Black ice

"It's taunting me. Having the last laugh," Elizabeth thought bitterly. She pumped her brakes on the slick road, her forehead creased with anxiety. "This God forsaken place can't let me go without kicking me when I'm down."


As she clenched the steering wheel with gloved hands, Liz had a fleeting thought about life's ironies. Jack had persuaded her to try life in Washington State with his dressed up stories of crisp air, rugged hills and soaring fir trees. Too bad he wasn't as descriptive when it came to day to day realities. No, on that topic he had been strangely quiet. She only learned the truth by witnessing his fall from bravado, by watching his puffed out chest become hunched and sunken with despair.


Yes, the first year had been glorious. There's no denying that. New adventures, new aquiantances. They made Liz almost forget where they had come from, as if that was possible. But after that first year, bad things started creeping back into their lives. Little by little she noticed them. He would be gone for hours, he was jittery and he snapped at her. He lost his job. Friends grew distant.


"How could it be happening again?" she thought as she slowed for a sharp curve in the road. "I saw it coming. I did. But I just couldn't stop it. Not this time"


No, she couldn't stop her smooth talking, handsome lover. He is who he is. Nothing will change him. A swindler. A liar spinning webs of deceipt, catching the innocent by surprise. He was incredibly smart, but only used his intelligence for unseemly gains. There was no altruistic bone in his body. But, he could tell a great story. And, god, could he make a woman feel special. Like she could do anything as long as she was with him. Life was a great adventure with Jack.......right up until it fell apart.


"And it always falls apart," Liz thought as her body sagged in defeat. Her life was broken and she had no where to go. Why she had packed up the few things she wished to keep and had driven off at 4:00 in the morning she couldn't say. It was just a need. No, an imaginary force pushing her out of this town. She had to leave now, despite the freezing fog and black ice coating the roads.


Black ice, disguised as innocent wet pavement, mollifying her into a sense of security, until it was too late. Suddenly, the ice played an unforgiveable trick on her and spun her out of control. It shattered her and her life in one sinister moment.


"Just like Jack," she thought absurdly as her head hit the windshield.