Secrets That Define Us - A Short Story

A secret buried since childhood grows like a cancer devouring everything in its path. Through the seasons of her life, Cheri navigates the tides and currents, trying to gain control over the path she’s being lead that is slowly depleting her soul.

Fighting back, she wreaks havoc and gains the power she thought would satisfy her. When one man’s love touches her deeply, she battles against it. The fortress she has built to protect herself has become the prison of her torment.

Cheri’s spirit reaches out to every person who has harboured a secret they were too ashamed to speak about.

Excerpt:

I’m dying.

My heart beats to the rhythm of the clock hanging on the wall. I watch the hand marking each second and wonder when it will stop. Boom-boom; tick-tick; beep-beep; boom-boom; tick-tick; beep-beep. This soulless tempo accompanies the strain of my assisted breathing, made more difficult by the suffocating smell of disinfectant lingering in the air. My captive spirit fights to be free of this rotting carcass, all but dead bar for the machine that keeps me alive against my will. Time, which stole my life, is now dragging to torment me. Memories keep bobbing to the surface, regardless of how many times I try to abolish them from the recesses of my mind.

Forgive, whispers a voice in my head.

My anger flares as I wrestle the voice into the abyss. The secret I have carried since childhood is the wound that has never healed. It is the secret that defined the rest of my life and now it is keeping me from dying. A fever dims my eyesight as I try to focus on the clock, wishing it to stop and my heart to mimic it.

Forgive, the soft voice urges with feverish repetition.

It’s too late! my spirit shouts back, infuriated.

Forgive.

Let me die.

Forgive.

‘Nurse!’ I call out for some form of reality to shatter my delusions.

My mouth is parched, making my attempts to call out no more than a strained whisper. I focus on the assistance button beside my bed, but no amount of willpower will raise my arm to press it. All strength has left my body insisting I lie like a dead weight to ensure maximum suffering until the nurse does her hourly checks, which for me is an eternity away.

What is the point of forgiveness now?

It will set you free.

There is no freedom in death!

You can choose how you leave this world. Will you take this curse with you?

‘Nurse!’

I wonder if it’s too late to reveal my secret. Who would listen? Who would believe me when all this time the scars have been hidden? Who would care? My life’s seasons have expired and are now ending in this wintry cold that bites at my bones. Why am I still carrying this curse with me? If I had broken it during my youth, would my life have been different? Instead, I gave it power by keeping it secret.

Your purchase will assist in supporting She Rescue Home.