Edge of End

by Suren Hakobyan

  Chapter twenty: I’m back

  It seemed to me like an eternity had passed since I hadn’t seen such bright light. Our surroundings got swallowed up by the endless brightness. Elizabeth was sucked out of my reach leaving me to fall down into the nothingness alone. I was unable to move my hands and legs, my sides became paralyzed, my eyes glazed up and the light suddenly turned off.

  I was in a house, standing in the middle of a large room. A long sofa was just to my right and there were three small-sized shits randomly scattered on it. An expensive looking carpet covered the floor–its dark morose colors made the room appear even gloomier than it was. Directly in front of me two angel statues were hung on the wall holding their arms above their heads. To my left there was a huge TV and in the far right corner was a glass coffee table an ash-tray with a smoking cigarette on it.

  Where I was? How had I ended up here? I was supposed to go back to my body, but instead I had been transported to a strange room full of cigarette smoke. I did a quick scan of the room. Behind me, there was a door that led to another room. I narrowed my eyes, and for a split second felt like I wasn’t alone.

  There was someone else in that room.

  I hesitated for a moment or two, I just couldn’t make up my mind whether I should go in or not.

  As I was pondering what to do, a deafening sound made me jump and refocused my attention. Turning around, I saw the same black-haired woman that I had seen previously in my visions. Sitting on the sofa with her knees pulled up close to her breasts, her hands covered her face. Was she crying? I took a step closer and knelt down to her.

  “Get out!” she shouted through her hands. Then she slapped me across the face.

  I recoiled, startled, and instinctively clenched my fists. She jumped to her feet her eyes red from the tears. She was clearly upset but at the same time furious.

  “Get out of my life. If you don’t leave now, I’m going to call the police. I swear to God the only sun you’ll ever see is through bars.”

  My hand rose up as if somebody else was controlling my body. I followed its movements with my eyes, unable to do anything to stop it. And I slapped across her face.

  She shrieked from a mixture of fear and stinging pain. Her back slammed to the back of the sofa, and she once again covered her face with her hands.

  “Mommy!”

  I spun around. A little girl of about eight or nine ran out of the room behind me and ran straight to the woman.

  Melissa.

  She hugged the woman’s leg looking up at me with a pleading expression.

  “Please, don’t hurt Mommy, please,” she begged; her voice trembled with innocent fear, and she was barely able to contain the rush of tears that were brimming in her eyes.

  My sinful hand grabbed her by her arm and brutally pulled her off her mother. The girl screamed as I kept my fingers tightly wrapped around her thin arm.

  “Don’t hit me Daddy,” she yelled covering her head with her other arm. “I’ve done nothing. I’m a good girl. No Daddy.”

  With a hysterical cry the woman planted herself between me and the girl, snatching my arm in mid-air.

  “If you dare hit my girl, I’ll wipe you off the face of Earth,” she threatened. I stared into her flaming eyes, the eyes of a mother who would die without any hesitation for her child.

  I dove deep into her look; the walls slid backwards, the room darkened and I found myself running in a dark alley charging towards a man clad in a black leather jacket. He was at least fifteen steps ahead of me, but I could hear his quick panicked breaths which echoed around the alley ricocheting off the gloomy brick walls, stinging my ears. But still I continued to pursue him, a gun gripped firmly in my right hand. Despite it being almost pitch black, his silhouette was visible, and I could see that he was flinching under the shadows of the high alley walls.

  My money, my head chimed. It was money that had pushed me to follow that guy. I was ready to fire a shot at any moment, but I soon realized that I wasn’t as quick as him when it came to running. I was losing him, but, unfortunately for him there was no way out, no escape. The alley was a dead end. Again my hands acted independently of my brain. My arm rose, gun in hand and–boom!

  The man fell hard onto the concrete, his arms open wide. I ran up to get a closer look. He lay motionless on the ground, facedown, looking dead. I crouched down beside him to make sure. Reaching for his arm, I slowly rolled him over.

  Another shot blasted, deafening me even more–a shot that was intended for me. The man’s eyes slowly opened; they were full of hatred. He began breathing faster, his breaths short, gasping for air and spluttering blood.

  I dropped his arm and looked down at my own chest. There was a little hole in the middle of it. Blood rapidly covered my crisp white shirt and the arm that was holding the gun began to go numb and weaken. I felt like I was fighting for my own breath. My lungs filled with acute pain every time I gasped for air.

  I lay on the ground on my side, trying to get some air into my lungs. My hands trembled; my vision became blurred and misty. Everything darkened, and I was transported into a place of absolute blackness.

  I had absolutely no idea how long I had been there, alone, deprived of seeing anything, anyone, until my eyes finally opened a little, allowing in a dingy light.

  What kind of new game was this? I was lying on a bed looking up at a white ceiling. A tangled mess of wires were stuck to my arms and chest. The buzzing sound of the apparatus that was monitoring my heart rate echoed in the room.

  I realized I was finally back in my body.

  Overcome with sheer joy and happiness, I tried to sit up, but a sharp pain jolted through my chest dropping me back down on the bed again. I looked down. A large bandage was wound round my chest, a big spot of blood right in the center.

  I howled. The last dream wasn’t a vision, it was a memory. I’d been shot in the chest. The man I’d been pursuing for some reason or other, probably for money, really had shot me.

  I tried to force my mind to remember anything else, but after being shot, there was only darkness.

  My entire past life had been erased from my mind and, to tell the truth, I was glad.