𝐓𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐀𝐧𝐝 𝐒𝐡𝐚𝐝𝐨𝐰𝐬

|35|HEAVEN|

This chapter should have been out since over a month ago, but I guess not everything goes as planned.

There are reasons I've been away this long, there's no use explaining at this point.

But please, enjoy 🥃✨.

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Dedicated to mammizee I saw all your votes and comments. Thank you so much. Laziness and tiredness didn't let me reply, but this chapter is for you ❤️.

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"It's your mind, own it."

❦︎

~[VICTORIA]~

He called it Heaven, this place. Where he had smartly hidden behind a painting of a river bank.

The first time he had unraveled this place, my mouth was hanging open for minutes, I kid you not.

Amazed. Enthralled. Dazzled. None of those words can perfectly describe how I felt walking into this place.

You know how you feel when you see something so beautiful you cannot put it to words, that flutter in your chest that has you envisioning living the rest of your life with that thing— in this case, I was beginning to play out growing old in this place.

And I felt like I understood what Mr. Kenny was feeling when he decided to name this place Heaven.

A soft smile always danced on my lips whenever I stepped in here. And I wouldn't even be aware of when I would release a sigh.

My favourite place was the swing, the one that faced the floor to ceiling window that overlooked the hospital's garden. And from where I was swinging slowly, I could see patients roaming the paths that divided the greenery, some walking on their own and others being pushed on wheelchairs.

Then his voice, deep but soft, floated in my ears. "You deserve it."

From over my shoulder, I peered at him where he was leaned on the white wall. I asked, "deserve what?"

"This peace, everything good." He shrugged. And before I turned to face my front, I caught him pushing himself off the wall.

I deserve this, I repeated in my head and it was when I felt my lips strain that I realized how hard I was smiling.

But as always, there was that voice in my head that would always try to contradict everything, screaming how I wasn't even allowed a spark of happiness for costing my mother her life. Even so, for something as trivial as basketball.

And yet again, I found myself recalling that night again, that night six months ago.

I had frustrated her again, starting my useless talk about wanting to play basketball. I remembered going on my knees that night, begging. She had always screamed it in my face, how I ruined her life. So, I figured that maybe begging till she had no choice could do the trick. Somehow, I thought that I could reach into any kind of empathy she had left, and she would just let go of... whatever I must have done to her.

But I should have known better. Because how could someone who believed I destroyed her life just let go of everything? Just like that? Just because I went on my knees and shed a few tears?