Innocent paper

The room is illuminated by a single lamp on a desk, but it still looks dark and cold. The lamp is shining down on a piece of blank white paper. The paper itself is innocent, it has never been touched or defiled by ink. They are the only things on the desk and they are the only things that matter. Everything is about to change and they will be the only witnesses in the room. They will stare at the loss and heartache, inside crying out but remaining mute.

                A hand comes into view of the light holding a pen. It hovers just above the paper, trembling like an earthquake. The hand is indecisive and is scared to mark the white sheet. Deep breath. The pen hits the paper as it beings to write, the ink gets embedded in the white paper. The paper will never be the same again, the ink is now absorbed. The hand doesn't stop writing even though the paper is becoming dirty. The innocence is slowly leaving the page but still the hand moves the pen.  The pen is fluid and demanding on the page, never leaving the sheet long enough to breathe.  The page is being suffocated, it feels sick and wrong. As soon as it began, the writing stops and the paper breathes again. It breathed in what the pen had left and then it starts to feel the ink. The paper began to read.

Dear Sarah (my beloved)

I'm sorry that you are reading this but I'm afraid I can longer go on. I can no longer smile and pretend that everything is okay, when I'm screaming inside. The voices won’t stop calling to me, telling me to end it. It’s time I ended it.

            Just know that you haven’t failed me and I love you so much my darling but I can’t hold on any-more. I need to be free and this is the only way to do it. Tell the kids I love them.

Goodbye my Love

        x

            The page began to weep at the writing, wishing it could erase the sorrowful words but it couldn't. The lamp just watched as the page began to cry and all they could do was wait for the inevitable. The death of a man and the sorrow of the wife and children as they read the paper.