The Doctor's Wife

His arms were the first to surrender. They slumped to his side and fell in dead weight as every last bit of energy was drained from his body. This was strange. He sat in shock, still wondering what was happening to him, mouth agape as his failing lungs gasped for air. She sat in the shadows of the corridor, watching in silence. Every ounce of hatred in her body carved out a faint smile on her lips. She had succeeded.
  "What is happening to me?" He thought to himself. His mind was racing. His heart was beating faster and faster, as his skin broke out in profuse sweat. The little flickers of light from the quenching candlestick poured an ominious sense of gloom on the room; the perfect scene for a murder, as he had always imagined it.  "Ca...cassandra.." He called out. His voice breaking as he gasped for breath. His ears were ringing, so much that he could not hear that a reply never came. He slumped off his wooden chair and fell on his face, knees too weak for support in the growing darkness. He was familiar with these symptoms. He had taught them before. He knew what this was, but could not believe it. The final blow to his heart; betrayal. After all these years, this is what it came to. He imagined the malice in her heart. It had been there all this while. She had been his undoing. She would be his end. It was swift. Planned perhaps for years; executed in seconds. His body froze as his eyes closed in death. Poisoned. More from the venom of his wife's cruel heart than the actual cyanide in his veins. And thus he breathed his last, falling victim of his own trade. The candle went out as he lay still. With his ever faithful wife, watching from the shadows