Encounter

Perfection. It was in his eyes, longing and aching with desire, as he looked over and saw that sweet object of affection. It was there in her double take as she gazed across the street. It was on his face, twisted in surprise and then breaking out into an authentic and jovial smile. It was there in the way she stopped dead in her tracks, speechless, awestruck. It was there in the way he swept open the heavy glass door to the wind outside, hurried, emphatic. It was in her aching heart, bursting with a sudden and unexpected joy. It was in his mind, flooded with images of fulfillment, satisfaction, gilded light. It was present in his legs as they walked, then ran, thudding on the pavement of the sidewalk and then the road, towards heaven, towards bliss. It was in her smile, her awaiting arms, spread out wide like wings soaring through a clear summer sky. It was there in his tears, joy streaming down his face, mixing with the pouring rain, and in his breath as it intensified and quickened, and in his pulse as his heart beat harder, harder, threatening to rip itself right out his chest....
And then it was gone.
Destruction. It was everywhere. It was in his sideways glance at the blaring headlights, his eyes widening with dumbfounded horror akin to an animal about to be slaughtered. It was in her throat, gasping and tripping over itself with that same exact horror. It was there in his ears, oh his ears, filled first with the deafening blare of the truck's horn and then with her scream. Her scream, resounding through his eardrums, through his mind, through his entire body, shattering his dreams, his every desire, enshrouding his consciousness... all he could hear was her cruel, shrill, dreadfully drawn-out banshee wail, overpowering his every sense... It was there in the squeal of the brakes, accompanied with a sudden sickening crack as his body was rammed and flung brutally onto the waiting cold road, right into its wet dark embrace. It was there in his dark, absent eyes, and the redness spreading under his lifeless body, soaking into his limp wet clothes and matting his golden-brown hair. It was in her collapse, her utter breakdown, her one need ripped away right before her eyes, in her hand as it reached out, groping, wanting to grab onto his soul, wanting to escape with it to someplace, anyplace, anywhere but here... anytime but now...
But it was not to be. Her suffering did not end, her salvation was not attained, not by any Angel of Death, not by a truck, not by a time machine, nor by her own fears or dreams... It was nowhere to be found. And so she wept. And so she wept....