TheInkWell Fiction Challenge | Encore

over 3 years ago

Week 13 of TheInkWell Fiction Challenge Summer 2020

Series Title: Our Thirteen Sonatas

Week 1: A Star Burns Bright as It Collides
Week 2: Ghost of the Past
Week 3: A Sorry Tale of Woe
Week 4: To Thine Own Self
Week 5: A Day at a Time
Week 6: A Day Is Saved
Week 7: The Threads That Bind
Week 8: The First Step
Week 9: The Last Drop
Week 10: Three of Fates
Week 11: Blood Ties
Week 12: Prelude to an End

“Do your best with that speech, son. Being an upstanding citizen of this country wouldn’t be enough to win the elections.”

I heard my father say to me as he clapped me on the shoulders, though my campaign speech was the last thing on my mind as my eyes slowly drifted to the woman patiently waiting on the sidelines, my campaign manager purposefully strode towards me with a serene smile on her sweet face, but it was always the warmth that her eyes held for me that would make me fall for her all over again— subconsciously, I just knew there was something more to this, to us..

“Mr. Troy, you’ll be up next. Why don’t we do one last run over on your electoral speech on the way?” Something always gripped at me whenever she’d address me that way.. Troy— as if the very word would bring an end to us, to this false contentment we we’re fumbling to keep afloat..

My father gave me one last clap on the back as I made my way out, I briefly glanced at the woman walking beside me in silence as I made to hold her hand as we walked. To my surprise, she avoided the graze of my fingers just as it was about to clench hers in my own. Without missing a beat, she then said in an almost quiet voice, “It would be wise to heed the former President’s advice and just go out with one of the more eligible women he has lined up for you.”

It came out more of a statement than a suggestion coming from her and I had to scoff at that thought as I positioned my hand on the small of her back instead, she briefly tensed at the contact but still managed not to miss a step as we walked on though I did notice how she kept consciously glancing at the people who passed by us, some stopping to greet me and express their support.

“My father would be more wise if he’d stop meddling in my personal choices in life.” I said through a smile as we made our way forward after having exchanged pleasantries with the support parties, still holding her close to me.

“Patrick. We need to stop seeing each other—”

“Helena. I am serious about this, about us—”

“But your campaign! Your family legacy—”

There, I swooped in and silenced her with a kiss, savoring the softness of her lips against mine only leaning back to look deep into her achingly familiar eyes, “Even if I’m offered the world and the wisdom that comes with handling it, I will always choose you, above all else, Helena.”

She looked up at me in a daze and I couldn’t help but grin back at her as I straightened up and proceeded to tug her along, our fingers now interlaced together as we continued to move forward.

My speech was a success, just as how my father would have wanted but really, this was just a campaign and it would be the people’s choice in the end who they’d want to be President. I was near the end of my congratulatory handshakes when I felt it— that uneasy prickle at the back of your next just seconds before something goes utterly wrong— But there was something that accompanied it too, I could have sworn it was the sweetly faint scent of.. apples?

“PATRICK!!”

It had happened too fast. A second where I paused, briefly lost to my intuition, before a shot had rang out through the air just as a body had slumped onto me.

“Call an ambulance!!” I had shouted amidst the crowd, now almost at the verge of a stampede as security tried to keep things under control and were now onto the shooter. I wasn’t really taking it all in fast enough, not as I held the woman who held my soul in my arms. There were some you win, but there were just some aspects in life you couldn’t bear to lose— No! Not now, not again! Helena!!!

The waiting room was cold, but even colder was the thing that seemed to wrap around my heart as I sat crouched on the hard plastic seat and blankly stared at my hands. Security had swiftly whisked away my father, their beloved former President, to a safe house and had tried to urge me along too, but I was having none of it. I just couldn’t— wouldn’t leave Helena alone like this! I had to make certain she was well and—

Just then, a doctor stepped out into the waiting area, casting a hard look at the security that now littered the hospital’s halls, before her eyes softened as they finally settled on me, “Mr. Troy, I’m glad you stayed. The patient is now stable and so is the baby.”

“The baby..?”

It wasn’t really a question of whose— I had known she had given me her all that night of our first tryst—it was more of a question of why. Why would she have hid this from me? That was the question I kept asking myself as I now sat beside her bed and gently held her hand in my own, waiting for her to come to.

Suddenly, I felt a brief movement from her fingers against my own and only let out the breath I didn’t know I was holding when watched her eyes slowly open, “Helena.. Thank God!”

“Patrick..?” I felt her tense and was quick to observe how her other hand came upon her abdomen almost protectively. I smiled as I gently placed my hand over hers while still holding the other in my own, “Our baby’s safe, luv.”

Her eyes turned misty then as silent tears made their way down her lovely face, now tinged with slight guilt, “I—I didn’t really want to burden you Patrick, not with the campaign still going on..”

I gave out an exasperated sigh as I leaned forward to hold her face in my hands, giving her a soft kiss on the forehead as I slowly started to say, “It’ll be burdensome indeed, especially if you decide to take this shameless man as your lawfully wedded husband.”

She looked up at me in confusion as I fumbled in my pockets, feeling relief that the velvet box didn’t get lost in the ensuing confusing after the shooting incident, “I would have asked you later tonight, during the celebratory banquet, in front of my father and everyone else who thought they mattered but... with things as it is..” I popped open the box, “I guess it’s about time we let the world take its sweet time catching up. What do you say Helena, will you marry me?”

I felt anxious as more tears slid down her face but it was quickly replaced with unmeasurable joy as she started saying, “Yes, Patrick, yes!”

As I slid the ring into her ring finger, I leaned forward to steal a long and sweet kiss from her, “I love you Helena. I will always choose you in whatever lifetime we find ourselves in.”

She kissed me back just as sweetly before she leaned back and held my face in her soft hands, “As I love you Patrick, in whatever form, whatever lifetime, it will always be you I choose to spend my days with.”

Former President, Priam Troy’s son as well as lead-running Presidential Candidate, Patrick Troy has happily announced his engagement to his campaign manager, Helena Spark. Ladies, be it supporters or not at all, have expressed their disappointment at finding out one of the country’s most eligible bachelor soon to be tying the knot. Though some have not been the least bit surprised as they recounted how the now-engaged couple were usually seen having romantic moment of their own before such an announcement was even made—

“Hmmm.. Well, a deal is a deal.. New life must be then formed before such misfortune strikes, indeed. That was very generous advice, even coming from you, Athena.”

“I just found it quite repetitive, to the point of dull. Won’t you agree, Queen Hera?” Her lovely face almost lost its calm demeanor as she scoffed at using the venerated title, her wizened eyes held a sharp look to them at the thought of having lost this century-old bet, yet again.

Hera, to her credit, only let a cold look envelope her regal face as she begrudgingly agreed, “I do owe Lachesis a boon and I wouldn’t stand to watch that Eris take credit for this mishap again. Besides, I judged it only fair that Aphrodite win this round once and for all.”

The third goddess in question only kept an enigmatic smile on her beautiful face as she reached for the slip of newspaper clipping that held the story of the star-crossed lovers’ fate during this lifetime of theirs, “Truly Queen Goddess, for the fairest hath now faired in both Love and War.”

She then loosened her hold on the piece of paper, letting it disintegrate into several tiny pieces as the wind blew it away, free to choose its next destination.