The Fallen Goddess

My Life

My life isn't that remarkable.

I finish college after another few years and I try to get some stories published. Crissy is still my girlfriend, but she's not all that bad. She's just still... a little off.

But my life is going nowhere, so, like a freaking coward, one day in my late twenties, I propose to her. She wholeheartedly agrees to marry me.

After the proposal, I think that life can't be that bad. I'm happy with her, and it's not like I could have any happier if I had broken up with her.

Over the next few months, we plan the wedding. All of our closest friends will there, and obviously, our families will be too.

Everything seems smooth, but the woman still shows up every now and then. Except now she doesn't stare; now she cries.

I want to comfort her; I want to go up and ask her what's wrong. I wouldn't even ask her why she's been following me, I would just want to make her feel better.

But I never get the chance to.

During the wedding, I swear I can see lingering at the back of the room, almost invisible, but she's there.

But when I say my vows, she disappears.

After the wedding, we go on our honeymoon, and it isn't so bad. We chose a nice place and it gives us a few weeks to be alone, away from stress. And away from the woman.

But I needn't have worried; after Crissy and I come bad from our honeymoon, I never see that woman again.

Crissy and I grow together as a couple, and eventually, we want to grow together as a family.

My writing career has taken on a stable success, so we decide that we are in a good enough financial situation to have a baby.

It takes a long time, or what seems like a long time, but Crissy finally gets pregnant. We do all the typical parent-to-be things: we panic sometimes, we get excited sometimes, we read books, we talk to the child, and we get advice from parents and friends.

I'm honestly excited to have my first child. It's not like the whole thing with Crissy; even now, she's really only like a friend to me, but I know I am going to love this baby no matter what.

There is an excited buzz going around with all our friends and family as the due date gets closer and closer.

Crissy and I prepare our house and soon its a month before the baby is due...

two weeks...

one week...

a day...

and then the baby is born. It was simple and quick birth, and the baby was actually on time.

We wanted to be surprised with the gender, but now I am standing next to Crissy, looking at my beautiful baby girl.

"What should we name her?" Crissy asks in a soft tone, looking at the baby with a mother's fondness.

At first I am stumped. I come up with some names, but suggest none of these to Crissy, as they don't seem quite right.

Crissy keeps on spewing names, but I agree to none of them; they aren't right either. I think, and think, and keep on thinking...

and then it comes. So simple and familiar, though I'm sure that I have never heard the name before.

"Koreena," I whisper, letting my baby wrap her little hand around my finger.

"Koreena?" Crissy repeats quizzically, but there is no hesitation in her voice. "That's a wonderful name."

* * *

We leave the hospital. After taking care of everything needed for Koreena, we are finally able to take her home with us. 

As we exit the building and start to head for our car, I see her. The woman.

I haven't seen her in years, and yet here she is, just as she has always been: young, slim, beautiful, and... staring.

I can't help myself; I run across the parking lot, leaving Crissy and Koreena behind, to catch this woman before she can disappear.

She doesn't move, she doesn't even flinch, as I get closer and closer.

I'm almost there...

I can see the hazel dancing in her brown eyes...

but now, for whatever reason, when I'm about six feet from her, her eyes flash suddenly with concern.

For the first time since I started seeing her, she actually moves; she reaches out a hand to me, reaches out to grab me... to save me.

But I don't know what she is trying to save me from, until it hits me.

Literally.

I topple over as a speeding car hits me with full force. I am knocked back, multiple bones crushing themselves against the pavement because of the force. And the driver is still not slowing down.

Before I can stop it, I am very nearly run fully over; part of my body is under the car and the other part is out, but it doesn't make much of a difference.

Stretchers, slowly moving cars, paramedics... it all flashes through my brain, or what's left of it, very quickly.

In what feels like no time at all, as I drop in and out of consciousness, I hear the steady beeping of my life.

It sounds as if I'm going to live; the beeping is steady and seems to be right. I'm happy; I need to stay alive for Koreena.

But suddenly that name hits a different part of me hard. I've heard that name before, before I had my baby.

The curiosity of this name and the woman I've seen wandering around for years... it's all just a little too much.

Suddenly, I don't want to live. I hear as the beeping becomes more drawn out, less consistent and stable.

It's like I'm dropping off to sleep; I can already almost see the answer to these questions coming as I let my brain shut off.

The last thing I hear is the flat line, and I know I am gone.

But then a miraculous thing happens: I wake up.