MOONLIGHT PANIC

IN A HEARTBEAT

Imagine if you had to pay for every single heartbeat.

       We humans have always been ungrateful to God, foreseeing every privilege he had blessed us with.

Thereby creating greed, envy, sloth, gluttony, lust, wrath and pride. Creating sins and plunging the world into darkness with it.

It started in the medieval times. In the city of mantle brooke. God had placed a curse on the town as a result of all the sins they had committed so as a punishment, every human in mantle brooke had to struggle for a heartbeat after becoming a young adult. For each heartbeat cost an amount of money. chaos spread across the the town, the sins became worse and people were being murdered everyday for the rest of their living days. People started to steal, others worked hard, or others were born wealthy, while others died immediately after being young adults.

It was a long time ago but each generation had to still go on with the curse.

It was a struggle for everyone in mantle Brooke until...this happened.

21st century. Mantle Brooke was civilised just like any place on earth. The crime rate reduced. But people still committed sick crimes like finding creative ways to murder people without actually touching them. But still there was chaos.

There was a middle-class family that lived in the outskirts of mantle Brooke. There was a merchant that goes by the name percy who had a wife named Melinda that was a local doctor who performed miracles to heal sick people and she was also a historian. They were about to have a baby. They were so happy as percy tried to provide everything for them before Melinda gave birth to their son.

He worked so hard and so did Melinda but unfortunately she couldn't work anymore. She had to take care of her unborn baby. She couldn't work anymore but she kept herself busy by making clothes for their baby, she loved reading and was a historian. She once read a book at the library that fascinated her. She read about human that had normal heartbeats that could beat as long as they could, before they naturally passed away without having to pay for every single heartbeat. It was amazing and she always wondered how it'll be like to have that privilege of not ever having to struggle to live each day just cause you didn't have the funds to pay for each heartbeat.

But that only existed in history, their town was cursed because there were too many bad people in it but there were still good people but of course good and bad was a terrible mix and like they say...one bean spoiled the rest and that was why the curse was also afflicted on the good ones.

Melinda was a strong and a religious woman that always asked God for forgiveness, she always prayed for everyone and everything. Seeking the mercy of the most high. She always wished for her unborn child have an easy and blessed life. She wished he wouldn't carry on the curse. Soon enough nine months passed and it was time for Melinda to give birth to her baby. Melinda was scared and nervous because it was known that pregnant women barely survived pregnancy because with or without enough heart beats there was always a thin line between death and giving birth to an unborn child.

Percy and Melinda prayed and a few days later Melinda gave birth to a baby boy named skyler. Skyler grew up to be a lot more like his mother, he was compassionate, stubborn, brave and kind. He loved playing with other kids at school but as he kept on growing Melinda's anxiety only got worse.  She was scared for her son, she locked him up after he came back from school and hid everything about the town from him.