Prologue... 17 Months After...

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The day started amazingly. There wasn't a gray cloud in sight and the sun was high in the sky waving to those who acknowledged him. There was a sense of serenity in the air that slowly withered. First, it began as hushed talking. Then it shifted into harsh whispers circulating in the air.

Ava and Lucky had celebrated two and a half shaky years together that afternoon but as the sun began to shy away, darkness neared and lurked upon the couple like a trained assassin. The moon's glare shone over the house as if it had front-row seat to the best fight in the world. The sky darkened, all things living seemed to run for cover as the unexpected rainstorm came crashing down like a man on fire.

Lucky tried his hardest not to engage in the scream fest that Ava grew so used to igniting, but this was one of those nights, where he couldn't hold back. Their words were overpowered by the heavy rain as it mimicked the sound of tableware clinking against champagne glasses. As the couple spewed words that neither truly meant, the rain and thunder intensified.

Ava was more than angry. She was damaged. So tired of feeling unlike herself. Tired of wondering when his next disappearance would occur. She was bothered but often felt the need to mask her grief with arguments. It was a way of her protecting herself from the bad that she knew lurked over the horizon in the form of another possible disappearance. They had a good thing going lately. A great thing and Lucky had no mental space for anything that disturbed his peace. Although he knew he deserved it for his mistakes.

He was literally fighting the worrisome demon each day when he got up and walked out the door. He had the same nagging demon hanging on his back waiting for the perfect time to bother and taunt him, yet he kept fighting. Lucky was tired of fighting. If he knew love would be this exhausting, he would have never opened his heart to such. He would have never come back.

But he felt human again but this rocky side of love was something he wished he received a heads up about. He felt played. Many words simply could not explain how love truly affects a person. Some may see love as a glorious or wonderful thing, and that only good things comes out of it; they were wrong.

The good doesn't last forever and Lucky would be the first to tell the next man to "run". Love wasn't supposed to hurt. But it did. Love wasn't supposed to be exhausting, but Lucky was drained. It wasn't supposed to feel like war, but Lucky felt as if he were literally fighting just to breathe. He was drowning and was trying to keep his head above water, but he had an itch to just sink.

Love was supposed to be gentle. Kind. It was supposed to be something that made a person feel good about themselves and those around them. It was supposed to be full of laughter and growing. But right now, Lucky wanted out. They both did.

When you're in love, everything around you, like the world, seems like a better place to be. Home was something that you always looked forward to going. When you're in love, you don't see the evil things going on around you. That's how Ava made Lucky feel back then and he wanted so desperately to go back to that moment. His life was in slow motion and he found himself enjoying the simplest, lamest things because it made her happy.

When Ava felt good, he felt good.

Not too many people believed in love at first sight. At least for Lucky, he sure as hell didn't. Until he met Ava. She made the journey a magical one for him. Almost as if it was simply too good to be true, even though he was witnessing everything and living through the experience. Love was a blessing, or was it the worst thing he could have ever opened himself up to?

Lucky had no answer for that question. He wanted to hold onto the good because he knew the bad days never lasted but recently, he felt as if he were in a time warp stuck on what used to be good. There was never any good but always a ton of bad. It made him question himself. Was he doing something wrong? Did he say something wrong? Did he make a mistake by letting her into his damaged heart, all for her to stomp on it and put the blame on him?

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