And Cassie Pulled the Trigger

The silence reverberated in my ears and my confidence burst into flames. My body ached for the knife. But I wouldn't give in. I couldn't, not while he was here.1

After no words passed between us for a large amount of time, he stood up to take leave. I stood up and threw myself at him. I couldn't let him leave.2

But his arms did not return my hug. And my eyes pleaded for him to stay, but he brushed me off and walked out the door.3

My mind screamed, filling the silence with flurries of words that I couldn't speak. 'I love you. I need you. I'll die without you with me.'4

But he didn't look back to see me collapsed on my knees, crying noiselessly into the carpet. He didn't look back to see me falling apart. I needed him, but I didn't know why.5

I hadn't enough energy to pull myself up from the floor. I hadn't even the energy to die. I was lost and abandoned.6

I imagined myself in a bath tub filled to the brim with crimson liquid and I rose to my feet. But as I walked past my bedroom, I had a better plan.7

I pulled the pistol from my dresser drawer.8

I heard and felt the shot before I realized I had pulled the trigger.9

And now I stand staring at a lifeless body of the woman I once called myself.