The Bloody Healer

Chapter 1

Circumstances can change somebody without them even noticing it.

Nikolay Bozhidarov Nankov lived in a flat in Sofia and had been working as a real estate consultant for two years and a half. He was going home by taxi, because his car needed fixing and the bus would only arrive after three hours.

As soon as he got home and changed his clothes, the first thing he decided to do was check the messages on his phone. When he opened those messages, something he didn't expect at all happened.

While he was at work, a girl called Bozhura Borislavova Deliivanova texted him. He had been in love with her for nearly two hours, but she hardly seemed to have ever had any feelings for him. This was what she wrote:

"I'm sorry, but I can't go on like this anymore. Thank you for all you've done for me, and forgive me if you can. I understand I don't fit into your life, just like you don't fit into mine. If I really mean that much to you, please, don't try to persuade me or get me back, I've already decided everything. We're strangers to each other and we will always be".

Something happened inside Nikolay when he read those words. Of course, he knew that boys aren't supposed to cry, but he felt that if he didn't release his tears, he would die at that very moment. And, of course, he would take away what he was feeling.

He couldn't resign to the fact that the girl who meant the most to him, erased him from her life as if it were nothing. Maybe she was tired of him, and that's understandable, because she had never had for him as big feelings as he had for her, she only helped him a few times when he was in trouble. But why did she text him? Why couldn't she just arrange a meeting and tell him everything? What stopped her from doing that? Maybe he didn't mean anything for her anymore, so she decided to send him a message, begging him to forget her?

All those questions floated in his head without an answer. Nikolay didn't want anything now. For him, this was worse than the end of the world. He decided to call his boss and tell him he was quitting, but the pain got him so blind that he accidentally flipped two digits and called a dairy factory. Someone shouted at him for distracting them in an important moment.

Now Nikolay understood that nothing good would ever happen in his life anymore, and even if anything did, he wouldn't see anything good in that. The reason was his unhappy and useless love.

He tried to fix the situation. For example, text his beloved one that he couldn't imagine his life without her, and ask if she could change her mind and get back to him, at least as a friend if she can't give him more. But as soon as he entered the first letter, he erased it immediately, because he understood that this wasn't going to be any help and that he would only get her angry and she would blacklist him. And his heart couldn't bear that.

But he wasn't the only one who had experienced something like that on that day. Of course, he thought that it couldn't be any worse. But that's what a schoolgirl was thinking about herself. She got a low mark for having accidentally said one thing instead of another. But that was in North Macedonia.

It went like this: during the math class, a middle-aged teacher asked Paraskeva Naumova what one will get by dividing three eighths by nine twenties. Paraskeva told her five sevenths.

"Wrong!" the teacher replied. "It's five sixth! You didn't learn anything!"

"That's exactly what I meant to say!" Paraskeva burst in tears, almost pleading. "I just made a mistake! I know how much that is!"

"Your answer proved what you know. It proved that you don't know anything. And don't even try to argue with me. And remember that you're not going to get anywhere".

"Fine", Paraskeva thought, "what will I do now? I just said one word instead of another, and because of that, I'm not going to get anywhere? As if there are people who never make mistakes when they speak. What's going on?"

She was afraid that the teacher would tell everything her mother, and even if she didn't, her mother would see the mark on the school site, and then she would ask her why she got such a low grade, Paraskeva would tell the truth about just having made a mistake and knowing the correct answer, and about the teacher having interrupted her and treated her badly, and I think anyone can figure out what would happen afterwards.

As for Nankov, he had other plans on that day. In particular, he was going to the park with his best friend and have fun. But he didn't want that either.

So this friend called him. At first, Nikolay didn't want to answer the call, but in the end he decided to:

"Nikolay, are you coming? I've been waiting for you!"

"Listen", Nikolay said, pulling each word out of himself with some difficulty, "you're not my friend any longer! And I'm not going anywhere with you! Go to your useless park on your own!"

Actually, instead of 'useless' he uttered an adjective that I cannot write here.

After that, he hung up, so I can't know how his friend reacted to those words. But I think it can be figured out.

Still trying to calm down, Nikolay opened the drawer and took out of it a diary he kept some time before, but stopped for some reason.

Clearly, most pages were written up. But he found a page on which there was nothing but parallel lines. He put the date there and wrote those words:

"My mind has already reached the edge of the possible. Today I have lost the most important thing, no, the most important person in my life. She never cared about me, she was never there for me, and this is already killing me. It's a pity that I'm not a wizard and I can't turn back time, otherwise I would try to get her back. But I know that even so I wouldn't get anything, because she never noticed me, she looked through me as if I were a ghost. And now I've become one. Without her, my life is like a plate where nothing fits. And it will always be".

Having written down those words, he decided to have a little sleep, hoping to forget Bozhura at least for a moment. But he couldn't. It seemed to him that he saw this girl's face, heard his voice saying that it's not the end yet, that she's always by his side and is sorry for having hurt him with her words.

He tried to forgive her, but at the bottom of his heart, he couldn't. His tears had filled him up. And he started praying for his life to end as soon as possible. But who could he pray if he no longer believed in anything or anyone? He had lost interest for everything and now he only wanted one thing.