Nightmare Zasaba
Samuel adored her, but his love was shadowed by jealousy. He saw threats where none existed: glances from strangers, compliments from admirers, even the applause of an adoring audience. Helena tried to reassure him, to show him her love was unwavering, but his paranoia grew like a storm cloud, darkening the joy of their union.
One evening, after a particularly bitter fight, Helena snapped. His accusations stung worse than any fall she’d taken in her years of dance. “I can’t do this anymore, Samuel,” she shouted, tears streaming down her face. Grabbing her coat, she stormed out into the cold night and headed to a nearby bar, seeking solace at the bottom of a glass.
"Long ago
Just like the Hearse you die to get in again
We are so far from you"
Drink after drink, she tried to drown the weight of her husband’s mistrust. The music in the bar was a cacophony compared to the refined symphonies she danced to, but it was noise enough to muffle her pain. Hours passed in a blur until, heavy with regret and alcohol, she decided to drive home.
Meanwhile, Samuel sat in their empty home, guilt gnawing at his confused heart. He replayed their fight in his mind, realizing how his insecurities had pushed her away again. Panic gripped him when he thought of her out in the night, upset and alone. Without hesitation, he grabbed his car keys and went out to find her.
The winding stretch of Highway 13 was deserted that night, save for Helena’s unsteady car weaving down the road and Samuel’s headlights cutting through the darkness. Neither saw the other until it was too late.
The collision was devastating. Metal crumpled, glass shattered, and the two cars lay like broken toys under the indifferent gaze of the moon, entangled in an adoring and intimate hug. Helena’s last thought was a fleeting wish for Samuel — to tell him she was sorry, to tell him she loved him.
But death did not grant her peace. At her funeral, Helena’s spirit lingered, watching the mourners. She searched desperately for Samuel, but he was nowhere to be seen. Her heart broke all over again, and a cruel misunderstanding took root: He didn’t love me enough to say goodbye.
"Can you hear me?
Are you near me?
Can we pretend to leave and then
We'll meet again
When both our cars collide"
From that day forward, her restless ghost haunted the stretch of Highway 13. Dressed in the ethereal remnants of her favorite ballet costume, Helena danced on the roadside, her movements hauntingly beautiful yet filled with sorrow, invisible to the common eye. Her ghostly figure would appear to travelers, spinning and leaping as if performing for an audience only she could see.
Those who passed by often reported an otherworldly sense of awe and unease, as if the air itself held its breath to watch her. Some claimed they heard faint strains of Tchaikovsky’s "Swan Lake" as she danced, her feet never quite touching the ground. But no matter how mesmerizing her performance, it always ended the same way: replaying the moment of her death.
In her spectral loop, Helena would step onto the highway, the ghostly headlights of her husband’s car illuminating her form. There was no scream, no sound of impact, just an endless reenactment of that fateful night, as if she hoped this time, Samuel would step out of the car and hold her one last time.
Unbeknownst to her, Samuel’s spirit was trapped too, tethered to the same road. Invisible to her, he watched her dance night after night, his heart aching with the weight of their unfinished love. He called out to her, but his voice was lost in the void between their worlds.
And so, the lovers remained on opposite sides of eternity, their spirits entwined in a tragic ballet. Travelers who dared to stop and watch her dance sometimes claimed to see two faint figures in the distance, a man and a woman, forever reaching for one another but never quite touching.
"We are the very hurt you sold
And what's the worst you take
From every heart you break?
And like a blade you'll stain"
Perhaps one day, their souls will find the forgiveness they need to break free. Until then, Highway 13 remains their stage, and Helena dances on, her sorrow etched into every pirouette, every leap, every ghostly step.
inspired by the homonym song by My Chemical Romance
thank you
soren for gifting me this pet slot!
