I remember the day my girlfriend Amber died. She was supposed to meet me (her boyfriend Dylan of three years) for dinner. I had told her that I had a big surprise for her. The surprise was that I was going to ask her to marry me. It never occurred to me that she would never see another day of life again. I should have asked her the question earlier, but waiting until the time of our three-year anniversary sounded much better and cute to me. Let me go back to the beginning two years ago on April 14, the day she died.
The morning that Amber died was like any other morning. I was waiting outside of her house on the porch so we could walk to school together. As usual she was late to meet me. This time I could feel that there was a reason that she was late waiting for me, but I didn't know why. The next thing I knew she busted through the door and grabbed my hand and ran toward our school. Her long black hair that was even with her elbows flowing in the wind as she ran. She had baby blue eyes.
As we were walking to the school. I couldn't help but notice that Amber was laughing at me when I wrinkled my nose at the neighborhood dog that doesn't like me. I guess she thought it was cute.
I guess without her knowing it she had stopped and got lost in her thoughts.
I had asked her, "Amber, are you alright?"
When she snapped out of it, she just saw me looking confused. Then she told me, "Oh, I am sorry. What did you say?"
I looked worried at her and asked, "Why did you get lost in your thoughts like that?"
She told me, "Oh I was just thinking about what my parents told me this morning before I left."
I looked at her and asked, "Why? What did she say?"
She had stayed quiet for a moment and then told me, "Well, they told me to be careful and safe today because she and my dad heard on the news that a murder had escaped from prison yesterday."
I just looked straight ahead and said, "Oh yeah my parents told me the same thing, but," I stopped and looked at her and she looked at me and I continued to say, "They also told me that he is one state away here and what are the odds that he would ever come to our high school?"
She just chuckled and said, "Well you are right he is one state away and the odd of him coming to our high school are more than likely never."
So, we kept walking to our high school hand in hand.
Whenever we got to school, we parted ways to meet with our friends. I said, "See you during lunch ok. I Love You."
She looked at me and said, "Ok see you around and until then and I Love You too."
We kissed and went our separate ways to our friends.
I was on the other side of the school, talking and laughing with my friends. I stopped when I heard a scream. I knew exactly whose scream it was. One of Amber's friends.
I told my friends, "I have to go. See you later."
I ran to go find Amber and her friends. I didn't know where they would be. The next thing I heard was a big crack from a gun. I turned my head around to the direction where I heard a crack come from and ran toward it.
I had found Amber's friends first but I didn't find her. "Where's Amber?!" I yelled at her friend. When she didn't answer me, I asked her again, this time squeezing her arms almost numb.
She looked at me scared and crying; then she pointed a shivering finger behind me.
When I turned around, I was shocked when I saw the prisoner here at our school. When I looked at the prisoner, I felt like he was mocking and laughing at me. He pointed down. I followed his finger slowly. When I looked down, I was stunned and shocked at the sight of Amber looking lifeless on the ground with a puddle of her blood surrounding her.
I yelled, "Someone call 911."
I ran up to her as fast as I could. Not knowing if I was too late or not.
When I finally reached her, I walked up to her slowly. I sat down next to her with tears running down my face. I picked her up. I held her head with one arm and her body with the other. I asked crying my heart out, "Amber, can you hear me?"
Whenever she didn't answer the first time, I just sat there crying.
I decided to ask her one more time, "Amber baby, can you hear me? If you can please say something."
I waited for what felt like forever to see if she would respond; then she asked, "Dylan?" in a whisper gasping for air.
I chuckled and said happily, "Yeah Amber. It's me."
She had picked her head up and said, "I am sorry and I am going to miss you."
I looked at her crying. I told her, "No, don't talk like that."
She took one final breath and said one last thing, "I love you forever and always Dylan."
I started to cry as she closed her baby blue eyes and she never opened them again. I asked her crying, "Amber? Amber, are you there?"
When she didn't answer I put my ear to her chest. I heard two last heart beats slowly then... stopped. When I didn't hear her heartbeat anymore, I sat her head on the ground softly and said, "I love you, Amber forever and always too. I will never forget you. I promise."
Then I leaned up to her and gave her one final gentle kiss on her forehead. I waved my hands to two of my friends to come to me. They came running to me as soon as I did.
When they reached me, I told them, "Take her body somewhere safe, ok."
They looked at me with worried glances and one of them asked, "What are you going to do man?"
At first, I didn't say anything. I got up from the ground slowly. I told them in a serious tone looking straight at the prisoner evilly, "I am going to give him a taste of his own medicine."
