Happiness in Paradise

“Today is the day. Today is the day I marry my love, my heart.” Hope thinks as she opens her eyes, takes a big stretch and finds the morning bright and beautiful. With one last stretch she gets out of bed to take a look outside and makes her way to the window. She is so unbelievably happy today. She loves the thought that this time tomorrow she will be Mrs. Lincoln “Linc” Crosse. She and her soon to be husband, Linc have been an official couple for a couple of years now but have known each other since childhood. They weren’t close friends and didn’t run in the same circles but they were always nice to each other.

Through their school years they talked a little but it wasn’t until college that they ended up becoming more than acquaintances and friends. It had been in Hope’s third year of that they had come across each other again. They had a chance meeting outside her dorm one day and have been inseparable ever since spending all of their free time together.

After they graduated and before Hope was supposed to begin grad school Linc asked her to marry him. When she said yes they quickly moved in together and in between school, dress shopping and wedding planning they spent all of their down time together. They only parted the night before their wedding when Hope stayed at her parent’s house so he wouldn't see her in her wedding dress before the wedding. Linc had not liked the idea of being away from her for even one night but Hope had eventually talked him into it. She promised to call him a few times before she went to bed and when she went to bed. That night she and her sister had stayed up late watching movies that had scared the hell out of them as kids. They had so much fun reminiscing about their childhood that the night got away from them. Hope still called and wished Linc goodnight despite the late hour. The call had been a little tense but at the time Hope didn’t think anything of it. She told herself that it was just nerves about their upcoming wedding.

This morning she is happy and nothing else matters to her. She only cares that today she is getting married to her best friend and they are getting ready to start their lives together. As she looks out the window she sees something that gives her pause. Parked down the street, not visible from the first floor of her parent’s house, is Linc’s car. She can’t tell from this distance if he is inside or not but it wouldn't make sense for him not to be. She’s not sure why his car is even there in the first place but it is her wedding day and she can only worry about that at the moment.

As she watches Linc’s car her phone begins to ring with his ring tone. She smiles brightly as a familiar love song plays on her phone and rushes across the room to answer it. “Hello handsome. Today is the day.” she says into the phone happily. Linc doesn’t respond at first he just giggles. Hope does care for his giggle and hasn’t since they were children and on any other day it would kind of give her the willies. It always always sounded weird to her ears.

When he doesn’t respond for a full minute Hope begins to worry that she had done something wrong and racks her brain to try and figure out what it could possibly have been. No matter how long she thinks about it she can’t think of anything she could have done in the two minutes that she’s been on the phone. At a loss she just waits for Linc to either respond or tell her what she could have possibly done wrong. Luckily the wait isn’t a long one because not a second later he responds. As if sensing her unease, he replies, “Good morning gorgeous! It is indeed the day. I’m sorry for not responding right away. I was a little overcome with excitement.” Hope lets out the breath she hadn’t realized she was holding and they ease into a happy conversation about their wedding in a few hours.

The wedding goes off without a hitch. Everyone is happy and has an awesome time at the reception. It is at the reception that Linc finally tells Hope where they are going for their honeymoon. He had wanted to keep it a surprise as a kind of wedding gift to her so he had waited. He tells Hope and their guests right before the first dance that they are going to be spending two weeks in Honolulu Hawaii. Hope is ecstatic as is everyone else present. Cheers go up around the ball room and Hope is crying and laughing all at the same time. She has always wanted to go to Hawaii and now she gets to go with the love of her life. “Nothing can get better than this.” She thinks as she and Linc walk to the dance floor for their first dance.

Finally after hours of dancing, eating and partying the night is finally over. Hope and Linc retire to the honeymoon suite for the night amongst cheers and clapping. They quickly collapse into bed after Linc helps Hope remove the heavy layers of her dress. Although they are completely exhausted they make love before falling asleep in each other's arms.

Hope sleeps draped in Linc’s arms pulled close to his chest. The sound of his heart beating lulls her deeper and deeper into slumber and into dreamland. Her dreams are loving and fluffy in the beginning but turn very alarming the further into sleep she slips. She wakes early the next morning with a scream in her throat but she stifles it when she sees that Linc is still asleep. She quickly escapes the bed and the lingering effects of her nightmare to take a shower. She stands under the water clearing her head of the nightmare she just had. She doesn't remember the specifics of the nightmare but it scared her just the same.

