Chapter 18

The gun was held in her hands shakily but it did not go off. Something prevented her from pulling the trigger under her finger yet it was not the fear of murder. There was another thing pulling her nerves and Gabrielle was very afraid to admit it to herself.

Charlie struggled against her grip with closed eyes. Every second longer made him struggle less and made Gabrielle loose her vigor to kill him. She had to but she couldn’t. She wanted to but her heart was saying no. With her breath coming in jagged gulps of air, the girl removed the muzzle from above Charlie’s ear yet remained straddling him.

“Damn it!”

She couldn’t do it. No matter how hard she tried to kill him, he was too soft and sweet. Gabrielle folded herself onto his shoulder in regret, dropping the gun on the floor behind him and wrapping her arms around his neck. Charlie began shaking his head no and mumbled under the duct tape. But nothing he could say would make her feel any different. The girl ripped the tape from his lips and let him speak.

“We can make it work,” he pleaded with her. “My Annabel Lee, I love you and I always will. I just want you—”

Gabrielle slapped the man hard. His face twisted to the right and he hardly dared to look back at her. Charlie heard the sobs she was so desperately trying to keep back. But the tears were not for him, only for herself.

“You were the one who wanted to die! You wanted me dead,” she cried. She wiped the back of her hand over her heated cheeks and breathed in shakily. “So how come it’s so hard to kill you?”

Charlie didn’t have an answer. He knew what kinds of things he longed to say like how she might care for him or that she was still the innocent girl he first met. But he knew neither of those things was true. Gabrielle, however, did not. Her lips pressed tenderly onto forehead and sighed.

“Why,” she asked softly. “Why did you do it?”

“I…” Charlie wanted to throw her the elongated poem he had prepared for since the moment he first saw her but stopped. His Annabel Lee… this girl wanted reality and if he really did love her, he’d respect that. “I thought you were the most beautiful girl I had ever seen. I needed you.”

“I didn’t mean that way,” Gabrielle replied, readjusting her legs which straddled him. Realizing she had yet to move, the young woman sat back but held her balance with her hands clasped behind Charlie’s neck. “I can’t love you back. Ever! I never had anything wrong with my life! Other than it was boring, my life was good and simple. Nothing difficult or tense or bad. I had friends and parents who cared and good grades and no complications and…”

Gabrielle climbed off Charlie’s lap and stood. The girl never liked confrontation, especially when it was herself she was facing. Problems disappeared with time around her and she liked it that way. But with Charlie, he made her break from that comfort zone. No matter how twisted it had happened, there would always be a part of her that was grateful. She leaned on the dining room table as her victim sat helplessly tied to his chair.

“What I meant was,” Gabrielle swallowed her pride, finally daring herself to speak out loud everything she has thought for the past few weeks. “Why did you have to ruin my stupid, boring life? Why did you make me start feeling and caring what happened to me? Why did you change me into everything I was too scared to become? Why does my body still want you? Why do I still want to be here in your fucking arms? Why did you have to make me see that everything that I had… I never wanted?”

Charlie sat there in the silence. He didn’t even realize he wasn’t breathing until Gabrielle moved from the table. Her skin-tight dress shimmied over her swaying hips. Charlie called for her as she walked back to her room one last time. There, Gabrielle changed into her more comfortable clothing of skinny jeans and a tank top. It was the clothing she wore here and her original belongings would be the only things she would be leaving with.

“Darling, please let me go,” the man said while he pulled his wrists against the metal cuffs which held him. Gabrielle returned to the room and set to work finding his car keys. Once she saw them waiting plainly on the table sitting next to the front door, she stuffed them into her pocket and went back to her kidnapper.

“When I said I loved you, it wasn’t a complete lie,” she whispered to him. Gabrielle placed the key to the handcuffs on the kitchen counter and stared at its reflection of the fading sun outside. She could barely see the sunset but knew it was the perfect ending to this nightmare.

“No!” Charlie’s shout startled her out of her impassive trance. Their eyes connected and the subtle hum of desire made her bite her lip. But she knew she couldn’t stay no matter how much she would think of the ‘what if’. The girl wiped her tears as Charlie continued to call out to her, begging her to release him.

“I can forget this,” he pleaded. “Things can go back to the way it was. I won’t lock your room and we won’t ever see the tomb again. Let me love you! Annabel Lee! Darling, please!”

But it could never go back that way and Gabrielle knew that. Lifting her head up and forcing back her emotions, she pulled her old leather jacket over her thin arms and brushed the hair out from under the collar.

“Goodbye, Charlie.”

And with that she walked out the door, got in Charlie’s car and placed her hands tentatively on the steering wheel. She never saw the front of the house until then and seeing it now put things into perspective. Whatever she wanted to do, she could make it happen. She didn’t have to fear the ‘what-if’s but rather turn them into a history to tell later on. Gabrielle was no longer afraid to carry out the plans she always wanted. Her time had just started and now she was ready to take charge.

Where to now, she asked herself proudly. She sat in the car with the silence surrounding her and the fresh air pouring in from the windows. With a sigh, she knew exactly what her destination would be: Home. Revving the engine made a smirk appear on her face and a new energy in her heart. She was a new her; a more dangerous her. And she liked it.

“Now if I could only convince myself this has all been a dream,” she said as she backed out of the driveway and onto the road. “Just a horrible dream within a dream.”

~*~

Annabel Lee

It was many and many a year ago,

In a kingdom by the sea,

That a maiden there lived whom you may know

By the name of ANNABEL LEE;

And this maiden she lived with no other thought

Than to love and be loved by me.

I was a child and she was a child,

In this kingdom by the sea;

But we loved with a love that was more than love-

I and my Annabel Lee;

With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven

Coveted her and me.

And this was the reason that, long ago,

In this kingdom by the sea,

A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling

My beautiful Annabel Lee;

So that her highborn kinsman came

And bore her away from me,

To shut her up in a sepulchre

In this kingdom by the sea.

The angels, not half so happy in heaven,

Went envying her and me-

Yes!- that was the reason (as all men know,

In this kingdom by the sea)

That the wind came out of the cloud by night,

Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.

But our love it was stronger by far than the love

Of those who were older than we-

Of many far wiser than we-

And neither the angels in heaven above,

Nor the demons down under the sea,

Can ever dissever my soul from the soul

Of the beautiful Annabel Lee.

For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams

Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;

And the stars never rise but I feel the bright eyes

Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;

And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side

Of my darling- my darling- my life and my bride,

In the sepulchre there by the sea,

In her tomb by the sounding sea.

—Edgar Allan Poe

.

AUTHOR’S NOTE: I thought it’d only be appropriate to end this tale with the beloved poem that inspired it. It’s a beautiful story and my favorite poem of all time. Edgar Allan Poe is one of the most brilliant people who has ever lived and I wished I could have met his mad yet genius self.

My Annabel Lee is finished but the tale of Gabrielle and Charlie is not. Something tells me that you guys might like that. As always, THANK YOU so much for reading. I don’t think I would have finished so quickly let alone at all if you guys weren’t so supportive. I hope you enjoyed My Annabel Lee and thank you once again. <3

     Stay insane!

          –Allie Lynn