It was the crisp autumn air that kept your finger tips slightly numb when the wind picked up that gusted across the outskirts of the small town. It was brisk enough to make a person shudder at the chill as it whipped around and cut through any exposed skin.

Curtis loved this time of year, it was cool enough to refrigerate the world and cut the scent of decay from the air. Death was all around as the harvest approached. The farm fields were harvested and left barren, the leaves dried and fell from the trees to their own doom, leaving only the wooden skeletons behind waving bony fingers into the wind.

He stood at the top of the ravine that led down to the river just north of the town. This area was barren and abandoned. The main branch of the river was downstream in town, and this area was left alone on purpose.

When the town was new, it had one factory that kept the town alive, and so it was to this day. However, these days the company had gone corporate and was a worldwide trade contender. It had supported the whole town for several generations, and now the town's population had benefitted from its success. There were no poor here, and everyone had a job.

Back in the nineteen forties, the company had put their fresh water pumping station in the depths of this ravine, and the town refused to allow any building there as to not risk contaminating the water supply. The town was built up downstream where it was most likely used as a dumping site by the same company.

Now, the company and the town had enough money to pump fresh water in from the big city, where the water treatment was more sanitary, so the company closed down this pumping station and left it abandoned.

That left this area entirely isolated, which is what Curtis liked. He never did like being around people, and this had become his place to come to when he needed time for himself.

He stood still at the edge of the ravine feeling the icy autumn wind rip through him. He enjoyed the slight pain it gave him just before he would descend down to the river's edge.

Just ahead of him was the small opening in the thicket of bushes that lined the top of the ravine. It was his welcome matt to his own small world.

Curtis walked over to the opening in excited anticipation, but moved slowly just to tease himself.

Once in the opening, he reached his hand out to the cold railing that was propped alongside the long steel staircase that led down to the old pumping station. The wall of the ravine was too steep for a walkway or path, and no man could simply walk down through the thick brush, the company had erected this heavy duty steel staircase that appeared to drop down into an inescapable abyss.

Curtis held his mouth slightly opened with his own saliva collecting at the edges of his lips. He was drooling. He knew that it was most likely a bad sign that he really needed help.

He took his first few steps easily as the old steel shook below his feet. It had grown weak over time, but since no one but he used it, there was nothing to worry about. He was safe.

Small aluminum lights rose up from the railing every so often, with their only support being the conduit that delivered the electrical wiring to the fixtures. He wouldn't even fathom a guess as to how long it had been since they had actually been used.

The fact that all of the fixtures still sat perched upon their tiny electric thrones, and that there was never any vandalism or graffiti, showed that no one ever came through here. It had simply been forgotten.

At the bottom of the railing, Curtis had to keep a watchful eye. There had grown a bit of a mud slide there, where rainwater had eroded the earthen sides of the ravine and had brought the mud to the end of his stairway. He would have to leap a good four feet to cross it, which was easy on the way down, but nearly impossible on the way up.

Curtis made the leap confidently. He had been there too many times not to get it right the first time.

From there, he followed the broken sidewalk to the front of the abandoned pump house, that had been locked up with steel gates and padlocks. Even the windows had been bricked over to keep people out, and it had worked. No one even tried to go down there anymore.

No one except for Curtis.

Past the pump house, there was a small clearing that he would cross to reach a small tree lined at the base of the ravine. He was almost there.

He jogged the rest of the way. It was easy for him to know where to go regardless of the thick layer of leaves that covered the lower part of the ravine even though the wind was always changing how it looked. He had been there so many times before.

Finally he had arrived.

This is the place, he thought. I know this is it

He carefully kneeled down and spread his hand wide over the leaves and carefully brushed them away a little at a time. Each time it seemed as though he had to brush away more because of the amount of leaves that kept building up on the ground near the river at the bottom of the steep hill.

He felt something brush his hand, so he slowed down. Meticulously he continued. At times, only removing a single leaf at a time until he reached his goal.

Finally, pay dirt

A light blue blanket was all that was left.

