My Artificial Heart (8) Meanwhile I began digging a hole in the ground, until I struck water. Once that was done I discovored metallurgy and constructed a series of pipes and pumps to pull the water out from the ground. Two days passed, the woman in black and I met back at my still burning home. She smiled at me, "See now we can put out this fire more easily." We both jumped as a piercing scream came from the fire. We both ran to the fire, to see who made the scream. A small voice began to echo through the sky. "Help me! Help me! I'm lost in the fire, if I don't get out soon I'll be burned alive. Someone please help me get back home before the fire gets me!" I turned to the woman in black. "What will we do?" She looked as lost as I was. "I don't know, there's no way we can get to whoever it is who's calling from the ground. We'll have to try another way." I looked back at the fire. "I know, I'll need to invent the airplane." The woman eyes glimmered with insight. Thoughts of aeronotics came to her instantly. "Hey, that's a good idea!" I said. Together the woman in black and I got to work in studying the mysteries of flight. Soon we had a design on paper, and a day after that we had invented the airplane. "I will fly the plane." said the woman in black. "Ok, I will get a rope." Once I invented rope making we were both on the sturdy biplane. In a gust of wind we were gliding through the sky. I looked over the edge of the plane, I could see a bright orange ball on the ground that was my house. "Taking her down!" Called out the woman in black over the loud propellers. "Ok! Going over the edge." With the rope in hand I carefully lifted myself from my seat and crawled on top of the wings of the airplane. The woman in black glided over the smoking towers of my home. I desperately scowered the flames, looking for any signs of life. I squinted at a small brown bloch in the fire. "Over there!" I called out. The woman in black took the airplane down as close as she could. I threw the rope over the side and held on tight. "Grab onto the rope!" I yelled into the flames. I nearly fell off as a sudden weight tugged at the rope. I held on as tight as I could, we had to invent the airplane and a rope for this, I wasn't going to give up so easily! Soon I could make out the brown blotch slowly climbing up the rope. I tapped on the hull of the airplane. "I got it! Take us down now!" "Bringing her down!" Answered the woman in black. I stubbornly tugged at the rope, until the brown blotch was in my hands. The brown blotch turned out to be a small cat. After we landed we all jumped off and stood once again before my burning home. The cat finally began to talk again. "There was something in the fire." "What was in the fire?" I asked. "An old man, with a beard. He had me trapped inside there and he wouldn't let me go, until you guys came and pulled me away from there, which I am forever grateful for." "What was this old man's name?" Asked the woman in black. "God." Answered the cat. "He's making the fire burn, he told me that he wouldn't stop the fire until you gave up Trissa and repented. He was talking really scary, he said if you didn't do what he said he'd make the whole world catch on fire! And there'd be nothing we could do to put it out!" The woman in black gathered the cat up in her arms and began to pet him to calm him down. "I can't." I finally answered. "Then how will we ever put out this fire?" Asked the woman in black. "I will have to invent War." "Oh no!" Meowed the cat. "You can't do that, God told me that war will only make the fire worse!" "I don't care. From this day forward, I declare war on the fire and on God!" "I don't think its a good idea, but we can't let this fire burn forever. So I'm in!" The woman in black let the cat back down again. With the help of the cat, we invinted warfare. At first we made clubs, then spears, spears soon became swords and armor. One day the cat discovored gun powder, and now we had rifles and cannons. One day I found out that a tree was a tree, and so I discovored logic. While the woman in black was putting on her make up, she invited the computer. Finally, while I was still thinking of Her, I found out how to split the atom. And within two days I had a nuclear warhead just a couple yards away from the unquenchable fire. "Today is the day the fire will die." I said as the sun began to rise. "Please becareful, God said he knew what you'd do!" The cat warned, nervous as ever. "These bunkers I made will protect us when the nuclear missle impacts." The woman in black said calmly, I nodded. "Ok then, it's time. Everyone to the bunker. I'll stay here to begin the launch." "Ok." The woman in black gave me the missle keys. Once the woman and the cat were inside the bunker. I turned to the launch board. "Today this fire will die!" I turned the key, and the missle erupted in fire. I covored my ears as the missle pierced through the sky. I knew I should've been running for the bunker, but I wanted to see. I wanted to see the impact. 