A Twist Of Fate

Prologue

My vision blurs and I stumble back a few steps as I feel all the oxygen escaping my lungs.

With shaking hands I reach for my chest and apply pressure where my heart lies just underneath. It hurts, it fucking hurts.

It's not a joke. It's not some sick twisted prank and no one is going to jump out and yell "got you," because this is real.

No! No it can't be real. I shake my head and hurdle over as I reach for my hair and pull. I need pain because right now, at this moment I feel nothing. My body is numb and I just need to feel something. Anything.

I hear a scream and it sounds like a scream of terror, a scream of pain. Not the type of pain you feel when you stub your toe or break a bone, but the type of pain from having your life torn apart in the matter of seconds. The pain of having everything good in your life, ripped from you and leaving you with nothing left. The type of pain you feel when losing a loved one.

I see my mothers lips moving but I can't seem to comprehend what she's saying. It's all a jumbled mess.

She sounds so far away, but feels so close that I'm not sure I can reach her. Hell I don't even know if I'm dreaming. I have to be. Don't I?

"Breath baby, breath." My mothers voice makes it's way to my ears as she grips my hands and gently pries them from the root of my hair as I let out a shaky breath, or at least I think I do.

The screaming comes to a sudden halt and only when it does, do I realize that the screams were coming from me. It was me who was releasing all this pain and hurt into the universe and with that my legs give out and I drop to my knees.

"No," I shake my head vigorously. "No! It can't be true. You're lying!" I scream as I look into the saddened, teary eyes of my mother as she joins me on the living room floor.

"I'm sorry, baby..." She says pulling me close to soothe and comfort her only child.

I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding and collapse into my mothers loving arms. We stay like that for what feels like hours.

The storm in my mind settles as reality sets in and I start to feel sick to my stomach. I use everything that's left of me to push it back down and quickly swallow the vomit that's forcing it's way up my throat.

"I-I have to go." I don't even recognize my own voice at the moment. It sounds... defeated and broken. Hell I am broken and I don't think I can come back from this. I get up on shaking legs and run out of the house as if I was trying to escape the fiery pits of hell.

I hear my mother screaming for me to come back, but right now I just need to be alone. I just need to hear myself think, to be alone with my thoughts and with that I gather all my strength and push myself to run faster.

I never knew my heart could shatter into millions of tiny pieces.

I hoped it was a joke, a fragment of my imagination, but just like that I lost all hope when reality finally set in, and my hope wilted away like a beautiful rose in the Sahara Desert.