A Second Chance

Supernatural Stories | Aug 30, 2012 | 4 min read
16 Votes, average: 4 out of 5
Larry Kingston was never a man of many words. Most people who see him everyday never even spoke with him enough to know his last name. So, god forbid that him being the lonely bank manager at Second National Banking Co., he didn't have a lot of friends. Most of his co-workers called him "Lonesome Larry" behind his back. He wasn't always such a poor soul. He once was engaged to a beautiful woman; Gina Goldman. She was the entire package; looks, brains, and a caring personality. Larry loved Gina more than life itself, and it seemed Gina loved Larry too. Yet, on the day of their wedding, five years ago, Larry was stood up at the alter. Ironic, it's usually the husband that decides to bolt away from the commitment, but not in this case. It absolutely crushed Larry, tore him apart. The woman of his dream just disappeared, vanished without warning. He wouldn't speak to anyone for the following two months. Since then, he's never looked at another woman in a romantic gesture. He couldn't. I simply reminded him of his beautiful Gina, and hurt too much.

After one long afternoon, Larry exited the office early. He had saved up some vacation time and decided to try and cope with how life had treated him. Therepist? No, of course not. He was lonely, not psychotic. He just thought he could spend some time to try and find out where his life was going. Upon entering the lobby of the bank, a woman entered the front doors, wearing a designer purple dress and a long, tan trench coat. Beautiful flowing black hair that smelled of strawberries. Something struck this woman as familiar to Larry. So, as an act of instinct, he decided to wait and watch this woman approach the counter. "It's not stalking", he confined within himself, "It's observation". As soon as the woman spoke to the teller, Larry knew who she was. It was his long lost Gina. An immediate shot of pain and desire swelled in Larry's chest, he felt so alive, so aware,..... so angry. Then, something miraculous happened. She darted her eyes towards Larry, then offered a simply warm smile. Larry waited for her to leave the bank, to which he followed. Right before she called to a taxi, he landed his hand on her shoulder.
"Gina?!", he called out.
"Larry....", she answered.
Larry felt so much passion and longing towards her, but hid it with anger. "Oh, so you do remember me!"
"Larry, I-"
"You what?! What do you have to say to me after five long years? What could you say to repair my scarred life?!", he shouted.
"I love you, and never meant to hurt you.", she replied.
"Save it, you callous bitch! I haven't looked at another person the same way since you left me, since you abandoned me!" Larry began to realize he was creating a scene in front of his bank, disturbing his customers. He already sacrificed his happiness to her a long time ago, but he wasn't going to sacrifice his job. He stormed off to his car and sped off.

That night, Larry was plagued by atrocious nightmares. Most pertaining to him living his life alone, to the point of his deathbed. He awoke to find hot tears of misery rolling down his face. He stumbled to his kitchen and opened the cabinet above his fridge. In it, was housed Larry's collection of hard liquors. Upon chugging a third of a bottle of schnapps, he heard a knock on his apartment door. It was three thirty in the damn morning, just who the hell could this be? Sure enough, Gina was standing in the doorway. With the door opened only a crack, Larry moaned out, "Just what the hell do you want?"
"I want you Larry, I want to be with you again", she whispered to him.
"Yeah, well....just what after five years did you miss about me?", he answered.
"I always loved you Larry! I never wanted to leave!", she cried.
"Oh really, well what stopped you from getting married to me? Were ya' too scared? Too sick, what?! You didn't even try to contact me afterwards, so you couldn't have been too sorry."
"Larry, get your car keys. I have to show you something.", she told him.
"Sorry, but I don't feel like going for a ride. Try again later....", he replied in a drunken tone.
"Please, it will explain everything", she begged.

So, against his better judgement, he walked to his car and started it. Gina climbed into the passenger seat. "Better put on your seatbelt, Larry", she warned.
"Why? Since when were you about safety, Gina? As I can recall you never wore your seatbelt!", he snapped back.
"Just do it, and go east to the old town bridge", she ordered.

After a long drive, he finally arrived at the bridge. This was a very old bridge, he used to play on it as a kid, throwing rocks into the powerful rapid river below. "So just why did you drag my sorry ass out here, Gina?"
"I need you to know.", she ominously answered.
"What the hell does that mean?", he replied.
"Look", she said, pointing at an object down in the rapids, glimmering in the moonlight. Larry hesitantly climbed down to the river side and fished it out with a stick. It was a license plate.
"What the hell is this?", he questioned.
"Read it Larry, read it and remember..", she said.
Larry looked at it long and hard, until it finally clicked. This was the license plate to the car that Larry bought Gina as an engagement gift. He remembered how she used to love that car, she would always love to cruise in it with Larry.
"Your old license plate,.....what's this doing here?", he asked.
Gina began to cry. "On the day of our wedding, I forgot to get a necklace my mother gave me to wear on my wedding. I promised her I would. So I drove back to my house, grabbed it, and hurried to get back to the chapel."
Larry began to smell something rotten.
Gina continued her story. "I was speeding down this street, and in panic, I almost hit another car. I swerved off the bridge, and landed into the river!" By now, tears were pouring from her eyes. Shocked, Larry gazed down the river bank, into the bushes. There was Gina's body, rotten, decayed, dead. Then in his state of shock, he murmured to his bride,"I'm so sorry Gina. I....I love you."
"I love you too Larry", Gina croaked in a miserable, saddened voice.

Larry turned to embrace his lost love, but she was gone. Vanished, into the summer's night air. He wept, but was content. He knew his love was dead, but the love itself did not die.

Tags:

  
Report This Story
Notice (8): Undefined index: User [APP/View/stories/story.ctp, line 227]
Notice (8): Trying to access array offset on value of type null [APP/View/stories/story.ctp, line 227]

Recommendations

Reviews

Velma golden Aug 31, 2012

I remember reading something similar to this story,and same as that one loved it. to bad he did not investigate, it might have saved grief, anyway great read, keep up the great writing Will watch for more of your work.

Andreea Aug 31, 2012

really interesting story. Keep up the good job, mister ;)

Download the Short Story Lovers App

Read and write stories anytime, anywhere with the Short Story Lovers app