He could barely remember the last few moments of his life. He found it almost comical, yet somewhere, in between the space of a blink and a tear, his fist had connected to Taylor’s face. His knuckles stung and burned with an unholy fire and even months after the disastrous blow had occurred, his hand still hurt. Teven could honestly say at that moment, when his anger and frustration had gotten the better of him, that his entire universe had halted to a grinding stop. Yet, looking at his love’s swollen cheek, he could only feel the deepest amount of regret. It was then, the millisecond after the punch connected, that his moment of regret meant nothing and his relationship would never be the same again.

An unbearable week passed by after that day. Teven couldn’t even remember what the fight had been about. Taylor would barely look at him; the pretty face Teven adored so much sporting a horrible mauve and indigo bruise. Taylor had always been so eternally pale so the injury stood out like a neon sign in a dank alley. Teven couldn’t even count the amount of time he breathlessly whispered his apologies over and over again to dead ears. Even long after his mouth went dry and hoarse he still kept apologizing.

Soon, Taylor started to smile fake plastic little smiles; a mask that Teven knew the blonde could pull off all too well. Things were different. Teven used to remember a time where the duo would just laugh so unguardedly, sharing every bit of their soul with the other. Teven knew Taylor far too well to simply not notice the palpable animosity that seemed to sizzle within the room.

To make matters worse, every time Teven would raise his hand even the slightest, Taylor would flinch. He knew a close family friend had abused Taylor’s mother and it was the blonde’s ever-present fear that the same fate would befall on her. Teven had hated that man, whoever he was. Taylor would never let him ask questions about it. It only brought back nightmares the blonde had spent her entire life suppressing.

Things only digressed from there. At first it was like a game to see how well each could hide the growing fear that palpitated in their hearts. One, scared the other would turn into the monster they ran away from, the other petrified he would turn into the monster he so desperately loathed.

Another month passed by without so much as another word. Both were busy with their hectic and always moving jobs. They had always made it a point to make time for the other on the weekends, but now, both found themselves making up excuses to stay as long as possible in the office. Teven’s friends had noticed the sullen expression on his once youthful face and decided to introduce him to on of their good friends, Jack Daniels.

Trips to the bar became a nightly ordeal. Teven would wash away his problems in a haze of cigarettes and whiskey. Thoughts of the troubled relationship that ripped apart at his soul were long gone as shot after shot of the amber liquid burned down his throat. He would arrive back at his house at odd times in the morning, not even bothering to call ahead to warn Taylor of his late arrival.

Though, one morning he stumbled through the house, narrowly managing to avoid crashing into the table as he drunkenly sulked over to bed. Pushing open the bedroom door, he found it barren. All of Taylor’s things were missing from the open closets and each drawer was slightly open, revealing their empty interior. A note was lying on the bed with his name in a neat handwriting.

Teven felt tears well up in his eyes as he finished the note. ‘I’m leaving you…’, the last line, followed by a tear splattered, ‘I’m so sorry…’. Teven found himself sitting down on the bed dumbstruck. His fist balled at the paper, as tears slipped rapidly down his tanned cheeks. In the end he truly had lost everything. No matter how much he had tried to fix the rift that existed between them, nothing had helped him. He had lived only to make Taylor happy; now he didn’t even have that. Roughly brushing away the last of his tears, he did the one thing in his life that he didn’t seem to regret doing.

The next morning, all the headlines read, “Mysterious Man Found Hanging From Rafter In House”.

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