He pulled the blanket away to reveal his prize. His treasure.

Curtis quickly rose to his feet and peered around to ensure there were no witnesses.

He looked down at the body of a young lady. She must have been about seventeen. He didn't even know her real name. He had tried to abduct her, but she fought back so hard that he had no choice but to strangle her.

He had never even tried an abduction before, much less a killing, but he had no idea what to do with her once she was dead, so he brought her here to his lair.

He dropped to one knee next to her.

Her skin was so pale. Her blue lips and blonde hair had made her more beautiful than she had been in life.

His fingertips reached out and caressed the outline of her face. She was his one and only. He wanted her forever. He would never leave her or forget her. She was his dream.

Curtis lay down next to the body. She was so beautiful, that he kept her naked in her poorly made, easy-access grave, so that he could admire her as often as possible with the utmost of ease.

His fingers traced the outline of the bruise he had left around her throat when he had strangled her. To him, it was a loving gift of a necklace that could never be lost or stolen. It was perfect.

His trembling hand reached out and cupped her face. He stared at her and moaned, 'Baby, you know I love you. Please understand that I do.'�

His lips came in close to hers and he kissed her slightly. Her cold lips never moved against his.

'I know you love me too, even if you can't kiss me back.'�

He could smell decay coming from her body. The chilly air had slowed down the process, but it was not cold enough to stop her from rotting. Soon he would have to bury her or risk getting caught.

Curtis put the blanket on top of her, tucking her into her grave up to her chin. He felt warm inside. She looked so angelic there.

'Baby, I wish I could show you how much I love you.'�

He pressed his lips against hers again, but this time, he held her mouth open and plunged his tongue into her mouth. His tongue flicked inside of her motionless mouth as he kissed her. The stench from her putrid insides had risen up through her throat into his. He could taste the spoilage of her flesh.

It excited him.

Curtis disrobed quickly and slid himself under the blue blanket with her.

'I just want to know you one time before I have to let you go, baby.'�

Curtis moved on top of her. He could feel her cold flesh against his. It made him shiver, but he wasn't sure if it was from her temperature, or his feelings for her. His heart melted when he looked at her.

With his fingers, he parted her eyelids to gaze into her sunken eyes. They were past the point of being simply cloudy. They were dark, and had dropped deep into her eye sockets. It was the most amazing thing he had ever seen. The beauty he saw in her was unspoiled. She was one of a kind.

'No one has ever looked at me the way you do,'� he whispered as he started to grind against her. He could hardly contain himself from screaming, but he knew if he did he would be caught. Someone might hear. Someone could find out.

His eyes closed in ecstasy as he entered her. For the first time he actually knew her fully. Every bit of her being was now at one with him. Her chilly flesh had been unspoiled before he was with her, and for him it was a special occasion. His love of his life.

He didn't remember a time without her.

She had only been hidden in his secret place for a few days, but in his time with her, time stood still. It felt like an eternity, like it did now. He could only feel himself inside of her, being with her, making love to her.

He slid his tongue out from between his lips and licked the side of her face as he had sex with her. She tasted sweeter than honey to him.

As Curtis came to a climax, His eyes swelled with tears.
It was time to let her go.

The one love of his life had to leave him, and he was crushed.

As Curtis wiped the tears from his eyes, he searched clumsily through his pants pockets that were now laying beside him in a pile of leaves, and he retrieved a small pocket knife.

'I am sorry, baby,'� he sobbed. 'I have to do this.'�

Curtis opened the freshly sharpened blade, and inserted it into the flesh just below the navel of his precious girl friend, and sliced upward until the edge had stopped against the rigid breast bone just below her magnificent greenish breasts.

He raised the blue blanket from the top of them and he dressed quickly. He didn't want to spend more time than he had to. The more time they spent out in the open, the more chance he had that someone else would come.

Curtis collected stones from around him. He wasn't a very muscular man, so he decided to use several small stones instead of a single large one.

