Red and blue lights flashed down Winnebago St., coloring the crime scene and making it seem more like a carnival than the death place of two brothers.

She stared at those lights now, wishing that by some miracle of God, they could make her blind. That somehow, some power above the comprehension of humanity would take pity on her guilty soul and let her find recompense.

Sirens blared, making it nearly impossible to hear the whispers of all the shocked neighbors and the grievous sobs of the mens’ sisters. Every noise, though, seemed to be carried to her ears. Each word like a harpy pulling out her heart. Worst of all, though, was the noise in her head, ripping her apart.

Ambulance technicians came out of the small Victorian house; their faces white as they try to fit the body bags through the narrow door; their worn uniforms that have seen so many calamities, red. They wheeled the bodies through the grass and to the ambulance, taking their time. Everyone knew that they wouldn’t be heading to the hospital, but the morgue.




Mumbled noises and words spoken like quiet poems filled the room as he leaned over her, pushing a strand of her dark hair out of her face. They stared at each other adoringly, not caring that their little piece of heaven was in the back of his old sports car. He was her Orpheus, and she his Eurydice. Their love one that would follow each other to the depths of the Underworld.

“I love you,” he whispered to her, his lips tickling her ear.

“I love you,” her words were no more louder than a breath, but he had heard her. His smile widened even as their lips pressed together.

They both knew that this would be the start of a love that lasted for eternity.


“ Such a tragedy,” an elderly lady murmured next to her, wiping the tears on her aged face with a paisley print handkerchief.

“They had so much potential. Such a long life ahead of them,” the neighbor that watched the boys grow up said with a heavy heart, already making plans to call his lost daughter.

“My boys! My boys!” a woman cried, stumbling out out her car and falling to her knees. She made it just in time to see the ambulance leave, taking the last bit of her sanity with it.

She watched them all numbly, each person who lost someone making a small tear in her once large heart. So many tears that she thought there couldn’t possibly be anything left but a broken and bloody mess. So many lesions that ate away at it it, leaving only one piece intact.

The piece that belonged to him, but he...but he…

She let out a quiet sob, a single tear running down her face as she stumbled forward, knocking into the large man in front of her. He turned around, his hands already steading her.

“Are you alright, ma’am?”

“I-” she looked up to the shiny badge certifying a county police officer, a man who had no idea what to make of such a horrible thing in such a beautiful little town. She opened her mouth, ready to let the truth pour from her, and paused.

“Ma’am?”

“I’m a monster,”

She looked up at him, her full mouth lowering from its customary smile, “Of course you aren’t,”

His eyes cast down, “You don’t know what I have done. What I’m willing to do. You would hate me,”

She pulled her small hands away from his sides and cupped them around his face, drawing him closer. She gave a small, shy smile and kissed him lightly on the lips, “You can tell me. I will always love you. It’s you and me, forever and ever,”

And so he told her.




She blinked, trying to clear her head of the memories. The officer stood in front of her, still waiting to see if she was alright.

“I…” she began, “I need to tell--”


Her phone rang, a monotonic shrill that always gave her a headache, but she smiled anyways, because it meant that she would be able to hear his voice.

“Hello?”

“Oh God, oh God,” his voice was hysterical, “Don’t hate me,”

“What are you talking about?”

“It got out of control. They weren’t suppose to be home…”



“Ma’am?”

She looked up at the officer and gave him a sad smile, stepping away and letting his arm fall. “Sorry?”

“Are you alright?”

She nodded, “Such a tragedy, those brothers, they had such a long life ahead of them,” She turned away from the scene and from her one chance of redemption, wiping away the only tear she would allow herself to have.

She finally understood. Every great love is secretly a tragedy.

Pyramus and Thisbe.

Romeo and Juliet.

Orpheus and Eurydice.


Eric and Grace.

She was just another young lover doomed to be torn apart. A woman in love with a criminal who stole her heart.