Right when I said that they exchanged glances and grabbed Amber and put her next to her friends. They cried their eyes out for her when she reached them.
Then for a moment everything went completely quiet. I walked up to the prisoner slowly both mad and sad.
Then he asked, "What are you going to do to me boy?"
I looked at him with fire in my eyes and said, "I am going to kill your sorry ass!!"
He looked at me and laughed in the air and asked, "For what? What did I do so badly that you want to kill me?"
I looked back at Amber's body looking lifeless and yelled at him, "What for?! Are you seriously going to ask that stupid question?! You killed my girlfriend and destroyed families all over the country!!"
When I said that, the prisoner just laughed.
I yelled at him, "Why are you laughing?! Are you proud that you killed all those people and my girlfriend?!"
When he stopped laughing his voice turned serious and said, "Of course I am." Then he chuckled lightly.
At that point I was furious. He was proud that he killed all of those people and Amber. I ran up to him as fast as I could.
He had grabbed the gun that killed her and started to shoot at me. At first when she shot the gun it didn't shoot like it was empty. Then he cocked it back and it sounded like it was loaded again. He shot again and this time a bullet shot at me. Luckily for me he missed. He did it again and this time it was empty.
He threw the gun down on the ground. When he did that, I tackled him down to the ground.
I was on top of him beating the living crud out of him, hoping that would kill him.
When he had just about enough of that he threw me off of him and he grabbed a knife from his back pocket and kept cutting me with it while I was on the ground.
When he noticed that the knife did little damage. He decided to grab my wrist and he kept hitting my elbow upward until he heard a crack. He knew that he broke my good arm, the right one.
He thought it was a good idea to start fighting me head on but I moved out the way before he could hit me.
I just stood there holding my arm. It was a good thing for me that I'm in football and martial arts, or I would have been done a long time ago.
I was about to tackle him one more time when he grabbed his knife again and held it thumb, this time ready to kill me.
I stopped. I turned my head to the right and saw that his gun was still there on the ground. I ran toward it, grabbed it and checked the revolver and saw that he had one bullet left. I put the revolver back and aimed the gun at his head.
He just laughed at me and said, "What are you going to do with an empty gun boy?"
I slid a smirk on my lips and told him, "It isn't empty." The smirk slowly turned into a smile. I looked up at him and yelled, "It was just jammed so you left one bullet in it!"
At first it looked like he didn't believe me. When I had it aimed at him, he started to look scared and threw the knife at me hoping it would stab me and I would drop the gun. When he missed, he bent down on his knees and started to plead to me, "Have mercy boy. Please don't kill me. I will do anything you want."
I just kept it aimed at his head and yelled, "I bet that is what every single one of those people said before you killed them! Did you show them mercy?! I bet you didn't! For me and Amber and all the families you destroyed, say your good-byes now."
When I cocked the gun and shot it seemed like everything was in slow motion. The next thing you heard was a big crack.
I pulled the gun out from my face. I saw that I shot the prisoner in the middle of his forehead. He fell slowly to the ground. His knees hit the ground hard like they had broken. Then his head hit the ground and it looked like it bounced up like it was a ball. When it landed on the ground again it busted open and all you could see was a big puddle of his deep red blood surrounding his head and his entire body.
I stood there tall holding my arm with scratches all over me. I felt like I did a good thing to avenge his victims including Amber.
Remembering Amber; I threw the gun down on the floor and ran to her.
One of my friends said, "The ambulance is on its way."
I just nodded at him. I just held Amber to my chest crying until they came.
When the ambulance finally came, they put Amber into the van first. Then one of the men came out and said, "One of you kids is allowed to ride with us to the hospital."
Everyone looked at me. My friend patted me on the back and told me softly, "You should go man."
I looked at all the kids. All of them nodded at me to go. So, I walked forward to the man. The man just looked at me and asked, "First I need to know what your relationship was with this girl before I got like this."
I could feel the threat of hot tears coming in my eyes as I saw her lying there lifeless. With tears running down my face I told him, "She's... my best friend... and girlfriend."
The man patted my shoulder and said respectfully, "I am sorry for your loss." I just nodded crying and we were off.
On the way there it was very sad and very hard to breathe. The men were examining her body like crazy. I just sat there looking at her crying silently to myself. Resting my right arm on my leg I decided to hold her hand (with my left hand) until we reached the hospital.
When we all reached the hospital, the man told me to call Amber's parents and tell them to come to the hospital to keep me company.
