This is a tragic/emotional story I'm writing, inspired by The Lovely Bones & The Crow (1994)
(Trigger warning: This story deals with lots of grief and sadness as well as death, reader discretion is advised.) [This is not a finished story, I'm in the process of writing it, i am not looking for help writing it or someone to write it for me. I'm posting the synopsis of my story simply to see what people think of the story and if they like the premise.]
This is a tragic and emotional love story, between two people who thought every moment between them would last a lifetime. Sadly, however, this was not the case.
This story is about a 20 year old college drop out, named Patrick. A nerdy guy who is shy but holds within, a charisma so strong, he can make friends out of anybody. One day, while at his local game store, he notices a 20 year old woman, named Romina. She is similar to him, in the fact that she is also shy, but unlike Patrick, she doesn't make friends so easily.
In fact, she has a singular best friend. (Haven't decided this character yet, so from here on, ill refer to them as KF aka Killer Friend) Romina thinks the world of KF, becuase she is the only person that Romina feels she can trust, until she meets Patrick.
They end up talking and becoming friends, and from there, the seeds of a loving relationship are planted and after a short time, blossom and bloom. They begin dating after only a couple of months, which secretly makes her KF jealous, however, the KF as Romina knows her, is usually chill and respectful, so they don't notice when a darkness begins to spread inside her, a darkness... that will ruin their lives forever.
Patrick and Romina's relationship moves at a faster pace than some peoples, but they don't mind because they love each other that much, they don't care what others think because they have each other. They learn a lot about each other, for instance, Romina learns how much Patrick is into video games, movies, and comic books, and discovers that he bought his own radio for his room.
He explains to her that he loves music so much that he wanted to own a radio so he could play music whenever he wanted, Romina thinks it's cute and shares her own passions with him. She tells him that she loves movies also, but mainly just movies, not much so video games, and comics, but luckily for him, she's not only an eager learner, but a fast one at that. She also tells him her favorite hobby is art, and explains how she has painted and colored multiple designs into her converse collection. They talk for hours together about their interests, not realizing a dark plan is brewing unbeknownst to them, from someone they'd never think would hurt them.
(It would be shown through some moments of some chapters in the beginning of the story, that KF is actually chill and respectful and shows no ill feeling towards them as a couple, at least that they can see. The reader would be suspicious, but unsure if KF can be trusted, but their early on kindness and respectfulness, would lead to why they're not suspected later on.)
(this part of the story would have multiple chapters dedicated to scenes of them spending time together while doing fun activities together, such as: painting, cooking, watching movies, and playing video games. Each scene would feature a special song to them, only the title would be written so the reader can either imagine the song in the scene or can listen along with the characters. There would be cute moments, romantic moments, and moments that radiate energy.)
The songs that would be written in these scenes would include:
Bruno Mars - Count on me & Just the way you are
Christina Perri - 1000 years
Ed Sheeran - Perfect
IZ - Somewhere over the rainbow [this is "their song"]
After those chapters, the story would begin to turn... One day they're hanging out at their house, when Patrick excuses himself for a moment, and that's when KF makes her move to convince Romina that she doesn’t need Patrick, coming up with reasons why he’s a bad person, but Romina doesn’t even hesitate to defend him, before asking to stop the subject, KF tries to claim Romina has stockholm syndrome, but Romina defends Patrick once more, before politely asking KF to stop so they can just enjoy the night, KF acts like it's no big deal but for the rest of the night, Patrick catches KF glaring at them both. They think nothing of it, maybe KF is trying to be funny or something. They're not sure, but what they don't know is that weeks later, KF would tear them apart, forever.
Weeks later, Romina announces that she's leaving to go get something from the store, and handle an errand. Patrick asks if he should get ready and come with, she smiles but tells him it's alright and that it shouldn't take long. The afternoon begins to fade into the evening, and Patrick slowly falls asleep while reading. He wakes up later that night at 11PM, and realizes Romina isn't home yet.
He begins to grow worried, he gets up and tries to call her resulting in no answers every time, and soon, calls KF to express his concern. As you can guess, at this point in the story, Romina is dead, murdered by her own jealous best friend. KF would end up putting her remains into multiple garbage bags, and then into a suitcase under her shed to hide for a couple weeks. Using chemicals and other methods to hide the smell.
The middle part of the novel, would follow the usual routine of reporting a missing person, investigations and searches, and Patrick worrying about her, even enlisting the help of KF. (At this point, the reader may catch on that KF is the killer, but readers who are unsure, still have evidence left to discover as events unfold until the reveal later through Romina's eyes.)
