1. Ice


    Date: 12/22/2015, Categories: Love Stories, Author: sprite, Rating: 71, Source: LushStories

    reminding me that it had been a long time since I’d let any emotion play upon them. To make love to her under a summer’s sun, the sky cloudless and blue above us. The image of a meadow comes into my head. Plucking daisies and placing them in her blond braid as she giggles like the young woman I had fallen in love with. She had been a farmer’s daughter while I had been a butcher. Once a butcher, always a butcher, only now I am a butcher of men. A cold hearted killer. My smile fades. With the image of my dearest Elsa fading, I return my concentration once more upon my target. She, or rather it, is no longer human. It is simply another obstacle separating me from my beloved. One that I intend to remove. Until we empty this city of vermin, I will be trapped here. It already feels like eternity. Once again I feel my finger tighten on the trigger and yet, something stills me. I observe my target carefully, watching as she reaches into the breast pocket of her grey-white coat and removes what ...
    I can only guess is a photograph. From this distance it is hard to tell. Once again I am going on instinct. I watch as she presses her lips to it, thankful that I can’t see her eyes, only guessing at the emotion within them. A longing as great as mine, perhaps, or a sorrow even greater for a husband or a lover slain. I think of Elsa once more, recalling the photograph of me in uniform she had placed upon the fireplace mantle. I wonder if she might even now be looking upon it, cradling it in her hands, tears in her eyes as she kisses it, wondering if I am still alive on this Christmas day, an eternity away. Pressing my lips together, I relax my finger and let the muzzle of my rifle dip. Looking heavenward, I notice for the first time that icicles cling to the shattered eaves above my hiding place like glittering ornaments. It was Christmas after all. Let this be my gift to the woman who had reminded me of my Elsa. For the first time in months I feel warmth seeping into my flesh and bones.
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