The blind was bent in a way so that even when the shade was all the way down, Janet could still peer out the window stealthily. She sat in the dark in her living room, on Jared's big leather chair silently looking out into the darkness and the rain. She was waiting, as she did every night. Waiting to see him. She glanced at the clock. The rain pattered softly against the windows and the walls. It was three minutes to nine. She worried for a moment that he would be late. Maybe something was wrong...? But no, there he was, as usual. He ran quickly in a slightly crouched way from his house to his car. She didn't know why, but every night he would leave his house and go sit in his car for exactly one hour, and then go back. She watched him with a sad, lonely smile. Him - the man with the black tie. He wasn't wearing a tie right now... Now he was wearing a white wife beater tank top and gray sweatpants. The only time Janet saw him wearing the tie was when she saw him at church. It was a plain, common looking tie, not a good item to use to describe a certain person, but Janet couldn't help but think of him as the man with the black tie. She remembered the first time she saw him - wearing the tie. She had been walking up the front steps of the church, tired, weary, and had stumbled. He caught her gently in his arms. It was a thing he would have done for anyone, he was just a nice person like that. She knew it shouldn't make her feel as if she were in any way special to him. But somehow it did. She closed her eyes and remembered brushing against the soft silk of that tie when he caught her.
The rain streaked down the windows in smooth, ribbon like patters as she glanced back out the window. Peering through the sheets of rain was like looking through several of those beaded hanging curtains back to back, but she managed to see him clearly as he turned on the radio in his car. After watching him for a few moments, Janet realized that he was crying. She wished she knew a way to cheer him up...
David sat in his car, as he sat every night, remembering. Remembering that night, so much like this night, at this very time so many months ago. His memory of it was fresh, mostly because it hadn?t really happened that long ago, but the pain in his heart was beginning to pale and fade like the newspaper clippings he kept of it locked in that box in his room. She deserved so much better, he knew. Her - the girl with fear in her eyes, the girl who was sick. He had wanted to turn that creeping darkness in her glances into a bright sparkling joy, he had wanted to turn her sadness into happiness. But that fear, that shield she hid from the world behind, wouldn't let him get close enough to try. Then it happened. At 8:58 that evening he drove to her house to see her, and there she was, dead. She deserved someone who would remember her forever, someone willing to die for her, someone whose pain over her death never subsided. But unfortunately, she only had him. He realized he had been crying, and cried more because he knew the tears were not for her, but for himself. Suddenly, he heard a gentle tap at his car window he looked up. The woman who lived across the street was standing there by his car, holding a steaming mug in her hands.
David caught his breath. The rain had beaded on her hair and glistened in the dim lamplight, like a surreal halo. She smiled her sad, gentle smile, and David thought that she must be some kind of angel - a tragic angel. He wiped his eyes and rolled down the window, half afraid that when he looked again she would be gone. The rain coolly dappled his face and arms as he leaned forward to talk to her.
"It's cold out." She said in a shy kind of way, almost as if she were slightly afraid. "I saw you and I thought you might like something warm to drink." David smiled and gratefully took the mug from her small, delicate hands. "It's just hot chocolate" she said, somewhat embarrassed.
"I like it." David said, taking a sip.
She stayed out there a while longer, making small talk and just being friendly. When she started shivering, David insisted that she go back inside and said goodnight. He didn't quite understand what had just happened, but he had a feeling that it might later be important.
Janet closed the door softly behind her when she entered the house so she wouldn't disturb Jared. She leaned back against it and closed her eyes. Her heart was racing. She couldn't believe what she had just done. If Jared ever found out...
"Janet" Jared's voice cut Janet's thoughts to a halt. "What are you doing" His voice was gravelly, as if it came out of a boulder. Sometimes when Janet looked at him she thought that that might actually be the case.
"I just went outside for a moment" Janet said, trying to think of some way to delay what she knew to be inevitable.
"You were talking to some one, wern't you?" Jared aske angrily, fear and suspicion creaping into his eyes.
"It was just the neighbor..." Janet started, knowing it wouldn't help, but knowing it would only be worse if she tried to denie it or lie.
Jared stalked towards her. "What did tell you...?"
David opened the car door and got up to go inside. It was then that he realized he still had the woman's mug in his hand. He smiled. He would return it in the morning. Suddnly, he heard yelling coming from her house. He would return it now.
He barley noticed the rain as he quickly walked across her front yard, remembering the fear in her eyes so much like the fear in that other woman's eyes, so long ago it seemed. He wouldn't let it happen again, not again. As he approched the door he could hear the voice more destinctly, yelling in what sounded like a drunken rage. He knocked anxiously on the door. The was a comotion inside and more yelling. David thought he heard the man yell "Is that him?" but couldn't quite tell. He suddenly felt that maybe coming over here was the wrong move... The yelling grew even louder than before, and David desticntly hear the sound of someone crying out in pain. He decided he had made the right move and opened the thankfully unlocked door door.
Across the room David saw a large, burly man. The beautiful woman was cowering on the ground before him, terrified of the heavy object he held in his hand and clutching her arm.
"Leave her alone" David said in a commanding voice that he couldn't quite keep from shaking.
The man sneered at him in a drunken way and took a few steps forward. Daviv realized that the object he was holding was a gun. David jumped forward and grabbed the gun. He knew it was pointless. He knew he would probably die. But he didn't care. For her, he would do anything. And he didn't even ask her what her name was... David grappled for controle over the weapon. he rolled to the side fumbled, knowing at any moment it could go off, knowing that if the man hadn't been drinking he'd already be dead.
Suddely a gunshot rent through the night, echoing out into the emptyness. David watched in disbelief as the man fell slowly, oh so slowly to the ground, watched and did nothing as the man grabbed the gun from his hands and in his last dying moments pulled the trigger.
David didn't even fell himself hit the ground. His chest was like a blossoming flower of pain, and the pain was like a toxin, slowly seeping through him, numbing his entire body. A blurry shape came before his eyes. He couldn't make out it's shape, but he knew it was her... He could smell her perfume. He felt her hair brush oh so softly against his face, felt a single teardrop fall onto his cheek, felt her lips gently press against his. He closed his eyes. He stopped breathing, and the last thing he smelt was her sweet perfume, he was numb, but he could still feel her lips agaist his. And the very last thing he heard was a single gunshot and a nearby thud, before he died for his tragic angel.
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