After she showers and gets dressed she sits at the little table in their room just as Linc sits up in bed. “Good morning Mrs. Crosse. You look extra scrumptious this morning.” Then with a sly grin he pats the bed and says, “Why don’t you come back to bed so we can have some fun.” With a wicked grin of her own, Hope rushes to the bed.

After showering they dress, pack then check out before heading to the airport. At their gate Hope relaxes and reads a book while Linc appears to be people watching. He finds it rather entertaining and loves doing it especially at the airport. Before too long their flight begins to board and they are off to paradise for two weeks.

The flight is very long and Hope falls asleep. As soon as Linc sees that Hope is asleep he gets out his laptop to go over their plans once they arrive in Honolulu. It’s going to be a fairly laid back honeymoon with only a few things preplanned. They both enjoy just being together and being out in the warmth and sunshine. He has something extra special planned for their last full day and night in Hawaii and he can’t wait. That’s really why he waited to get out his laptop until Hope was asleep; he didn't want to risk her seeing what he had planned. He quickly double checks the plans and makes sure everything is in place before he quickly puts his computer away. Now a little more at ease he quickly finds himself dozing off.

Hope wakes with a start as a particularly volatile part of her dream takes place. As she sits catching her breath and her heart beat slows she can’t help but wonder what her dreams are trying to tell her. She tries her best to remember the nightmare but nothing seems to have lingered. All she can remember is the terror she felt and that it involved someone else. She isn’t even sure if the other person was Linc or not. This is their honeymoon, something she has looked forward to since she was a little girl. The fact that she just found out it was in Honolulu makes the experience that much more exciting and special. She should not be having nightmares, her dreams should be light and all lovey dovey. She is so unnerved that she is unable to relax enough to even read her book so she just stares out the window watching the world below. She knows they are moving quickly but being so high up it’s like they aren’t moving at all. It is a very strange sensation. She clears her mind and just watches the sky and landscape go by. She doesn’t sleep really but she isn’t completely awake either.

When they arrive it is dark and five hours earlier than it is back home. Hope smiles as she thinks, “We’ve time travel to the past.” Then giggles despite herself. Linc looks over at her and smiles brightly before looking back at the road. She knows he knows exactly what she had been thinking. He had no doubt thought the same thing. Since it is so dark and the road is unfamiliar they do not talk the rest of the way so that Linc can concentrate on the road in front of him. When they make it to the condo they rented an hour or so later they check the place out before unloading the car. Once the car is unloaded they collapse onto the bed and pass out, exhausted after their long day.

The following morning and every day after is absolutely beautiful. They travel around the island everyday taking in its beauty. They go inland to the mountains and actually run into a drizzle that makes them a little cold. They walk around and hike and find a wonderful fruit stand with fried bananas. They make it a point to visit the fruit stand at least once a day for fresh fruit and fried bananas. Linc even tries fresh coconut water, he didn’t care for it but had been happy about getting to drink from a coconut.

Finally, all too quickly, their last day came. The day is to begin with a beautiful hike up a mountain to a spot where you can look out and see the ocean and finish with them checking into a resort hotel and going to a luau. The perfect end to the perfect honeymoon. After a quick breakfast they shower and head out to the spot where the trail starts. They talk about how much fun they’ve had and how sorry they are that this is their last day in Hawaii. Then they lapse into a comfortable silence as they get close to the turn to get to the trail head. Hope spends the few minutes before they reach the trail watching the world go by outside her window.

After changing their shoes and grabbing a couple of bottles of water they begin their hike. It is absolutely beautiful and Hope stops often to take pictures. The short stops make their hike take a little longer than it should be but neither really minds they are in no hurry to leave paradise after all.

Finally at the top they find an old World War II bunker. They climb on top which with its back built into the mountain isn’t hard and look out over the landscape. Hope can see far across the crystal blue waters. She takes a lot of pictures then they both go below to see what the inside looks like.

