• Hector and Emily sat under a large pale birch tree, gazing into eachothers eyes soulfully.
    Hector stroked Emily’s face, “I love you so much,”
    She smiled in reply, and touched his hand softly.
    They had met through a friend of theirs, Mark. He had introduced the two of them three months ago, and they immediately began to get to know eachother, allowing their relationship to bloom.
    Emily poked his cheek playfully, “your so silly,” she giggled.
    Smirking, he said, “well aren’t you funny?” He kissed her nose.
    She cringed and stuck her tongue out at him, standing. She lept around the big tree, frolicking and giggling.
    “Catch me if you can!” she laughed.
    He snickered, leaping up and chasing after her. They ran around the tree together, laughing like children.
    After several minutes, Emily slowed and allowed Hector to tackle her playfully and tickle her.
    “No!” her laughter ran through the air, “stop!”
    They then sat, watching the stars sparkle against the deep sky.
    Minutes passed.
    “Its getting late,” Hector finally said, “I should go.”
    Emily turned to face him, resting her head on her palm, “I guess so.”
    They both stood and hugged. Emily leaned on her tiptoes to kiss Hector.
    “Goodbye for now,” she said, before bounding back to her house.
    Once there, the first thing she did was go to her room. She had school the next day, and had to get a decent nights sleep. She stared at herself in the mirror for a long time, then closed her eyes and sighed. She had always considered herself average looking, but Hector thought she was the most beautiful girl in the world.
    I wonder what he sees in me… she thought. Shrugging, she crawled into bed.
    The sky was clouded by smoke, bits of red showing from the sky. Emily looked around only to see dark dirt all the way to the horizon. She smelled something foul, but was unsure what it was. She noticed the dirt looked slick, wet. Reaching down, she dragged her finger across it, leaving an indent. Her finger was covered in warm red fluid, blood.
    “Emily?”
    Hector stood in the distance next to a scorched tree she hadn’t seen before.
    “Hector! What’s going on… where are we?!”
    Hector said nothing, but looked down at his stomach. Blood began to seep from an unseen wound on his abdomen. Then, Mark called Emily’s name from behind her. She turned, and saw him smiling meniacly at her.
    Emily found herself crying when she woke up.
    What a dream… she thought. She shrugged it off for now, preparing for school drowsily.
    Emily was excited to go to school for the soul reason of seeing Hector. He wasn’t in any of their classes, but she always saw him during lunch.
    The first half of the day passed slowly, as Emily was counting the minutes to seeing her boyfriend. The bell finally rang, and she hurried out of the class.
    Hector was waiting outside the door for her, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed.
    He smiled, “in a hurry?”
    Emily simply shook her head and laughed.
    They walked and talked, mostly about nonsense, but she took comfort in his company. Finally, she told him about the dream she had the night before.
    “I don’t know what it means,” he said, “but it sounds pretty weird.”
    “It was… and so real,” she shivered.
    As they walked, they both spotted Mark walked towards them across the hallway. He looked especially agitated.
    “Mark?” Emily looked at him, concern on her face.
    He grumbled in reply, but his expression softened slightly as she spoke.
    “Is something wrong?”
    He shot a quick look at Hector, but shook his head. “It’s nothing.”
    “Well,” she said, only half believing him, “okay, but if you need to talk I’m here.”
    They smiled at each other. Mark quickly glanced at Hector, his face stiffening, before he quickly turned around and walked away briskly.
    “That was weird,” Hector commented once Mark was out of ear shot.
    Emily replied, “he must be kranky.”
    “Maybe.”
    The rest of lunch passed quickly, and they left eachother reluctantly for their classes.
    The rest of the day passed quickly for Emily. She headed home, tired from the days happenings.
    When she arrived home, she did homework, cooked her dinner (pot roast and mashed potatoes), and watched some tv before getting ready to meet Hector at the birch tree again. It became a daily routine for them to meet at the tree and watch the stars.
