Moonlight Runaway Lovers!

The bench in the centre of the park, at which I was sat, held many tragic memories for the town. But none as tragic as the one I’m about to tell you.

It was a warm evening in the midst of August, and the play park was buzzing with children’s giggling and laughter as they asked to be pushed higher on the colourful swings. The smell of burnt sausages from several barbeques hung in the air. I had come to the park to escape the horror house I call a home and sat on my favourite bench in front of a large oak tree. I started to drift off to sleep whilst reading my novel and dreamt of escaping. Before I knew it I was aware of a presence sat beside me. As I opened my eyes I saw him.

The next few months flew by, Luke and myself spent every waking moment with each other getting to know more about the other and becoming closer each time we met. It first became known to me that I was falling in love, when we first kissed. Stood underneath the very same oak tree where we first met, he held me at arms length and looked into my eyes, and everything around us seemed to fade into the distance. After that we became inseparable, kissing and hugging and holding hands whenever we felt no-one was watching. Everything seemed so unbreakable between us, but little did either of us know that our relationship was like porcelain; one slip and everything would be in pieces.

February 14th. Valentines Day. Luke took me to a small downtown restaurant which was beautiful. The walls were a crimson red, and the rooms were filled with lots of small round tables with white laced clothes covering the wood beneath. On each table there was a tall white candle and rose petals dotted over the table like chocolate sprinkles on an ice-cream. Along with two small wine glasses, each table had a bucket of ice and amongst the ice was a bottle of the finest champagne. As we were seated the waiter, named ‘Pierre’, gave us our menus and filled our glasses with champagne. As I looked around everyone seemed to be in couples, and wearing something red or pink obvious signs of Valentines Day! However neither Luke or I were wearing neither of those colours. For a brief moment I felt a sense of suffering but quickly dismissed it when I saw Luke smiling at me from across the table. “A toast to happiness, and love” He spoke with a raspy voice with a tone of lovingness, at that moment I felt nothing could go askew; oh how wrong I was that fateful night.

After the meal, there was a small orchestra playing on the minor stage, just to the left of our table. After we had finished eating, we had moved our chairs closer and sat holding hands and listening to the blissful music. We were sat like this for about 20 minutes, before we heard a crash followed by lots of screaming. As I turned around all I saw was the scary face of my so called “Mother”. Her eyes were red with anger enraged by seeing my lover sat beside me, her fists were automatically clenched. Beside her stood my younger sister, Mary. I quickly snatched my hand away from Luke’s. When I did so I saw a look of anger and hurt flare through his once shining eyes, now dull and red.
I can’t remember much of what had happened after, but I do remember the look on Luke’s face as I was dragged away from him, screaming, with tears pouring down my pale face. He had tears in his eyes and looked like death itself!

Months went by, before I ever saw him again. My parents locked me in my bedroom on the third floor in our so called ‘loving family home’ as my spiteful father puts it. I was only ever allowed out of my room to use the bathroom, and eat any food my mother would give me. My sister still feels guilty for telling our parents about Luke. You see, my parents had decided that when I grew up they would find a suitable man for me to marry; hence me not being aloud to see or talk Luke, let alone fall in love with him. But being the type of young women I was, I did. . I fell so in love, that when I was forbidden to see him, I had written him a letter telling him to meet me by the big oak tree, where we first met, at midnight the following Sunday.

So here I stood after so many wonderful but foretold memories. It was 5 minutes to midnight and soon I would be running off into the dark and forbidden moonlight. The wind was howling in the night and the trees swayed against the force of the wind. The bright stars contrasted against the ebony black sky. The branches of a nearby tree casting haunted silhouette’s against the innocent white moon.
A few moments had gone by before I felt a cold wet hand slip into mine. Staring up into those gorgeous blue eyes, the ones that made me melt every time I looked at them, I felt like crying. He knew why I asked him to meet me. Yet he still came! No matter how silly it seemed, we were going to run and never look back. A few seconds passed before he whispered those three words that meant everything to me and those few words set us off into the dark. Hand in hand, we were running into the night our bodies casting the shadows of two star-crossed lovers. Never looking back.
Those three words…’I love you’.