HEARTLESS

1. Nothing To Live For

Jim Splatt was crestfallen. Every sinew of his being had been socked by paralysis. The energy zapped by an outside force stronger than Ming the Merciless. Nine words had rendered him emotionally, and to an extent, physically immobile. Delivered in two salvos.

‘I don’t love you anymore,’ followed up as he reeled in devastation with the delivery of the deathly denouement for their particular story. ‘I’m with someone else.’

Had they been delivered by the baker, the bicycle repair man or the woman at the till in M & S, it wouldn’t have carried anywhere near the same potency. Except the lady at Marks & Sparks would have done so painfully slowly, a joke he had shared and experienced with his newly acquired assassin, Felicity.

Jim looked at the pictures on his digital viewer of times spent in harmonious bliss with his sweetheart. Three years in which so much had been packed, but had now been blown to oblivion earlier in the evening.

He then looked at the final reminders for the significant debts he owed. Mostly incurred, while entertaining and impressing his love. Suddenly, the next step seemed so logical. Like a warm oasis hoving into view in an otherwise bleak and freezing environment.

Indeed, having reached the conclusion that his only option was to take such drastic action the dexterity of his fingers almost failed him as if encumbered by frostbite. But unfortunately, not enough to halt his ultimate act.