Last Regrets

• Krystal Guo, Grade 9
• Short Story
• 2012

This is not the way I expected to die. I can see people, strangers, crowding around my body, trying to save my life, but I know I am already gone. I can see myself lying there, unable to move. I cannot hear anything, but I can see my mother screaming at the door, my father standing next to the paramedic mouthing words I cannot hear, crying. And Madeline, my poor, innocent two-year-old sister, standing in the corner, oblivious to what’s going on.

I should have told someone about those phone calls. I never thought that they could have caused my death. I should not have said those things to the man on the other end. I should have told someone.

He was nice, friendly, and he listened. I know now, who, and what, he is and what he can do. I still do not know how he got my number. It was always him calling me. I never got his number. I should not have told him about my family, where I lived. I should have said nothing.

I thought it would be good to finally meet him, inviting him to my house. At first he was kind, but once I shut the front door, he became a totally different person. He told me not to worry, but the expression on his face said otherwise. He told me he wouldn’t hurt me, but he lied.

He made me sit down on the couch, while he went to the kitchen to grab some food. He came out with a knife and a cigarette between his lips; I knew what was going to happen.

He picked up my arm forcefully and pressed the tip of his cigarette onto the inside of my arm. The pain was unbearable, but I stayed silent. Tears formed in my eyes, but I did not cry. He sucked his cigarette again and pressed it into my hand, this time between my thumb and my index finger. The pain was too much; I could not hold my tears in for any longer. I screamed, shouted and cried.
I could tell he liked seeing me in pain, and he was not going to give up that easily. He kept using the tip of his cigarette to hurt me. I kept screaming and shouting, telling him to stop. Each burn was worse than the last. It was as if he could not hear me. Once he thought it was enough, he used the knife.

Never before has my judgement of someone been so wrong.

My pale, lifeless body is now being taken away. Everyone has given up on me, my life. I want to follow them, stay with them, but it is time. I feel the room drifting away. Everyone, the family I love with all my heart; my parents, Madeline, is disappearing beneath me.

I find myself in the middle of a pure white tunnel. I take a shaky step forward and begin my journey.