Short Story: Tank's Home

Improved Essays
A broken heart! What is it? Is it the product of a wasted life or the outcome of an existence broken by others? Is it fate or just the luck of some draw? Can it be the result of a series of randomly occurring events, unfolding somewhere, in the Cosmos? Many, claim that nothing ever happens by accident. Or is there something much more menacing going on around us? Who or what is in control of our lives?
No matter how well-groomed, Tank’s home is, he stares at four empty walls. They mirror the hollow parapets of his heart. Drowning in a labyrinth of pain and sorrow, he sits broken by his yesterdays.
In his sweaty hand is a “Glock 40.” Will he have the courage to end it all? Just the sound of one last bullet and it will all be over. The sounds
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Just let this moment last forever conquering every giant and stilling every storm. Hold me close, ever so close. Together the strength of our arms will keep the moonbeams dancing along the river.”
Then in a heartbeat, in a single heart agonizing moment, he left.
To him, her words were as vintage wine on her lips. Unable to resist her, he wanted to drink on, drink on forever. Oh, happy state of blissful passion’s fire, no thought, ever conjured up before, was his. Would her words, beautiful as they were, survive the test of years?
How could such loveliness ever falter, then tumble into the grave of lost love? How could he inflict such terrible pain upon her heart? Ah, the scars, the unseen wounds of battle, ripped at them until there was nothing left. He ascribed all the blame to himself. To forgive himself was his impossible dream.
Years later, one afternoon and late into the evening he sat, trying to remember Ellie’s lovely smile. He couldn’t. Her face, like others, has dissolved away into the haze of yesteryear.
Oh, how faint all his memories now seem. All his yesterday’s gone and tomorrow remains
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Lost in-depth of inner mood, searching for a short escape. What depth of dismal gloom, now comes to claim its own? He drowns in a quagmire of guilt, haunted by the faces of his squad who had perished.
Every day he lives again, his never-ending war. Each horror experienced carries him further and further away from his Ellie.
When strange orbs of light floated through his home, he thought he had gone stark raving mad. Someone told him they were the souls of those who once lived, those now trapped in his sphere of reality. Were they stuck in time with a task unfinished? What was their mission?
Were they his squad, come to exact revenge on him? He had blamed himself for not being able to keep his buddies alive. Were they demons or God’s angels? Who were they? What did they want from

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