COLD LOVE
A horror story by Jason Schwartz

I glanced at the clock. 11:53 pm. How much longer will it take for her to fall asleep? If minutes feel like hours and hours feel like days, then days must feel like... wait, I don't know. I don't know what I'm talking about. I need to get outside or I'll fall asleep soon.
As I proceed to open my window as silently as possible, as to not arouse my mother, my mind begins to focus on more realistic thoughts. I need to get the fuck out of here. I need to see him. The soles of my sneakers embrace the roof tiles and I creep across to the drain. After a moments hesitation I take decisive action and fall to the grass below. It's cold. My legs hurt. I hope I didn't wake my mother up, if she's even asleep. Luckily, I am able to come to and tell myself that the sounds of my shoes on the pavement aren't that loud. This has been going on for quite some time now and I'm not exactly sure where it is going. All I know is that I need to see him, my lover. All I know is that if my mom knew where I was going at night she would probably kill me. It's for her own good though. It's better with me doing what I have to do and her not knowing. So much has changed since the accident. For better and for worse, I suppose. Now I can only see him at night, but before the accident... things were different.
I am seventeen years old and attend high school like most seventeen year old girls. At my school there was a boy whom I liked very much and fell in love with. The thing was, before the accident that is, I didn't think it was possible for us to be together because we were so far apart. He had his friends and I had mine and he ate where he ate and I ate where I ate and it all just gets ridiculously complex and confusing. I try not to think of those days now that I have him, but I do remember the thoughts I used to have; the longings for him. It's quite funny how these things are, you know. I just liked him for the most peculiar...
... was that a police car? No. What time is it? 12:14. Not too late. I'm almost there. Jesus, I am so cold. I bet he's cold, too. It won't be much longer before I get to see him, before I get to have him inside me. I long for the warmth of his embrace. I really do deserve him, at least, more than his other friends. His old friends. It was the accident that brought him to me, brought him away from them.
About a month or two ago, he went on a ski trip in Hood River. On the drive back, his car crashed into the side of a snowy hill. His two friends in the front died immediately. His third friend came out with a broken shoulder, broken arm, and severely cut side. He was hospitalized in a coma. I coul...
... There he is. I ran through the cold air to embrace the dirt beneath me. After lying for a moment, I began removing the earth with a shovel I had buried close by. After about ten minutes I threw aside the shovel and reached into the ground to pull out my lover.