The Memory Fades

The memory fades……………


The memory fades away…her face blurring in the watery excess of his tears…the taste of her lips on his, adulterated by the salt in his tears. Her sweet scent fouled by the stench of death and decay, the death of his physical body and the decay of his soul that had been going on for many decades.

It has been 57 years since that day but the old man still remembers the day he first met her. They knew each other through a common friend, introduced online and continuing conversation for a many a month before finally meeting. Their first meeting wasn’t one to go down in the annals of history but in its own deep, autumn breeze kind of way it left a mark on the old man that would last forever. This mark would leave the old man an empty shell of his former self as she left to the place every man in the old man’s country wanted to go. The Land of the Free. In a strange way it was true. It was a land where people were free, free to forget, free to never come back, free to be free.

The old man beckons to the man-in-black standing by him, he shuts down the holo-display that was connected to his brain showcasing the fondest memories of his life. This memory was the only one that the old man had asked to be shown, shown before his inevitable death this afternoon.

Uday…you are Uday…the last Fallen Angel…the one , the only…The Fallen Angel..

The memories came flashing back to the old man as the old heartaches had been uncovered. Memories and heartaches he had kept six-feet under since that fateful day.

The man-in-black helped the old man to his feet and led him down the corridor past the old man’s mates. Their tired eyes reminiscent of a wild tiger whose heart has been broken by long years in captivity.

This is a test. That’s what the old man thought a few days after he met her. She was enamored by the old man’s best friend. The old man was in love with her then. He still was. He decided to love her till the day he died. If there wasn’t her then there would be no one else. Little did he realise that his decision would be the seal on his death certificate.

The man-in-black opened the door and led the old man in. He helped the old man into the chair and let him rest his old bones for a bit. The old man however was in his own world.

Uday…you are Uday…the last Fallen Angel…the one , the only…The Fallen Angel..

The blood covered his hands and his simple clothes. Her blood. He’d killed her. The old man had killed his only love. A stab right in the heart, defined by criminal psychologists as indicative of a ‘passion crime’. That’s exactly what it was, a passion filled crime.

The man-in-black was joined by the hooded man. Together they strapped the old man’s arms and legs into the firm rigid structure of The Chair. The headband with the metal contacts that would pass 15000 volts directly into his brain, delivering him instantly. The decision of the judge had been final, the judge, his best friend, her husband had decided to execute him.

The old mans memories suddenly underwent a purge.

The hooded man offered the old man a hood but he staunchly refused.

Her face was faintly visible in his minds eye.

Uday…you are Uday…the last Fallen Angel…the one , the only…The Fallen Angel..

The clock ticked towards zero hour.

Her face grew larger, clearer.

The seconds ticked away. Ever closer. Closer to absolution.

Her face. Her scent. The old man remembered. The old man longed.

15.

The old man’s life slowed down. Each word spoken by her took a lifetime to repeat itself. “I love you. I’ll always love you. But not that way.”

10. The hooded man powers the circuit.

He remembered her scent as she embraced him for the last time.

5.

The taste of her lips on his as she gave him a last kiss.

4.

The touch of her hand on his as they started to walk away from each other, one last time.

3. The hooded man readies his arm for the pull to throw the switch.

Uday…you are Uday…the last Fallen Angel…the one , the only…The Fallen Angel..

2. The old man readies himself.

Her voice one last time speaks to him “ I’ll always love you. I’m waiting.”

1. One last sentence escapes the old man’s lips “I have always loved you. I‘m coming”. The hooded man pulls the switch.

Uday…you are Uday…the last Fallen Angel…the one , the only…The Fallen Angel..


“At First there was nothing, then love, then nothing.”

| | Ashes to ashes
Dust to dust
Fade to black | |


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A story by
Rajat Kumar
A.k.a.
The Fallen Angel