Heal Me

Chapter 1

"Son, I've got to be careful here. Stop messing with my dashboard." ...

"Damon, lean back in your seat. I can't drive properly because of you!"

"Dad, stop whining..."

"... Sweetheart, isn't that car supposed to stop at the sign?...Oh my God, Joseph! Hit the brake!"

"NO!" Damon screamed with a hoarse voice, waking up from his nightmare. His bedroom was still in darkness, although a few cold sunrays of dawn peeked through the curtains.

He was panting, his heart beating wildly inside his chest and he felt a sickening feeling in the pit of his stomach. The bed sheets underneath him were moist and sticky from the thin layer of sweat covering his body, yet he felt hot and cold at the same time, burning and freezing at once, as he was still dazed from waking up so suddenly.

Licking his dry lips, Damon leaned against the headboard, violently grasping the hem of his duvet. He then closed his eyes and gulped, forcing down the lump in his throat and not even bothering to check the clock next to him, already knowing it was early. These nightmares were slowly driving him insane; they played over and over again in his head, sleep after sleep, breath after breath. He realized it was his fault that things hadn't went the way they were supposed to, he could sometimes see it in his father's eyes, in the eyes of his neighbors, of his friends... or maybe he was wrong; maybe he was imagining things that were not actually there. But whether the others despised him or not, Damon was sure of the fact that he was now damned for life.

~

'Damn this weather!' she thought as she began trudging from the bus station to her school. Her bloody-red ballerina flats were not far from being soaked completely and she wondered why she chose to wear them today, as her feet were now freezing and numb. 

Getting to the small crossroad near the school and waiting for the cars to pass so she could walk safely across the road, she noticed how a few cold drops of rain wet the top of her head and she instinctively reached to brush them off her hair. Her long slender fingers were trembling, not only from the temperature outside, but also from the nervousness she felt, increasing with each step she took, thinking about the important exam in Literature early this morning.

As she let her arm fall by her side, the tips of her fingers rubbing together to get rid of the moisture, her gaze suddenly fell on a shadow in the park just across the street. In that dreadful weather, whoever was that shadow, he or she was trapped under the dark grayish sky, under what it seemed like a wretched destiny of standing in the rain like that.

But it was simply foolish of someone to believe in fate. That meant that their lives had already been lived, either with or without their saying, and that they couldn't control or deny who they really were deep inside, as our nature is given by God. She found these beliefs stupid and contradictory and what never seemed right to her was people's blind faith; it was fake.

She finally continued walking, faster and more determined this time, getting closer and closer. Her eyes narrowed to try to figure out the identity of the shadow and, taking a few more steps, she realized that the dark silhouette belonged to a boy.