Prologue - Thirteen Days Gone
An expiration date accompanied daylight. If she would not return today, a foreign fear would surface inside of me. Troubled climactic minutes hung like an unwanted kite as a reminder of our last time together before this new routine of tallying days. Carmine’s personality lent itself to the occasional absence, venturing out alone into the Pines for a long weekend or short string of sunrises. Thirteen days awarded her a new achievement in solitude.
Slightly crumpled, my fingers unfolded an ivory piece of paper I had torn out of the notebook she left behind. A forgotten keepsake used in excess as a journal for spontaneous story ideas. Carmine adored writing amateur screenplays, a habit formed to mask the expression of emotions imprisoned inside of her. Devoid of full character depictions, elaborate plots, or other metrics common to facilitate the telling of a tale; she had simply found an outlet to expel her unwanted feelings.
A single page had been abandoned, presumed to have been written in haste with a dash of distress. All other pages had vanished, leaving the book’s spine cluttered with lifeless slender bits of execution. The orphaned remnant held a short collection of dialogue fragments cast from an entry I knew nothing about. My eyes pecked the dry ink once more for any decipher of what the discourse meant.
Young Girl: I still don’t think it’s fair his heart belongs to you. Time cannot be that strong of a scent.
Passenger: Trust me, you do not want to be like me. Look closely, the hollow horizon has become a mirage.
Young Girl: I will just have to become you then.
Passenger: It will take everything from you, to peel yourself beneath my skin. Don’t forget my dear, even the heart has one rough edge.
Young Girl: I haven’t forgotten. I can no longer help that my memory is eternal.
Passenger: Funny how memories are but a curse, circling around us like swarms of stars.
Young Girl: Do you think he’ll know the difference between a curse and love?
Passenger: At the end of it all, do any of us?
notes: end scene with continuous rings of white smoke growing in size as they slowly rise to the sky.