SERENDIPITY

Art by MOrtiz. For more, follow her at IG: _miiart_

“Miss, are you okay?”

Serena opened her eyes and saw him. The man of her dreams. Prince Charming come alive. Casanova in the flesh.

And murmuring the very words she’d often fantasized that the man of her dreams would be saying at the precise moment she’d meet him.

She tried to smile, to come up with something witty, to show him she was more than just pretty (she was, everyone said so) and that she’s been waiting for him all her life. But she couldn’t. She just hurt so much.

“I got you, you’re going to be fine” he said.  “Don’t worry about anything, it’s all good.”

She tried to smile again, and managed a half-smirk, half-grimace. Why did it hurt so much to smile? She then realized that behind Prince Charming, she could see gray clouds, and red streaks of sunlight against a darkening sky.

“Oh my,” she thought. “Am I on the ground? What must my hair look like? And my nice white dress must be dirty! Oh no! My dress! Is it covering my legs?”

Panicked, Serena tried to check where the hem of her dress was.  Pain engulfed her entire body, like a never-ending wave crashing against a sand castle built too close to the sea.

“Don’t move, okay?” he whispered into her ear. “Help will be here soon.”

Serena felt soothed by the sound of his voice, by his breath upon her ears. And it was exactly like that moment she imagined, the moment when all would be revealed and the happy-ever-after would start. So she summoned up all the strength she had left and spoke her heart’s content to him.

“Hi. My name is Serena” she said through the pain and tears. “You are exactly who I thought you’d be, looking exactly like I thought you would. I’ve waited for you for 22 years and I’m so happy we finally met. We are going to have a wonderful life together. I am going to make you so happy. But for now, let me rest a bit. I love you.”

Then Serena closed her eyes and died happy. The man she thought of as Prince Charming knelt by her side and cried. Not because he understood what she said, because all he heard was her choking on her own blood, but because he’d killed a girl on the very first day he took his brand new car out for a drive.