Short stories

As life continues

As life continues

His scream I can still hear. The fright still runs through me. I have never gotten that day out of my head. I was only 12 years old, too young to understand the truth.  As was my best friend, Damien.

I’d known Damien since we were in pre-primary. So what if I was a girl? So what if he was a boy? It didn’t matter. We accepted each other for who we were. That all changed later on. I still remember him chasing me shouting “I’m gonna catch you Melina!”

 And me saying “no you’re not, you can’t catch me”.  The thing is I never thought he would be caught instead.  Damien and I were an inseparable pair. We did everything together. We lived next door to each other. Our parents had been friends since university. Nothing and no one could separate us.

Our lives depended on each other, but more importantly I depended on him. He knew that I needed him and even though he said I had the strength without him. I knew that wasn’t true. I didn’t have a clue about how my strength would be tested in the short future.

Unfortunately that all changed when we were in year seven. We were in the same classes and always were together.

I can’t remember the date or day but all I know is that he saved my life. I was walking through the national park and didn’t realize someone was following.  It was lunch time and I was walking to our secret lunch spot. I guessed that Damien was already there.

Then the follower attacked me. He managed to get me to the car park. That’s when I nearly died of shock. All I saw was Damien running toward me, shouting Let Melina go! The stranger told him to stand back. Damien pushed me away and then I heard a gunshot. And I felt severe pain (although I hadn’t been shot, I had been hurt severely). The stranger was gone.

“Damien!” I screamed as my older brother came hurtling down the path. I hadn’t known he was there until that point. Damien lay motionless at my feet. Everything went foggy and I passed out.

I awoke in a strange place everything was white. My brother looked at me with a sad look in his eyes. I didn’t have to ask it. But he answered the question any way “he’s gone. Dead.”

The picture comes into my head. His body grey and irretrievable. I begin to cry huge tears. He is gone.

People tried to comfort me and I brushed them away. Everything seemed like it was in black and white. Damien was my colour. My light. It was dark. Too dark to see. I felt lost and didn’t know what to do.

I was out on our front lawn when I saw it. The chain it hung on was shining in the sun. His shark tooth. He must have dropped it on our way to school that day and not realized.

I laughed something I hadn’t done in agers. I could finally accept that he was dead but what made me happier is that I still had a piece of him. A piece I would never let go. A piece that reminded me that he is still here.