The Sad Reality

Chapter Seven

Authors note: The song that I have chosen to use in this chapter doesn't belong to me. I have no rights to the song, nor do I earn any profits. It strictly belongs to Sarah Mclachlan. So please don't sue me for I have no money. Thanks to everyone who read and left their reviews. And most of all to you, Ajeff, thanks for giving me the incentive to finish this story.

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It was the dawn of a new day on this Sunday morning coming down. The forecast predicted, clear blue skies with no chance of rain, but that wasn't the case. Laden, dark clouds had taken their rightful place overhead where no sunshine dared to tread and let their raindrops descend to the withered ground below them. Today wasn't the same as every other happy day had been in the past six months for Jarod. His breath saturated with waves of grief-stricken sobs inside this little white chapel by the Seashore.

"Angel"

Spend all your time waiting

For that second chance

For a break that would make it okay

There's always some reason

To feel not good enough

And it's hard at the end of the day

I need some distraction

Oh beautiful release

Memory seeps from my veins

Let me be empty

And weightlessness and maybe

I'll find some peace of mind

Yesterday his life was filled with blissfulness. Today misery replaced his happiness. His heart in a million pieces like shattered glass upon the floor. His dreams were carried away in the arms of an angel. Jarod stared at the long stem red rose held in his trembling hand with Debbie's hand clinched around his other hand.

He struggles for breath, leans forward; resting his elbows on his legs, covers his face with his hands and the pain cuts deeper. Let his thoughts be known to his huntress? No, for it would not change one damn thing.

He thought back to the first time that he had laid eyes on what was to him the most beautiful woman in the world while he strolled along the seashore just after dawn. She was playing football that morning, laughing with her friends, seemed not to have a care in the world. But she did.

In the arms of an angel

Fly away from here

From this cold dark hotel room

And the endlessness that you fear

Your are pulled from the wreckage

Of your silent reverie

May you find some comfort there?

He loved her not because of her mouth-watering, firm, deep tanned body, with hair of golden wheat and piercing blues eyes. He loved her not because of her coming to him in the middle of the night upon hearing his screams from the nightmares that had visited him. He loved her not because of the way she had made wicked passionate love to him when he came to her. No…believe it or not? Jarod loved her because she fought to protect the weak and abused as he had chosen to do, and her name was Shelby.

So tired of the straight line

And everyone you turn

There's vultures and thieves at your back

And the storm keeps on twisting

You keep on building the lie

That you make up for all that you lack

It don't make no difference escaping one last time

It's easier to believe in this sweet madness

Oh this glorious sadness

That brings me to my knees

And what hurts him the most, was being so close, to having so much to say, and watching her walk away. His tears surge down his face with, Sydney's, hand resting on his right shoulder to give him the support that he needs to get through this bleak morning.

One by one the treasured memories consumed his mind. Never knowing what could have been for them was ripping him apart. Pain enveloped his soul. Where his heart once was now there is a grapping hole. Jarod wept with his arms across his chest. His hands were that of a vise grip tightly clasped on his upper arms drowning in misery over the turn of events that lead up to this moment.

In the arms of an angel

Fly away from here

From this dark cold hotel room

And the endlessness that you fear

You are pulled from the wreckage

Of your silent reverie

You're in the arms of an angel

May you find some comfort there?

You're in the arms of an angel

May you find some comfort there?

They walk by two behind the six pallbearers that carries the exquisite coffin that, Shelby Barnett, now rest in for all eternity. The minutes slowly creep by leaving, Jarod, the only one left standing by the gravesite. Yesterday afternoon replays in his mind.

"What do you see in your future?" she had asked upon his return home following his encounter with Parker.

That was his cue to begin his pretend Broadway play. The character that he portrayed was a heartless man with no regrets for the one that stood before him and that brought him to his knees. Jarod never had the chance to tell, Shelby, that he was pretending. That he had shouted lies, horrible lies into her face and that he truly did love her before she passed away.

His head moves back and forth, his body quakes with sobs. "I saw you, Shelby, I…saw you." he sniffles, stood, and places the red rose upon the coffin. His trembling hand came to his lips and then presses his fingertips against the coffin. "I love you Shelby. Rest in peace, my love." He whispers.

Jarod drove away from the cemetery that day, back through the city that he referred to as his hometown, pass his friends along the sidewalks, pass the quaint stores, and finally with sorrow he drove passed the city limit sign and read the name of the city stamped upon it, 'Refuge'.

The End