10 seconds, how would this God react? 5 seconds, will the fire finally be put out? 2 seconds, something really big is about to happen. Impact. A sudden flash, a blinding light, the air from my lungs was yanked out and thrown in to fuel the fire. The wind blew fiercely like a hurricane, and I watched as the fire was bathed in a bright blue light. When the cloud submerged, the fire was gone. The woman in black and the cat came out of the bunkers. "The fire is out." I said, still gazing upon the ruins of my home. "Where is God?" pondored the cat. "Yeah, where is he?" The woman in black wondered. "When he saw how we could do something he could do, he got jealous and walked away. But he said he'll be back someday. He said he'll be back to get us. But I told him that I'd take the blame for everything. After all it was my house that was on fire." I turned to the woman in black and the cat. "Thank you for helping me put the fire out." "We can't stop now, we still gotta rebuild your house!" The cat purred. I looked at my dead house. "How can we rebuild it? It is completely ruined." The woman in black giggled. "Nonsense. Here, I'll invent architecture, and you invent construction." The cat leaped up onto a burned out wooden beam. "I'll help too!" When I woke up everything was back to way it was. I could hear the birds chirping outside, a strange sense of calm coursed through my veins. Though their existence was only temporary, I thanked the woman in black and the cat. There was still one thing though that wasn't the way it should be. As I got up, I viewed my vast wallpaper of Trissa. It was torn to pieces... Chapter 15: Walking away That's when I sort of lost it. I'm a coward. Yes, I am a freaking coward. Like the pitiful little worm I was, I needed to have her, to see her, to do anything with her! I was certain that my heart would simply stop pumping blood into my worthless carcass if I couldn't see her at least once a day. The mere thought of never seeing her again made hell look like paradise. That's when I made my plan, my mission, my final effort. She was going to perform another play that very night. I went as always, watching from the back rows. With my binoculars in hand I watched her float across the stage, wearing a medieval gown, her hair bouncing as she pranced about reciting her lines flawlessly... Now was my one and only chance to win her back. To talk to her, and stop her from leaving me. Maybe my goals were selfish, but what would a priest do if he were suddenly the entire world just stopped believing in his God? For me it was the end of my world. I was on a mission to stop this apocalypse, this nightmare of life without Trissa. The show was over. The audience applauded wildly of her performance. I too, from the back rows clapped and chanted her name. Then with a final bite of a Snickers bar, I began my mission. I knew I had 10 minutes before she would start walking out the backdoor of the auditorium. I wasted no time getting there; I carefully hid behind a garbage bin. She stepped out, alone, holding her belongings in a small bag. I waited to make sure she couldn't see me, and then I started following behind her. I had made a stack of flash cards and had practiced every line I would say to her to the ground. Now it was show time, my only chance to stop my world from ending. I was nervous, I was shaking, but I did everything in my power to look calm and cool, to look like those studs on TV who embark to win back their girl. I pulled out my flashcards stupidly as I read from it my lines. "Trissa!" I called out her name; I swallowed down a lump in my throat. I didn't need help "acting" here. She stopped instantly. I wondered how she would react, was she still mad at me? "Oh my God, I did not just hear you." Yup, she was pissed off alright. "Please don't tell me it's you!" She caught me off guard. I thought she would say something different. I fumbled through my flashcards, trying to find the one that would fit the situation but couldn't. I kicked myself in the ass for not thinking of her saying that. I quickly hid my flashcards; it was all on me now. I would either save my world, or watch it end before my very eyes. "Trissa," I repeated sincerely, with all my heart and soul put into every word. "Trissa yes, it's me. Dreeve, Dreeve Rytl. Remember me? We went to the same high school together." "How can I not remember you?" She said sarcastically. "Look, I know you might think that I'm some kinda freak or something-" Her angelic voice interrupted me, like a clap of thunder it caused me to jump back in fear. "Yes! That's exactly what I think you are! A fucking freak! Did you think I really enjoyed having you stare at me all during every class that I was so unlucky to be in with you? Or how 'bout you looking at me through binoculars in every play I've been in? You know how hard it’s been to live a normal life with you trying to mess things up! I mean, you made me go on the fucking Jerry Springer for Christ's sake! That will mark my reputation forever, and its all your fault! Do