Love Note

On a cold rainy day in January, in the seaside town of Newport, Oregon, a man and his wife sat by the fireplace. A typical January day here in Oregon, rainy and cold. Although they were used to it by now, they always felt alone during these types of light rainstorms. The couple, old and wrinkled, yellowed with age like the papers of their tattered books, kids grown and gone, only found comfort in their fireplace. The family dog, Rufus, sat by the fire as the soft crackling of charring wood and red-hot embers lit the small two-bedroom-one-bath little alcove. For years and years they had listened to their children run through the house, small footprints covering the smooth wood flooring they had invested so much in.

But now that time was over. Both knowing that their time on this earth was almost over, and knowing that it was time for them to give what they had taken back before their ragged book of a life came to its last page, the aged couple decided to go on a little trip, just one last time, to the place they met, the beach. In the car, as usual, they didn't say much, both knowing where they were going, and both knowing how it was going to end. See, this couple wasn’t the old innocent loving elderly parents they've been drawn up as; they have both kept a deep, dark secret for many years. One that has tore away at both their combined soul and they knew that it was time to give back what they had stolen. The soft rain tapped on the roof of their '57 Stationwagon, the car that had carried them through many family trips, rides to the grocery store, picking up kids from school, but that time was over now, and they both felt in their very soul that it was time to give it back.

When they got to they beach, being old as they were, it took a bit to get out of the low-roofed car. Walking to the end, where a certain rock, when moved, would show what they had hidden. The man moved the small stone, about half a foot long, and revealed what they had stolen. An aged, deteriorated bag that contained a small human heart, in preservative liquids. Eying the disgusting souvenir, and handed it to his wife. Both sighing, they drew the circle in the soft grains of grey sand. Opening the jar, they removed the heart and placed in the center in the circle. The circle lit up with a horrifying fire, and a small figure emerged. The figure started talking in tongues, and finally said something in English. YOU HAVE STOLEN THE LIFE OF A CHILD, AND NOW IT IS TIME TO GIVE IT BACK IN BLOOD! YOU WILL BURN FOR ETERNITY! The couple shed one tear before being dragged into the abyss. To this day, nobody knows just why and how the couple killed the child, nor who took them.