Hacking The Heart [Immortal Hearts #1] (#Wattys2016)

[23] - <forever>and</never>

After Landon had went to an extreme to wake his mother up, she had received what some people would call a 'kickstart,' and as the months passed, the drugs were kicked out from her life and she started looking for real work. For the second time, she searched high and low for work, and the time came where she was hired for her secretarial experience for a large company. Though the company was smaller, and paid less than her streetwalking or her previous job as a secretary, there had been no favors involved. She hadn't needed to use her body to get her foot in the door.

Little by little, normalcy returned to Landon's life, as well as Lana's. Color returned to her eyes and pale skin, everything seemed to be coming back together. Were things getting brighter for Lana and Landon? After falling so hard, was there anywhere else to go but up? Was there only going to be good times on the road ahead?

Or was this just the calm before the storm?

Was it possible for Lana to fall down further than she already had once before? Was it possible for her to see more darkness than she had before? Was she going to crumble again, and lose sight of everything important to her? Was she strong enough to keep going even if tough times were to continue?

Landon had forced her to make one lone promise to him. Lana had promised Landon that she wouldn't touch those drugs again. After making that single promise, Landon took every single drug of hers out of the drawer, from the pills to the heroin, and flushed it all down the toilet. The belt, the spoon, and the box of syringes were burnt outside in the backyard.

Everything seemed to be going upwards with both of their lives. Lana had began to date again, while Landon was succeeding in school. Almost a whole year passed as Landon and Lana had gotten back on track, it seemed as though the glass that had shattered so many years ago was starting to come back together. Was it a dream? Was it all illusionary, only something created by the human mind? No, it wasn't.

Did these idlyic days last long? Unfortunately, they hadn't.

-

It was an early summer morning in mid-July where birds could be heard tweeting from the tree in the backyard. Landon, who was enjoying his final summer break before going to middle school, was sleeping peacefully in his room without a single worry in his mind. The trust he held towards his mother had slowly but surely been rebuilt from the ground up, and he now felt confident that he didn't have to keep an eye on her.

Lana, who was an early bird by nature, was already half-awake when she sat up and rubbed her eyes. As Lana had slightly lifted her leg, she noticed the dampness on the pant leg of her sweats. Curious, she moved her foot around on the sheet and continued to feel that same dampness. Right then, Lana ripped the covers off of her bed and saw it all over the pant legs of her sweats and on the sheets.

She saw blood, and quite a lot of it.

Lana, not wanting to wake, or scare, Landon, quickly got in and out of the shower and headed out for the hospital on her own. After going to the hospital, and leaving two hours later, she learned of her situation, and it was a surprising one to say the least. She hadn't known, and she hadn't expected it.

Lana had been eight weeks pregnant and had suffered a miscarriage. Even if it came as a surprise, Lana had felt terrible, wretched feeling in her gut, and it definitely wasn't pain. It was the guilt, the unfairness of the entire situation. For the second time in her life, she had gone through an accidental pregnancy, but this time, she wasn't able to give birth to it, to give it the miracle of life.

What about the people who can't have a child, even if their life depended on it? Why was a terrible mother like her allowed to get pregnant again, only to have that unborn child taken away? It was so cruel. She didn't deserve a second child, yet she had gotten one and had killed it before it could even open its eyes. Was God there, was he alive, was he listening? Just what kind of monster was he?