Sold

Justan got out of his dark Mercedes with a smile. She had chosen him. Not Matt, him. She loved him. But when his eyes landed on a Lillith free restaurant, his smile and heart fell. Maybe he was wrong; she didn’t love him after all.

“Excuse me,” he stopped a waiter as he passed. He had to have seen her. “Have you seen a beautiful young woman with hair about yay high?” His hand moved down toward his hip. He didn’t notice how he’d complimented her by calling her beautiful, or the fact that the waiter might see her differently; simply because it was nearly impossible to think of a woman who might be better looking than Lillith.

“Yeah, she left just a little while ago, told me to hold her table for her.”

“Did you see where she was headed?”

“Somewhere with some guy.” Matt? he thought, I thought she picked me.

“Don’t worry man, he seemed way too old for her; besides, I heard she was going to help the guy find a present for his kid.” Justan’s smile grew back and the waiter thought that maybe he was the person she was waiting for after all. Was she two timing him? Eh, wasn’t any of his business; so he kept that little bit of information to himself.

“Over there is her seat. I guess she’s just being held up a little bit.” The waiter smiled politely at Justan, making him decided to give the kid a big tip before they left.

Seeing a little box on the table that the waiter had pointed out for him, he examined it; his name was hanging out of the lid. So, he picked the little silver cube up and slowly opened it.

It was just a simple golden chain, with a white gold dog tag on it. When it shimmered, words engraved in the necklace caught his eye.

“My love.” His eyebrows knitted and he looked at the little paper tag with his name on it. “To: My love, Justan,” he read aloud, “From: Lillith.” The ‘From’ was crossed out and ‘Love Always’ was scribbled over it.

Justan’s smile grew. She’d bought it for him; she did love him. Really, she did.

When the chair across from him screeched, he looked up expectantly; only to be let down quickly.

“Now son, don’t be like that. I’ve just done you a huge favor.” His dad smiled at him, causing his gut to wretch. He never smiled at him; not unless it was another one of those horrible things he did that he believed would make Justan happy.

“What do you want?” Right at that moment, the same waiter boy was passing their table. He suddenly stopped and looked at Justan’s dad oddly.

“What?” The older man barked.

“Dad, don’t.”

“Well, tell this little pipsqueak to quit looking at me! What do you want?”

“Where’s that girl?” He seemed a little too confused. What girl? Justan thought curiously, was he talking about Lillith?

“She had to go.”

“Where?” Justan interrupted quickly. What had his monster of a father done now?

“I’ll explain to you in a minute son,” he looked over to the confused bus boy, “Go on now, shoo.” With a slight glare, the kid was gone. He could just tell that that guy was bad news.

“What did you do now?” Justan’s teeth grit together and he glared at his father.

“Why in the world would I have done something wrong?”

“Because you’re a murderous monster. Do you know how much pain you caused Lil?” The slight smirk on his father’s face made his stomach grow more uneasy; what had he done to Lillith?

“That girl was a slut.” Was. The word didn’t slip by Justan. What had he meant by was?

“Don’t you dare call her that!”

“Well, what do you expect me to call her? After she sat and kissed that boy right here?!” Normally, Justan would have been furious at the fact she had kissed Matt, but they had talked about this. She was allowed to kiss him, as a goodbye; it meant nothing more.

“I told her she could.”

“What?”

“I told her she could kiss him. Have a goodbye; make sure that she was making the right choice, that she would be happy.” His dad’s eyes bugged only slightly before he regained his composure; though his eyes deceived him, showing slight fear.

What had he done that was so bad?

“Oh.”

“What - did - you - do.” Justan’s voice came out harsh and venomous. His question didn’t sound like a question, but more of an accusation.

“I’ll see you at home, son.” He quickly got up , before Justan jumped up after him and grabbed the scruff of his collar; something daddy dearest himself had taught him.

“Where is she?”

“Trust me boy, you don’t want to know.” Justan’s grip tightened, nearly choking his elder. “Okay, okay, okay! I’ll show you! But you have to let go of me first boy!” Reluctantly, Justan let up on his father’s shirt, letting him lead the way through numerous deserted and filthy ally ways.

When his father stopped; he hadn’t realized and nearly smashed right into his back. Leaving out of his subconscious mind; he nearly lost it. There she was; her beautiful sandy hair was matted all around her body with a stomach churning sea of dark crimson. Her face was wet, seemingly from crying, her body disfigured by the multiple cuts and stab wounds all over her disgruntled body.

“What did you do.” His words came out a lot quieter than he’d meant for them too, his question not inquiring at all; he knew what his father had done, and his knees were growing weak from the sight of it. Why though? Why would his own dad take his only happiness away from him?

“I - I’m sorry.”

“No. No, you’re not.” By then, he was on his knees, cradling Lillith’s bloodied head in his lap; he was hopelessly willing her to come back, for her body to suddenly spring to life. He wanted her to take a big gasp of air and laugh in his face, telling him it was all just a joke. He wanted to watch her eyes flutter open and share an ever longing kiss with her like they did in the movies.

In his father’s eyes, he looked pitiful. Did he really care that much about her? Really love her that much? To reduce to that?

“Softy.”

“Go away.”

“What?”

“Get the hell away from here! You’ve gone too far!” Justan’s voice was now a roar. He was fuming. Maybe if her killer wasn’t present, he could somehow bring her back, he could somehow make her breathe again and take away all of the hideous markings that tainted her body.

After he was sure his dad had fled, Justan moved his face closer to his love's and planted his lips onto her own. Maybe his life was just a fairytale that was being written at that moment, and the author had some sick, demented sense of humor that caused him to go through this; but they were just waiting for him to kiss her and awaken her from her everlasting sleep. But, no matter how fiercely his kissed the corpse, no matter how much he hugged her to his body, or how much he sobbed into her filthy hair, she didn’t come back, nor would she ever, he finally realized.

He pulled out his cell phone once coming to this conclusion, and he dialed for an ambulance; although knowing deep down inside that she couldn’t be saved no matter what. No amount of medics would bring her back.

When the ambulance finally arrived, he scowled at the way they worked so slowly; and quite literally growled at the nurse that tried to pry Lillith out of his arms. On the ride there, after a quite large argument about him holding her throughout the ride, Justan put his necklace on, and thought of how his life would be without her in it.

He would be miserable.

Suicide crossed his mind at that moment, but how would his mom feel? He couldn’t just leave her behind with that monster; he wouldn’t. He could move on … No. That was impossible.

Just live. A voice chimed from the back of his mind. It sounded somewhat familiar … Yet, it was feminine.

He’d do it. Just live one day at a time. But this time, he wouldn’t participate in anymore traditions.

Not ever again.