LJ MICHAELS - REALIZATION

LJ Michaels is a new writer of fiction and flash fiction and author of: “Realization.”
LJ is passionate about creating interesting characters and captivating storylines and has a love for reading books and stories of all genres. This love for reading began at an early age and continues today. LJ’s love for family and love for life serves as inspiration to create stories that move, touch, and encourage readers to think, to wonder and to explore their own imaginations.

​Realization

​The darkness surrounded Carlos. He could not see. He tried to feel for something, anything. It had been as though his eyes blindfolded. With reluctance, he frantically turned in every direction, but felt engulfed in the darkness and loneliness. He stood alone and shivering. Carlos knew that he was not a coward, yet he had been trembling and afraid. As he stood in the dark, he began to smell the sweet fragrance of roses, her favorite, Elizabeth’s favorite, he thought. The thought of her calmed him. He took a deep breath in slowly and remembered, as the memories of her came flooding in it made him smile, but the smile and the memories were fleeting. With the sweet aroma of her favorite flower suddenly replaced by the pungent, musty smell of damp dirt, which had him shaking and suddenly overwhelmed with dread, and the fear and sadness overtook him. His sweet dearest Elizabeth. He could not bear the thought. He screamed out loud, “No, it is not real!” and chills crawled up his spine. With his teeth clenched and eyes closed so tight; he shuddered in denial.
Carlos’s heart had been pounding. He could hear each beat getting louder and louder in his ears. The sweat began to bead on his forehead and slowly ran down his nose, cheeks, and the back of his neck. It felt sickly cold as the night air hit his face. He was running now, gasping, and panting but could not catch his breath. He thought of his beloved Elizabeth and knew that he must keep running. He knew that he could not stop but did not know how he could keep up this pace much longer either or else his heart would surely explode. He tried to run faster but, it seemed as though he was just standing still and getting nowhere. He must get to her!
In the distance, the faint and ominous sounds of a clock ticking and he knew; not sure how, but he knew that he was running out of time.
 
Then, the unmistakable sound of a gavel striking over and over. There was a flood of regret that washed over him. There was no escape. He will not allow it to happen.
He could see her; he was getting closer. He ran faster, but she just got farther away. He could not understand. He had to catch his breath; she was slowing slipping away. Somehow, he gained a second wind and forced himself to run faster. He was almost there!
Carlos could see Elizabeth reaching out for him and could see that she was crying, and he was crying too. He could almost touch her, and he knew once he got to her, that all of what he was feeling, all of the fear, the anguish, the crippling despair, all of it would be gone and everything would be alright, just as it had been before.
He was there, so close that he could smell her perfume. Her beautiful eyes deep with sadness pleaded with him. Just then as he reached out to take her hand, his legs, heavy and unwilling to move, buckled and he collapsed and fell, he was falling fast, and he kept falling!
***
Suddenly, he violently gasped for breath! Carlos was no longer in the cold night air. No, instead, he was sitting upright in his own bed. “Where are you, Elizabeth?” he called out, “I know you are here; I feel you”. He panics with an acute consciousness of her presence. He called out to her again, “I made it, Elizabeth!” “Where are you?!” I made it”! Just for a moment, he allowed hope slip in.
Then, all at once everything came crashing down! The truth! “No, he would not accept it!” “No!” He screamed! Carlos could not move, he was paralyzed, completely numb, yet in excruciating pain. A blinding epiphany and the crushing knowledge, the truth that he did not get to her in time. The truth – she is really gone.
 
THE END