In the span of three days, the world would herald the arrival of the new year, and a new beginning. Typical of most, I was ridding my closet of all the old, unwanted stuff when suddenly a blackened silver necklace fell to the tiled floor with a resonating clank, and released a tsunami of painful memories from the past year through my head…

The first of August, me and Amily’s third date. Amily, with her long flowing jet-black hair and always-ready radiant smile,along with her colorful personality and cheerful character, made her an irresistible and very attractive lady. I, too, fell prey to her charms, but I was never happier in being the quarry. I could be her game everyday of the year forever if she wants me too. She was indeed, I realized, the one for me. Throughout the day, all went smoothly, with no significant incidents disrupting our peaceful, quiet and private encounter. I had no idea how wrong I was.

The movie had just ended and we were strolling down the lonely street with deliberate slowness, chatting with each other in hushed whispers. Across the street, the familiar ring of the ice-cream vendor’s bell beckoned all to his humble stall, and it looks like he had succeeded. Amily then told me to get her one, and they could share. Thrilled, I immediately made her promise never to leave me and happily gilded towards the very busy old man, just as the purple-black night sky lit up with a sudden, radiant glow.

At the approximate centre of that blanket of darkness, a single, brilliant orange sphere materialized, and grew larger and brighter with each passing second. Wisps of clouds disintegrated in the wake of the fiery object as it intensified in both speed and power, streaming across the now-bright night sky like a ballistic missile, complete with a thick black exhaust trail. Its target: Amily.

As I was enlightened with the horrifying truth, I was too shocked to do anything. Quickly shaking off the feeling however, I anxiously rushed towards Amily, shouting to her to take cover. However, Amily did not even flinch. She just stood her ground and looked imploringly into my eyes, shaking her petite head. I shook mine vigorously, screaming to her to get put of the way as the cosmic missile streamed ever closer to its intended victim.

Amily closed her eyes.

“NO!” I hollered at the top of voice, as if hoping the force of it would deflect the flaming projectile’s initial trajectory. It did not.

The burning sphere smashed into the pavement six feet away from where Amily stood, but the force was still sufficient to throw her seven meters back. Anxiously, I fought my way through the dense clouds of thick smoke that had become part of Amily’s funeral pyre, shouting her name the whole way. At last, I found her, a terrible sight to behold.

Amily’s lifeless body lay slumped against a red brick wall, the redness of it emphasized with her blood. Cuts and grazes and lacerations decorated her once slender body, and her flowing black hair had been reduced to a tangled mess of crumpled, smoldering veins. Her smile, however, had not vanished. It still remained fixated on her disfigured face, a testament to her cheerful personality. Amily, however, was gone. Forever. And my heart went with her, to the deepest bowels of hell.

Amily’s demise was splashed across all forms of media, and her story told all over the world. The National Association for Space Administration claimed responsibility for her death, citing a technical fault that caused a navigational globe from one of their newest satellites to separate from the main body and plummet to Earth, killing Amily in the process. NASA was prepared to compensate her next-of-kin, but since Amily was an orphan abandoned at birth, I was the next best thing. With shaky hands, I reached forward to receive the cheque for a million US dollars, but I was suddenly engulfed with a terrible surge of anguish.

The cheque lay in my still shaking hands, the digits staring at me, as if mocking me. Hot tears rushed to my eyes as I recalled the events that led to this day. In a fit of anger, I was very tempted to tear the cheque symmetrically in half. I almost did.

However, at the apex of my rage, I stayed my hand, realizing that doing so would only be letting NASA off too easily. I calmed down and looked at the smiling NASA spokesman, effectively erasing that disgusting smirk off his hideous face.

After the accident, a huge void showed in my life. Loneliness became my friend, and desolation talked to me day after day. I was reduced to a wrinkled cadaver of my former self, living my life aimlessly and without purpose. The silver necklace that Amily was so fond of wearing, now blackened, lay tightly clutched in my right fist, never once leaving the fleshly constraints of my palm. Slowly but surely, despair crept into my life and become an omnipresent force, lingering around me like a disease. I was sinking into the inescapable quagmire of depression, fast.

Fortunately, I did not. Through a strange twist of fate, I got to know Emily, who bore a striking resemblance to the late Amily, bizarrely enough. However her character was the direct opposite of Amily’s, crude, rough and violent, but extremely compassionate on the inside, probably the only thing similar to Amily other that the synonymous pronunciation of their names.

Emily was much bolder than Amily, and time and time again tried to hint to me to reciprocate her feelings for me. However, I could not. I still could not put the past behind me. However, Emily’s determination was a powerful weapon, and she knew how to wield it effectively. Eventually, she convinced me to look ahead, and to leave the past behind. I agreed. Soon after, the wedding bells rang.

A surge of sadness washed over me as I painfully recalled the events of the past year. Fighting a battle against an enemy that could not be won, I hurriedly strove to return the necklace to its original, undisturbed place, despite the fact that I did not want to. In my haste, I accidentally displaced an old porcelain display plate, and it rolled off its stand, towards the floor. In the course of its journey, I saw Amily’s smiling face on it.

I smiled.

The plate connected with the cold, hard floor and fragmented into a hundred tiny pieces, along with Amily’s face. My recently mended heart went with it, shattering into a thousand bits, releasing the wave of sadness that I had tried so long to repress. The battle lost, I knelt before the broken display piece and wept bitterly, the tears flowing freely from my tired eyes, and down my forlorn cheeks. I knew I would never be relieved of this feeling as long as I was allowing the past to haunt me.

After settling the taxes for my dear wife, I kissed my young son on his forehead. I strolled to the balcony, and opened the window for some fresh air. I stood there for a while, and the next thing I knew I was in Amily’s embrace once more.