I heard the door open with a omnious creak and softly close ,shuffled footsteps approached my resting spot at the other end of the dark room. I looked up from the bundle on my lap that has been my focus for the past few minutes, she stood before me surrounded in sorrow, her dark dress and her fair hair in a spinster bun were the ever present signs of her constant sorrow. She had been mourning for a year, since the news of Kurtz's death, yet no one uttered a single fact of what had happened. Only I knew of the truth, my conscience locked in a grueling battle with my heart and soul to tell this poor woman the truth and free her from this consuming dread and misery of losing her intended. I looked into her eyes, the obvious presence of old tears still welled in the only ray of color left in the room .Yet somewhere deep in the despair of her eyes I saw a glimmer, a glimmer of almost naive and girlish hope that I could be the herald of enlightening news that may free her from impending despair. Suddenly rage filled my heart, the man back in that jungle had misled us both! She truly loved Kurtz and yet he lead her astray, this beautiful woman had been lied to and hurt for far too long, she deserved the truth and that is why I was here. “Ma'am you might want to sit down" I said leading her to the ornate couch as I stood before her looking into eyes, the soft blue pools that ignited my anger in Kurtz. “Madam you have been lied to, the man you knew before, Kurtz, is not a great man nor honorable. The jungle changed him, it drove him power mad and dangerous. He went off into the jungle, never to be seen till I found him dying in a village by the river. He had enslaved the people and used them for his own greed he built himself up as a god and when we tried to save him and bring him back he refuse saying he did not want to leave . The jungle had consumed him body and soul the man you loved was lost long ago, long before he died. He died the moment he entered the jungle and lost himself to a demon of greed and power" I looked at her after I had finished destroying everything she had thought to be true, I was afraid I had shocked her into a comatose state, until she softly began to speak. " ...... Last words, what were his last words ". I couldn't believe this after all the deception and disconcern for her that Kurtz had she still wanted to know his last words? I stared at the small fragile woman sitting here in this dark forsaken room and knew the only way to break her from this despair is to tell her, " the moments before he died he spoke one word twice, he said " the horror the horror" not your name nor anything about you, his only concern was for the fact he was leaving the jungle where he wished to stay. There was no concern for you, no intentions of coming back; you have been living in this gloomy fog for too long." Her eyes were overrunning with tears I knew I had destroyed a life. I placed the packet on the table and walked to the door, I looked back one last time and she was sobbing into the packet, she would never understand and she would stay naive forever. I left that dark house into the gloom of the cities wet and busy streets, never to return to that house again, my memories of Kurtz lost in the gloom of that drawing room, forever to be mourned over by her.
Nice!
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