I entered this for the short story contest, but I never got any critique for this short story. Feel free to post you criticism, be it constructive or destructive.
Memento Mori
She was the object of his affection; he was the love of her life. It all came down this moment, this slow and playful dirge, and the sad melodies of reality. They looked at each other with a remorseful look in their eyes, hungrily wanting the passion they once had. They wished that by some miracle everything would be as it once was. However too much time has passed, too many words had been spoken, too many mistakes had been made, and as much as they wanted the hands of time to go back, time serves no one.
This would be the last moment they would spend together; they knew it was the end. Yet in their hearts they just could not accept it. They longed for each other’s touch badly, each other’s warm embrace, their feel, but it was too late now. Nothing could go back to the way it was back then.
They could not speak, it had been so long since they last saw each other, but they had no words left to say. They knew what was in each other’s hearts, but there were no word that was needed to be spoken.
There was no time for pleasantries, no time for an exchange for kind words. Time for everything had ran out, only a brief small fraction of this world was left and the time for this world was even less. They knew this fact and accepted it within their hearts, but they wished there would have been more time. What little they had time for intimacy, for kisses, for hugs, for lovemaking, for lust, for fights, for reconciling, the common things in every relationship was all but spent. It was all over now; nothing in this world lasts forever, and this play was its end.
It was now the curtain call for them. Everything now had to come to an end, there would be no any moments of reminisce between the two. Time drew short; the woman reached into her purse at her side, and pulled out a gun and placed the barrel firmly against his forehead. He too pulled out a gun from his coat’s pocket and pointed it straight to her head. She was trembling anxiously to pull the trigger, while he was as cool as ice. Shedding a few tears, she closed her eyes, for what reason? Who knows, it didn’t matter up to this point. Driven by empathy for his lover, the man used his free hand to wipe her tears away and caressed her cheek gently. They both knew what had to be done, and they couldn’t escape their destiny. She clenched at the trigger tightly, she resolved to take his life the moment he took hers. He returned the favor and got ready to pull the trigger. She took one last moment to stare into his deep blue, icy cool eyes of his. The woman smiled slightly and whispered, “Memento Mori”. The trigger was pulled; their life together had ended.
The gunshot rang like a bell throughout the entire world, and it woke the man from the ‘reality’ he had been living. He had pulled the trigger before she did and had killed the woman he had left behind him; more importantly, he had killed the woman whom he had loved. Melancholy settled into the confines of his psyche; he had wished deeply it would never come to this conclusion, but this world was at its end and there was no other way it could have been resolved. From a distance, the man could hear a mournful melody. It was a church’s congregation singing a requiem for this doomed world, praying for the souls of the dead, and begging to their god to forgive them of their sins and deliver them from damnation. It was of no use though; this pitiful existence was coming to an end now.
The man looked over to his lover; he hoped that there was a heaven and that she was in peace now. He took comfort in the fact she no longer had to worry about the world around her, how its sorrowful tale was now coming to an end and nothing could stop it. He too grew tired from all the worrying, the constant fear of the inevitable, he too wished for a way out. His gun was of no use to him anymore; it was stained in her blood, and he would rather die by her hands. He reached for the gun his lover had dropped on the floor. It had one bullet in the chamber, intended for the one she loved. Cocking the gun ready, he aimed it to his head. “I love you,” He said. He gazed at serene look on her face for one last time, “…always.” He pulled the trigger and all faded into darkness. Their life together had now begun.