O N C E H E R O I C
• foreword •
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EVERY STORY HAS A BEFORE, it's simply how every story goes, just as there's a shifting point and an aftermath.
It may sometimes be difficult to differentiate each stage though. The moments aren't distinct enough to categorize into a single table of events.
Did the plot start when they met? Or did it start when both of them unknowingly decided to go to the same place? Was it the shifting point when they met? Or was it the shifting point when they became friends?
All these unanswered possibilities. All correct in their own way.
But the thing with beginnings, is that nobody ever expects the point in their life they're currently living in would ever become a comparison. A comparison to the present, the future, of their life.
Of course life is changing and in general bound to change. They're well aware of these facts. They aren't oblivious about the world. They know how life is even changing at this exact moment.
But it doesn't matter how well informed a person is about change. It's all about realization. They don't expect, because they don't realize.
And that is how you can tell it's a before.
That's why all of the examples are correct.
The before is the time where you can smile freely without once thinking twice. The time where you can laugh so joyfully birds practically sing at the sound your voice. The time, where your shoulders didn't sag with the weights suddenly placed upon you, your legs didn't drag behind you as you dreaded the next day and your eyes weren't underlined in dark bags from restless nights filled with not a single second of sleep.
It's the before where the doubts in your head didn't exist yet.
No before is the same.
In some cases the before may end too early, but there's always one. You never get ripped away from your beginning without experiencing it first, even if you may not remember it.
Sometimes if you're lucky enough, if you call it luck, you get your before a few times in your life.
That's what's supposed to happen.
But this isn't about the before.
This is nowhere near the before.
Because the before, is the time of your life where there wasn't a barrier between now and then, here and there, the bad and the good. Nothing separated pre-you and post you with a singular event drawn as the fine line between them. Everything was held together, even if tied loosely.
And this certainly has a separator event.
It was a car crash, or at least, it was like one.
You're cruising by with your love ones after a long day, as you usually do.
You're at peace.
The sun is shining a warmth to ease the events you just experienced in the day. The flowers are blooming with its pastel buds open wide enough to welcome the new spring season. The animals are singing their own content tune away.
A soft smile graces your lips.
And the next thing you know, everything shifts from perspective.
A pure white noise racks through your ears. You think somebody might be screaming, but you aren't sure. You can't tell if it's because somebody's screaming or everything just became really loud all of a sudden. Amplified.
Maybe you're the one screaming. You don't know.
You can make out a patch of blood on your arm, though. You can feel the substance clinging to you as you try to move out of the uncomfortable position you've suddenly jolted into. Although, again what you can't differentiate is whether it's yours or if it belongs to your loved one beside you.
And so the fear growing in your chest has finally reached it's peak. The fear that has been growing ever since you felt that shift in perspective. The fear of a catastrophe. And so then everything suddenly comes in flashes.
An unknown car speeding out of nowhere. The harsh impact as it collides into your vehicle. You can feel somebody touching your face, holding your cheek in a protective, soft manner. You hear the windshields shatter, an explosion in your ears, as the feeling of the sharp glass prickles against your bare face. You catch sight of a bloody hand shake as the person dials each individual number key on a phone.
Distorted images fill your eyes. They pass into your line of sight before disappearing the next split second.
It was too fast to make out anything. It was just too fast. There was no time to slam the brakes. There was no time to stop.
Everything was just too fast.
You get caught in the face of the storm. One, that has been unknowingly brewing for ages and you're walking, walking and walking, hoping to finally get through this awful storm and see the light at the end.
But the problem is, you weren't ready for the storm and so you couldn't find your way out of it, at least, not until you were too wrapped up in its clutches and it was too late.
And you didn't know. You couldn't possibly know anything was happening. You didn't know.
Because even the strongest power has its limits. And nobody could've predicted it to prevent the disasters that struck.
There's always boundaries. They prevent you from knowing your future. An endless possibility.
And so you never stop and think when the bad will happen either. There was no time. It was too fast to comprehend.
It was a shooting star. You see it, your eyes close, you wish and then it's gone.
You see the car. Your eyes close out of your own accord, because maybe, if you can't see it, it's not actually happening. So you squeeze your eyes shut. You begin to so desperately wish for it to be over, for everything to just stop.
And then it is.
The white noise ceased so you hesitantly open your eyes.
Everything is gone. Halted in time. Disappeared, just like you wished.
But not what you wanted.
Be careful for what you wish for.
You want it to be over so badly you're not thinking that the effects, the consequences, could be so much worse than what you just went through.
You're thinking the bad has already happened, but you haven't even begun to experience your own true level of hell.
Because nothing is as it seems.
Nothing is the way you believe it to be.
And once upon a time there was a hero, who wasn't.
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