# Don't Ask Me Why: Chapter 29, Part I



## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

"Ernest?" Tanya's voice was small.
He jumped in his chair, but upon seeing Tanya, relaxed despondently.
"Hello," he stood up, pretending like nothing happened, but he again started pacing involuntarily.
Ernest was wearing all-black, and a suit jacket. Tanya always saw that as his best color. It made him seem so noble, so proper. Even now while he looked so sad, he looked so attractive to Tanya that she could barely stand still herself. Tanya slowly walked towards him, her red stilettos clicking slowly against the ground.
"I can see you are sad about something," she spoke gently, and yet her eyes were shining.
"I am... but it's of no importance right now."
"Or is it?"
Ernest stopped pacing and looked at her.
"You bear a burden, Ernest, and I know what it is... Marie has told me."
Ernest's eyes flashed, and he started pacing again.
"You love her don't you?"
Ernest bit his lip, and nodded.
"Please don't remind me of my hopeless state," he suddenly said.
"Would you let go of her if you could?"
"I don't know..."
"Would you let go if I told you the reason why she doesn't like you?"
His eyes flashed again. "What?"
"Would you let go if I told you why she doesn't like you?"
"Yes, I heard that, but what? Tell me!" he suddenly raised his voice irritatedly.
"She's in love with another."
"... Who?"
"Alex."
Ernest froze. He only stared at Tanya in shock, mouth open, and was silent for half a minute. Tanya moved closer to him.
"Oh... God..." he muttered, and put a hand to his brow. "If I only knew..."
"Yeah... she's kept it secret for a long time. But she's hold onto it for who knows how long, longer than I've known. But she's firm in her convictions. And I think Alex is really the one compatible for her, I've seen it."
Ernest looked more and more miserable by the second.
"Please... stop talking," he tried to move away from her, but she grabbed his shoulder. Ernest stopped.
"Wait..." Tanya got closer to him again, and took both of his hands. She had never touched him before, and she felt a strange sensation go through her, something electrifying.
"I want to tell you something very important, Ernest, and it's the fact you and I are not far apart," Tanya looked gravely into his face, her eyes shining. "I have felt the same emotions as you this whole year, believe it or not..."
"How?"
"I don't love Marcus anymore. He is repulsive to me," Tanya lifted up her left hand and showed it. "Today I've released my vow to him. I needed to... or else I would have gone mad..."
It hadn't yet hit Ernest what was going on, and Tanya could see it from his sympathetic but oblivious expression. But now he would know everything.
"Of course you wouldn't have noticed while you were in love with another, but you have made a... greater impact on me than you ever have realized... I have no way to express my feelings now, but to tell you this... tonight, we will mark a change in our lives, together, you and I, by our performance."
"A change for what?" Ernest said breathlessly.
"For us to regain our happiness! I want you, Ernest!" Tanya's voice suddenly turned hysterical. "Don't you see? I thought I was happy with Marcus, but I wasn't! It was all a lie, a cage! I'll only be happy with you, I've realized it now! I adore you, I love you! Just you!"
Ernest was so shocked and flustered that he stepped backwards several feet, but Tanya wouldn't let go of him.
"If you would only let go of your despair and take hold of the hope that's right in front of you!!" Tanya embraced him, her head close to his heart.
They both said nothing for a moment, both of them breathing shallowly.
"Ernest, won't you love me?" Tanya whispered desperately, and looked into his eyes. She knew she was bewitching him in that moment, both of them embracing like that, and it was only a matter of time. She could see his resolve weaken, little by little.
Tanya stroked his face.
"Ernest... we'll be so happy..." she whispered. She closed on his lips and gave him a kiss.
That was Tanya's last moment of purest happiness.
"I KNEW IT!" there was a scream from behind Tanya, on the other side of the room. Both Tanya and Ernest gasped, but Ernest made the first move away from Tanya, leaving her standing alone. They both looked toward the entrance to the room.
It was Marcus.
His eyes were livid, as if propelled by a supernatural force. And he was advancing quickly.
"He TOLD me you were here!" he snarled through gritted teeth. "I KNEW someone was stealing Tanya from me, and how sickening it would be YOU, Ernest!!"
"I swear to God, Marcus, I didn't move on her!!" Ernest cried defiantly, walking backwards away from both of them, and pointing vindictively at Tanya. "She was trying to seduce me! I have nothing to do with it!!"
"LIAR!" Marcus began a sprint, and dived headlong into Ernest.
"Who is 'he'?" Tanya said breathlessly. "The one who has been giving you your musical inspiration, am I right?! That demon that has possessed you!" but Marcus wasn't listening. He was clobbering Ernest with all his might.
"I swear to GOD, Marcus, I don't love her and I never will!!" Ernest was crying out in terror, and in self-defense began to push Marcus away from him. They gripped each other arms, hurling themselves about to make the other wall, knocking over stands and chairs with a great clamor.
"Stop! Stop!" Tanya cried pitifully but to no avail as they jammed each other into the walls. She felt helpless, and could only watch in agony.
Although Ernest was both taller and stronger than Marcus, somehow Marcus was quicker, and with a desperate move, he flung Ernest into a wall, releasing each others' hands for a split second. But that's all that was needed: Marcus wielded out a knife from his jacket pocket, and rammed it with all his might into Ernest, below the left ribcage.
"NO!" Tanya screamed. She almost covered her face, but she couldn't help seeing it. Ernest, mouth gaped open, began to slide down the wall.
"NOOOO!" Tanya screamed again, gripping her head, and almost sinking to her knees. It was the worst thing imaginable come true, her darkest nightmare had turned on the one she loved most.
Marcus stepped back, looking at Ernest with no remorse. He turned on Tanya, and as if insane, had completely switched emotions in the blink of an eye. Tanya watched as his enraged face turned calm, and his lips formed into a sick smile.
That smile triggered an emotion like no other in Tanya.
In a flash Tanya lunged at Marcus, trying to wrench free the knife from his hand, and screaming all the while. He was so stunned that he let it go of it easily, and as she wielded it, he could only stared into her eyes, which were aflame with a blue fire. In another instant, the knife was deep into his chest, Tanya not letting go of the blade until she pushed him forward and he tumbled back onto the floor. Still screaming, she kicked into his knife wound with her red 8 cm stilettos, over and over, until his chest had a gaping hole, blood covering his entire chest and spilling into a pool under him. Marcus, wide-eyed in shock, took a last breath and died. Some blood began to leak from his mouth.

