Hello there! This is a recent story I have written after a LONG time with writer's block so please go easy on my work. It's slightly sappy I guess in bits, but it's supposed to let you take away from the story whatever message or feeling you so wish. It's not based on past experiuences, although works more around the human emotions, the reluctance many have to let go, and the bitter end that can happen to some of the best relationships or friendships if we hold on until past their time, into the bitter end. Well, I've put it in short stories and am going to let the opinions of the general public voice whether or not to continue it. This introduction is becoming longer than the actual story so cya, Alexis.

The door slammed shut, as he watched silently, feeling the prickles of thousands of knifes stabbing into his heart. He had only done what he had thought at the time was the right thing to do. Why was she so angered at him? But then, he thought, then she would actually have to include him in his life, which he doubted very much she would do.

Why did she hate him? He remembered back to the times when she hadn't slammed doors in his face, emotionally or physically, the times when he had held her soft, smooth hand in his own, when he had held her heart in his hands and bled her tears and loved her indefinitely with all his heart and soul, a passionate fire burning with his very essence, when he had felt the urge to be with her constantly, to protect her. But now it seemed, the roaring bonfire in his heart for her had dimmed to little less than a spark of electricity, or perhaps something more inconsistent than that.

Perhaps they had just changed to much. He remembered back again, to when they had first met, the outgoing girl with light sparkling in her eyes as she had looked into his own green lamps. Now he saw the same girl, only older, more reserved and this time the gentle light sparkling in her eyes was a burning flame of annoyance, and maybe even a tinge of hatred, towards himself.

They had a strange relationship, a mutated shadow of the soaring love, a transcendent of all boundaries that they had once shared. Each shared a distaste of one another, their love had gone sour like expired milk. But perhaps most strangely of all they continued on together, as though waiting for a signal or sign to point them to their next direction of action, or until death do them part. He left the house, hoping to go and buy some take-away, her favourite, to soothe her irritation and perhaps build a little bit of comfort within their souls.

*************

He returned to the house, with take-out food in hand for the battle ahead, only to find a lack of battle or of adversaries, only an empty battlefield without even a faint wind blowing through. "Hello? It's me! I'm home!" He called out warily, proceeding cautiously through the blank emptiness of his large house. There was no reply. "Are you there Vivienne?"

He felt a flashback to the last time that this sort of thing had happened. He had been about nine at the time, when he had come home from school, and his aunt had in his elder cousin's words 'shot through', the house had been empty and the worst thing was that there was no precognitive sense of dark change or pain around the family home where so many laughs and smiles had been shared and exchanged, and so many memories and moments shattered by some inexplicable loneliness that everyone in the house had felt when things had started to sour between his aunt and uncle, yet never been able to name. Their house had ceased to be their home.  There was only the lack of his legal guardian, and still the same kitchen and bathroom, the same pool and deckchairs, how peculiar it had all felt to his younger self.

Blinking back tears, he continued looking through the house for his lifelong friend,  long term girlfriend, short term fiance. "Vivienne!" he almost was screaming now as he ran through all of the rooms until reaching theirs. "Vivienne, this isn't funny!" He called, raising his voice, in case she still couldn't hear his shouts. She wasn't replying back to his calls. Was she here, listening to his shouts of anguish whilst she sat and wallowed in her own pity? He reached their bedroom, to find an envelope on the made bed, with his name exquisitely written on it's front. So he picked it up, fingers trembling, knowing deep down the reason for this note. Silent now, he read it.

'Edward.

By the time you have finished reading this I will be gone from our house for the past eighteen months. I was truly, deeply in love with you eighteen months ago, though it seems such a far time ago than where we are now. I also have to believe that you loved me to, yet this love and bond that we shared had been gone now for months, replaced by  frostiness and irritation on both sides that makes me cry as I close my eyes each night. It is too late now to fix the damage that has been done, so I have decided it is in both of our best interests if I leave immediately.

I forever remain your faithful acquaintance, Vivienne.'

She was gone. He couldn't believe it, but she was gone. Yes, their last months together had been fraught with coldness and underlying hostility, but still a part of his heart was still hers and she had taken it away with her when she left. And with that he broke down into a shell and felt miserable, finally realising his true and utter aloneness in the world.