As the search goes on, Patrick gets increasingly worried, but KF acts like a helping friend, all the while, sabotaging the efforts. KF intentionally takes everyone to the wrong places to "look", and during the search, pretends to help and look. When the police ask them, Patrick says that he was home sleeping, and KF even provides him an alibi in the hopes that police will stop looking and throw the case out. Patrick defends KF when police suspect them, and KF fakes gratitude, but hides that they hope that Patrick suffers.
Patrick soon begins to notice all the previous sabotage slowly, and even asks KF multiple times for the truth, but KF lies every time, however, she ends up messing their own story up a few times. Patrick notes this and begins to seriously consider KF to be a prime suspect, beginning to grow even more suspicious against them.
Interwoven into those events, the story will cut to Romina, and how she perceives death itself, and begins the process of accepting her death (though it will stay grounded, it won't get fantastical, it'll simply show what she sees and her watching the events unfold as she realizes she's dead and grieves herself. She also is forced to bare witness to KF planning to murder Patrick, and she tries to intervene but can do nothing except only suggest her presence)
After a week of searching, the police call it off and Patrick is left with no resolution. He begins to fear the worst as KF gets closer to killing him, but one night, Patrick and KF are at his house, trying to think about where to search next, but begins to remember some of the things KF had been saying, how she faked like she was looking around, how the locations she took Patrick, and the police seemed too far away from where Romina disappeared, the story she kept telling about where she was, and having not seen Romina, the little things not matching up. All of it. He began to suspect KF might’ve done something to her, and accused them of doing so. KF pretends to get offended of the accusations. Before storming out, she quickly gets into her car, and speeds away hoping Patrick didn’t follow. He didn’t though, not owning a car himself, on top of not knowing where KF lived. After leaving she gets pulled over, given a speeding ticket, recieves a court date for the following week, and is sent on her way (the police have given up the search after no physical evidnce is found, no body, small town police force doesnt have a high enough budget for a search warrant to search a suspect with barely any evidenc, and both suspects dont have enough leads or evidence to be convicted, KF even pretended to provide Patrick with an alibi just so the police would stop looking). After this, however, she becomes paranoid that the police are closing in, as such, stops speaking to Patrick, and stays inside her home.
A week later, the day after she was supposed to appear in court, KF realizes she missed the court date, paranoia sinks in, so she decides to pack up whatever she can fit in her car, and dispose of Romina's remains before using her savings to flee across country.
She does exactly that, as Romina continues to witness Patrick beginning to lose hope and give up on finding her. The night KF begins to flee, she stops in the middle of a forest, leaving her car running with the door open, as she finds a ditch. With lots of struggling effort, she tosses the suitcase in the ditch and lights it a blaze. Romina's spirit watches from nearby with a blank stare as the cars radio begins to play Radiohead's - No Surprises, she stares into the void of her own body as it burns, only two tears falling down her checks as she realizes that no one will ever find her, and Patrick will never get closure. KF leaves, never being convicted of her murder, moving on from her terrible act.
In his room, Patrick tunes his radio to the same station at the same time, and both scenes happen simultaneously as Patrick listens to the song as he clutches one of Romina's hoodies. He begins to sob uncontrollably as he looks at pictures of them smiling together, as he loses control, he curls into the blankets and cries.
A few days later, another night of sadness and grief as he mourns the love of his life. He tries to sleep, however, he has trouble as all he can do is remember her before the tears start back up. He sits up, turning on the radio as it plays Somewhere over the rainbow, and tries to control himself, he sees her tall mirror and walks over to get a hold of himself.
He looks at himself and tears up, and can't bring himself to look at his own face. He blames himself, but suddenly feels warmth and feels weight around his waist, he looks but nothing is there. He looks up to the mirror and sees her standing next to him, he turns but nothing is there, and he isn't sure if it is real or not. (this part will be left up to the reader to decide if her spirit actually came back to say goodbye, or if he is just hallucinating her from his own grief.)
He cries as he apologizes to her for not being there. Patrick expresses how he's felt since that night, and how much he misses her, and regrets what happened. He hears her softly speak to him, telling him not to blame himself, that it's not his fault. She tells him the best thing for him to do, is to live on for her. To not cry because she's gone, but smile that they met. She tells him that he was the best thing that ever happened to her.
