Immortalized

Disclaimer: Peter Jackson owns the characters and I thank him from the bottom of my heart for making them and letting me borrow them.

I was twelve when I met him.

Not officially of course. I was only ever formally introduced to my fathers superiors, which Johnny certainly was not…at least not outside of my own mind. I didn't even know his name. Until one day when I asked one of the desk clerks offhand.

John Charles Bartlett

He was always Johnny to me. My Johnny.

I spent more time at the hospital to be near him. Father didn't care so long as I stayed out of trouble. Mother was glad. My choice to spend my summer with Father at work left her to do what she liked.

I watched him, sat in a corner and watched him wheeling gurneys by. I studied his every feature. His blonde hair, so vibrant…such a contrast to my mousy brown. His eyes, intense…beautiful. The first day he deigned to look at me I felt as though he stared straight into my soul. I held contact for only a moment before turning away, but I felt his eyes on me the entire length of the hospitals main hallway.

I never told Mother about him.

Dear Johnny was nearly ten years my senior, and there was no need for her to know about his existence. Father knew though, he sometimes yelled about my sweet Johnny at the dinner table. He of course yelled about all his employee's…but when he started in on Johnny my blood would boil.

"He's crazy I tell you. He doesn't talk, doesn't listen. Just stays down in that morgue doing God knows what!" …and he gives me the chills when he looks at me…

Father was scared of him. He never said it but I knew. By rights, Johnny should have feared my father. But my love had a strange sort of control. My love could cow men with a look, and with that same look could make me believe I was the most beautiful thing in the world.

I didn't just desire him, I hungered for him. I wept when we were apart.

I was thirteen when we consummated our love.

My birthday came with only an obligatory "'Birthday" from my father… "'Birthday" that was all, he had left out the most important word. What was it to him if my birthday was happy, he felt righteous just acknowledging it. I suppose he deserved his credit, my mother left before I awoke. It was the best present she could have given me. One day without her hawk gaze following me.

As per usual, I followed my father to work and was ushered to his office. To my dismay, he'd decided that as it was my birthday, I would stick with him…his version of fatherly affection. I nearly wept to be so close to Johnny and to be imprisoned behind those smartly furnished suffocating walls. But to weep would be giving the game away. So I played the dutiful daughter and sat as he worked, he attempted to make small talk from time to time but soon realized I would not take the bait. We sat in silence for hours (they felt like generations) before I excused myself to the bathroom. Following his vague wave of assertion I knew I didn't have to rush. I wouldn't be missed.

I made my way to the morgue, I could make the journey in the dark. Me and Johnny spent many of our best times in that room. Just us and the bodies, no one to bother us…no one to judge. The dead are so much more agreeable then the living.

He was sitting, bent over a table with one of his 'patients' when I entered, he didn't turn…he was engrossed. I saw only the top of his platinum head and a colorless mottled foot from the dead man. I didn't say anything for a time…I loved watching him work.

Finally, when I thought I couldn't stand it any longer I spoke.

"Johnny?" I asked, knowing he wouldn't jump. A lesser man would have been startled by a voice in a room such as this. But not my love, we were at ease amoungst our cold friends.

"Patty…" he smiled, exhaling sharply. I used to hate that name, I insisted on being addressed as Patricia…but not Johnny. He made it beautiful. That name was his, no one else's. "Happy Birthday"

"You remembered!" I squealed as I ran towards him. His arms were outstretched before him.

"Off course baby…ready for your present?" I nodded, now sitting on his lap, my legs wrapped around him. I hugged him and nodded as his 'patient' came into full view, his blank eyes wide open and staring at me. Johnny stood and twirled me around, stopping my giggling with a kiss. He set me down on the autopsy table and began kissing me more furiously. From my vantage point I could see the whole room, all the sheet covered bodies.

Johnny laid me back and bumped one of them, the sheet came off slightly revealing an older woman who reminded me of Mother. If only…

He began to remove my clothing and I let him. He would be my first, I wanted him to be my first. I was ready for him.

It hurt.

A lot more then I expected. It was the most wonderful feeling in the world. I felt complete with Johnny I knew we'd stay together forever.

I entered a girl and left a woman.

Johnny had warned me not to tell anyone of our tryst and I resented it. I'd found my soul mate and no one could know.

I crept into my fathers office and sat back down. He didn't move, didn't acknowledge my existence, didn't notice the change my Johnny had wrought in me. He didn't know our love existed…no one would remember our great love.

I vowed there that they would. We would make it so no one ever forgot us.

The two of us, soul mates, we'd do great things together.

I doubt anyone will review…has anyone besides me seen this movie? But still I ask.