The new morning sky yearned for love, spreading its rays across the midst of the world, and reaching all the corners destined to fail. The autumn leaves itched for a death that will confidently come too late, yet searched for a cold dismay to end the season on every impending minute. The birds sang a high song, the melody soaring in small, delicate packages in hopes to wake the workers and students of this dampened and impoverished world. One student, however, proved this world had more to offer. The naive student was searching for the great matter of love today, and she would undoubtedly find it.

The student in question was, of course, Estella Rose. Now, Estella understood how devastated this world had become, ever since the War. When she was the ripe age of five, Estella decided the only way to fix the irreparable pain her world was in, was to find love. Today, on her sixteenth birthday, her eyes gleamed with the sense of new comings.

This morning, Estella had awoken to the birds singing, which was ever so rare since the War. Her unruly auburn curls bounced with her, as she raced to her windowsill to witness this miracle from the gods. There, Estella saw three songbirds, each of them singing a small part to the overall beautiful harmony. Her emerald eyes held on to the memory of those birds, and took it as a sign that today would be new. Today, Estella would find the love she yearned for, and desperately wished for.

Estella made her way upstairs, trying to tame her hair as she went. She felt most of the time, her hair had a mind of it’s own, which was the upmost undesirable obstacle for this today. Estella needed to look perfect, for she was going to express her unrequited love to and for a boy she’d adored since birth. This boy was not like anyone Estella ever met in her now sixteen years of existence. This boy had beautiful blonde waves and striking grey eyes. His freckles perfectly lined his nose and covered his arms and legs. He was an advid reader and writer who often shared his stories with Estella. And he was kind, oh, he was so incredibly kind. Caleb, her love from the moment she saw him. And Estella was fairly certain the feeling was more than mutual. At least that’s what she kept telling herself this morning.

“Darling, why is your plate still full? You know you have to eat the government required amount for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.” Estella’s mother, Ms. Lacy Rose III, was a great believer in their poor government and decided to pour every ounce of her being into making sure her household felt the same. However, Estella felt her mother’s frivolous love for the government was not helping her mood, and ran to the door for school.

“I know, I’m sorry mom! I’ll eat more at school. I got to go, bye.” Estella ran past her garden and waited for Caleb’s mother to come pick her up. Caleb’s mother, Ms. Nancy, had been the mother figure Estella looked up to for all these years. Estella loved Ms. Nancy, and they always had important talks, more than Estella could ever share with her own mother. As soon as Estella was to call Caleb and ask where he was, the gold and gray car whirled to a stop just a few feet in front of Estella’s smiling body.

The ride to school was just like any other, but this time, Estella was more self conscious than normal. She kept fixing her hair and making sure her lipgloss had stayed on the designed location. They made small talk, and Estella was warmed with a big, “Happy Birthday,” but something felt off. The whole encounter felt forced in a way Estella hadn’t known before.

When Ms. Nancy dropped Caleb and Estella off at the school building, Estella took the first chance she got to tell Caleb what he truly meant to her. She took a deep breath, and started with, “Caleb, I’d really like to talk to you. Is it okay if that’s now? I need to get this off my chest.” Estella analyzed Caleb’s expression, to better gauge how the conversation would go.

“Uhm, yeah sure. What’s up Ella?” Estella’s heart fluttered and her cheeks flushed a rosy pink. She loved when he called her Ella. Nobody else in the world called her that. It signified he was hers and she was his. Of course, that’s what Estella thought.

“Look, Caleb, I love you. I’ve loved you from the moment I laid eyes on you, and I’m crazy about you. You’re the only thing I dream about, and I constantly wonder when our next encounter will become reality. Without you here, it feels as though my world loses its color and I cannot stand to lose you. I love you, Caleb. I really, truly do.”

Estella waited for Caleb’s eyes to light up, for his smile to get wider, but that did not appear. Caleb’s whole body went ridged and stiff, as though he was undergoing the stages of rigor mortis, in which the body starts to stiffen and decompose the fastest. Estella felt his love for her decomposing and rotting as well, the stench hanging deeply in the air. She felt the ground shift and shake, and no longer heard the harmony of those three songbirds she watched with dreamy eyes in the early morning.

“Ella, you know love is forbidden. And you know the rules. You know what happens if someone says that.” Estella did know the rules, but she chose to disregard them in hopes Caleb would understand. He would surely understand, wouldn’t he?

Estella’s eyes burned with a fire that had once been used to ignite her love for Caleb. She watched, slowly, as though the last moments of her life were being played for her to live through again, and again, and again, until the depths of her dispair. She watched the gun, and she watched Caleb’s sullen expression reaching for the trigger. She saw the men in suits waiting for her to drop dead, whether from the gun or by her sudden heartbreak she did not know. She could only wait for this moment to be over.

And then, she heard it.

She heard it before it hit her, but her last sight was Caleb’s wet face, aiming the gun toward his beautiful head next.

“We will see each other in the next life, Ella. A life where love swims through the mountains and valleys, and gives the world its wonderous colors.”

And then, it all went black.