The Changing Lines - Part 2

On November 30, 2010, I wrote a story called, "The Changing Lines", it was just a draft then, so I took a poll and asked people if they wanted me to continue the story.

On the request of LaurieDawn, I continued the story...

Please do leave comments below.

She closed her eyes, embraced herself, and took a deep breath. It was going to be a short night... She could feel it.

She had never felt special, never felt like she was beautiful. She did not have beautiful hair or beautiful eyes, flawless skin or the perfect figure. Ever since she was young, she had always felt a sense of emptiness, as if something was missing, as if she was incomplete.

She could have been the most beautiful person on earth, but still a look in the mirror showed a frail young woman with dusty brown hair and plain brown eyes, not more than 5’6.

She tried very hard to hide her insecurities. She had tried very hard to rise above her fears. No amount of make up made her feel beautiful.

Then Sam came along. Sam brightened her world, he made her feel beautiful. He made her feel extraordinary.

She was cold and alone but she could not go home, there was no sanctuary for her to return to. She sat as she reminisced the good times when she did this for fun. That was all that the lines meant to her… Fun and games. It was a form of harmless entertainment, and she never considered how her trivial behaviour could lead her to this cold dark alley. She kept reading the last message she had received from Sam on her cell phone, “I love you, Sarah.”

Sam had always been there for her, he was her rock. Sam relied on her a lot, maybe a bit too much. He had been there for her through all her ups and downs, but there was a lot that she had hidden from him. Sam knew nothing of how serious her obsession with the future had become.

Being a student of psychology, Sarah enjoyed the diversity of emotions. It amazed her how easily people could believe whatever she would say. Sarah was good with words, but sometimes she would exaggerate and manipulate the lines. She had come to believe that perhaps the lines worked to her wishes.

Sarah came from a broken home and a tormented childhood, yet she had suppressed those memories. She had even changed her name. She wanted to have nothing to do with her tormented past, little did she know that she swam in dangerous waters. She had a gift that she had made a mockery out of. Sam knew Sarah was gifted, but did not necessarily believe in palmistry himself. He only let her continue because he thought it made her happy, and he knew nothing of how dangerous it could be.

Unlike Sarah, Sam had lived a perfect life by anyone’s standards, the only child of a married suburban couple living in the city. He too had his share of skeletons, ones that Sarah knew nothing about. None of which had any importance to Sam. Sarah was the only thing he cared for, the only person who concerned him. She was his universe. He had already given her a necklace. “With this necklace, my beautiful Sarah, I tie a leash on you, which I never plan on letting go off.”

She smiled at his memories as she played with the necklace.

She could not change what she knew, but she could alter things enough for them to be set back in place, back in time.

She was never meant to be with anyone. She was to die young, to die alone. By being with Sam, she might have changed her lines, but she did his too. Every second she was with Sam was a second stolen from his life.

She loved him too much to take away his life. The last thing she could ever do was cause him pain. She had seen it in his lines, he would die with her, because of her, she could not let that happen. Sitting there in the cold alley, she wished she could have had more time with him. She knew that in a matter of minutes, a speeding car was about to skid around the corner. The lights would be all that she would see, her warm blood would be the last thing she would feel.

Her cellphone was ringing again... It was Sam, but she had already made her decision. She chose to give life to Sam. In a pure impulse, she went and stood in the middle of the road. As she had predicted, the car came and the lights blinded her. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

“SARAH!!“

She opened her eyes as the car crashed into the wall. Her knees were weak, her eyes filled with tears. “It can’t be...,“ she whispered almost too softly for anyone to hear. She was out of breath and could not inhale, she took the last few steps towards the car. With jaws clasped, the driver’s seat held none other but Sam.

She fell on her knees. There were ambulances and the police, soon she sat in the ambulance with Sam. While too scared to touch him, she prayed silently, tears falling freely down her flushed cheeks. “Stay... Please..” Her words were forming soft whispers.

They took him to the ER, while she followed. He was in capable hands, but she prayed softly, “Please change... Please come… come back.“

A doctor came out, but she was too afraid to respond, and he in too much of a hurry to talk to her. Standing next to Sam, she tried to clean the wound on his forehead with her hand, but could not. She tried again, but the bleeding refused to stop.

She bit her lip and sat down next to him.

She wanted to hold his hand, but couldn’t. She could not touch him. Her glance got fixated on his palm, his lines had changed. Mortified, the thought struck her just now.

She looked at her palms, which no longer had any lines.

Copyright © Qudsia Pervez

January 10, 2011

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