“Took My Love”
Henry/OC. Romance/Tragedy

Something about the entire situation seemed ghastly wrong to him. It was an incessant, painful tugging at his heartstrings that told him he had no business being where he was, never even mind the fact that he had brought his lover along with him there.

There was something uneasy in the way the fog loomed and moved about him, before, in front, behind, and between himself and her. The strange silence of the place did nothing to quell the forlorn feelings wrought by the bizarre quietness. Standing near the lake, he moved to grasp the hand of his girlfriend, and he felt her squeeze his and in reply.

This place had used to be known as part of a nice, beautiful resort town. It would have been the perfect place to propose, Henry had told himself before. Perfect, but not without that uneasy feeling all the same. He had known from the start not to bring her here, but he had been unable to stop himself at the same time. It was a strange compulsion, and he had given right in to it.

He had placed the ring into a box, and then stuck it in his pocket, before leading Lucy out to the car earlier on that morning. Telling her the destination was meant to be a surprise, he drove in silence, barely bothering to smile in reaction to all the things she kept talking about the whole while. She was glad she was feeling good enough to go out for a drive in the first place; she was so happy he had surprised her with such a notion.

He still had no idea why, but he just knew that he needed to get to the lake. He had felt this way ever since he had happened upon the ring at the edge of the woods near his home a week beforehand. He thought that Lucy might not appreciate getting a used ring he had randomly found, but then again, how would she ever know?

For whatever the reason, Henry had found the ring and driven himself and his Lucy down near Toluca Lake, and the fog had been gathering quite quickly ever since. It seemed to be doing things to his mind, making it hazy. He was finding it harder and harder to think clearly. The silence that he had found there seemed to be growing all the while, and it was developing a certain depth. It soon felt as if it, too, along with the fog, might very well swallow him whole.

I should do it soon… he thought, before slowly taking the ring box from his pocket and opening it up, speaking a few lines of rehearsed words as he showed it to his Lucy. She gasped, and smiled, and took the ring and slid it down her own, bony finger, before slipping it back off to examine it more closely. Turning to face the lake as she did this, Henry closed his eyes and breathing slowly in and out, in and out… in… the fog and silence was consuming him even moreso.

Making a face as she looked to the inside of the golden band, only to find some words engraved there, Lucy brought the ring up closer to her eye level, before reading to herselfwhat was inscribed there. Turning to question Henry about what she saw--for the words she read made no sense to her, all things considered--Lucy paused mid-way through the action. She would have never seen it coming, and the shock of it paralyzed her.

His eyes wide, full of something she had never seen in him before, Lucy spent the last moments of her life looking back at Henry, feeling his strong hands gripping her fragile throat, slowly ridding her of the ability to breathe. With a slight splash, Lucy’s lifeless form was tossed on into the lake moments later, the ring having had fallen from he grasp seconds beforehand. Leaving it to lie alone on the ground there, Henry went back to his car, before making his way back to his home near the woods.

He left feeling just as, if not more, clueless, than he did in the first place.

Weeks would go by before another passed by the same area on the lake where a young woman had lost her life, but when someone finally did find themselves there, their eye caught sight of something shimmery lying on the ground.

“To my dear Mary, with all my love, James…” they read aloud to themselves, eyeing the ring’s inscription. “Weird. It’s been a long time since I’ve thought about those two… and weirder still to find this lying around like this, out of nowhere.”

Glancing up from the ring as she moved to drop it into her pocket, a tall, slender girl with blonde hair looked over to her right, before noticing a man standing there. “Erm, hello?”

“Hello,” the man said at once, in a soft-spoken, lacksidasical sort of voice. “So, what brings you to a place like this?”

“It… kind of holds some memories for me,” the girl answered cautiously, before saying, “Why? What brings you to a place like this?”

“Well, I once brought my love down here...” Henry answered, moving to shove his hands into his pockets. “Her name is Lucy. Have you seen her?”