Categories > Original > Drama
Wicked Game
1 reviewI never dreamed that I'd meet somebody like you. I never dreamed that I'd lose somebody like you.
1Ambiance
Connor had hit rock bottom, and he would have stayed there indefinitely if not for Annie. But the catch about good things is that they don’t last. Connor knew this, and usually he made it a point, therefore, to avoid all good things. He couldn’t make himself avoid Annie.
Connor used to fancy himself a painter, and like all artists, he felt too much. He tried to pour the excess emotion into his paintings. When that didn’t work he stopped painting and tried to bury it. Eventually he tried to drown the pain in alcohol and suicide attempts. Connor met Annie at his first ever, court ordered, AA meeting after his most recent attempt to kill himself while driving drunk had failed pathetically, leaving his car totaled and a rather hefty oak tree severely damaged, but his body relatively unhurt. Most would say he was lucky, he did not agree.
Annie ran the meeting, asking everyone their feelings and setting goals for the coming week. Her blond hair fell soft around her face and her blue eyes held the purest kindness imaginable. Connor never dreamed he’d ever meet someone like Annie, and for this reason he tried to keep his distance. But every week at the meetings she would call on him with that beautiful smile in that perfect voice and before long he was sucked in.
Meetings went by much too quickly and he began to arrive early, or stay late, just to spend more time with her. For the first time he could remember he found himself saddled with a reason to live. And he didn’t mind it. The drinking stopped, the drugs stopped, the need to die disappeared. Annie’s smile did more in a moment than therapy and anti-depressants did in years.
All too soon he finished his court required number of meetings and then occasional lunches and dinners replaced AA meetings as his primary source of time with Annie. Annie inspired him to paint again, she brought the art in his soul back to life.
“I think I’m falling in love with you,” she told him one night.
He looked her square in the eye. “I don’t want to fall in love,” he said.
Annie smirked. “Afraid I’ll break your heart?”
“This world is only going to break your heart.”
She reached for his hand. “Not if I have anything to say about it.”
He told her he didn’t want to fall in love, but he fell anyway. He asked her to marry him one night on a balcony overlooking a star speckled lake and as she said yes the full moon came out from its hiding place behind the clouds and shone gently on her joyous tears. They honeymooned in Italy and he vowed never to let her go.
He never knew why Annie chose him and he never asked, as if maybe if she had to think of a reason she would realize that there wasn’t one. There were days when he was the happiest man on the planet, and there were days when he thought their love could only be a wicked game she was playing on him, because a girl like her could never fall for a man like him. But Annie was there for him no matter what the day and she promised him she’d never leave. It was a promise she couldn’t keep.
He was working late at the studio when he got the call from the ER. “Mr. Sheppard? I’m sorry to have to tell you this, your wife has been in a terrible accident. Her vehicle was hit head on by a drunk driver, she’s in critical condition. We recommend that you come down here straight away.”
Connor got to the hospital as fast as he could, but he wasn’t in time. Annie died alone. What was she doing out on the road at that time of night anyway? She should have been home long before. He answered his own question. She was coming to see you, to see what you were working on. If you had been home she never would have been on the road. If you had been there she would still be alive.
Connor fell back onto the bottle. Alcohol had claimed his life once before, Annie had saved him from it. In the end, she took him away from it, it took her away from him. Now he begged it to take him away. From pain, from life, from everything.
Everyday he visited her grave. At first he would often find flowers left by other grieving friends, but as time wore on they became less and less frequent, until sometimes he thought he was the only one who remembered that there was a gaping hole in the world where Annie should have been.
“I told you, Annie. I told you the world would only break your heart. I told you it was safer not to fall in love.”
The wind blew gently through the branches and Connor would have sworn he heard Annie’s voice in his ear.
“Nobody loves no one.”
Connor used to fancy himself a painter, and like all artists, he felt too much. He tried to pour the excess emotion into his paintings. When that didn’t work he stopped painting and tried to bury it. Eventually he tried to drown the pain in alcohol and suicide attempts. Connor met Annie at his first ever, court ordered, AA meeting after his most recent attempt to kill himself while driving drunk had failed pathetically, leaving his car totaled and a rather hefty oak tree severely damaged, but his body relatively unhurt. Most would say he was lucky, he did not agree.
Annie ran the meeting, asking everyone their feelings and setting goals for the coming week. Her blond hair fell soft around her face and her blue eyes held the purest kindness imaginable. Connor never dreamed he’d ever meet someone like Annie, and for this reason he tried to keep his distance. But every week at the meetings she would call on him with that beautiful smile in that perfect voice and before long he was sucked in.
Meetings went by much too quickly and he began to arrive early, or stay late, just to spend more time with her. For the first time he could remember he found himself saddled with a reason to live. And he didn’t mind it. The drinking stopped, the drugs stopped, the need to die disappeared. Annie’s smile did more in a moment than therapy and anti-depressants did in years.
All too soon he finished his court required number of meetings and then occasional lunches and dinners replaced AA meetings as his primary source of time with Annie. Annie inspired him to paint again, she brought the art in his soul back to life.
“I think I’m falling in love with you,” she told him one night.
He looked her square in the eye. “I don’t want to fall in love,” he said.
Annie smirked. “Afraid I’ll break your heart?”
“This world is only going to break your heart.”
She reached for his hand. “Not if I have anything to say about it.”
He told her he didn’t want to fall in love, but he fell anyway. He asked her to marry him one night on a balcony overlooking a star speckled lake and as she said yes the full moon came out from its hiding place behind the clouds and shone gently on her joyous tears. They honeymooned in Italy and he vowed never to let her go.
He never knew why Annie chose him and he never asked, as if maybe if she had to think of a reason she would realize that there wasn’t one. There were days when he was the happiest man on the planet, and there were days when he thought their love could only be a wicked game she was playing on him, because a girl like her could never fall for a man like him. But Annie was there for him no matter what the day and she promised him she’d never leave. It was a promise she couldn’t keep.
He was working late at the studio when he got the call from the ER. “Mr. Sheppard? I’m sorry to have to tell you this, your wife has been in a terrible accident. Her vehicle was hit head on by a drunk driver, she’s in critical condition. We recommend that you come down here straight away.”
Connor got to the hospital as fast as he could, but he wasn’t in time. Annie died alone. What was she doing out on the road at that time of night anyway? She should have been home long before. He answered his own question. She was coming to see you, to see what you were working on. If you had been home she never would have been on the road. If you had been there she would still be alive.
Connor fell back onto the bottle. Alcohol had claimed his life once before, Annie had saved him from it. In the end, she took him away from it, it took her away from him. Now he begged it to take him away. From pain, from life, from everything.
Everyday he visited her grave. At first he would often find flowers left by other grieving friends, but as time wore on they became less and less frequent, until sometimes he thought he was the only one who remembered that there was a gaping hole in the world where Annie should have been.
“I told you, Annie. I told you the world would only break your heart. I told you it was safer not to fall in love.”
The wind blew gently through the branches and Connor would have sworn he heard Annie’s voice in his ear.
“Nobody loves no one.”
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