Fragmented Reflection [bxb]

a glance {prologue}

Age: 22

Running away from confrontation and conflict is what I do best. I should know since I've been doing it my whole life.

My hands tighten on the steering wheel as I try my best to forget what, or whom, I'm driving away from. Anguish, heartache and shame are like needles piercing my heart the further away I get. All I want is to close my eyes tight and ignore the heaviness in my chest, but I don't think driving with my eyes closed is a good idea.

Blurry figures of green and turquoise pass by as I head towards my home. Or as I like to call it; my saving grace of isolation. That wasn't something I had growing up in my childhood home. Since I moved out four years ago and set off on my journey of adulthood, I've been able to explore more of life without my strict parents hovering over me.

Now don't get me wrong, they're not bad parents. However, they can be quite overbearing, particular and opinionated. When I was in high school, my friends always called me "sheltered" and my parents were wary about me going to other peoples' houses or staying out late. I wasn't allowed to stay out on Saturday nights because that meant I would miss church the next morning.

After parking in front of my closed garage door, I jump out of the car as fast as possible. Almost immediately, the evening air bites at my goose-bumped skin. I hurry to lock the car, rubbing my spare hand over my bicep to try inflict some warmth. Unfortunately, my hands are also cold so a shiver is all the touch causes.

For a moment, I wonder why my flat appears to be so quiet and dark as I make my way towards the front door, before I remember that my flatmate has gone away for the weekend.

Pushing my key into the old, cream-coloured door, I start twisting the lock. The creaky wood echos through the shadowed room. As I enter my flat, my free hand searches for the light switch along the wall. Just as I find it, something crunches under my shoe. Quickly turning the lights on, I squint down at the floor. My eyes instantly widen at the pieces of glass covering the hardwood.

Before I can glance up at the window, a figure moves in my peripheral vision. I barely get a glimpse of the thief before a sharp pain, followed by a spread of wet warmth, impacts my lower abdomen. Briefly, I take note that the cause of my sudden agony is running out the front door with a bag in his hand, but then I'm falling onto the cold floor.

I don't notice much else except blurriness and panic.

A lot of it.

***

-A/N-

Ah, yes, it's been a while! I even unpublished this book so I could tweak it (and write more) offline. Now I'm ready to start republishing it!

If you're wondering why I stopped posting updates in the first place, it was simply because I wasn't happy with certain ways I'd written this story so far. I knew the only plausible way to fix things was to completely unpublish and republish again.

Which was why I put it off for so long.

Anyway, hope you enjoy the upcoming regular updates! I won't be updating every day or anything but it will be like 2-3 times a week.

- C