I did as I was told.
It didn't take long for her parents to get there. When they entered the hospital, they found me covered in blood and scratches all around me with a cast on my right arm. They both looked at me sorry like and kind of scared. They ran up to me when they saw that I wanted to cry.
It must have felt like forever for us before we heard a doctor come out and called, "The people here waiting for... " He looked down and flipped a paper on his clipboard and read out loud "...Amber's results."
Me and her parents jumped out of our seats and almost ran up to him. I said, "Yes, that's us."
He walked up to us and said, " I am very sorry. The bullet hit a main blood artery and she lost a lot of blood before coming here. We tried to stop the bleeding but it was too late. I'm sorry to say..." He took a pause. I could see a tear in his eye. I had a feeling that he was fixing to tell us something we did not want to hear.
He looked at her parents and said, "Your daughter..." He looked at me and said, "your girlfriend is... dead." He paused again and sniffled while he told us, "I am sorry for your loss." I could tell he walked away crying.
There was silence at first because her parents were in shock. I was crying silently to myself.
The next thing you heard was her mother crying. Once she started to fall her father held her up and hugged her like there was no tomorrow.
I was still crying by myself. I stood leaning against the wall with my hands in front of my face and crying my heart out for her.
Then I looked up with hot tears rolling down my face and yelled, "AMBER!!" on the top of my lungs and slid down the wall slowly and hit the floor crying.
Her mother ran up to me as soon as I hit the floor. She hugged me tightly. I just kept my hands in front of my face crying. Her father came up behind her and hugged us both.
It was two days later that we held her funeral. At the funeral home people came up to her casket and said their final good-byes to her. She just laid there her body lifeless. I was the last one to say good-bye.
With tears escaping from my eyes, I told her, "You know I was going to propose to you that night at dinner." I kissed her on the forehead and told her, "I love you forever and always, Amber."
I got up and looked at her one last time. I grabbed her left hand and put a ring on it and put one on my hand. With hot tears escaping from my eyes, I told her, "No, matter what anyone says. As long as you and I wear these rings we will always be married." I gave her one last kiss on the lips and said, "I love you."
At the cemetery they buried her in the middle of her grandpa (who died a year before her from natural causes) and her best friend Josh (who had died a month before her in a car crash). Before they put her in that cold dark hole in the ground, everyone came up to her casket and put red roses on the top of it.
Then I came up to her and placed a white rose on top of all the other red ones and whispered, "I love you forever and always, my dear sweet wife Amber." As they put her in the hole, everyone couldn't stop crying.
When they finished burying her everyone started to leave. Everyone but me and her parents. As her parents were walking away, I said, "You know I love your daughter so much. I am going to miss her."
Her mother walked up to me and said, "I know you do honey and we are going to miss her too."
Her father walked up to us and said, "Yes we are. She's my little girl. Always have been always will be."
We all cried lightly.
I cleared my throat and said, "You know the dinner that we were supposed to meet each other at..."
Both of her parents nodded.
I continued to say, "Well, I planned on asking her if she would marry me."
Her mother looked at me happily and said, "I know that she would have said yes like a thousand times."
Her father looked like he couldn't speak. So, he just nodded his head crying to what her mother had said.
I sniffled and said, "Yeah I know. So, I hope that you are not mad at me when I tell you..." I paused; I swallowed hard to keep the tears from coming. Then told them while turning my ring around in a circle, "I put the wedding ring on her finger and one on mine and told her 'No, matter what anyone says. As long as you and I wear these rings we will always be married.' So, for as long as I live..." I paused and looked down at my ring and told them, "I will never take this ring off."
Her father looked at me happily and asked, "Why on earth would we be mad at that?"
I looked confused and I was going to ask a question.
Her mother beat me and said first, "We are happy that you did that."
We all smiled at each other and walked to our car. We will try our best and live the rest of our lives without Amber in it.
Before I got in the car, I looked behind me at her gravestone and told myself in my head, 'I know that one day we will reunite in the sky. But until that day comes, I promise I am going to keep visiting you every day and never take off my ring. But for now, I leave you with A Sad Good-bye.'
Kissed my hand and blew it to her gravestone.
Before I went into the car, I felt a kiss land on my cheek. I put my hand on it and teared up. Then I heard Amber's voice in the wind say, "I Love You Forever my dear husband Dylan."
Tears of happiness ran down my face and I said, "I Love You Forever too my sweet wife Amber."
Then I got into the car to see how long I can live my life without Amber by my side.
(3300 words)