Morning. A soft light creeps in through the drawn curtains, giving away the surprise of another sunny day. But it is only sunny on the outside for her. As Maria draws open the curtains, she gazes down to the streets below. A couple stroll by the streets, which causes her to look away. It seems that ever since that night, everything reminds Maria of him. She brushes the cloudy thoughts from her mind and puts on an artificial smile as she prepares to step out into the world
Maria had gained a habit of taking walks. They weren't meant lead anywhere, they simply were a way to clear her mind of the horrors that still stained her within. But whenever she passed that playground, her walks came to a halt. It amazed Maria how children so innocently played there now. When only a few weeks ago a man, no a boy, the boy who she loved, was killed there. Sometimes Maria felt like running into the crowd of children and asking them if they knew what had happened there. But they're too young. They need not know about what horrible things go on in this magical little world created for them.
Couldn't the news ever be happy? Maria hadn't wanted to look at a paper ever again. All the paper showed to her now was the bad that went on in the city. Car accidents, robberies, fires, murders. Murder. Maria never thought twice about reports of people being murdered before. Was having her brother and dear lover murdered her punishment for not caring about strangers who were wrongly killed? Now she cared. She felt for these "strangers" now. Sure, they were strangers name wise, but certainly not strangers in feelings.
The whole way home, Maria pondered the movie she had just seen. Boy and girl meet, boy and girl fall in love, boy and girl live happily ever after. Happily ever after, what does that even mean? Maria was promised a happily ever after and look what happened. It was broken beyond recognition and nothing or no one would ever be able to put that idea back to how it was before. It was as if people in Hollywood never step into the real world, and choose to live only in their perfect world; Maria had at one time choose to live in her own perfect world with him at her side. Now that he was gone, there is no more perfect world; no world will ever be perfect without him.
Night. Maria stares out her window, watching as lights from neighboring buildings slowly flicker off. When the last lights go off, Maria knows hers will live on. It scares her to turn off the lights; the darkness is when two people she cared about died. And as she slowly reached her hand out to finally flip off the light, she worries the light she had for him will die with it. He can't fade away, not yet at least. Maria had known him for such a short period of time, that she wanted to keep what few memories she had of him close. But as she closes her eyes and feels tears brimming to the surface, Maria becomes a bit more relaxed; for it is in her sleep that she sees dreams will last even after he is gone.
