As the tall man approached her she said, “Hello! You must be Jeremy. I’m Susan the realtor.”
“It’s nice to meet you Susan.” He smiled politely and shook her hand.

“Would you like to head inside?” She asked enthusiastically.

“Sure.” Jeremy opened the door for her.

“Thank you!” She replied as she entered the house.

“It’s no problem.” He smiled to himself thinking of how proud his parents would be that he still used the manners they instilled into him.

Before walking in, he looked up at the old house. It was a pretty large, two stories, with three bed rooms, and three restrooms. On the outside the house was painted white, but the paint had started chipping off from the weather and old age. The shutters had once been a beautiful yellow, but had now dulled into a dirty yellow-tan color. Jeremy had always loved the look of older houses, he says it gives them character. He followed Susan into the house and took a look around. As soon as you walked in, you were in the sitting area, the there was a hallway that led to the kitchen and dining room along with the first restroom. Upstairs to the left were the two smaller rooms and the second restroom, and to the right there was the masters bedroom and its personal restroom. It was a bit more room than he needed, but he loved it.

“I’ll take it!” he said “Thank you for the lovely tour.”
“You’re welcome! See you around Mr. Cavanaugh; I hope you don’t get too lonely in that big house by yourself.” She said while walking to her car.
He waved as she drove off and turned to the house, “Time to get set up”

After he got all his things in the house, he went to take a shower. He walked into the bathroom and looked at himself in the mirror. He had bright green eyes and light brown hair. His hair was short and ruffled, with just the slightest bit of curl. He had a good physic as well, seeing that he played soccer all his life, it wasn’t surprising. Sports had been a big deal to his dad before he passed on. His dad died at the age of 63, he had a heart attack that came out of nowhere. Jeremy had actually moved away because of all the memories, he was tired of the looks of concern and all the apologies he’d get. He decided to turn in early; he was exhausted from the move. As soon as his head hit the soft feather pillow, he was asleep.

That morning Jeremy went for a jog, he had done that a lot back home so that he could stay in shape. He had run about six laps around the block, when he saw a woman. She was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen, she had long, red curly hair with ivory skin that made her almost unreal. She wore a yellow sundress with white flats. While he was completely dumbstruck, he bumped into her and knocked her down.

“Ouch! That hurt.” She exclaimed.
“I am so sorry! I need to watch where I’m going.” Jeremy said frantically.
“Oh, no, I just need to stay out of the way.” She turned to face him, “I don’t think I’ve seen you around here before.”
That was the first time he saw her face. His mother had always told him that the eyes were the window to the soul, but he’d never seen any eyes like this before, her eyes were a light color of blue with a green ring just around the pupil. They were absolutely beautiful.
“I just moved in over there” He said pointing to his new house.
“It’s nice to meet you, my name is Lucy, and I live next door.” She said as they shook hands.
   “It’s nice to meet you as well, I’m Jeremy.” He said smiling politely.
“Since you just moved in, would you like to come over for dinner? I was planning on making salads.” She smiled.
“That sounds like a wonderful plan Lucy. When would you like me to come over?” He asked in reply.
“Is six o’clock alright with you?”  She asked.

“That sounds great, I’ll see you then.” He said as he turned to walk off. He went straight home and couldn’t stop smiling.

That night he went over as planned, they sat and talked about their interests and laughed with each other. They ended up becoming very good friends after that night. Eventually, it became a usual thing for them to be together, and after a while, they started dating. It was almost as if they were meant to be, the missing piece of each other’s lives. They fell in love, even though Jeremy felt as if it was love at first sight. She had moved into his house, they got a puppy and named her Maggie, she was lovable and playful. Jeremy got Maggie as a one year anniversary gift for Lucy, and she absolutely loved her, but today was more important. It was their third year anniversary, and Jeremy had a great plan. Since Lucy was out shopping all day, Jeremy did a lot of research on romantic proposal ideas and locations. He had decided on a picnic. He was going to pick her up from the mall, take her out to the park a few miles away, and would propose while they sat beneath the stars. Lucy had always loved astronomy, so he thought it was a great idea. He left to go get Lucy, and in the midst of it all, he forgot his phone. He jumped in the car and hurried down the street, but on the highway there was a traffic jam. He tried looking around it and he saw an ambulance and three police cars, then he saw the accident. It looked like something had crushed the car so badly that he was afraid to see if there were any survivors or not. He decided that it was probably going to take a while to get this all cleaned up, so he went to go reach for his phone, but it wasn’t there. He searched the whole car, and then he realized he left it at the house.