One by one, he slid the stones into the new incision in the girl's stomach. He pushed each one in to a responsive slurping sound of acceptance of the bodily fluids inside of her. As far as he was concerned, her corpse had accepted each one as a small token of farewell.

He needed that.

He needed to know that she would accept what he was doing, no matter how cruel it seemed.

He wrapped the blanket around her and tied it tight. The stones needed to stay inside.

With all of the strength he had left, Curtis dragged the blue blanket and it's contents over to the river's edge at the front of the pump station. The river was deepest there, so he knew that she would never surface if he dropped her at the right spot.

It angered him that he had not thought of moving the body there first, before placing the stones inside of her. It didn't matter, though, because he only put enough rocks in to keep her from floating. There was no need to worry about currents. The river was very placid there, and no matter how full the river became, it never developed a strong current.

Curtis didn't want to do it, but he knew it was necessary.

He pushed the woman into the river and watched as her body quickly became submerged into the murky water, disappearing from view in only a few moments. With just a half an icy breath, she was gone forever.

He stood at the edge of the retaining wall of the river, meditating on what he had lost. The woman of his dreams. The perfect woman for him. Her rancid stench of decomposition still fresh in his nostrils, he breathed in deep. He could almost still smell her.

Time to go.

He paused only a moment to review the exposed, emptied, and shallow grave. It would mean nothing now with no one in it. Soon the late autumn storms would come and wash away all evidence. It would be months before anyone came down here to even suspect anything. There was no evidence trail to lead anyone here, either. After all, he had never done anything like this before. Why would anyone even suspect?

Curtis gloomily stomped up the steel-railed steps, up into the covering brush at the top of the ravine. His chest heaved as the long iron stairway took its toll on his lungs.

He emerged from the bushes above as if out of a sickening sepulcher of a death that was love to him. His heart raced, yet sunk at the same time. It was a love lost to him forever, and no one would ever replace her.

He took his long somber walk to the nearest city curb bus stop, which was easily two or three miles away. It was a time he used to consider his time with the exquisite young lady.

Thoughts consumed him of the feel of her cold, clammy skin. Her sunken eyes would stare only at him, and at times would seem to look into his very soul. He was sure that she loved him, too.

Curtis was repulsed at the well-manicured lawn of the richer part of town. It meant that he had to return to a world that would never understand him. No one ever did, but her. It saddened him that he never heard her speak his name. He would hold her near his heart forever.

He rounded the street to the outermost bus stop, where a single figure sat at the freshly painted bench. Curtis attempted anonymity as he approached. He kept his head turned down, and avoided eye contact with the fellow passenger-to-be.

The man at the bench was an old man, dressed as a vagrant. Such a strange sight at this part of town. This town hid it's poor well, but it was only a positive thing to Curtis, because this man would draw more attention boarding the bus than he would.

The old man stared at him strangely until the bus came.

Curtis feared the man could read his mind, but he knew he was only being paranoid. No one knew what he had done. It was his secret that he would take to his own grave. Since he had never done it before, the chances of him being caught were almost nonexistent.

The bus hissed to a stop and Curtis boarded the bus quickly, sliding his change into the box next to the driver.
The bus was crowded, and there were very few seats left.

A young woman waved to him, 'Sir, there's an empty seat over here '�

Curtis sheepishly approached and slumped down into the seat. He was much more tired than he had thought. All of that work had taken its toll. It was okay, though. He had a long ride back home.

The young lady seated next to him was neighborly enough. She attempted small talk.

'Hi, how far are you going? I'm headed out to Leddingbrook.'�

Curtis turned to respond. He was irritated. He was not in a mood for socializing. He had just lost the only woman he had ever loved. He just wanted to be left alone.

He craned his neck to speak, and noticed her smiling at him.

Such a warm smile, and so rare.

She was beautiful, too.

Maybe, he thought. He should ride with her out to Leddingbrook. It was a small community just like this one on the other side of the town.

Dark thoughts entered Curtis's head. What if she wasn't interested? What if she would fight him? He might have to kill her.

That's okay, he considered. It wasn't that much of a risk.

After all, he had never done anything like that before.

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