Jason and I are both seated in his car while he drives us to his home.
My heart pounds in my chest just by thought, how everything changes so fast, and my life took a drastic turn, changing everything.
Dad had an accident and is now in a coma. And every time I think of him lying lifeless with his eyes closed, it breaks my heart, and my eyes get wet with tears. The man who used to be so full of life is now lifeless. He can’t even breathe without the aid of machines attached to him.
My mind deviates from my thoughts when I feel like Jason put his hand on top of my hand, squeezing lightly, giving me a small smile before continuing to drive. I smiled back at him for his compassion.
Things change quickly. Jason, who once couldn’t even bother speaking to me__, is now cheering me up in bad times.
Only in a couple of days, the person who can’t even stand the sight of me__ is now helping me and supporting me in my most vulnerable period of life. Things transform fast, but I am too tired and stressed physically and emotionally to complain of anything. And it feels good to have somebody you can rely on in moments like this.
Glancing upwards, I see Jason driving with his one hand on the wheel and his other hand on my hand, holding and caressing me.
“Jason..,” I called, irritated by the silence in the car. Jason purred at my words, informing me he is listening. “Why are you all sweet and caring with me? ”
Listening to my words, he turns his face toward me and stares at me for a few seconds with a gloomy look on his face before continuing to drive. “Why? ____don’t you like me, being good to you?”
“That’s not what I meant, it’s just that…” I paused and gazed at Jason, who still holds a gloomy look while driving. “Why now, from all this time?”
Jason just ignored my words, not giving a shit about it as he drove fast, with his hands holding the steering wheel so tight that his knuckles turned white.
“Jason,” I tried to ask again. And this time, Jason glowered at me, pressing his feet on the brakes furiously, stopping the car.
Glancing around my surroundings from the window, I see Jason stopped his car on the side of the road, in the middle of nowhere.
All I can see as far as my eyes go are trees and more trees on both sides of the roads. I gazed at Jason with his face filled with anger, knuckles white, blue veins displaying all over his knuckles by gripping the steering wheel tight.
I sucked a deep breath, thinking of all the reasons he could take me to a strange place like this.
‘Is he going to kill me, which is why he brought me here with him?’
I looked around my surroundings to see not a single human being is present here as far as my eyes can see. That’s why Jason brought me here to make sure no one could catch him in the act.
‘But does he hate me so much that he brought me in to kill me or worse___wait nothing is worse than dying,’ I wonder as my mind has allowed me the possibility of worse scenarios that could happen here, with me?
“Stop…,” I elevated my eyes to see Jason, with his face directed towards me.
“I will do nothing that you’re thinking of in your imaginative mind.”
Hang on. Jason knows what I’m thinking. I give him a timid smile, scratching my head in embarrassment.
“You were wondering why I hate you.” I nodded my head vigorously at his words.
“I will tell you and clear all your doubts. But,” Jason pauses between his words, sighing.
“But…what? Jason,”
“Never mind, you want to know the truth, right…,” I nodded my head at the words. “I will tell…”
“But first let me take you somewhere, the place which means a lot to me,”
“Where…,” I questioned. Jason didn’t respond and drove silently with his eyes focused on the road.
Jason’s behavior is stranger than I expected.
**********
Jason
I never thought I’d ever sympathized with Kiera, the girl whose father is the reason for every bad thing that’s happened to me. Kiera is someone who has everything in her life that one would always desire: money, people who love her, and a father who loves her with all his heart.
And if I’m honest with myself, I’m jealous of her because she’s someone everyone adores, where I’m someone people are afraid of, where Kiera’s got her own family, I’m lonely. All the wealth I’ve gained with my hard work isn’t worth anything when you’re alone.
But, where Kiera is always smiling and cheerful, the day when she learned about her father’s accident. I saw the familiar scenario of falling apart, crying helplessly for one’s father, switching from a joyful person who is always ready to make everybody smile, to a lifeless being, from tragedy. I have seen all this, or if I say, experience it.
I don’t know how seeing Kiera is experiencing the same pain that I once suffered made me forget all the hatred that I have for Kiera and his father, who is lying lifeless on the hospital bed. The tragedy made me realize how wrong I was. All this time, there was only one aim in my life, to make everyone pay for the suffering that once caused in my life. And now, when my enemy is suffering, I realize my mistakes.
I curse myself, of how I can ever think of someone else suffering because of me. I was doing all this for my father. How could I forget my father’s teaching?
How?
My father would never appreciate me, his son, destroying someone’s life, happiness for him. My father, I don’t think I’ll ever forgive myself if anything happens to Gabriel because of me.
Only for that reason, I’m determined to tell the truth to Kiera and return everything that I took from her. I don’t think she’ll forgive me after I mention all the things I have done to destroy her father. But the least I could do is say sorry and free her from this unwanted relationship I bound her with by divorcing her
********
Kiera
“Kiera,” I heard somebody call my name with a hand on my shoulder, waking me up from my sleep.
I moaned with distress as I felt the hands of someone on my shoulder, gently shaking my body.
“What,” I replied, groaning loud and clear.
As I opened my eyes, I saw Jason looking out the window of the car with his hands on the wheel, and the car parked somewhere in an area I don’t know about, “We’re here,” Jason said, looking out the car window with his eyes focused somewhere on the horizon.
Jason sighed profoundly, his face serious. Jason sighed profoundly, and within moments, he got out of the car, walking beside me and opening my door as he proposed to me in his “Come.”
I nodded my head at his word, placing my hands in his hand as he took us both inside the house that mostly looks abandoned for many years.
On entering, I scanned the structure of the house, which seems mostly destructive. Thick layers of dirt line the floor of the house, the wall is all covered with spider webs, and when I look closely, I see spiders on them.
Creepy!
As I gazed around, my eyes landed on a couch in the middle of the living room with pillows and a blanket lying on top with everything covered in thick layers of dirt as if nobody ever attempted to move anything from its place for a long time.
A gallery wall just above the wall where the couch is, with pictures frames, all coated with dirt such that you cannot see any pictures in the frame as we kept walking, I pulled Jason’s hand, which held me the whole time we were here, stopping him.
“Jason…. why are we here, and what is this place” I questioned as l looked around the space. I don’t like this place for a moment. This place gives me chills down my spine.
Jason, let my hand go, walking backward with his broad arms wide open as he is presenting something. “Here we are then, Kiera, at the place where everything starts from.”
“Today, Kiera, I will share with you the story of a beautiful family that was shattered by one person’s mistake.”
Jason bought a chair from somewhere around the dining room, placing it in the middle of the room. “Sit.” Jason wipes the dirt off the chair with his handkerchief before he asks me to sit down.
Jason breathed deeply, eyes full of all kinds of sentiments, with his eyes clearly displaying all his emotions. Not knowing what to do, I held Jason’s hand, squeezing it gently in an attempt to ease his pain even for a bit.
Jason smiled at my action, smiling a little, squeezing my hand back lightly.