    She slipped on her shoes and walked through the soft grass until she saw the hill with the tree on it. Smiling, she happily climbed it, expecting to see Hectors happy face waiting at the top for her.
    Once at the top, she looked around but saw no sign of Hector.
    “Hmh,” she put her hands on her hips and furrowed her eyebrows. Sniffing the air, she smelt something repulsing. It resembled what she had smelt in her dream.
    “Emily…” she heard Hectors voice.
    “Hector?” she walked around to the back of the tree and saw him sitting, leaned against the tree, blood soaking everything around him. A giant kitchen knife jutted out of his chest.
    He grabbed the handle weakly, looking at Emily.
    “I’m sorry,”
    She threw herself at him, touching his bloodied face with her lean hands.
    “What happened to you?” tears spilled down her face, blinding her momentarily.
    He simply cupped her face in his hands and kissed her. Emily felt his tense body relax, and his hands fell limply to the ground.
    “No!” she screamed, hugging him tightly. “You can’t die! I love you!”
    Just then she could hear someone walking behind her, and she swung her head around to see who it was.
    “Mark…” he held a gun in his hand, which was covered in blood. Emily slowly began to piece together the situation.
    “Did you…” she looked away from him, unable to look at his menacing eyes. He smiled at her frighteningly.
    “Want to know why I used a kitchen knife?” he suddenly asked, still smiling.
    Emily shook her head, still looking at the ground.
    “You like to cook, don’t you? Isn’t it ironic that your lover was killed by the same instrument you use to make art?”
    He lifted his arm, gun in hand, and pointed it at Emily.
    “Please Mark, no… you can’t do this…” She held Hectors body tightly, pressing her head against his chest as she had done so many times when he was alive.
    Minutes of tense silence passed.
    “You know I loved you?” Markes sudden confession startled Emily.
    “What?” she said, looking up at him. He was faced away now, looking down at the horizon.
    “It’s too late now,” he said, turning to look bitterly at Hectors pale, bloody face, “you will both die together.”
    “You cant do this… Why didn’t you say something earlier?”
    He sighed and turned his face upwards, looking at the bright moon shining through the pale clouds.
    “You never seemed to like me. I mean sure, we were friends… but you were just so amazing… I thought you would never like someone like me.” He looked down at his bloody hand, cringing. Emily looked at Hector, her hand cradling his head.
    “Damn it!” Mark violently swore, anger suddenly filling his face, “your going to die with that b*****d!” he held the gun pointed at Emilys face, his hand shaking slightly.
    “Please, Mark… don’t do this…” Emily’s mind was filled with emotion- love, hate and fear. She looked at Mark, her eyes burning with fresh tears.
    He looked at her with empathy, but was set on his goal to kill them both. He had never intended for Hector and Emily to fall in love, he simply liked his friends to all know eachother, making it less awkward at parties and such. For them to fall in love was to rip his heart apart. They had been together for months now, and he managed to not show his hatred toward Hector all the while. He loved Emily; or so he thought. Looking at her while she begged for her life made something in Mark hurt. He closed his eyes and shook his head, struggling to re-attain his hate.
    “Damn it…” he swore quietly, still pointing the gun to Emily. He glared at her suddenly, pulling the trigger.
    Emily’s heart jumped at the sound of the shot. She looked at him, confused. Why didn’t it hurt? She then felt warm fluid running down her chest. Looking down, she saw blood seeping through her shirt. He had shot her upper chest.
    “Oh…” she was stunned.
    M ark stared at her, happy he had gone through with his goal, but sad to see the girl he loved dying. He wasn’t sure what to do. The police would eventually find them, but he wanted to help her. Unsure, he simply headed back to his car to make a plan from there.
    Emily, on the other hand, touched her wound. It hurt, but she didn’t notice from the shock that dulled her thoughts. She began to weaken, her vision darkening. She allowed herself to succumb to the wound, kissing Hectors cheek for the last time.