“I’m so sorry.”, she said, trying to sound convincing.
“No worry, what’s more enjoyable than a Champagne shower ?”, jokingly answered Tyler.
Everybody around seemed to find him charming and so well mannered. She was absent mindingly looking at him and at the other guests interacting with him. She got more and more absorbed by her thoughts.
At that moment, it struck her : the ending was already different. He was not the charming handsome man she had fallen in love with anymore, he was Tyler, the egoistical control freak who used people as pawns at his convenience or just for the lulz. It was as if he was a completely different person now.
She started to wonder. How comes she was duped and so blind ? How comes nobody around seems to see him exactly as he is ? Or maybe they do, but they play pretend ? After all, it’s a work related event for most people here.
“Tyler had insisted a lot. Angelique’s boss told her to bring someone, it was compulsory. He knew she was single. He hinted that bringing her best friend would be best. It was all orchestrated from the start.”, she recalls.
It was as if her memories from the future were coming back. Maybe seeing him right in front of her triggered all those memories to come back. She wasn’t sure what was going on, but she was sure of the way he made her feel. She despised him. She started to despise him after she learned how much of a puppet master he was. She wasn’t even sure if he wanted to disrupt her career, for some reason, or if he just saw a live doll to control in her.
“…and I seized the opportunity. This industry is like a game and I’m quite an eager player.”, said Tyler.
“A player who downloaded the cracked version of the game with infinite energy and currency, and is still using cheat codes…”, she thought, while mechanically emptying her glass of Champagne.
She became more and more absorbed by her thoughts. Suddenly, she was there again. In those woods, nearby Seattle. In 2027. She had just found out the ugly truth about Tyler. What he’s done. Who he really was. How it started before they even met.
She was screaming and cussing at him. He was just standing there, silent. He would remain completely silent and unbothered when convenient to him, or when the person in front of him was trying to confront him. He had no remorse, no feelings towards others. Only he and people who idealize him mattered to him.
The more she screamed, the more he remained impassible and silent, even a bit content that he could trigger such a reaction in someone. He had nothing to gain from this situation, therefore he didn’t want to partake.
She started to beat him with the spade.
“You ruined everything !”, she screamed. “Why me ? Why orchestrate all of this ? Why couldn’t you just leave me alone ? I was doing fine. I was happy. You saw this and couldn’t take it ? The fact that I was happy ? You had to ruin all of this ? I wish I never met you !!!”
Tyler was lying on the floor, half conscious, bleeding a lot.
“I wish…” she said while beating him with more strength, as she was so angry about what he did that it literally made her lose her mind. “I wish I never met you…or that I just ran away that day,”, she screamed as she beat him to his death.
Right now, she was physically here though, right here at this event in Paris. It was as if her mind was wandering. She suddenly shook as if she was waking up from a bad dream. She made a funny face as she put her now empty glass on the waiter’s platter. She looked at Tyler, who was talking to Angelique’s boss and other guests.
“If you’ll excuse me.”, she said, while pointing to the restroom.
She walked towards the restroom. And then turned around. She looked from a distance at Tyler, Angelique’s boss and other guests chatting. She felt angry, sick and disgusted.
She kept walking. She walked down the stairs. She walked through the main entrance. She walked through the crowd outside. She walked to the subway station. She walked her way home. She then decided to pack her suitcase and go to the train station, take the night train to Lyon, to her parents house, and stay there for a while. She could write from there. And focus on good and positive things.
She was sitting in the tgv train. There was still 5 minutes before departure. It seemed like forever. It reminded her of the day, in this scary future she was running away from, when she took that plane to flee Seattle. It reminded her that her plan was to take the tgv to hide in Lyon. She was kind of hiding right now too, but this time, she was running away from a monster and a horrible future. She was set up to lose her soul, she had lost her mind instead.
She still didn’t understand what was going on. She just knew she had to leave for at least a while. He would be back tomorrow, he would try to set a rendez-vous with her, his plan would be set in action. She knew he wouldn’t dare to go to Lyon. She knew that after a while, he would eventually just pick another girl instead. Yeah, someone else, maybe…
She was lost in her thoughts. She felt relieved when she heard the warning alarm as the tgv doors were closing.
As the train was leaving, the memory of herself screaming in the woods was echoing in her mind :
“I wish I never met you or that I ran away that day.”