Chapter 1 New Perspective

"Ahhh, again..."

I let out a long sigh checking this month's bill, "another hard month " I squeezed my eyes and sat down on a wooden chair next to it.

Running my fingers through my short dark hair and holding the white sheet of paper that was filled with nothing but a long list of numbers, I was forced to take a deep breath.

I could not believe that just one damn paper held more power than I could ever, just with this one piece, I and my mom could easily get evicted from our apartment.

Raising my head, I looked at the clock in front of me.

The last time I went out was a while ago because I was tired from work, so yeah it's been a long time since I didn't go outside, thanks to letters like this.

When dad passed away due to his illness, mom and I were left with a huge debt which took a few years for us to pay off.

If we didn't have the right amount of money to pay it on time, we would be homeless. But since dad died, mom worked harder than ever just so that she could make sure our house had food on the table every day.

But so did I...

I took a year off from college so I could find a job and help her to gain a bit of financial stability, but these bills never seemed to end, with every month we would receive higher and higher ones, almost as if we were cursed by the debt collectors.

It's not like we don't want to pay them either, but how are we supposed to do that when no matter what we do the number of bills goes up?

I heard mom say something about having a second source of income once a week, but that would only be possible if I get back to college in September right?

Right now all I could do was just keep my head down and pray while hoping for a better future.

*breeeze*

And then the sound of the doorbell pulled me out of my thoughts.

I stood up and walked towards the main entrance.

When I opened the door, I saw a woman standing there with short brown hair, she was wearing a black coat and a skirt that was slightly above her knees. She smiled at me with beautiful green eyes.

"Mrs Key?"

"She's not home" I replied slowly, trying to understand who she was. She handed me an envelope, "this is from her husband."

"Hu-husband ?" I stuttered for a moment knowing damn well that dad was no longer here with us.

"He said he loves you very much, and wanted you to have this money, so please take it," she said with a sad tone passing the envelope towards me.

My heart sank into my stomach hearing her words, I muttered "Really?" As I held my breath for a brief moment, I felt how the pressure in my body grew even stronger and the back of my head wouldn't stop tingling.

"This couldn't be dad's death...," I gasped as everything around me felt like a complete blur.

The woman shook her head.

"No dear, your father told me to give this to you before your twenty-second birthday," her voice sounded soft and genuine, "now that my job here is done, I will leave."

And then I saw her turn around and walk away.

She was right, my birthday was almost in two days.

"You shouldn't have come by... this isn't right " I kept thinking to myself while staring at the still-open door.

I had thought that the worst thing was over, but I was wrong.

I turned around hastily, closed the door behind me and pushed the old letters filled with reminders and bills away with my right foot.

I had to check the letter in my hand and make sure that it wasn't some kind of scam before I brought this to my mother.

Cold sweat covered my hands as I placed yet another white envelope on the kitchen table.

My heart started pounding harder and faster as I picked up the letter and decided to read it. It was from dad.

"Dear Liam,

As of now, you are supposed to be all grown up and have a clear future goal. I wish I was there to witness all of this, but unfortunately, things sometimes don't go as we plan... I know you might think that this letter is fake, but it's not! Trust me, I'm dead serious about this.

I wish I had more time with you and your mom... I wish I was able to see you make mistakes and learn from them, help you to choose your future wisely and guide you through the hardships of life... I'm sorry for failing you as a father and leaving you alone instead, not being there for both of you. I really hope that the money I left for you will help you and your mom to get out of debt. Dad."

With the last sentence of the letter, I felt how my hands began to tremble as I stared at the words that were written by his very hand.

"So this is true... dad actually left me and mom money...?" I muttered to myself as I slowly bit my cheek.

It felt like I was dreaming, I couldn't believe that dad actually wanted to help us out, even though he died a few years ago. What made him do that? Was this his last wish? Did he know about this and did this to make me happy? I leaned against the wall, feeling like I was falling into a deep depression.

This letter reminded me of the novel he liked so much, where the hero of the story was the most 'basic good guy' who always wanted to help everyone more than he wished, and could... It was his favourite character, but I sympathized with villains more. Especially the side villain Rowen, who was forced to turn into a demon and then died at the hands of the novel's hero.

"Eh!" What am I thinking now? Why did this story come to my mind out of nowhere?

I shook my head to clear such thoughts and put the letter back into the envelope.

I saw a huge amount of five hundred and the thickness of it was compared to the four hundred-word books I used to read when I was younger. I guess this was enough money to get us out of debt and save our house.

This actually gave me hope that my mom will no longer need to struggle anymore and I will be able to go back to college!

A great amount of weird tingling vibrations went throughout my body just thinking about it, I could feel my lips getting curved into a smile.

"I need to see mom!" I squeezed my eyes once again, and put the envelope deep inside my black leather jacket, as I rushed out of the house immediately.

The weather seemed lovely today and the warm spring breeze blew into my ocean-blue eyes.

I felt like a kid running through the streets of the city, but my thoughts weren't here right now, I couldn't think of a time I was ever happier.

My spirits brightened as I felt how my mood was lifted too, joy was taking a hold of me for the first time in these seven years.

The loud city noise wasn't even bothering me anymore, instead, I enjoyed even the sounds of the cars passing by and the people walking their dogs, smiling and laughing with each other.

I was in a good place right now and I knew that it's gonna stay that way.

As I stood near the zebra crossing, waiting for the light to change so I could cross the road and make a left turn, I noticed a toddler lose control and started running straight before his mom was even able to notice that"

*beep* *beep*

A woman in a dark blue car was pressing a signal, hoping that someone would stop the kid running and that was when my instincts took over, as my legs moved on their own.

"Hey!"

I yelled as I jumped onto the zebra and everything seemed to have kinda stopped for me for a moment. The car that was coming towards me seemed to have slowed down and the boy also stopped running as he saw me approaching him.

The silence on the street was filled with the screaming of the horn of the car and my own heartbeat following the squeaking sound inside my ears.

As I pushed the boy forwards, I saw bright fire-like lights welcoming my head.

After that, everything around me became blurry, as my body lifted itself and flew through the air until I landed in a heap on the ground.

pαndα`noνɐ1--сoМ I was lying there, unable to even lift a finger, seeing the eyes of people everywhere and hearing things that were distant to me.

I calmly stared at back them and felt a nervous laugh escaping my lips, "mom..." was the last thing that was on my mind before I felt how a loud heartbeat slowly stopped beating, making the uncontrollably annoying sound, after which I was forced to close my eyes,

"…is this the end for me?"