Second Heartbeat

A week had passed since the day Stormy had checked herself out of the hospital. No one had seen or heard from her during the entire time she was gone. Brian looked for her every day. He would leave early in the morning and not return until the late night hours.

He refused to believe that she ran away, and there was no way he was going to believe that she left him. Another morning came and he got up just like he did every day for the past week and took a shower, got dressed and went out to look for Stormy.

He walked the streets looking for her in every bar, strip club, pool hall and even went back to the ballet studio, but his search came up empty. He checked the beach, the park, the mall and the homeless shelter, but still as with everyday found no sign of her.

He sat on a bench on the boulevard looking out at the water. “If I were Stormy, where would I go?” He asked himself.

One year earlier

They walked to end of the pier, he held her hand and she held and ice-cream cone in her other hand. “Where are you taking me?” he asked

“Just over here to the end of the pier” She smiled swinging her hand in his.

“Stormy, this is like the worst part of town”

“I know, but it’s the prettiest”

“Show me” he said and took her ice-cream out of her hand and licked it.

She looked over the railing and pointed to the water. “Look down there, see how every time the water moves it’s a different color?” She pointed towards the water. He looked down and smiled.

“It’s blue and it’s green and even white sometimes” she smiled.

“I see that” he said

She climbed on the railing and threw one leg over. “What are you doing?” Brian asked

“Going for a swim!” she said and before he could grab her, she jumped.

“You’re nuts!” he yelled through his laughter.

“Brian, I can’t swim,” she yelled back and he could see the panic on her face. He threw the ice-cream down and jumped in after her. When he surfaced above the water, he reached for her and pulled her to him. He held on to her and swam to the shore.

After pulling her out she sat there shivering. “You scared the hell out of me, don’t ever do that again!” he scolded.

She stuck her tongue out at him and he pulled her closer and kissed her. “You are going to drive me to drink” he laughed.

“At least it will be a short drive!”

They laughed hand in hand all the way back to the house.

Brian got up off the bench and started walking in the direction of the end of the pier. He walked faster and faster until he was actually running. When he reached the end he stopped in the very spot where she brought him one year ago. She wasn’t there. Before turning to walk back he glanced down and saw her cell phone on the ground. He bent down to pick it up and when he stood he looked back at the water.
“no” he whispered. “no, she wouldn’t do that”

His breath seemed to leave his body at the thought of her committing suicide. “My Angel, no…no….no”

He fell to his knees and hid his face in his hands while he cried.

--

When he got back to the house, Brian was drunk. He walked into the living room and walked right over to Matt. Everyone knew something wasn’t right and that this was going to be bad. Brian’s face was wrought with tears and pain.

“YOU” he said pointing to Matt. “It’s your fault she’s dead, it’s your fault. You told her no one would care if she disappeared.”

Matt stood up to calm Brian down and Brian took a swing at him, but lost his balance and missed. Matt grabbed Brian around the waist and pinned his arms down at his sides.

“Somebody has had too much to drink, how about we get you to bed?” Matt asked.

Brian was about to answer when the doorbell rang. Matt let go and shoved him down on the couch.

“Who could that be at this hour?” Tera asked.

“Maybe it’s the zoo, they probably want their gorilla back” Brian said pointing at Matt.

Zacky couldn’t help himself he started laughing, but stopped as soon as Matt glared at him.

“I’ll get it” Jimmy said and got up to go to the door. He came back not even a minute later.

“There was no one there, this package was left at the front door with Brian’s name on it.”

“Presents! Gimme!” Brian said holding out his hand. Jimmy gave him the package and he ripped it open. He took out a CD and frowned. “It’s a stupid CD!” he said and threw it across the room.

Matt walked over and grabbed the CD. “It’s a DVD you idiot!” he said and popped it into the DVD player.

“Well fuck! Pass the popcorn!” Brian said as Matt pressed play.

When Brian saw the image on the screen, he sobered up really quick.