"Blessed" with a Curse

“Austin…! Please don’t go to work today…!”

Alan begged me for the third time this morning, clinging tightly to my arm.

“Alan…Let go. I have to go to work. There’s an important meeting that I have to attend.”
“No!” He shook his head, gripping tighter.

I sighed and turned to face him, placing my hands on his shoulders and looking him straight in his eyes.

“What’s wrong, Alan? Why are you acting like this?”
He bit down on his lip and brought his gaze to the floor.

“Alan…” I tilted his head up to look at me again.
“Please, talk to me…”

“I…I had a nightmare last night…a horrible one…and I’m afraid…I have a bad feeling that it’s gonna happen…Please…don’t leave me alone…”

I pulled him into a hug and petted his hair.

“I’ll only be gone for an hour…lock all of the doors and stay in my room. Okay?”

He bit down on his lip again and nodded.
I gave him a gentle kiss on his lips before I walked out the door and closed it behind me.

He’ll be okay…he’ll be okay…
~*~*~*~*~

“Austin? Are you okay? You seemed really tense during the whole meeting…”
Ronnie placed a hand on my shoulder and gave me a concerned look.

“I-I’m fine. I just have to hurry and get home.”
I shrugged his hand off and grabbed my jacket from the coat rack.

“Oh, and congratulations, Ron. You deserved it.”
I patted him on the back before I rushed out the door.

I zipped my jacket up and shoved my hands into the pockets as I continued down the icy road.

He’ll be okay…He’ll be okay…

I picked up the pace and soon enough, I was running towards the house.

I froze when I saw another pair of footsteps leading to the front door.

They can’t be Alan’s…!

“No! Stop! Stop! Don’t do this, Mom!!! STOP!!!”

Fuck! That was Alan!

I rammed into the door until it broke open.

Alan was curled up on the floor, bleeding from his head.
A woman was standing next to him, a gun in her hand.

“Alan…! Come back home! Come back to where you belong!”

She grabbed him by his hair, causing him to whimper in fear.

“Don’t touch him!”

I quickly ran over to where they were and pushed her away from him.
She stumbled back and fell against the table.

“A-Austin...?”
“Come on! We have to get out of here!”

I picked him up as quickly as I could and headed for the door.

A loud gunshot sounded in the room, followed by a sharp pain in my chest.

Alan and I both fell to the floor and I quickly checked to see if he was okay.

His eyes widened when he saw me.

I was starting to lose my vision, and I heard Alan screaming my name before everything faded to black.