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Chapter 8:Pitfalls in Memories
In the hazy nowhere world of drunken dreaming Johan is lost in a time long gone. A place were the pain and recollections of reality fail to penetrate. Here he is forever with the one he loves. Here he does not have to acknowledge her death, or the subsequent disappearance of her body from the morgue. With out a body in his drunken haze he can denies her death for an eternity. With the loss of her body he will never have to see her as anything other then the woman he knew. Never see her cold and lifeless places into the ground forever. Here he can always find her laughing, smiling. Her he can always be with her. His mind travels a dreamy wrought reliving moments hear and there from there past. The day she first posed for him. First agreed to dinner. The day that he first began to win her over.
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She was radiant. The perfect model, and she wasn't the lest bit bothered by the surroundings (he'd spent over a month to find the perfect place. One that both suggested that he was broke and yet one that he could handle being in). The room was shabby with crumbly walls and acceding that looked like it could cave in come the next rain storm. He and a friend had gone to almost all of the second hand stores to find the perfect furniture which they covered with a variety of old blankets and sheets. When the time came that she loved him (if it came) and agreed to marry him (if she would) there had to be absolutely no way that his family could call her a gold digger. She had to love him for himself and not for the sum which was in his trust as he was certain was the main motive of most of the compose society women who came prancing about his families estate and society gatherings.
"EXCUSE me but I wanted to know if we're finished for today?" Her comment draws him out of his thoughts just in time to see a drop of paint fall from his brush and run a slight river of red across the face of the portrait, right down her nose. He grimaces and grabs a rag to wipe the dribble gently of the picture. He can always fix the damage later. Hers is not a face he is likely to forget. He looks over at her as she lounges in a casual pose on the couch, her ebony hair flowing down around her face and over her shoulders. He smiles at her as he wonders quietly to himself if it would be too presumptuous of him to ask her to pose in the, well the altogether so to speak just yet. He shakes his head. Such things and thoughts are best left until later. Hopefully not to much later. She clears her thought again and he blushes a bit.
Smiling at her as his thoughts are interrupted he quickly apologizes. "Sorry. I just seem to have gotten a little lost in my thoughts. I suppose we could call it a day. If you have nothing else planed maybe you could have diner with me? I could use the company." Certainly, Johan, I think that would be nice." She smiles and her face seems to light up the room with its radiance. So far so good. She didn't decline. Things just might work out. Who knows what he would do if he failed. She walks towards the door grabbing her coat on the way. Pausing she turns towards him and asks "Are you coming?" He smiles at her and follows her out.
The walk together along the street until the come to a small inexpensive diner. The food is certainly not of the same quality that he has been accustomed to his entire life but it does fit well with the image he wishes to convey. They spend the rest of the night talking. Getting to know each other. The more he learns about her the more fascinated he becomes with her. The more he find that he is actually coming to love her for her self and not simply because of her beauty. Before talking it was her beauty that drew him to her, now it is her strength and cunning that he is coming to admire. It dawns on him that when he had originally set out on this path it was more as a collector who wished for the unusual. It was also because he had at some lenvel wanted to shock his family. However, getting to know her he has come to feel ashamed of his original motives and is finding an entirely new reason to continue with his chosen path. He is coming to feel that she is just the person to keep him sane. His other, stronger, better half. At least he hope that she will be.
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A loud buzzing wakes Johan from his dreams. He looks at the clock but pay little heed to the time. He hits the snooze only to find that the sound is continuing, intermitidly. He realizes that it is the door. Slowly he stands up and stumbles over the bottles that are proof of the drinking binge he had started after learning that his fiancée had been murdered. He vaguely recalls that someone had drooped by earlier in the day, or was it late night? He was not quite certain of the time only that he had not yet been to bed. It had been more bad news. Someone he didn't quite recognizes in his haze telling him that her body had been removed from the morgue and was now missing. The thought accrued to him that maybe her body wasn't really stolen. Maybe she had just been in one of those strange comas that your read about in novels were the person appears to be dead only to awaken during their own funeral. He sort of remembers suggesting as much to who ever it was who had stopped by, but they dismissed it. Something about an autopsy and no blood. He couldn't remember. The door bell sounds again, followed by a loud banging. He sighs his shoulders slumped forward as he looks around for something to drink. Maybe they will just go away.
Finding nothing in his place that can be considered particularly intoxicating and realizing that who ever is at the door is not going away he heads over to answer it, pausing simply to grab a jacket. As he reaches for the jacket the thought that she might have walked out of the morgue her self rescuers to him. Despite what he's been told several times he still just cant believe or accept that she is dead. Maybe the person out side is her. The thought ads speed to his walk as he hurries to open the door. His heart drops when he sees who it actually is. Not his beloved but the police officers who are supposed to be looking for the person, or persons who killed his fiancée. Not to mention locating her. Even if that means her body for burial.
His disappointment quickly turns into anger to find them here. What reasons they might have for interrupting his dream. For interfering with him getting back to what ever bar he decides to head for had best be good. He grimaces and says in a voice that he does not quite recognize "Just what is it you want now?"