you know how much it sucks acting in every play knowing that some jerk off is probably masturbating to me in the audience!? Oh yes Dreeve, I know you're there always sitting in the back rows you sneaky, sick little bastard." I was hoping she wouldn't mention that. "Or how about when you were staring at my boobs all through our graduation ceremony? Do you know how embarrassing that was to have you doing that with all my friends watching?" "I wasn't looking at you! I was just looking at the clock." That was a pretty lame excuse. "Have you ever thought about how I, feel about all this?" she brushed her hair off her face, it was getting windy, "Look, unlike you I have a life. I don't just go around- looking at people all day. I don't go around stalking people and having sick fantasies about them. Don't you have anything better to do? I mean what the fuck is wrong with you??" She was really messing me up, I tried to think of something to say, my flash cards were useless now. I suppose God and the angels weren't helping me out either- just then there was a strong gust of wind, the flash cards that I was keeping under my jacket sleeve fell out, the wind blew them directly to her feet. It seemed so deliberate that I could almost hear the angels laughing at me as the wind whistled by. "What the hell is this??" exasperated, she picked one up, and laughed mercilessly. She looked up at me again and then back at the cards. She shook her head and muttered in disbelief as she read one out loud, "I can't believe this. Look at this! 'Trissa, you know that Tray is a selfish jock; he only wants you for your body. (Move closer to Trissa and look sincere) but I love you for who you are.' " She threw the card into the street. "That is just so fucking pathetic. I can not begin to explain what a-a fucking, sexually deprived, perverted, goo-goo eyed, fucking loser you are!" she was doing a good job of telling me off. I tried to think of something smart or at least halfway decent to say but her barrage of insults crippled me, "You have to write down what you have to say before you even say it! That is so lame! Can't you see you're wasting your time? Don't you have anything better to do!? Can't you bother someone else?" she turned around and read another card to herself. I bet she was reading the one where it explained how I would coax her into kissing me. "You know what you need? You need to get a blowjob, and you need one bad! But don't think in your sick, twisted, perverted little psychopathic mind of yours that I'm going to be the one to give it to you! You... you just plain out suck! Get away from me." She flung the card up in the air and flew off into the streets, joining the rest of them. "Trissa, look I know you might be a little mad but-" she yelled out as loud as she could. I cringed back in pain. "S-U-C-K! YOU SUCK, DREEVE! You know what? Why don't you just take all your flash cards, and all your porn over in the corner and jerk off! You sick bastard! I don't like you, I hate you. And if you ever come near me again I swear I am going to call the cops, and I'm going to tell Tray! YES! Dreeve, Tray my BOYFRIEND!! You are so fucking pathetic. God!" With that she walked away. I felt like shit. In one foul swoop she had basically summed up the obvious. And I knew in the back of my mind that she was right, and I was wrong. I was completely wrong. I was the evil, sick minded, twisted, low-self esteemed, complete and utter shit that I was. I tried my best to hold back my tears and my rage. A grown man who cries at the drop of a hat, she was right. I was pathetic. I watched as she floated away from me, and suddenly I forgot about all the harm I had caused her. I stopped making myself feel guilty, there was no more room for guilt in me. Instead my mind began to race with all the countless rejections, all of the pain and suffering, all the harm she caused to me. Every single thing I did for her, always trying to make her happy, I worshiped her like an idiot! What the hell is wrong with you? The phrase she had told me so many times entered my head, and I had the urge to ask her that same question. What the hell is wrong with you Trissa Meyers? I mean if you give a dog some food over and over again then it should begin to like you, but Trissa didn't respond to anything I did for her just because it was me who did it! She just disregarded me and threw me in the trash like one of her used tampons! I was nothing to her, but she was everything to me! How could she not get that through her pretty little head!? Why couldn't she love me back? Was I really that much of a "pathetic loser" that she couldn't at least go out with me once? Just once! If she could just see a sample of what I could do for her then maybe she wouldn't have to hate me so much. Why couldn't she treat me better than some piece of trash! Why!? I lost control of my emotions, I couldn't stand to see Trissa's beautiful back turned on me anymore. It all went to hell from there.
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