2. The Shoes on My Bed
1081 Words
Enya's Point of View
The bus crash replayed in my mind like a nightmare, I couldn't wake from.
The screams. Blood. Wrecked pieces of metal.
Even though I managed to escape the tragedy, my legs were too weak to carry me, my heart was too heavy to face anyone. School was out of the question.
I collapsed onto a roadside bench and pulled out my phone, rereading the three texts again and again.
Who sent them?
How did they know about an accident that even I had forgotten?
I tried to type a text. The words I wanted to type kept forming and dissolving. I had so many questions, but I didn't know what to ask.
"Who are you?"
Finally, I asked the dumbest question ever.
If they wanted to let me know their identity, they would have come to my doorstep this morning to inform me about the danger rather than sending an anonymous text.
The reply came almost instantly.
"You Will Know… But Not Yet."
as expected.
I let out a frustrated sigh and decided to walk home.
**************************
The universe, it seemed, wasn't done playing with me today.
Just one misstep, a sharp tug and suddenly the sole of my left sneaker flapped loose.
Fu**!!!
I cursed under my breath, trying to fix it until I reached home. But my luck had already ended when I barely skipped that bloody accident.
I gave up. My sneaker seemed beyond repair. It was, anyway, a very old pair. I decided to walk barefoot.
I have another pair at home, older but still intact. I couldn't afford to waste even a euro on a new pair. I have to save every cent, in case I couldn't stop my mom from giving birth to Raphael's younger brother. Then I have to support myself, live on my own, far away from that cruel family.
The sidewalk was merciless on my poor feet. My eyes narrowed, my lips stretched to a thin line as I tried to endure the pain.
All of a sudden, a middle-aged woman stepped into my path, holding a water bottle.
"Here, sweetheart", she said, her voice kind.
"That man over there asked me to give this to you, and..." She hesitated, glancing at my feet. "He said, you should move to the side of the road. It is safer."
I was stiffened. "What man?"
I looked around.
There was no man...
"Oh! He... He was just here... How could he disappear so soon?" the woman uttered confusedly.
***************************************
In the afternoon, my mom, Stella, walked in, still in her scrubs, exhaustion etched on her face. I was so worried about her, but the moment I saw the car outside, my blood began to boil.
"You were with him," I said, my voice trembling but sharp.
She froze, then tried to walk past me. She didn't even ask why I was home at this hour.
I grabbed her arm, "Mom, he's a cheater. Aron Hendrix started seeing you when his wife was still alive. And when he is having a son with her. "
Her eyes narrowed, "Enya, I don't know what's going on with you. But my love life is none of your business."
"It is my business when you drag both you and me into ruin because of him!" My words came out like knives, though I didn't intend them.
She looked clearly shaken for a second. Then, she looked right into my eyes. With a voice low but fierce, she spoke,
"Even if I ruin my life with Aron, I won't let you be ruined. So, don't worry."
Her words stabbed me painfully.
"Remember this well, Enya. I did everything for this family. For you. For your father. The best days of my life were spent working tirelessly for this family. Now, whatever I am going to do with my life, you don't get to judge me."
Her arm was pulled from my grip. She went upstairs without looking back.
I clutched the railing; my whole body was trembling. Guilt burned in my chest. She was not wrong.
Dad's cancer took him when I was ten. My mom was only thirty, but she had to shoulder all the burden alone. Fight a lone battle. She had no family left, no one to help with the debts. She sold our house, worked every shift she could, and sacrificed everything to help us get back on our feet. She had already done more than enough.
That was the reason I let her do anything she wished in the past life. That's why I followed her to the wolf den voluntarily.
But in this life, I won't let her drag both of us to the bottomless abyss. No matter how much it hurts both of us, I have to stop it. We must stay far away from Aron. From Raphael. From all of them.
**************************
I was staring at the package sitting on the bed like a riddle. It was delivered to my name just now. I didn't order anything, and I have no one who would send me a surprise gift.
I tore the tape away, with my hands trembling and my mind filled with utter curiosity. Inside was a shoebox. I carefully lifted the lid, and... I froze.
A brand new pair of sneakers! The exact model I had broken in the morning. And... It's exactly my size!
The box slipped from my hands and landed on the bed with a dull thud.
My breath caught. What is the meaning of this?
Right then, my phone buzzed.
"It was a broken sneaker, not a broken leg. So your day was still good. Hope tomorrow will be better."
My heart stopped.
So, what that woman said in the morning was true. There had been a man. Watching me. Following my every step, close enough to know about the broken shoe, close enough to interfere with my life in ways I couldn't explain.
Should I feel grateful or terrified?
My phone buzzed again.
"Have a good night. Tomorrow is a big day. You are going to apply to college."
I stared at the screen, my heart racing.
Tomorrow... That was the day everything began in my past life. The day I applied to my Dream University, Queen's, where I met Raphael for the first time.
But not in this life.
No matter who this mysterious protector is, no matter what fate wants, I will not walk that same path again.
- Writer
