside his door.  He tried to move his head carefully to see them, but his neck wouldn’t move but so far.  Eventually he gave up.  His eyes moved from her lifeless eyes to the grill of the rig that had smashed into the enger side of their car.

“Breath slowly man,” a male voice said from his left side.  “The ambulance is on the way.”

He didn’t have the breath to respond to the man.  He wanted to tell them his wife was dead and pregnant.  He hoped the baby might be alive, though logic told him it was probably lost when she died.  His eyes looked back into her lifeless, sapphire eyes.

Those eyes loved him.  They trusted him.  They had faith in him.  She never doubted anything he said.  Not that she followed him blindly.  She was very vocal with her opinions and thoughts.  She even had persuaded him to change his mind on several things.  But that was different.  The light that had been there in those eyes was gone.  The brain that challenged his whole being was silenced.  What he wouldn’t give to see life in those eyes again.

Breathing was becoming more difficult by the moment as his thoughts took him through all the times they had enjoyed together.  They were looking forward to the birth of their first child in four months.  The discussion had been on the development of a nursery in the spare bedroom.  Again, that didn’t matter anymore.

“I’m sorry,” he barely whispered.  Staring in her lifeless eyes, breathing was suddenly no longer a problem.

✿❯────「✿」────❮✿

Bridget stood waiting in the line.  She had never considered how many people die in a day.  She had already asked an assistant about her unborn child.  She’d been told since he wasn’t born when he died, he would be inside the gates for processing.  She didn’t get an understanding as to what processing was.

That was before she had been moved to a different line.  Apparently the line she had gotten in originally was for singles and couples dying separately.  However, Erek wasn’t there. The kind guard had informed her he would be ing her shortly as she guided her to the “couples in waiting” line.

So she stood there waiting for him to her.  Time seemed to be ing differently here.  Perhaps it was because she was waiting on Erek.  She still didn’t understand what happened or how she died, but she’d been told she would have all that knowledge on the other side of the gate.

There were three or four spirits coming in every few minutes.  Then she saw him. She felt a mixture of happiness and sadness.  She didn’t want to be alone without him, but she also didn’t want him to die.  As he came to her, they embraced tightly.  She felt safe and home again.  The assistant came over and helped them over to the correct couples line once they finished their reunion.

It didn’t seem to take any time for them to get up to the man standing at the gate.  He hugged the two before them then turned to look at Erek and Bridget.  He put his hand up to call over a couple of robed figures.

“Welcome to the afterlife,” he said as he looked the two of them over.  “I am Thanatos,  otherwise known as Death in many cultures.  It is my job to make sure you are prepared before you through the gates into the afterlife to be given your eternal reward.  In preparation for this especially for couples, there are things you must work through before we can allow you to move forward.”

Erek and Bridget looked at each other.  They had worked together since they were in High School.  Bridget tightened her hand around Erek’s as they smiled together.  Turning back to Thanatos, they nodded saying in unison “What do we have to do?”

Thanatos put them through several different exercises which they couldn’t understand the meaning of.  Finally, the two robed figures moved over towards them.  One had a stack of books.  The other was holding a single folder.

Erek and Bridget looked at the two robed figures.  Thanatos cleared his throat before he said “The last objective you have to meet has to do with the lies you have told in your life.”

Bridget looked at Erek then back at Thanatos.  She seemed to be shifting closer to Erek as she listened.  For his part, Erek never took his attention off Thanatos.

Thanatos noticed the difference in their actions as he spoke “Each of you have to read the lies your lover and spouse told you through their lifetime.  We have found this can be a very painful process and can cause discontent between couples.  Therefore, we will give each of you the lies to read in an isolation room before you two are brought back together. Note this process will also help in determining and understanding where you two are placed whether together or separate in the afterlife.”

With a raising of his hand, they were separated and placed in isolation rooms surrounded by a glass-like substance allowing them to see each other.  Then the robed figures moved forward with their burdens.  The stack of books was brought into Bridget to read while the folder was taken into Erek.

Bridget looked at the stack of books before her as her eyes started to fill with tears.  She looked towards Erek with pain of betrayal filling her countenance.

Erek watched her knowingly.  He knew the lies he had told were going to hurt her.  A few he was sure she could forgive, but there were some he was sure she would not be able to.  He had tried to be a good and faithful lover and husband, but there were times he failed.  He didn’t even look at the paper with her lies as he watched her tearfully go through each line of each book.

The torture seemed like hours.  Erek couldn’t explain away each lie or ask forgiveness.  He could only stand watching her cry as she went through the thick books in the stack.  The lies he had told her since they met added up.  He knew well everyone for they were scars in his heart like magic markers on a whiteboard.  They could not be wiped away or erased.

Bridget felt her heart, which had always been full of love for Erek, breaking with each lie she read.  From the lie he told him about the girl whom he was dating when they met to the lie he told her in the car about his business trip plans for the week following their death.  A trip he would now never take.  She wrapped her arms around her middle as she cried upon closing the last book.

There was a short glance to him which didn’t meet his eyes before she turned to look out of the room away from him.  He almost fell into the chair.  That was it.  Their 25 years together in life as a couple, he had destroyed when the secrets and lies he had kept were known in full.  There had been many times he wanted to come clean to her, but he feared just this: losing her.  Now it was a reality.

Erek still hadn’t glanced at the words on the paper left on the table.  He raised his head from his hands to look to her lies.  Agony filled him as he saw only four words on the paper.  He had to rub the tears from his eyes to read them.

Finally he pulled the paper towards him to see the words so he could read them.  The four words written on the paper were: “I’m not a virgin.”

✿❯────「✿」────❮✿

Word Count = 1366

#CACweek28

✿❯────「✿」────❮✿

Images are not mine. Credit to the original artists.  If an image is yours or you know whose it is, please let me know so I can credit the artists.

✿❯────「✿」────❮✿

Works of fiction have no real people in them.  All written content, unless otherwise indicated, of my posts are my intellectual property thus covered under copyright laws.  Do not use without permission or steal.

✿❯────「✿」────❮✿