Wanting to be out in the sunshine again Hope leaves Linc below to keep looking around while she goes back up top to admire the beautiful view. She is so lost in the beauty before her she doesn’t hear when someone comes up behind her. When she finally does register the footsteps they are right behind her and she just figures it’s Linc finally coming to enjoy the view with her.

She turns after a minute or two and gasps. “Hello. My husband Linc and I just came up here for the view. He’ll be up here at any minute”. She says to the man in front of her. She’s a little freaked out. She hadn't heard his approach and instantly thinks he is here to kill her. She adds a nervous laugh at the end as she finishes talking. The man only smiles at her and walks to stand up on top of the bunker with her.

She stands perfectly still calculating in her mind if she can possibly out run the man but decides she can’t when she notices he has been sweating meaning he no doubt ran up here. “Shit! If I make it through this I need to take up running.” She says to herself and resigns herself to her fate. She tries to and probably fails to hide her utter fear from her face.

That’s when Linc decides to come up top again. Hope has never in her life been so happy to see him. Linc takes in the stranger and something in him changes. Hope can tell the instant it does. He’s not scared he’s angry but she’s not really sure who he’s angry at. “Surely he’s not angry with me.” She thinks as she watches him get closer to her and the stranger.

“Well Eli I see you’ve found my wife Hope. How are you doing this morning? Great day for a run huh?” Linc says still angry but there is a touch of excitement in his voice. Hope can only look at the two men flabbergasted. The man had not said a word to her the whole time they had been standing here. Hell she thought he was going to kill her and this whole time he knew Linc. Why had he not said so or said anything at all? She is so confused.

Then Eli spoke, “Lincoln how are you? I just came up here and here she was. I hadn’t introduced myself yet because the poor thing looked petrified.” Hope felt embarrassed but not too much he had snuck up on her then not spoken at all. She had to admit though she loved his Australian accent. Still she inched closer to Linc as the men talked but didn’t pay much attention to what they were talking about.

At one point while the men talked she turned her back on them and began looking out at the land and water below. It was so beautiful, so blue nothing else mattered at the moment but the beauty and serenity all around. She is so enraptured by the sight she doesn’t notice when the men stopped talking nor does she hear Eli approach her. She does feel his hands on her shoulders and turns to look up at him. This time not with fear or worry but with trust and maybe a little lust mixed in. She looks around trying to find Linc but he is nowhere to be seen. She looks back at Eli and says, “Where is he?” Eli looks at her with love in his eyes then points below.

Eli then takes her in his arms and says, “It is done my love. He can no longer hurt you or anyone else. We can finally be together.” He hugs her close, pouring every ounce of love he feels for her into that hug. They are so close, the hug is so tight he doesn’t feel the steal of the silencer against his body. At first he doesn’t register the sound of the gun either. The pain he does notice and he pulls back from Hope looking confused and hurt. “I killed for you. You promised me we’d be together forever.” Then he falls to his knees.

Hope looks down at the man she had once loved before Linc had come back into her life. She only sees all the horrible things she suffered at Linc’s hands. From the moment she saw Linc again she began to plan her revenge. She is sorry that Eli has to pay as well but truthfully he had been no better. When he had heard what Linc had done to her as a teenager he had said nothing, done nothing. He deserved it.

With that fake ass sweet smile she always has plastered on her face she walks to Eli, bends down and gives him one last kiss. Then standing again says, “Yes dearest you killed him and I had to kill you in self defense in return.” Then she points the gun at his chest and pulls the trigger. The force of the shot causes both of them to tumble backwards but where Hope had the trees and land at her back Eli only had the edge of the cliff and the fast approaching ground below.

She spent the rest of the day and part of the night at the police station telling her story over and over again. She makes sure to play the part of the grieving widow, crying uncontrollably and all that jazz. She had planned this so perfectly. So she knew what was needed. She had to play the submissive weak woman long enough to put Linc at ease. She always stayed in character just in case Linc or someone who knew him was nearby. The plan had begun that fateful night they met outside her dorm. Seeing all her hard work finally pay off made her happy. She could finally rest easy knowing Linc is gone and can’t hurt her or anyone ever again.