Sam and Wanda

He looks deep into her ruby eyes and every reminder of loss strikes him into his heart. He wakes up from his nightmare and gasps, only realizing now how cold it is in the room. It is another cool winter night, the sky a canvas of spilled ink and drops of yellow paint. Nature appears to be full of incidents, or that is at least what he believes. Everywhere he looks he can find the smallest mistakes and the barriers between complete perfection. Nothing really amuses him, nothing could possibly spark his interest or ignite a flame of passion and love for life into his mind. A single snowflake falls in front of his frosted window. He lets out a sigh and says,1

"Every snowflake appears to be different, but in the end they're all just snow. Every person is the same, no one can possibly spark my interest or really make me amazed by mystery."2

He gazes into the ticking clock hanging on his wall. Midnight, time for his daily stroll. He gets up, picks up a dead rose and walks out of the door. He looks back at his pitiful home, paint thinning and falling off, the roof groaning under a mere bird's weight and windows cracked from ice. A few minutes of walking leads him into the family graveyard. Twenty tombstones greet him with statues that have lifeless grins and eyes that will never shed another tear. He always reminds himself it was for the better and they are all better off dead anyway. He is only nineteen years old, but his hair has already started turning grey. Many things have made his body a mere cage to the real age he feels inside of him. He used to have a deep fascination for life and nature, he was a painter and photographer hoping to capture the wonders he saw daily. Now just like his mind, nature and life turned pointless and dull.3

"No.....No!..please..no..", he shouts.4

His mind may have turned into rainbows of grey, but his imagination stays behind to haunt him of the things he used to believe in. Flashes of color and excitement surround him as he drops to the wet snow-filled ground, for another trip into his past. He begins to remember a memory from when he was only sixteen.5

Sir Douglas High School, Canada, 2002.6

Sam is sixteen and although he understands a lot about life and has seen many things, every day is full of excitement and surprise. He enjoys laying under the sun and dreaming of that beautiful girl with raven hair flowing like silk around her perfect body. Out of all the wonders in life, she fascinates him the most with her unique ruby eyes and flawless pale skin. He never could get himself to talk to her, but she is always present in his mind, allowing him to draw her with ease. He has a large collection of portraits drawn of her in a huge variety. She's sitting on the moon one day and the next riding horseback in an open field. He wishes he can draw her right beside him and hope it will come true someday, but he can't even imagine such perfection as herself to agree to spending a moment laying with him and not doing anything she must find exciting. He didn't even know her name but he already has fallen in love.7

One beautiful Thursday morning brought him to her, as he basks in her beauty and loses all thought. This isn't the best time to stay silent because she has already started to talk to him! He doesn't know what to say and he already missed what meaningful words she just uttered.8

"Um, excuse me? do you have any pencils I can borrow?", she says.9

Sam replies, "Oh! sorry I don't.."10

He blushed a bright red when he realized he was holding a freshly sharpened pencil in his hand. He hands it over to her and she thanks him. At lunch he's sitting outside in his usual spot, again thinking about her. She walks outside and spots him and is walking right toward him! Again, he stays silent and merely stares at her, trying to grasp for a word to speak, but fails. She hands him his pencil, thanks him again and walks away. Sam cannot take this anymore and decides to begin writing to her. He likes to write just as much as paint and take pictures, so, he decides to begin writing a love note. After a few minutes he finishes and thinks it isn't good enough for her. Time is running out for it's the last day of the semester and he doesn't know where to find her later. He takes a deep breath and reads the note over once more.11

"I sit under the beautiful sun, cushioned by the white clouds. We all live under this sun and I can dream for days about it. Over the sky is space, where no one can hear a word be said, where it doesn't even matter what is said, and from here I shout about how I feel for you. I can't get myself to tell you how I feel, it feels like I am floating in deep space where no one can hear me, no one can feel the same way as I can for you. This same pencil you borrowed is again bringing something back to you from my hand, and this I wish for you to keep. If you feel that you are capable of returning these feelings, you know where to find me.12

Love, 13

Sam"14

He forgot the fact he didn't even know her name, but shrugged it off and gave it to his friends to give to her. His friends didn't hear him properly because he was talking with his mind somewhere else, probably in another dream about the girl. His friends were mostly girls and they argued and fought over who he was talking about in the note. Each day he would pass by them and they would try to get his attention and blow kisses his way. He never understood why, until the day that will forever change his life. The beautiful girl walks up to him and smiles, extending her hand for a handshake. He shakes her hand and she says,15

"Hello, my name is Wanda, remember me? I know this is a little awkward but I've been feeling a little attracted to you. I would like to get to know you better, I love how you are artistic, and I want to know if you'd draw me!..I mean..if you want to."16

Sam grinned and felt foolish but decided to stay calm and agree. Before another word can be said, Wanda's ruby eyes began to form splashes of sapphire as her eyes enlarge and she falls forward into his arms. She cries and seems to shift all of her weight on him. He doesn't understand, and then he sees a knife lodged into her back, ruby spilling out of her flawless body. He looks up and notices one of his female friends running behind a tree. Sam is full of shock and horror and drops Wanda to the ground. He couldn't tell which female friend killed this beauty, on the following days he planned to kill them all. Nineteen friends, nineteen deaths, nineteen graves dug in front of his home. He kept Wanda in a glass coffin over the ground, hoping she'll get better and miraculously return to the living. She never did.17

66 Tarish Cane Dr., Canada, 2005.18

He returns into reality and leaves that fretful memory. He walks over to the glass coffin and places the rose inside. Wanda is now covered in dead roses to hide the reality of her death. He realizes now that he cannot live this way anymore, and he dreams everyday of what life would've been like if Wanda still lived. He felt drowsy and laid down beside her in the glass coffin. Slowly closing his eyes, he clutched her hand and rests into an endless slumber.19

His neighbor found him in the coffin and sent him immediately to the emergancy. Sam died of cancer, a hidden kind in his brain that he never noticed or felt. It is such a shame that another life is taken away from this world. Sam was placed beside Wanda in the glass coffin and then buried in the graveyard he was found in. The new owner of this house swears that he sees a young boy and a young girl holding hands and playing around on his front lawn. He is just a senile old man claiming to see a young vampire with ruby eyes, pale skin and long black hair who dances around with her victim. This man was labeled insane and taken away from the home, but that boy and that girl are now said to be Wanda and Sam. The two that have been separated from each other in the world of living are joyously with each other in death. Sam would've died from cancer anyway, and if Wanda had lived, she would live in despair. Still, to this day, Sam and Wanda are seen and every winter the frosted windows would show the same message that did not make sense to anyone who didn't know them. "S+W, united by Cancer and Murder." Many who see these messages make up horror stories about two people with names starting with S and W and how they would wander the streets and kill any little child after midnight or some other crazy thing like that. But we know better.20