A WATTPAD FEATURED STORY
?Love pays no attention to color?
Jasmine Karesh never thought she'd spend her senior year of high school struggling to accept her Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder diagnosis, a disease that forbids her from forgetting the scho...
Jasmine wanted to panic at the sound, wanted to run out of the room with her aunt and uncle, hoping that everyone else would follow their lead. She wanted to escape the building and hide under her sheets at home, but she knew she'd never be able to. Her aunt loved her students and she would never leave them behind, not even if Jasmine begged her to.
The young girl was scooped into Bianca's arms as soon as she saw her. Jasmine ignored how the sounds around them crackled as if they were splitting through the air itself and the thumping of her heart in her ears. Another shot echoed throughout the school, accompanied by a blood-curdling scream reverberating in the distance. She turned back to the locked art cabinet, her world falling apart as her classmates broke into tears. She hoped her aunt would know what to do, as she always did, but when she met her gaze, she could tell by the blank look in her eyes that Bianca Karesh was a shell of the woman she used to be.
Rahul sprinted toward his wife and niece, who were standing still as statues in the middle of the classroom. He pulled the two into a hug as the shots approached their classroom. Police sirens surrounded them, a brilliant harmony contrasting the gunshots. "We'll be okay. You hear me, Bia? Everything will be okay."
Jasmine's aunt didn't cry and instead, buried her face into Rahul's chest. Jasmine, on the other hand, noticed that her uncle was standing there with her, all because she decided not to hide in the closet.
A cry of despair rebounded from the walls of the classroom beside her and she pushed her aunt and uncle towards the art closet. Her body was shaking all over, from her delicate fingertips to the individual hairs along her legs. She tried to make it stop by rubbing her palms down her skirt, but they were so sweaty that they slipped right off. Worried that she was losing time, she pushed them again, but to no avail. They were too heavy, too large a mountain for such a small girl to move.
"We have to be in the closet. Family stays together."
"Why are you here, Rahul?" Bianca cried after her. " I need you and Jasmine to go!"
Tears streaming down her face, Jasmine shook her head. "Family stays together, Aunt Bia," she repeated.
He grabbed Bianca's arms and held her still. Jasmine wondered why he was being so calm, why he was even letting her stay with them. "I know you would much rather die than put your loved ones in danger, Bia, but I can't let you face him alone," he laid his forehead against hers, closing his eyes in acceptance. "That is final."
"You can't endanger the life of a child because of your hero complex, Rahul!" Bianca yelled, stomping her foot like a kid throwing a tantrum.
Her uncle's back was to the entrance of the classroom, his body acting as a shield for them even though that was the last thing Jasmine wanted. She wanted them in that cabinet, if only to satisfy her own selfish guilt.
She couldn't live with being the reason why her aunt and uncle died.
Jasmine's eyes snapped back to attention when she saw Rahul suddenly shake his head as if he had realized his mistake for not forcing her back to safety.
It was too late.
The classroom door was kicked open and a single shot split the air.
Time froze, but the Earth spun on its axis as if nothing had changed while they stood there in Rahul's arms. Jasmine blocked out the noise around them. She was naive enough to believe that she was still experiencing a nightmare and that maybe if she controlled what she saw and heard, their killer would never arrive in the classroom.
She was so wrong.
Steady hands loosened around them as Rahul slipped to the ground. His head was bleeding from the impact of bone on concrete and his eyes were wide open, the previously-twinkling stars fading into his dark irises without a trace. He still had a ghost of a smile etched across his lips, like he believed that they might survive, despite all odds.
That was what broke her. Not her uncle's cracked skull or dull eyes, but his smile and the unwavering hope hidden in it.
Jasmine opened her mouth to scream at the sight, but nothing came out, and she turned to face the shooter– the heartless man who ruined her family. She couldn't see his face through the black ski mask he wore, but her Aunt Bia must have found him familiar, for she murmured something about his emerald green eyes under her breath.
Jasmine took in a deep breath to kill the fear she had been clinging on to, but it couldn't rid her of the other emotions in her heart. She felt anger, remorse, a crushing sadness— all of which she had never understood in her short lifetime. It was enough to twist her insides to mush.
A shiver ran down her spine when she heard her aunt whisper the three words that would ruin their family, once and for all. "Let me die."
The final bullet of the tragedy was released after she spoke those dreadful words, but it wasn't from the shooter. The bullet did not fulfill Bianca's wish, but brought justice for Rahul's murderer.
By a cruel twist of fate, Jasmine was left standing in the middle of her classroom, listening to the crying children stuck in the cabinet. Bianca stood beside her, paralyzed, her eyes fixated on the policeman in front of her, gun still in his trembling hand. At their feet was the shooter and beside him laid Rahul, their blood mixing together as if they were of the same kind– as if they were too pure to have ended as a result of violence.
The last thing Jasmine heard was Bianca's haunting scream. A sharp silence enveloped her as her aunt fell down to the ground, lying next to her husband as she pleaded to be reunited with him once again
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Hey, everyone! I hope you liked the prologue of Forgetting Billions and I really hope you continue reading for more twists and turns. Just a reminder to make sure to vote and comment! I appreciate every single one and I would love some feedback in any shape or form.
This chapter is dedicated to Nicole Bea, an amazing mentor and an even better friend.
