Haunted
Gutter and Grace
I am haunted by many things. So many things. His laugh, so rare and treasured. The way his voice would get so deep when whispering things in my ear. The way he held me when we danced that last dance. The few, fair, almost unnoticed freckles across his nose. The way he would always, almost annoyingly, quote Buddha.
Most of all, I am haunted by his eyes. They were grey, speckled with a light olive green. They were the kind of eyes that would search someone's soul it seemed. So deep, full of his hidden past and what he felt. The eyes were the only hint.
He knew. His eyes told me.
He had promised it would only be our last dance 'for now.' That it wouldn't be forever. He had promised to see me again.
He lied.
Not intentionally of course, he didn't know. But his eyes did. Somewhere in his subconscious or soul, he knew. He knew that one secret would kill him.
And kill him it did.
It has been fifty-two years now since I last saw him. Those eyes of his still haunt me, even though my own can no longer see. I never saw his body; they had him cremated back in Hong Kong. I never saw the lines of blood across his arms. Not once. They say he had been doing it for years. Since he was thirteen or fourteen at least.
He didn't even make it to seventeen. He never came back.
I guess I am still just waiting. I'm still the seventeen year old girl, waiting for a call from my boyfriend far away on my birthday. It never came. A week later, the call came from his father. He was already burned. Dead on my seventeenth birthday. From cutting.
Still though, at my age of sixty-seven, I am haunted by his eyes. They still stare into my soul, constantly. They dare me to try and see what he was hiding. They dare me to go back in time, to fix him.
They dare me to help him live again.
I made him a memorial grave site here in Roscoe. Lily still comes by once a week to help lead me to it so I can trace the words over and over again. She married Ray you know, and now has about twelve grandchildren. Robbie never got around to proposing to Kim, so she left him and is now Kim Carlisle-Pierce. Robbie however, ended up eloping with Megan and they live right down the road from their daughter and son-in-law, who happens to be Ray and Lily's son.
I am still alone. He was the only man I ever loved. The one thing of his I got after his death was a ring. He had been planning to come see me for Christmas. He was going to propose, whisk me off to a billion different places. I still wear it on my left hand, where it was meant to be. White gold, because he knew I hated yellow, with a small marquise cut amethyst. My dream ring I showed him once. I hear Lily letting her self in.
'Parker, its time to go,' she calls.
It is time to go trace the words I memorized so long ago. The ones to the man with the haunting eyes.
'Best friend, loving boyfriend, the mystery man with haunting eyes.'
Travis Strong.
A/N: A little depressing. Travis & Parker future fic. Hope its okay. I love Travis with anyone almost, but I would rather have him to myself. I own nothing by the way. Please don't hate me for the story, no idea where it came from. All I know is I have had the word 'Haunting" stuck in my head all day.