Nos Ascendemus

20

It read, 'Serah, I will be back, but I needed to leave. I love you and the twins. I am sorry.' 

Day One (1): 

 Benjamin travelled all the way to his home city, Vaxholm and had checked in to a nearby hotel where he was currently drinking himself stupid. After he arrived, the blonde man immediately made his way to the nearest liquor store and bought an obscene amount of alcohol. 

He was currently making his way through his fourth (4th) bottle of bourbon and showed no signs of slowing down or stopping any time soon. His vision was extremely blurry to the point he could not even see where he had placed the glass bottle on the floor. 

His body felt extremely heavy and as he managed to take one (1) last swig of his drink, then he felt his eyes slowly start to droop. Not too long after, he was still fighting sleep, but quickly was losing the battle to stay awake.

About ten (10) minutes of battling the drowsiness that was caused by his heavy consumption of alcohol, he succumbed to the darkness. Sadly, however, he did not find refuge in his dreams from the distant past that was haunting him. 

It was as if Benjamin was teleported into a twisted alternative version of the tragic events that took place that day. He was taken to the exact moment his younger self laid eyes on Harper's small lifeless body, except she was moving and her eyes turned to him. 

He watched in horror as her head turned with a sickening crack and her mouth widened into a twisted grin. Her pale lips parted and blood started pouring from between her teeth, flowing onto the concrete beneath her abused form. 

Her angelic voice was heard saying, "Benny, how could you let me die? Why would you let me get hurt, Benny? I was so scared and I thought you have come, but you never came." 

The blonde man's eyes filled to the brim with tears and started overflowing onto his cheeks. He could feel his heart breaking slowly again as he thought of all the pain she had more than likely experienced. 

Dropping to his knees, he started to weep in his hands and kept whispering, "I'm so sorry." 

Suddenly, the scene before started to dissipate and he was taken once again to another memory, this time, however, he was staring at his own lifeless body. His neck was snapped, his arms and legs mangled, with several cuts all over his body as it lay there on the cold concrete. 

His childlike voice rang through his brain, chanting the words, "You failed her. Why did you fail her?" 

As if it was on repeat the same thing happened again and again, never seeming to want to release him from this horrible loop he was trapped in. 

After what had felt like years that passed, Benjamin managed to break through his subconscious and freed himself. His body jerked awake and he groaned loudly at the sight of a bright light shining right above him. 

Sitting up, he held his head tightly in both of his hands and winced at the painful headache he knew was about to hit him. Grabbing his phone, he checked the time and saw that he had been asleep for over seven (7) hours.

He decided to check his text messages and missed calls, he saw that he had several from multiple members of the club. The majority was his wife, of course, Serah must be so worried right now about him. 

He felt bad for leaving her without explanation, but he had to get away and drown out his sorrows before he faced them. Picking back up the discarded bottle of bourbon, he unscrewed the cap and took a large gulp.

He welcomed the strong burn that made its way down his throat and into his stomach. It was going to be a rather long night, he knew that. 

  Day Two (2):