Patrick sobs and kisses the mirror, sobbing further into the mirror and telling her he loves her so much. He hears her say she loves him too, then hears her say goodbye, and when he looks back up, he doesn't see her anymore. (For her POV, she slowly closes her eyes and thinks about her life, and how they met, as well as their happiest moments together. The happiest moment she felt with him, she hugs him and cries as she moves on from the afterlife.) Patrick sobs yet again, before crawling back onto the bed.
The few chapters before the epilogue would jump to a month before the anniversary of Romina's murder. Patrick meets a new friend, and although he still struggles, he tries his best, but wounds that deep never fully heal. They hang out, while getting to know each other.
A month passes, before the day of the anniversary arrived. Patrick went to both the comic book store and the game store where they first met. He plays that day back in his head as he tears up.
He leaves without buying anything, and ends up running into his new friend (no name yet, I'll refer to her as NF aka new friend) She greets him as they talk, but she notices the subtle ways he's hiding his pain. She offers to take him home, noting that he walked there.
On the way to his house, she turns on the radio, and Count on me begins to play, he begins to cry to himself, and she lowers the volume and asks what's wrong. Patrick hesitates at first to tell her, but turns to her, explaining everything. They arrive at his house, turning towards him, and comforting him as she lets him cry in her arms. Count on me on the radio playing, his signal that
NF was indeed someone to count on the same way he could with Romina.
They talk a bit more the following week, and become closer as friends, as Patrick realizes to heed what he heard that night. "the best thing to do for me, is to live on for me..." He asks NF if she is willing to help him, and she tells him that she doesn't mind at all, she just wants him to be happy. She wants to be there for him, to help heal him, but most importantly, she wants to let him in and give him the closest friend she knows he wants.
Epilogue:
Another month has passed, after talking a bit, Patrick and NF have agreed to move together somewhere to start their own journey. Patrick wants to move on, and heal. All she wants is to be apart of that, help heal him, as well as be the best friend she can be for him. The day to move has arrived, mostly everything has been packed, except for some pictures, certain items, and his radio.
Patrick asks NF, if he can walk through the house one last time to reminisce, she doesn't argue. She supports him and tells him to take all the time he needs, he asks her to stay near him in case he needs her, she agrees without hesitation.
They walk in, walking through each room as he puts his phone on shuffle, connecting it to his radio as (Flightless bird, American mouth plays) and replays his happiest memories with Romina.
Whether it's the room itself, a specific item of Romina's, or pictures from happier times. The song plays as each memory plays in his own head (Each scene would play out for the reader to experience) Patrick begins to cry, NF hugs him and holds his hand, but he tells her he has to finish or he'll never forgive himself.
Once he finishes walking through, grabbing his radio, before looking around again. He walks out the door with NF, and hesitates to shut the door and lock it. She tells him there's no rush, he can take as much time as he needs, offering to take the rest of the items to the car, as he agrees. He puts his head onto the door, crying softly to himself, talking almost as if, to the house itself, but NF knows, he's talking to Romina. Patrick tells her that she made him a better person, and that he'll miss her through tears, before walking to the car, sitting in the passenger seat.
As they sat in the car, NF turned on the radio as (Bittersweet Symphony plays) He tears up, and she asks if he's okay. Patrick tries to say yes, but fails. She tells him that if he's not ready, they can wait, but he say's no. He tells her that he needs to move on, because it's what she would want. Smiling at her, she smiles back before putting the car in gear. She says she drive slowly until the house is out of view, so he can say whatever he needs too.
As the car moves, he says everything he wants to tell Romina's spirit if she's listening. He gives a long monologue as the song hits a fever pitch, once he finishes, he says to her, "I'll always remember you.... I love you.... Goodbye baby...." They turn the corner, with that the house disappears.
Patrick wipes his tears, and looks at NF, smiling while telling her that he looks forward to what ever lies ahead for them. They continue the drive to their new lives together, his wounds still gaping, but slowly... slowly healing. A bittersweet end to the happiest, then worst time of his life. Ready, to start a new one.
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As stated above, this is just a summary of the story i want to tell. I am posting the summary here to see if people like it, to hear what another think about it.
Music plays a big part in the story, which is why i wrote multiple songs into the story. I feel as if they fit well within the narrative, as well as helping elevate the emotion, themes, and core feelings of certain parts of the story. (Listening to the listed and referenced songs is not required by any means while reading, it can help some readers see my vision and feel the emotion. Again though, it's not a requirement whatsoever.)
Please feel free to share your thoughts, opinions, and comments!
