The Prophecy: Revenge

Chapter 15: Back home

It had been exactly 15 days since she'd found out about her cancer. Exactly 7 since she returned to her empty home. She'd stopped smoking, not because she cared about her cancer, but because it burned whenever the smoke hit her throat. She wondered how long she had left, did she really want to leave without saying goodbye to him? For once, she'd have to swallow her pride. She called him, he picked up on the first ring, she realised he didn't look at the name and picked up blindly.

"Hello?" He asked impatiently.

"Damon.."

"...Ayla?"

"Listen I- I know you don't want to see me, but meet me for one last time. Tonight at 8. Please."

He hung up without responding, she knew even when he was unsure, that he'd come. As the clock turned closer to 8, he grew more confused. Should he go? Ayla was the most stubborn person he'd ever met, why would she swallow her pride and call him? It had to be an emergency, he had to go. Ayla, however, began to regret her decision, if she was going to die, she should've at least died with her pride. As the resentful thoughts began to return, the doorbell rang. He was here.

She let him in and offered him to sit, "Just tell me why you've called me." He said, coldly. She just looked down and went to the kitchen.

"Tea?" She asked.

"Coffee."

She led him to the garden and they sat in solitude.
With her stealing a look every now and then, and him refraining from even looking at her.

And so for the last time, they sit next to each other in silence. Both wonder where it all went wrong. Neither of them wanting to admit their mistakes. How she got so obsessed and how he gave up on her.

He remembered how they sat in the same garden with nothing but the stars looking over them, how the sun would fall and how it would rise and nothing would change, how the night would pass but the sound of their laughter would endlessly echo across the street. Nothing much had changed now, the stars still shone in the dark, daunting sky, the sun still fell and rose, the nights still passed but now, the endless sound of nothing swelled their ears. The neverending realisation of how they had failed each other, broken their vows- and with them, the trust they promised to have.

She thought to herself, "Lies." What she'd been told all her life were lies. All those quotes and lectures about how no one needs each other, how people can't be dependent on love, were all lies. One does need love. Whether that's a mother's love or a man's. We need it to know someone cares, to know that what we do affects others because the lies she was told otherwise were the reason she lost everything she held important. But then, it was this love that didn't stop her, that thought its duty was done just by stopping her once. She thought he didn't care and he thought if he stopped her, he'd be deemed controlling.

He wanted to ask her how she was, how she was doing without him but he stopped himself. If she didn't care why would he? And it was this thinking that cost them their relationship and her, her health. Because what he didn't know, and what she hid from everyone, was the stage 5 cancer that bred in her lungs due to the excessive cigarettes she smoked in his absence.

She was an orphan, a party animal. After Chase, she'd never felt any real affection until she met him. It was always guys give her attention, she sleeps with them and they leave her. She didn't know love, she didn't know loyalty. He was the first man who spoke to her, who understood her and wanted to be friends before anything else. What she felt with him, she'd never felt before, and she wanted him to stay and she could tell he wanted her to stay too. The way he cared for her whenever she went out, how she got in less risks because she actually had someone to live for. But for some reason, she couldn't open up to him. She couldn't make him feel that she wanted him, because she didn't. She needed him, just as he needed her but she was told to never make a man feel like you need them. She knew from experience to never get attached, and she thought she didn't, until he left.

She wondered if things would be different if she hadn't gone out that night but then it was his fault for not stopping her enough. He wondered if things were different if he stopped her with force but then it was her fault for not understanding his trauma.

He'd had enough of the awkwardness, the silence. He got up, looked down at her and saw her look away. He felt a shift in the atmosphere and so as he began to walk towards the exit, he felt everything look at him in disappointment. The trees they kissed under, the flowers they planted together, the swing where they played like the little kids they planned to have one day. The thunder crackled in the distance, and it was as if even nature knew that today was the day two lovers broke apart.

He turned round the corner and he was gone. No goodbyes said, but it was everything for her, to see him one last time, to know he still cared enough to come when she called him. She could now die in peace. As the rain trickled down her eyes and cheeks, she felt a choking sensation and she coughed. Blood. She felt a stabbing throb in her stomach. She got up to go inside and fell on her knees. Gag. Vomit. Blood.

He walked towards his car with a heavy heart. How could he be sure what he was leaving behind was worse than what lies ahead? As he opened the door, he halted and gasped for air. Something had happened, he didn't know what. He sat in his car, turned the engine on but couldn't start driving.

Her head was spinning, a sharp ringing filled her ears and as she brought a mouthful of blood again, she knew this was the end. Her life was ending just as how it had started, alone. She stopped trying to breathe, lay on the floor and waited for death to take her.

He didn't know what took over him, was it the love he held for her or was it nature pushing him to save her? But he got out of his car and ran. Ran to go back to her and apologise and tell her he was back and he'd never leave. He didn't know what he was going to say when he saw her, just that he wanted her back.

The thunder roared in the sky, lightning lit up the sky and he saw her. Next to a puddle of blood, peacefully asleep. He wasn't in his senses, he didn't know what to do . He walked slowly towards her. He fell to his knees, held her hand and cried. He thought it was the end for her but then he felt a slow, weak beat in her veins. She still had life.