Lucy was cold, the mall had closed, and Jeremy wasn’t answering his phone. She laid her head in her hands. With no other options, she decided to try hitchhiking. She stood by the road and stuck out her thumb. After about two or three minutes, a van pulled over. It was a white 2010 Chevrolet Express. The man in the van rolled down the window closest to her.

“Do you need a ride little lady?” He asked.
“Um, I don’t think so, thank you though!” She tried to fake a smile, but the man in the car gave her the chills.
She started to back up, when someone jumped out of the back of the van and grabbed her, “Where are do you think you’re going?” The second man asked.

He took a rope and tied her hands together, and stuck something in her mouth so that she couldn’t be loud. The man threw her in the back of the van and then sat up front with the first guy. Lucy thought about her life, realizing that she could die tonight, she was happy that she met Jeremy. While she lay on the floor of the moving van, she thought of all of their memories together. She wished that he would’ve picked her up from the mall, if he would’ve done that then this wouldn’t have happened. The car came to a complete stop and the man grabbed her and threw her on the ground. There were no other cars around, no buildings, or even a paved road near them. The ground was hard beneath her, it was cold and dark. She tried to move and get away, but the man kicked her in the stomach. She decided to keep still after that, but the man came back with a gun and shot her. That was the day Lucy Andrews died.

The police investigated the crime and found the men. They admitted to kidnapping her and killing her, but they wouldn’t tell them where the body was. Her family still wanted to have a funeral, and almost everyone in the town went to it. Jeremy hadn’t cried this much since his father passed on. After the funeral he went back to the house and laid in bed with Maggie, thinking of Lucy’s first reaction when she saw her. She was so happy, and fell in love with her the instant they met. Maggie laid on Lucy’s side of the bed like she always did, waiting for her to come to bed. Jeremy ended up falling asleep, because he was so tired.
That night he had a dream, Lucy was standing in the middle of the forest with her back turned to him. She was wearing the yellow sundress she loved so much, she said it was her favorite because she wore it the day they met. He remembered when she talked about if she hadn’t worn that dress, they might not have met. Then Jeremy noticed she was crying.
“Lucy, what’s wrong honey? Why are you crying?” He said while walking to her. “Are you okay? What’s wrong? Just tell me, maybe I can help.”
“You can’t help me. This is your fault, why did you let this happen?” She cried “Why?!” She turned around and instead of crying water, she was crying blood. She also had a gun wound on her forehead where she’d been shot.
“I waited for you, and you never came. I needed you, and you weren’t there. I needed you to come and save me, but you didn’t save me. This is all your fault Jeremy!” She screamed at him.
“I’m sorry!” He started crying. “I tried! I wanted to save you so badly! I wish I would’ve died instead of you. I am so sorry.”
“My feelings for you had always been love, but now all I feel when I think of you is hatred and anger.” She started crying again, more blood came from the corners of her eyes.
“This isn’t your fault Jeremy. This is just  a dream, you are just paranoid.” He said to himself, “I didn’t do anything wrong, it was just an accident!” He screamed at her.

“It is too late for you to make excuses now!” She wrapped her hands around his throat.

Her strength was unreal, he couldn’t breath. He tried to remove her hands from his throat, but they wouldn’t budge. That was when he realized he was about to die, while he gasped his final breath his life flashed before his eyes. All the good and bad moments, he thought he had lived a pretty good life over all, especially compared to some people’s lives. Then a bright light came out of nowhere, and he was dead.

When someone finally found him, they called an ambulance. The doctors did an autopsy to see how he had died, and they say it was from a heart attack in his sleep. They told his mother it was an unpainful way to go. A heart attack in his sleep and that is what happened, and if you read this story, that better be what you say happened too. You never know, Lucy just might come back for you to cover up the evidence. Anyways, that was the untold story of Jeremy Cavanaugh, and it better stay between you, Lucy, Jeremy, and I.