Th13rteen

Chapter 7

Th13rteen

Chapter 7

*

*

Ten months later...

Aurelia...

"Darlin', I'm alright, I swear."

"No, you're not." I said, choking back tears. "You're not alright." A slick tear dripped down my cheek.

"All that matters is that you're okay." He spoke softly, reaching up to wipe the tear away.

Breaking my ankle on our birthday last year was no freak accident. Something weird has been going on, I know it.

Two weeks after the 'birthday incident', as we tended to call it, Alex had officially asked me to be his girlfriend. He helped me hobble on my crutches through Central Park, took me to where we danced on our first date, and he asked me. Following that was our first kiss together. It was perfect and magical, despite the warnings in the back of my mind. Our relationship over the past almost year has been wonderful and happy, although it's nowhere near normal in my opinion.

Strange things keep happening. The thirteenth of every month brings something bad with it. At first we'd brush it off, calling it another freak accident, and continued to grow closer than ever, but it started getting too ridiculous to ignore. I swear I started losing my mind at some point.

The broken ankle was just the start. The month after, marking over two weeks of us being together, Alex tripped over a stick and broke his wrist. At first we laughed, thinking it was his turn after I had gotten hurt the month prior, but it started getting worse.

In December, Alex kept his promise of showing me the beauty of the winter season. Everything was going well until we went ice skating on the thirteenth. A woman forcefully rammed into me, and her skate flew up, slicing my back. There was so much blood, they had to shut down the rink for an hour. The month before, I fell down the stairs, breaking a rib in the process. But still, we thought these to be coincidences and accidents.

It was in January when we finally started piecing together that all these things happened on the thirteenth of every month. The rest of the month would be straight out of a fairytale, and then the thirteenth would come along, throwing a scary curve into everything. So many bad things have happened, that we cannot ignore it anymore. Something terrible is happening. It's almost like I can feel it, some unknown force, pushing in the back of my mind.

Everything has happened, from Alex getting attacked by birds, to us getting in multiple near fatal car accidents, and more bones being broken in mysterious falls.

But this month though, today... This is the worst yet.

July thirteenth will forever go down as the most damaging, and mentally scarring.

Central Park has quickly become one of our favorite places in the city. So many of our favorite memories of our relationship have been here. We definitely considered it to be our place. This is where we became an official couple, and where we first said 'I love you' to each other. While some of the bad things have occurred here, none of them ever left me so distraught. Not like tonight.

This evening, we thought it would be nice to go on a nice walk through Central Park. Because it's summer, there are a lot of activities going on, and much to do. We had strayed from the crowded path, although there were still people everywhere. Alex had left for a moment to go to the bathroom, and get me some popcorn. I had only been standing alone for a mere three minutes, with plenty of people still around, when two men approached me. One tried to take my purse, while the other tried taking advantage of me. They didn't get very far before Alex yanked me away from them. He got beaten to a pulp trying to defend me. The guys pulled a knife on Alex and stabbed him before the Park Rangers showed up, after what seemed like an eternity.