Shaking and hyperventilating, Tanya had stopped screaming, and stared with rage at his lifeless body. She squeezed the knife in her hand tightly, her tendons stretched to the max, as if she wanted to crack the handle with her bare hand. Her heart was racing like mad.
Slowly, breathing came back to normal, and her shaking subsided. She blinked a few times, and loosened the knife in her hand. There was silence for a whole minute, except for the music playing through the speakers.
"T...Tanya."
She slowly turned her head toward Ernest, who was collapsed on the floor, holding his side. He was terrified. Tanya wasn't at all aware of how she looked in that moment, if she looked like a madwoman or not, she only stared mutely at Ernest.
With a shaky, bloodied hand, he pulled out his cellphone from his jacket pocket.
"You must call..." he whispered through gritted teeth, he lifted it towards her.
Tanya continued standing there, as if in a trance.
"You said you would never love me... is that true?" her voice was abnormally even.
Ernest squeezed his eyes shut, gritting his teeth.
"Yes, it's true," he bent his head down. "But you must call... I beg you!"
Tanya started walking towards him with deliberate steps, until she was right over him. She slowly bent her empty hand and took his cell phone from his hand.
"What's the point? You're already dead..."
Ernest covered his eyes, he lips twitching into a frown.
"But the show must go on. It all makes sense now..." Tanya went on.
"...What?"
"'Don't not ask me why my happiness is perished,'" Tanya softly recited the English translation of one of the Pushkin poems she was going to sing. "'...Who once felt love will never love again.'" Tears were in her eyes. "It's about me, Ernest... life, love, it's all meaningless... forgive me... good-bye..." suddenly she took her right foot, and stabbed her stiletto into his wound, dragging him onto his back. He screamed in pain, and laid still, unconscious, but not dead. She tossed his cell phone next to him a few paces away.
Tanya went to the front entrance, to find that Marcus had tied up the door with rope. Rather than pull it apart, Tanya figured that it should stay there, and went around to a second door on the side of the room. It was opened, and when she left out of the room, it was locked behind her.
Sobbing quietly, Tanya went to a bathroom to look at herself. Her hands had some blood on them, and her tears distorted her make-up. She quickly washed up, and rubbed away the tear streaks. She looked relatively normal. That's all that mattered.
The knife was still in hand. Tanya washed it, and put it pointing downwards in the side of her dress, to conceal it. She looked in the mirror at herself one more time.
"Where did everything go wrong?" she whispered at herself.


----------

