Painkiller

Untitled Part 1

"Kemal Altuna has the ball... OH MY GOD! What a play of this player! That's sensational! This is his game! But there is not much time left on the clock, will Altuna score the final points and make his team a national champions!?"an excited commentator shouted and the fans in the stands was roaring, urging the teams to fight for the win in this last seconds of the match.

Kemal felt like he was on the cloud nine right now. Every play he made worked out just great for him. Nobody could stop him from scoring points. They were so close to be national champions. He looked at the clock, which measured the time until the end of the game. There were only a few seconds left, and they still were losing by 1 point. Kemal decided to take a risk. As soon as the ball was passed to him, he began to dribble between the players of the opposing team as easy as they were just cones, then he jumped high into the air and threw the ball towards the basketball hoop. Suddenly, he felt the opposing team player knock him down with impetus that knocked the air out of his lungs and felt a terrible, piercing pain in his leg. With a scream, he fell on the hard floor of the pitch, grabbing his injured foot. The deafening sound rang out signaling the end of the game, and through his pain-dazed brain went a thought that this is the end. Everything is over now. He was left completely alone on the pitch as the lights in the hall turned off one by one, until finally he was plunged into absolute darkness.

Kemal woke up drenched in sweat and panting heavily. Every night he has the same returning nightmare of that fateful day when his basketball career ended due to his injury. Every night he wakes up screaming in the middle of the night, grasping his injured ankle and curling up with pain. The memory of that day tortured him whenever he closed his eyes.

Kemal limped into the kitchen, steadying himself against the walls, not even bothering to turn on the lights. He found some painkillers and he swallowed them with a water directly from the tap. He sighed heavily and fell into the nearby chair, waiting for the drug to take effect.

He didn't feel like going back to bed, so he slowly moved to the living room, which was filled with unpacked cardboard boxes. He began to slowly take his things out of the boxes and arrange them on the shelves until he finally came across a box filled with his old trophies and medals. He took one of them in his hand and ran his fingers over the plate: Turkish Champions 1997. Next to it was a statuette for the best player of this tournament. He angrily threw the cups back into the box and kicked it a few times, sending the cardboard to the farthest corner of the room. This action caused a new wave of pain in the injured leg and Kemal helplessly slumped down the wall to the cold floor of the living room. The room, the house suddenly seemed to him far too big and empty.

He wanted to go to the kitchen and grab some alcohol, but in the morning he was supposed to start a new job at some school, so that was not an option right now. "Not so long ago I was a big basketball star, I had a bright future and a great career and now, what? I'm going to teach some hormone driven teenagers how to dribble the ball and spend the rest of my life in a small office in some school, thinking everyday what it would be like if I could still play basketball," he thought bitterly. He sat in the living room observing the first rays of the rising sun, wondering what his life would be like from now. Will he always live like this - angry at his miserable fate and the unfair world? He didn't have the answer to that question.

"Kemal Altuna has the ball... OH MY GOD! What a play of this player! That's sensational! This is his game! But there is not much time left on the clock, will Altuna score the final points and make his team a national champions!?"

Kemal jumps high into the air and throws the ball towards the basketball hoop. The opponent knocks him down, and he screams feeling an overwhelming pain in his ankle. He lies on the floor while all his friends on the field, the coach and the fans move away from him, leaving him all alone on the pitch. The lights are slowly fading, and he starts drowning in the darkness that crushes him in its embrace and slowly suffocates him. Suddenly he saw a warm light in the distance that begins to approach his lying form. Out of this light emerged the most beautiful girl he ever saw, with a dazzling smile on her face, who crouched by his side with a dazzling smile on her face and called him by his name.

"Kemal?" he heard a soft voice tinged with anxiety and then felt a delicate hand on his shoulder, shaking him gently. He slowly opened his eyes and saw Burcu's frightened face in front of him. He immediately relaxed at the sight of her, feeling all the tension caused by the nightmare vanish replaced with a warm feeling in his heart. "Are you okay? You looked like you were having a nightmare, you were mumbling something and trashing in the bed. When you screamed I got scared and I woke you up."

Kemal exhaled deeply, embarrassed that Burcu had seen him in such a state. Only recently did they start spending whole nights with each other, and it was the first time in some time that he had dreamed of that nightmare that had been recurring for months. He was about to tell the woman it was nothing, but one look into her stunning green eyes that were showing now deep worry was enough for him to tell her this painful and embarrassing story.

"Kemal, I'm so sorry this happened to you, it's so unfair. I can't imagine what you must have been going through," she said truly moved by his story, "Does your leg still hurt you? Is there anything I can do for you?" she asked, and Kemal felt even a little bit more for this extraordinary woman. It wasn't the first time that he realized how lucky he was to have Burcu in his life.

He brushed off the lock of hair that had fallen on Burcu's face, savoring how the woman leaned her cheek to his hand with a gentle smile on her face.

"With you, it doesn't hurt so much, you relieve pain better than painkillers," he moved his hands to the woman's waist and drew Burcu even closer to him. He couldn't have had her close enough, he always wanted to be closer, "But I think a kiss can make me feel even better," he suggested seductively, focusing his gaze on Burcu's lips, who blushed sweetly but quickly complied with his request. After a long while, they broke away with difficulty from each other, both slightly panting.

"Can I see?" she asked shyly, pointing to his leg that was under the sheets.

"And I was already hoping you meant another part of my body," he said, but obediently sat comfortably in the headboard of the bed, stretching his legs out on the sheets.

Burcu gently grabbed his injured foot and began to massage it gently, being careful not to cause him pain. Kemal groaned, feeling her slender fingers dancing on his skin.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't want to hurt you," she said embarrassed, lowering her head and hastily taking her hands off his ankle. She was about to return to her side of the bed when she suddenly felt Kemal lift her chin to look him straight in the eye.

"Hey, look at me. You didn't hurt me, on the contrary, it was a very nice feeling. Even a little too nice, I really loved what you were doing to me" he ran his thumb over Burcu's lips, marveling at their softness, "My body, my soul, and my heart are all yours, and you can do whatever you want with them. You shouldn't be ashamed or afraid of anything, I am all yours and only yours," he could not resist and put a quick kiss on her lips. And later another one. And another one. Finally he pulled back, knowing that if they will continue like that it will end with another sleepless night. And that was certainly a tempting thought but they were already tired after previous sleepless and very active nights.

"And now, no matter how much I wish you could continue to sweetly torture my leg, or any other part of my body for that matter, in the morning we have to get up early and go to work. I feel bad enough for waking you up anyway. Come here," he said, pulling her close to him. With one last sweet kiss, Burcu turned off the light and settled comfortably on Kemal's chest, listening to his calm heartbeat that slowly lulled her to sleep. Kemal followed soon after and for the first time in months he felt into a peaceful and pain-free sleep, all of this thanks to this wonderful and beautiful woman that was now snuggling to him in her sleep. He was right when he said that she was his painkiller. Her presence in his life effectively numbed all his pain and made him completely addicted to her and her love. He wouldn't trade this for anything, not even for his basketball career. While holding his whole world in his arms he felt completely happy and fulfilled, he finally found what he had been searching for all his life – he found his heart, his Burcu.