CHOICES (Completed)

EPILOGUE

I look down on my palm, and a soft snowflake lands gently. It feels mildly cold, and I smile.

I look all around, and it’s a large stretch of frozen plain. I look down, and I see the flowing water beneath the thick transparent ice sheet.

It’s scary, but it’s beautiful.

I close my eyes, and lift up my face to see the lightly shining sun, and as small specks of snow fall on my face, I feel peaceful. A soft, cold breeze flows and my hair blows all over, making me giggle lightly.

I sigh deeply. And inhale a deep, fragrant whiff of placid air.

There’s so pain. Only beauty. Calm. Tranquil.

My face feels warm. I feel warm.

And then my trance gets broken at a sound.

I hear a shuffle in a distant somewhere, and I turn around sharply. There’s nothing as far as the eye can go.

Then I hear footsteps. Coming towards me. I turn. But I see no one. The sound gets louder. Faster. Restless.

I try to speak out, but my voice doesn’t come out. I expel air forcefully, clutching my throat with my hands. But nothing.

My throat closes on its own, and my voice dies inside. I look around. No one. Only footsteps. Passing me. Running towards me. From all sides.

I look up, and the sun is no longer there. A blackness encloses in. The whole sky is engulfed in, and it turns pitch black. Pitch black against a white frozen ground.

And then I hear it. A loud, deafening, screeching scream from above. I hold down my ears painfully, but it doesn’t cease.

My knees give way beneath me, and I fall on my knees, hitting the ice with a thud. I try to scream, speak. But nothing.

And then all of a sudden, the ground creaks and I drop dead into the water.

The water splashes and clouds me all at once.

It’s murderous cold. It hits me like a thousand knives all over. I open my eyes, and all I see is water. Dense, unending water.

I throw my arms out, hitting the water with everything, trying to swim up, but I feel a weight holding my legs down.

B-dum_B-dum_B-dum_B-dum_B-dum_B-dum_B-dum_B-dum

The scream is no more. All I hear is the silence of the water, bubbling inside me.

I hit the water over and over, trying to escape. I feel a choke, and a cough breaks, bubbles leaving my mouth. My eyes droop, and my throat burns.

Some muffled voice speaks in my head. I try to search it. I try to reach for it. I know this voice. It speaks. It hits my ears, but I can’t clear it out.

B-dum___B-dum___B-dum___B-dum

My limbs go numb. My mind goes blank. There’s no light. There’s no one. My eyes close. Darkness.

I hear my heartbeat in my ears. Slowing. Closing in. Giving up.

B-dum__________B-dum__________B-dum____

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And I want you to remember it as a fraction of what you made me go through, and that this, is NO WHERE NEAR ENOUGH!

I open my eyes with a shriek, as Hardin’s voice booms in my head. I pant, heavily and hold my neck with my hand. Holy fu-

The scream reverberates within me, and I almost shake. I hold my arms around me protectively, rocking myself gently as an assurance that everything is fine. It’s all over now.

You’re not drowning. You’re okay, Tessa. You’re okay.

But the black, the ice, the fall, it all comes hitting me and I gasp again. I sit up and switch on the bedside light. I swallow the lump in my throat, and pull my blanket closer to me , as I feel colder than usual.

I remove the strands of hair, from my face, realising it’s drenched. I don’t know if it’s tears or the sweat.

God, what’s happening.

My door opens with a bang, and Lily enters full force.

“What the fuck, you okay?” She sits on my bed, looking at me and I nod.

“Here.” She hands me an unwrapped chocolate piece, with a glass of water.

I down both of them. And rest my palms on my face, still breathing heavily.

“Should I stay with you tonight? I should stay with you tonight. Move over, I’m sleeping here. Come on, shift that ass.” She swats my waist twice and I drag myself more to the right corner of the bed.

I can’t believe I’m having nightmares now. This, this is bad. The events from earlier zap my brain in spurts, replaying lines randomly, and I feel like taking sleeping pills, maybe.

I want to forget this. I want to forget this. I don’t even want to remember his face. I mentally curse and lie down. Lily switches off the light and throws a hand around my waist.

“I’m here, Tessa, okay.”

I close my eyes and start counting. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Sev-

My eyes in a stabbing and sudden curiosity.

“The day I saw you, I knew I was going to bring you down to exactly this.”

 

I hadn’t slapped, or even punctured his ball till then. The first day we had met, was the brunch, and nothing had even happened by then.

I hate you, with the last atom of my existence, and I'm going to hate you till that existence ceases to exist anymore.

You owed me a retribution, and I have squeezed it out of you.

And I want you to remember it as a fraction of what you made me go through, and that this, is NO WHERE NEAR ENOUGH!

Hardin wouldn't possibly undergo this much trouble for some apparent injury to his kiddish ego. Not this far fetched.

I have missed the forest, looking at the trees.

Hardin said that he had exacted his retribution. So if it was not for the basketball and it was not for the slap...

What exactly am I missing here?

 

OKAY, YES I’M FREAKING OUT. BIG TIME. CAN’T STOP.

The feeling you get, when you’re typing the last line of your book, that says that you made it. There’s nothing like it.

It has been, such a WHOAAA.

This is unreal. This is so ah-maizing.