Two Weeks Ago by Valerie Alston

The man next door used to rise early in the morning for his walk around the circle in our apartment complex everyday. He was a retired soldier from the Vietnam War and everybody in the community knew him. He always spoke to everyone, stopped to talk to the people who lived there. When the sunset in the evening, there was a very young girl who lived up the hill who used to stop by to see him sometimes. He would give her money and she handed him something back. Since I worked most of the time, I was always on the go and never got to know this man personally. But as I'd come in from work, I only had time to shower, eat and sleep before reporting for my job on the graveyard shift again.

One day when I came home from work, a strange odor was in my apartment. I paid little attention to it. A week later, the smell got stronger and I thought it was outside. Again, I kept on going, not taking it as being a problem, maybe it was the sewer outside my window or coming from the drain pipes in the bathroom or the garbage disposal in the kitchen.

Two weeks went by and the scent got outrageously strong. At that point, it was coming through the walls into my apartment. Something decayed and rotten was floating around and I called the office of the property management to report a dreadful fowl odor somewhere in my apartment. Maintenance came to look but found nothing. I insisted they find out where this terrible odor was coming from since it was beginning to give me headaches. 

A few days passed. I was getting ready to leave for work, when I noticed the ambulance, two police cars and a grey hearst parked outside in front of the neighbor's door. After the ambulance left, the two police cars remained talking to some people, writing something down. The grey hearst was still there. Then I saw the Old man's body being brought out on a stretcher and placed inside the grey hearst. He  had died in his sleep and I believe his spirit was restlessly wandering around until I reported it. How could nobody know he was dead! Everybody in the community knew this man by name, except me, yet his spirit wandered over to my apartment to plead for help. I was so moved by the incident, I talked about it at work to a co-worker and she said, "I know his spirit must have been glad you helped and he probably thanked you for calling somebody, now he can go into the light and finally be able to rest in peace." 

A FAIRY TALE ROMANCE by Miss Mazique

Loved by every man who ever looked her way, the chemistry of her attraction  was so rare. They all felt she belonged to them in their midnight dreams. And to this, no other man shall ever really be with her to love for real.

Sweet Love touched her heart in the way she never felt love before. It was in the air that day when Prince Charming kissed her tender lips then held his hand out for her to step out of the carriage. She felt a heartbeat with the nearness of his broad chest, and it warmed her inside. She stepped so elegantly in her scrubby white tennis shoes and heather grey sweat pants while gazing into his deep set romantic eyes, he was the perfect gentleman.

The others watched with wide eyes, steam blowing out of their ears, the envy of her new romance sent flaming arrows into the air. Such intimacy had never been shared with any of them that way. Never, was she ever supposed to fall in love with a real man, only in her imagination, but this was really real, the way she began to feel, not just a walk on the clouds.

It would come to past that all the foggy grey dogs had left the bitterness of her lonely heart scorched and damaged, not loved at all. But her new love affair would fill in all the empty spaces, romance was there in all the hidden places.

Days gone by, turned to weeks while drifting sadly along, where was Prince Charming, where could he be, what had she done to make him not want to see her anymore. She gave her love where it didn't belong. She gave her heart to someone who couldn't love her back. Clinched hard to the hurt she began to feel, the pain was deep inside that brought her tears. Through darkness and despair she'd come to realize it was foolish to think he really cared.

So she decided to take the love back she gave to that charming actor who was by far the best gentleman she knew. It was just a fairy tale romance. The chance she'd taken to find true love, this was not meant to be for her. His Love was so sweet and gentle, he'd kissed her lips and the taste of sweetness remained long after. In the heat of his own passionate desires for her and all she let him receive sent her into ecstasy. But when she realized what is was and what it would be, made her feel it so deceiving of him to make her believe it was real. That's when she took control of her own heart, she took the love she gave to him, feeling it was all wrong, not all good.

He arrived on time that day, dressed in a very casual way. The charisma she felt coming from him as she took a seat inside his vehicle. The laughter was shared and it was all good.

She waited patiently for him to open her door where she stood strong forever more, and with a stern look in her eye, heart to heart she said good by. She walked away through the fog, the clouds full of rain poured down and washed away her pain. She walked through a sparkle of sunlight never even looking back. The chills had made her blood run cold, and numbed the pain forever more.
She decided it was best that way, for in her heart his love would stay.